It was a long weekend....

And not in a good way! If you've been reading the blog you know that Chad had gone into the ER about 5 weeks ago with a kidney stone. They told him that it should pass in 2-3 days, well it didn't and Friday night we ended up back in the ER because of the kidney stone. To make a very long story short Chad ended up have to have surgery on Saturday afternoon to have it removed. He is still pretty sore but not nearly in as much pain as he was. And he's very grateful to have the kidney stone out! Let me tell you that this one of the most stressful weekends of my life. Thankfully I never really had to worry about the kids. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for taking Katey and Jack, to Jessica for driving them to Hinkley and taking Jake for the weekend and last but not least to Jodi who took Max at 7 o'clock in the morning on Saturday and again on Sunday when Ginger had to go to work. Braden was with Nate this weekend so I didn't have to worry about what to do with him. We seriously can't thank you all enough. We are truly blessed to have great family and friends!

Dr. Nancy English Memorial 5k

As many of you know, my doctor passed away very unexpectedly August 8th of this year.Dr. English was my doctor of almost 10 years, she delivered Braden, walked us through all of the complication with Katey and encouraged us that we could have another beautiful healthy baby, who is Jack. Dr. English was their doctor too. And they never complained about having to go see her, actually they couldn't wait.

I was lucky enough to not only have her as my doctor but I had the privilege to run with her and against her quite a bit this past year. So, when I found out they were doing a 5k in memory for her I knew I wanted it to be a family affair.

We went back and forth this past week trying to decide if we were all going to go or if I was just going to go with Jessica. In the end we left it up to the kids and they all wanted to do it. It was freezing this morning, only about 34 degrees on our way down there. Our plan was to all walk it together with Jessica but the boys really wanted to run. I thought it would be harmless to let them take off and we could catch up with them after they ran out of steam. Well, about 2 minutes into that idea I decided I better run up a bit so I could at least see them. I caught up to Braden fairly quickly,I told him to just keep going and dad couldn't be far behind and that I had to keep running so I could keep an eye on Max. At the turn around I was finally able to catch up with Max because I told he to hold on a minute and wait for me. He happily did but I think it was mostly because he knew I would take his hat and mittens for him. When we saw Braden he just started to run back with us and shortly after that we found Chad, Katey and Jack. Some how at this point I ended up with the stroller and Chad went back to find Braden who was having a hard time keeping up with me and Max. Once I got the stroller it was pretty much game over for me. I'm super excited to say that Max finish in 32 minutes. I have found my new running buddy! Katey,Jack, and I finished in about 39 minutes. Braden and Chad came in at about 45 minutes. Braden says he'll never run a 5k again! Max on the other hand has talked me into running a 5k on Thanksgiving morning. I know Dr. English would be so proud to know that she had something to do with Max finding a love in running.

Before the race....



I forgot to mention Jack fell asleep. So, of course I got the camera out during the race and took a picture.

Katey running to the finish line, she ran the last 1/2 mile.

Max after we finished I was able to take his picture. I'm so proud of my little runner!

Braden finishing it up strong, but never doing one again!

Veteran's Day Program

Well, I said I would get this up yesterday but I ran out of time. The program was really good. It was so strange to see Katey up on that stage. She was so adorable up there and you could see the pride in her face. All the kids did such a great job and you can tell that the boys are old pros at the concert thing. I only got a few pictures but here are the best ones.
This is the only one with BOTH of the boys. Max was in the very front row and Braden was in the 2nd to the very top row. Wasn't very easy to get one with both of them! :)

How cute is she? Look at that smile!

Vikings/ Packer Party

Sunday was my mom and Jim's annual Vikings/Packer Party. So we headed to the cities on Saturday morning. I wanted to leave the house by about 8:30 we didn't leave the house until almost 9:45 and and didn't get out of Duluth until about 10:30. I should have known that it was just going to be a day!
We decided to brave the Mall of America and let the kids go on some rides. It was SO busy! And once we got there we realized that Jack couldn't go on any rides not even with a parent. Needless to say Jack and I walked the whole mall a few times and spent about 2 hours in Barnes Noble. Thank God for the train track there!
Sunday was the party of course and Grandma and Grandpa surprised the kids with early Christmas presents. They all got new jerseys for the party. Braden got his Peterson jersey that he's been begging for and Katey got a Dolphin shirt because I guess that is who she likes now. Here are a few pictures form the party.




We have a busy day ahead of us. The kids have a Veteran's Day concert at school today then the 3 older ones all have conferences. I'll try to get some pictures today at the concert it's not always easy but maybe with my new camera they will turn out better! I'll let you know how it goes later tonight.

2 adults, 4 children and 1 dog...

That's what I'm packing for. We are leaving for one night and I feel like I'm bringing the whole darn house! I hoping some year this will get easier. Even with my lists I still always seem to forget something. We are heading down to the cities for my parents annual Vikings Packer Party and we might try to hit up the science museum or the Mall of America today when we get there depending on when we finally get out of here. Well, I'm off to finish the packing now. Please someone tell me this will get easier...please!?!

Let's play a guessing game....

Can you guess what this is?


If you guessed Katey's hair you'd be correct! Let me just say yes, she got a haircut today but that hair isn't from her haircut. When I took her in tonight to get her haircut a huge chuck of hair (pictured above) fell on to the floor. I was not very pleased to say the least and immediately started to interrogate her. She promised me up and down that she didn't cut her hair. And after a few minutes she remembered...


Can you guess what this is?

Well if you guessed a trimmer you'd be correct again. This is what cut the long pieces of her hair.


OK, last question. Can you guess who did it???

Really, did you expect it to be anyone else? Jack was playing with daddy's trimmer while I was at the gym, he put it on her head and the rest is history. Here's picture of the new haircut she was acting silly so this is the best I could get.



Another eventful day at our house!

Oh, Jack....

Well, Jack was in his prime once again today. For those of you that don't know Jack has been,well...our challenge to say the least and today was no exception. I can't completely blame him though his big sister played a part in it too. Our girly, girl Katey decided that she was going to put lipstick on without asking. I bet you can guess what happened.In this case a picture is worth a thousand words....
Yup, that's lipstick in Jack's hair and on his face. When I finally saw it Katey was using my Mary Kay make-up brushes and water to clean Jack's face. What a great big sister! Needless to say they both ended up in the tubby. But that wasn't it for Jack tonight...
Yes,this is Jack's plate for dinner, let me note that I only gave him 3 fish sticks to start with.
And this is Jack not even 20 minutes after he told me he didn't want anymore dinner. Yup, he snuck the chips into his bedroom and ate away. I just happened to have the camera in my hand when I found him, so I couldn't help but take a picture of him thinking he's being sneaky.He totally has that "Ah,oh" face on him and he was trying to chew so I could see it. It's so hard to get really mad because he's just so darn cute. I know, I know he's not going to learn. But seriously, look how cute he is.There's never a dull moment in our house, but I'm the 1st to admit that I wouldn't want it any other way...well, at least most of the time I wouldn't! ;)