Halloween Visit

In October my sister in law Chira and her two boys Caden and Coleton came to visit us and my parents in Houston. Ella and Cavin were so excited to play with their cousins. They love having cousins and are so sad that now all of them on both sides of the family are far away. We enjoyed the upcoming holiday and dressedup in grandmas costume box, decorated pumpkins, made sugar cookies, had a sleep over, went to visit Ragnar at work and played in Clutchs corner, and had a fun time together.

Here is Indiana Jones, Clown Caden, and a firefighter

Cavin always stayed in the same costume...he sticks with what works :) Ella is now a princess and Caden is the firefighter

Ella was always changing...now a ladybug :)

Channing got into the fun to:)

Time for pumpkin decorating!! I am not too adventurous and haven't started the carving stage yet!

Here are our pumpkins! Cadens proud decoration!

Cavins pumkin

Ellas.....

and....we had to include cute little Coleton cheesing for the camera!

Onto cookies....there was a lot of dough ;)

And the sleepover.....not really much of one.....Ella left around 10:30 because Caden and Cavin were still talking and she was tired from school...so she slept with me, then Cavin woke up Caden so he went to his moms room and then eventually Cavin came too....so all kids slept with their moms.....not really a sleepover success! I think they are a little too young still! We had fun catching up though and are so glad they came to visit! (I wish I had pictures of Ragnar work and church, but I didn't have my camera :(

Halloween 2011

Halloween this year has come and gone. The kids enjoyed the celebrations. We had a church trunk or treat and they got a lot of candy and enjoyed playing the carnival games. Ella was Jesse for the church party, but wanted to be "Aurora" for Halloween day. I wish I had a picture of Cavin and Ella as Jesse and Woody, but Ragnar had the camera in Germany!

Here is our princess Aurora!

Woody sporting "Bullseye" thanks to his older cousin John who we miss :(

Channing is our sweet little thumb sucking ballerina

Here are the cuties

Here was a little Jesse walking around who wanted to take a picture with Woody and Bullseye. Cute! We only trick or treated for an hour because the kids were pooped and INCREDIBLY slow walking around, but we had a nice Halloween!

Channings Entry to Food!

So if you know anything about our family, you know we love food! We are excited to report that Channing is a true Hartzheim. Her love of food has much room to grow, but she started off great! This Halloween she ate rice cereal for the first time. I know many people say, she is 6.5 months, and she is just now starting food??? Yet for me if they are content on breast milk, then why bother with the mess! She had her 6 month appointment and was 18.2 lbs and so she is coming back down the charts. and now she is old enough now and was showing a lot of interest in food, so we upgraded our little baby to something more solid....and she loves it. I am afraid when she starts getting the real tasty food, we will be eaten out of house and home! She is a cutie and such a happy little lady!

Testing out the spoon before we begin!

Here we go......

YUM!!!

The only issue we had was her addiction to her thumb! After every bite she would stick her thumb in her mouth...so the solution for now is holding her hand while she eats :)

The Original Mud Run

This past weekend Ragnar and I participated in the Houston Mud Run! The Mud run is a 10 K race full of 30 obstacles. Some fairly easy, some very difficult. I was so proud of Ragnar for finishing. He did all but a couple obstacles and on one there was a 20 foot cargo net you had to climb up that was very hard and then you have to come down the other side...he made it up and halfway down he lost his grip and fell flat on his back onto a mat....scary! (thankfully I didn't see as we weren't running together) He was fine, it just knocked the wind out of him and he kept going! He did great and it was his very first race....of I hope many! :)
Ragnar had some of his Rockets buddies running with him and I ran with a group of my friends. There were 7 of us girls and we called ourselves the C.T.R. girls...the chicks that run. It was fun....I wanted to run with Ragnar but the competitiveness in me didn't allow for that. Hopefully next year when he is in great shape!


Before the race with Kenna and Cris Garthe

Here is his Rockets group (and me in my other shirt :)

Here we go!! Natalie, Kim, Mitzi, and Stephanie were the other girls who ran with us! It was so fun to do it as a group!

So gross!


This obstacle they called the "Leap of Faith" you had to climb up and then jump in 8 feet of muddy water....as you can tell I really did not want to jump in! (Somewhere inside of that pit is my bandana!)



I could do the running part....but I need to do some more major weight lifting for next time!

Here is everyone when they are done....I finished in just under an hour so I was already cleaned up.



Here are the two girls I ran with Emily and Brittany! We did great...we were one of the first girls to finish and were in the top 10!

Wahoo...you did it!

Time for the hose down....it felt nice to get the mud out of your ears and your shoes! We had a great time. Thanks mom and dad for watching the kiddos while we got dirty!

Our Bundle Of Joy!

Channing is now 5 months old and she has been such a fun addition to our family! She has slept through the night since she was 6 weeks old and is such a peaceful, good natured baby! I have been so lucky to get three wonderful kids!
Channing has recently been showing us more and more of her personality. She is always trying to roll and move and loves to jump in the jumperoo. She has a cute little giggle now and is always smiling or blowing bubbles. She has a big mouth and is always trying to eat whoever is holding her's nose or when the kids talk to her for some reason she always opens her mouth as big as she can in response. She has found her voice and man some days, although happy, she is loud! She also is obsessed with sucking her thumb....we will be starting a braces fund soon :) She is our red haired, green eyed charmer...never thought I would get the "strawberry blonde" child, but we sure wouldn't trade her!

Just chillin in my high chair!

Sweet Smiles!

Oh how I love my thumb!

Check out this mouth mom...getting ready for my braces :)

Bubble Blowin Time!

We sure do love you baby girl!

Round 2!

As you know, Ella started kindergarten this year and has absolutely loved it! However, due to the large amount of enrollment in Eagle Springs Elementary this year, they had to create a new 6th kindergarten class. They selected 3 to 4 kids from each class to create a new one. Ella was one of the "chosen" ones and started with a new teacher today....Mrs. Adams. We really liked her last teacher Mrs. Harper that she had for about a month, but Ella is a good sport and didn't care at all that she had to move classes, make new friends, and start with a new teacher. She has a boy she likes in her old class named Levi and I explained that he will now be in her old class...she just said mom it's o.k. I can still chase him at recess!! Oh my...I am not ready for my girl to grow up!

A Visit from the Grandparents!

This past week we were privileged to get a visit from Ragnar's parents. They came and spent 6 days with us, and we had a nice visit. The kids were excited to see them as they don't get to come often. It was sad to have Ella at school for most of the day, but we found things to do when she came home. One day we went over to "Imaginations" and painted. The kids love to paint.

Here is Cavin concentrating on Lightening McQueen!

Here is our cute little thumb sucker. Who just enjoys being along for the ride!

Ella worked on Minnie with Oma

On Monday Ragnar, Hellmut, and Cavin went to Galveston to visit "The Galveston Railroad Museum" Hellmut loves trains, and that love has now passed through two more generations.


When he got home he kept telling me about the blue train

"All ABOARD!"

These two pictures make me laugh..I just love Cavins faces!

Here are the three generations before the big "boys day out!"


Opa meeting Channing

Oma playing with Ella, books and games!

Our little princess

Don't they look lovely :)

One of our other adventures.....Chucky Cheese!!! I think the men liked it as much as the kids!

We pretty much had the place to ourselves :) nice!



And lastly....one of the reasons they came....to meet our little 4 month old cutie!

She is such a happy baby!

Thanks so much for coming Hellmut and Ursula! We miss you already!