Twinsfest 2010

We went to Minneapolis for our annual trip to take in Twinsfest. For those of you not familiar, it's a gathering of many things all centered around the MN Twins. Many current and former Twins come and will sign autographs, do interviews for kids, take pictures with fans and be on the radio. You can also audition to sing the national anthem for a game, see oodles and oodles of memorabilia, buy your favorite Twins gear in the Pro Shop, partake in silent auction, but tickets for the upcoming season and tour the clubhouses. For kids, they set up a few batting cages that are manned by Gopher players, bounce houses for the younger kids and 2 makeshift baseball fields where they play whiffle ball and kids can run the bases and all.

James and I have been going since 2005 and always seem to see something new each year. Brady is of the age that he LOVES the bounce houses and knows quite a few of the players and Samantha was just along for the ride this year :)

Brady watching the "big" kids play baseball and telling us maybe he'll do it next year when he's 4 . . .

Denard Span at the Kids Q & A - he was hilarious!

the bounce houses :)

How Samantha rode all day

one of the newest Twins, JJ Hardy . . . not bad on the eyes :)

Brian Duensing and Jesse Crain

JJ Hardy, Fransisco Liriano & Glen Perkins

Brady got on the jumbotron!

January 2010

A new year and fun things every day with 2 kids! Most things are good but others are challenging . . . I'm told that's being a parent, right?

We are officially searching for a new house in this new year. Should prove to be both challenging and rewarding. It will force us to clean up things around here and hopefully create better ways of keeping things tidier for when we put our house on the market, which our goal is March 1st.

Samantha is growing like a weed and started the new year by rolling over!!

She also started eating some baby foods when she turned 5 months on 1/5/10. We had tried cereal with her in December, but she did not care for it at all! These peas seemed to go over better :)

And sadly, the month ended with the Vikings not winning the NFC Championship and disappointing thousands of Minnesota fans . . . again. There's always next year, right?

Brady's 1st Christmas program

Ok - so I know I say this all the time, but it really kinda hit me when Brady was in his 1st Sunday School Christmas program in December. He didn't sing much of any of the songs (although we hear them all the time at home!) but got up in the front and stayed there for the preschool part of the program. I have a couple pictures, but they're quite dark unfortunately :(

Samantha's 1st Christmas

It came and went so quickly, as it always does. Samantha slept through most of the gift openings over the 4 days, but those she was awake for - she actually tried to pull some of the wrapping paper. Fortunately, her big brother was more than happy to "help" her open :)

Grant, Dylan, Samantha, Brady - Anderson side cousins

me & Samantha (in her pretty Christmas dress, thanks auntie Sara)

Christmas outfit for Christmas #3 (thanks again auntie Sara)

Brady "helping" and Samantha attempting to open presents

Grandma Jane with her granddaughter

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!!