Verse of the Week

Our verse of the week this week was from Exodus 4:12 "Now go.  I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."






As I mentioned before, I have been letting Summer pick the book of the Bible that we look in to find a verse to memorize each week.  Last week Colton requested to pick, so since Summer picked "Exodus" I let Colton pick this week.  After asking if we could memorize a verse about "Mater and Lightening McQueen" ;) and explaining that they are pretend and not in the Bible ;), he settled on "Deuteronomy".  After reading several to Summer she settled on 4:9, so this coming week we are memorizing Deuteronomy 4:9. 

Last day of VBS

Colton for whatever reason was up multiple times last night, asking to get up for the day and "get dressed"!  Maybe he was just excited to watch his sister's program at VBS ;).  Either way, after losing much sleep I knew he needed to sleep in if we had any chance of having a happy Colton at Summer's VBS program, so my sweet friend Jessi offered to bring Summer to VBS for me while Colton slept in.  It was the first time anyone has ever "picked up" Summer for something, and it made her seem old ;).   Jessi sent me these pics of her two girls (Hannah and Melanie) walking into VBS with Summer.  Adorable blondies!

After Colton woke up, Jessi and Melanie came over for a playdate.  It was so much fun to catch up with Jessi, as we are both due with our third child within 5 days of each other! 

We then all piled into our minivans (we both have "new" Toyota Siennas to accommodate our growing families  ;) ) and went to go watch Hannah and Summer in their program for the last day of VBS.  Yes, I was THAT mom who was so excited to watch her 3-year-old sing on stage with a zillion other crazy 3-year-olds....THAT mom who was waving excitedly for her daughter to see her....THAT mom who had the video camera ready to catch every move of her daughter's first "performance" lol ;).   Anyway, here are the 4 videos I took...

1) Summer walking in with her VBS class



2) Summer waving



3) Summer singing her first song


4) Summer singing her second song



A huge shout-out thank you to all of the volunteers that helped to make the VBS week so much fun for Summer :).

More Summer VBS and Mommy-Colton Date...

Today Summer had her second day of VBS and is loving it so much!  From what she talks about, learning the songs and actions are one of her favorite parts.  Here is a video of her singing one of the songs she learned...



The kids do a program after the last day (Friday) and I am excited to go watch her sing :)

When I was looking for fun things for Colton and I to do together, I found that Thomas the Tank Engine and Percy were at the Minnesota Children's Museum for a special exhibit!  If you know Colton at all or follow our blog, you know that this would be beyond exciting for him ;).  Tickets seemed a bit pricey to go for the two hour window that we would be able to go during Summer's VBS, so I looked into the yearly membership and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was only $99 for our whole family for the year!  I know we will definitely get great use out of this, especially during the long Minnesota winters, so we decided to go that route.  My favorite part about a membership is that you don't have to feel bad only going for a few hours in between naps (and not covering the whole museum) because you can always go back!  Anyway, it was a total hit, and the perfect option for our Mommy-Colton date today.  Here are a few pics...

THOMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We spent a large chunk of time at this giant train table

Up in Thomas

Steamworks shed

Hi Percy!

Seriously, the biggest train table I have ever seen!

"Fixing" Percy's wheel

Loading Percy with coal

While the majority of our time was spent in the Thomas exhibit ;), we checked out a few others...another favorite was the water table and bubble station :)

Tomorrow Colton and I will be at VBS with Summer helping out in the nursery/childcare area.  On Thursday we have swimming lessons.  We will check back into the blog world on Friday and hopefully post some video of Summer's first VBS program :).

Summer VBS and Colton-Mommy Date

Summer has been ecstatic for weeks now about starting VBS (she is officially old enough to go to our church one which starts at 3.5 years old).  Today was the first day and she absolutely LOVED it!  I am really excited for some special one-on-one time with Colton this week (hard to find that time with kiddo #2) so I have a few special things planned for us to do while Summer is at VBS.  Today our date consisted of going to Lebanon Hills, which has a massive park and hiking trails.  I really loved our special uninterrupted conversations and time with my favorite little boy.

Huge smile at VBS

Mommy-Colton date

My little hiker led the way

He decided he wanted to see what was at the top of this hill...

We spent quite a while fascinated with the water fountain...because we could ;)

This little guy just being silly ;)

We met some girls at the park that let Colton go on the tire swing with them - I loved hearing his giggles!

7 year Anniversary Date!

Auntie Kristin and Uncle Eric volunteered to babysit our kiddos on Saturday night to give us a night out for our anniversary (thanks guys!).  We have a perfect evening...

Eating at Kahn's Mongolian BBQ

Mini Golf at Maltees

Walking around downtown Minneapolis and a beautiful park

And ending with a relaxing late night dessert from Perkins.

It was the perfect evening :)

June Happenings

Just a bunch of random pics with some video at the end...

Lounging

Both kids love dressing themselves up to play firefighter

We got to meet our first "nephew" - "Walter" - Auntie Sarah and Uncle Ty's new pup!

Reading a book about a puppy named Walter with Auntie Sarah

Summer giving Walter a hug

A-DOR-ABLE!

We've been making a lot of smoothies lately - and the kids LOVE to make them all by themselves

Cuties

Been putting in spinach and frozen carrots in the smoothies - veggies are so tasty this way!

Common occurrence this June...drinking smoothies on a stroller walk to the park :)

One of our favorite paths we love to walk!

We found a turtle!

One of the parks near our favorite walking path

Summer playing Bride after Auntie Madison's wedding  (and her attempt at getting Colton to be "flower girl"/"car boy" - dropping cars in front of her as she walked)

36 weeks!

We attempted to have Tucker go down the slide....

Biking/walking around another favorite lake

Playing so nicely at Motherhood Maternity while Mommy tries on some new nursing gear for baby

Play Place at Mall

Painting

Painting gets more fun...

Having fun

Messy!

Loving the feel of paint on their hands!

Colton and Kellen playing trains

Colton, Summer, Eli, and Kellen - first time filling up the kiddie pool this year!

Lunch Date!

Got our first pack of size Newborn Diapers...Look how small they are!!!!!!

And some videos...

Celebrating the first USA goal in the World Cup soccer game against Portugal


Verse of the Week: Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, do not be terrified, do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."


I know Summer understands Baby #3 coming, but I like to try to understand Colton's viewpoint.  For the first time last week after Colton talked about Baby being in Mommy's tummy, he told me he was going to share his monkey (special stuffed Curious George he sleeps with) with Baby.  At that point I determined that Colton understood a "real" baby was in Mommy's tummy and was going to come out :)  Anyway, at our 37 week appointment I decided to interview Colton to see his current thoughts on Baby #3 as she will be joining us in roughly 3 weeks!

7 Year Anniversary!

This past Monday marked Paul's and my 7 year wedding anniversary!  Because we were in Indiana this past weekend for his brother's wedding, and because Paul had a 3 day work conference (including dinner meeting) this week, we postponed our anniversary celebration for this coming weekend.  However I had fun going through pictures and thinking of all that we have been through in our 7 years of marriage....
...starting our brand new careers...
...bedbugs in our first 600 square foot apartment together (and the 2 months following of living out of bags!)...
...weekend classes to get my Masters in Education...
...5 years of intense studying to get Paul his CFA...
...buying our first home together...
...getting our energetic dog Tucker...
...giving birth to two (almost 3!) amazing kiddos (and all the ups and downs, joys and challenges that come with that!)
...and SERIOUSLY loving each other more each day!

I can honestly say that I love, respect, cherish, and appreciate Paul so incredibly much more than on our big day 7 years ago when I said, "I do".  He is so good to me, so constant, so loyal, so loving, and so godly.  I can only think of 1 night out of the 7 years of marriage (2555 days!) that we accidentally fell asleep before praying together - whether it was via cell phone, skype, or in person, and I so cherish Paul's constant praying for us and our family each night before we sleep. I am SO thankful for him!  I am super excited to continue to grow together and tackle whatever life has in store for us...TOGETHER!  I love you Paul Stuart Tommerdahl!