It's the Holiday Season

Doing my best to update this at least once a month - we'll see how it goes :)


me & Samantha


when Samantha met Santa



Brady helped me make all our Christmas goodies and he's an excellent helper. A couple (at least!) of these M&M's made it into his mouth :)


She's finally starting to like her tummy time a little bit!


Samantha's 1st Christmas and James decided it was going to be a Vikings one :)


Here's our smiley little 4 month old - SUCH a good baby!

Samantha's 1st 3 months

Yep - almost December and I haven't posted anything since August! Here's some pics over the last couple months. Samantha will be 4 months old on Saturday and laughs & smiles regularly and has started "talking" and Brady is as fun as ever. The 3's haven't been the best in some regards, but I can't express how fun it is just having a conversation with him!


1st time Brady held Samantha - 8 days old


a tired family :)



cousins-Samantha, Grant, Brady & Dylan


We took in the final home stand in the Metrodome - can't wait for outdoor Twins baseball next year! back row: Brady, my mom, me & James front row: my dad, Dylan, my brother, Samantha, Grant & my sis-in-law


Brady with his "rally hat" on :)


Randy Bush, me & Tom Brunansky (my fav Twin EVER!!)


Samantha giggles!!


baptism day! the dress was mine when I was baptized, 7 days shy of exactly 31 years before


OMG - so love her smiles!


a try at a family self-portrait laying on our living room floor!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

That's right - we're now "Mitchell - party of 4" and couldn't be more thrilled! James' hunch was right - he felt all along that there was a girl in there . . . course, he had that feeling with Brady too so maybe he's not so gifted after all. :)

Samantha Jane Mitchell arrived on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 7:21am via repeat c-section at Meritcare Hospital in Fargo, ND. She weighed in at 8 lbs 3.9 oz and was 19.5" long. Everyone is doing well. My recovery has been a little longer than with Brady, but thinking that's to be expected with a repeat section. Brady was very timid at first, particularly with coming to the hospital (he hasn't been in one that he'd remember) and seeing all the things that were attached to me seemed to scare him a little. Each time he came to the hospital, he was a little more comfortable and since being home has been a wonderful big brother and helper.

Enough talk - on to the pictures!

8 lbs 3.9 oz

Mom getting to meet Samantha

Dad & Samantha talking

1st family of 4 photo

Mom, Dad & Samantha

Better family picture :)


going home!!

Brady's 3rd birthday party

Wow - I know I say this often, but where does the time go? Brady is 3!! This birthday was awesome for many reasons: his last as an only child, his very apparent excitement, and he seemed to really understand what it's all about.

It was such a nice day, weather-wise and Brady could hardly contain his excitement. Enjoy the pictures :)

posing on the water slide

Brady & Jada - such good friends!

my 1st attempt at a home-made cake, not too bad!

blowing out the candle

tee set from Grandpa Jerry & Grandma Jane

1st bike from mom & dad

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY BRADY!

A VERY HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY TO MY BABY!

Summer Fun

Just a few pics of random things this summer

our makeshift baseball field in the backyard

LOVES to mow lawn with daddy

1st go kart ride

1st pop - orange, I believe

1st time mini-golfing, definitely loved it

nothing special about this, just that I love the pic of both of us - although it shows my puffiness of being in my 9th month of pregnancy :(

Family pics

So - I'm finding that there's times when we have nothing going on and then times when we have a lot going on and lately it's been the "a lot going on" period. I downloaded pics today to realize I have a few things I want to put on our blog and am a little behind!

For today, I'll post some pictures of my family at a recent wedding of a family friend. I just happened to have a lot of great pics and feel like I need to share them!

my brother Brad & his youngest son Dylan

Brady & Grandpa Jerry cutting a rug

Dylan clearly having a good time on his dad's shoulders

Taking a little break from dancing with Grandma Jane

(see how the cheeks are matching his shirt?)

a rare pic of just me & the hubby

(almost like he's enjoying being IN pictures now)

Memorial Day weekend

Like every summer, we try our best to get to at least one Twins game - sometimes 2 if we're lucky. Seeing as how we'll be adding to our family this summer and with my last pregnancy I wasn't allowed to travel more than an hour away in the last 4 weeks, we had to figure out when we were going to take in our annual Twins game. Well, Memorial Day weekend was the answer.

We had a blast - stayed at a hotel by the airport with a pool, rode the light rail (for the first time) to the Twins game and visited Nickelodeon inside the Mall of America. It was a quick 2-day trip, but so much fun - and the Twins won, even better! And I saw a first in person - Cuddyer hit for the cycle the night we were there, very electrifying in the dome.

Brady in his "go Joe" shirt heading for the dome

Brady & mom riding the light rail

Brady & mom all smiles after a Twins win over the Brewers

all done at the hotel

He sure loved Lego Land

James, Brady, Dora & boots

(James was not nearly as excited about this pic as Brady was)

had to have one with Diego too!

Brady & his favorite Backyardigan, Pablo

First swimming lessons

We started swimming lessons in the middle of April at my alma mater, Minnesota State University Moorhead. This was a parent/child class since Brady seemed to have a decent fear of water. It was on Tuesday nights for 6 weeks and was 1/2 hour long each night. James did the first night and it did not go so well. As you see in the first picture, he spent most of the 30 minutes on the edge of the pool.

James trying to talk Brady into getting in

He got in, but wasn't too sure yet

This is the whole class, I think 6 or 7

Unfortunately, Brady was the oldest, so

we definitely could have done this last year

YEAH!! SUCCESS!! (with some reluctance)

We are happy to report though that after the 6 weeks were complete - the instructor told us that Brady was by far the most improved. We could see it, but was nice to hear it from an objective party. He cried a little less each week until the 4th week where he didn't cry at all. Even the other parents made comments about his improvement, which was nice to hear :) He went from being scared to getting in to jumping in the pool and putting his head under water. As a parent, it's always fun to see your child learn - but to see him overcome his almost fear of the water was amazing. We hope to continue this fall or winter with lessons and are trying to get in a pool as often as possible this summer to keep up his progress.