Daddy/Daughter....Mother/Son Dates!

This weekend Ragnar took Ella on another daddy/daughter date. She loves to go with him on dates! Yesterday when I said I was jealous that she got to go on a date with daddy, she looks up at me very seriously and says...."mom, you have to share your prince charming until I find one, o.k.!" So there it is, my daughter is going to share my date for a few years I guess. She is so silly. They decided to go to "Imaginations" and paint together, then get lunch and ice cream. She was beaming when she got home because she had so much fun. I hope she enjoys them that much as she gets older!

Cavin wanted a picture with daddy too!

Painting away!

Loving it!

I think for a three year old her painting is pretty impressive! (Rags said he only helped a little)

Since they went on a date, I thought....hey, why can't Cavin and I go on one too. It's never to early to have good ole one on one time right?! So, we went to a little arcade and he played, then to McDonald's, got ice cream, and then came home and he rode his bike and played with bubbles. I think he would have rather been with dad because he kept saying "daddy come, daddy coming??" Oh well, I had fun!

The kid is just so cute, and we are lucky to have them both!

Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010!!!

As many of you know us, we LOVE sports in our home, therefore the Olympics is something we look forward to every couple years. This year we got all ready and the kids and I decorated flags and made food to commemorate the special opening day, and then we had a little party to watch the opening ceremony.

This is Ella and Cavin on the train (or toliet :) to Vancouver! She has a mind of her own!

Here we will keep a tally of which of our beloved countries will get the most medals, Germany or America! (shhhh Go U.S.A!)

Here is a sad attempt at an American flag cheesecake!

The German flag cupcakes!

Our dinner picnic waiting!

Then Madi, John, Corey, and Steph watched for a little while with us!

(here is Ellas fun cousin Madi, who she tries to emulate!)

Still waiting....it said it was starting at 6:30!! Liars!

And then I had to add a Valentines picture to top off the weekend.

Ragnar and I got to go on a fun date and had a fun Olympic/Valentines weekend!

Photo Shoot

I don't know about you, but it's time for some more pictures of my kids! They have grown so much in a year! Kelsey Call is giving away a photo shoot and I love her work. Even if you or I don't win, you should check out her blog, it's darling! www.calls6.blogspot.com

We Love Cousins!!

The kids playing Playdo!

Making Cupcakes!

Decorating them!

Ella getting a "squeeze" from Madi

Cavins hero....John

And should I be worried about this one????

Our kids are really lucky that we are able to live next to my brother Corey and their two kids Johnathan and Madison. In a perfect world, we would be able to live next to all of their cousins, but since that isn't really the case, we are so glad that we get to spend the time that we have with Corey, Steph, John, and Madi. My brother Corey will be finishing his m.d/PhD in May and who knows where he will be going for residency, so we are trying to enjoy all the time we can before they are possibly far away! Ella and Cavin LOVE to have them around. Cavin is constantly saying John or Uncle Corey's name and Ella has named half of her dolls Madi and then told me I should be Aunt Steph one day and all day called me that! We got to have the kids over last week and here are some pictures to document in case we only have a few months left! We sure will miss them when and if they go! We vote they stay here :) We should get a vote right?!?

A visit from the Grandparents!

It's been a long time since the last post. Not much had been going on. Ragnar is constantly working and I am hanging with the kids! This week Hellmut and Uschi got to come and visit us from Germany (after their trip to Utah and their cruise!). The kids had so much fun and we love to have them and are so grateful for the willingness to always travel to come see us.



Ella had fun hanging out with Oma and always had someone to talk to and Oma even did her hair and played dollhouse and had a teaparty!


We started out with hanging out with Aunt Gigi and Ragnar's cousins Laurie and Cade and their cute boys Benson and Connor! It was fun to see them and we REALLY need to see them more since they live in H-town too! Then we headed to the Rockets game! I think we all actually had a great time, I was surprised they actually seemed to like the game! Ella was clapping and cheering defense :)

We played a lot of bowling on the wii and now Ragnar and Hellmut are both pros!

We also went to the Galleria and shopped and rode the train and went to the Rainforest cafe which the kids were excited about!

You have to do something with trains if Opa is in town! They even gave us a ticket to ride :)

We just played and hung out and had a nice time visiting. We are lucky that our kids have such great grandparents on both sides!

It was fun to let them see our kids personalities and show them Cavins love for Cars and Ellas never ending chatting! As soon as we dropped them off at the airport Cavin kept saying over and over all day "OPA, OPA!!!" Then Ella would say and I miss OMA already!

We will miss you, thanks so much for coming, we hope you made it home safe!

Daddy Daughter Day!!

Last Monday was bring your child to work day for Ragnar at the Houston Rockets organization. Ella was so excited to go to work with Ragnar! They had a whole day planned for them. They got to eat breakfast, then go to a cookie decorating class, a dance class with the power dancers coach, then meet Luis Scola. Afterward they had lunch with dad and then had arts and crafts and time with Clutch and then watched Up and ate popcorn! It was a fun day for Ella and she had a great time being out with dad! As for me....it was so weird to have her gone all day, I can't believe how big she is getting. It was super quiet and lonely without her jabbering all day! Cavin is going to have to really start talking or else it's going to be pretty quiet with Ella in kindergarten in a while.

As for the Cavin, we had fun playing, as long as he has cars, he is just fine. He does have a nasty trend going though, he has been sick every Friday for a month now. The weekends no longer have their apeal. I sure hope this trend ends FAST!

A New Year!

This year started with a bang, and I hope it continues to go as well throughout the year. I started off the New Years Day running the Kingwood, Texas half marathon. I feel like a half marathon is a good distance, because you have to train, but running isn't all you do like when I trained for the full marathon. It is a good challenge, but not so time consuming. I ran with my friend Lindsey and can honestly say I totally enjoyed it. I wasn't nervous like usual, I wasn't so competitive and worried about time, I just ran. Let's face it, that is what I love to do. Running this race just for fun really reminded me why I love to run so much. It doesn't always have to be about winning, but sometimes the joy you feel when you do something you love. It was a great start to the new year.

(this is the largest medal I have ever seen... it's like the size of a dessert plate!)

Next we bought a car! My parents have a van that they no longer need, so we bought it from them (for a really good price:) Our whole 5 1/2 year marriage we have shared a car, and while it is possible it is definitely not convenient, so I am glad to have a little more freedom! I am definitely entering the van mom category earlier than I anticipated though! ahhhh!

Then, we bought a laptop! Well more like it was a gift from Ragnar's parents! We are excited about it as Ragnar has been wanting one for some time now.

Finally, Our house went back on the market. We hired a different realtor and after a year of having renters, we are hoping for better luck! We feel pretty optimistic!

We feel really blessed already this year and it's only January 2nd! So much happened in just one day.... I really am hoping and looking forward to a New Year!