A few more pics...

I just wanted to add a few more pictures from our trip up north...see the blog below for the full details of our excellent trip to Lutsen.

Linnea is totally not interested in the pumpkins "Mr. Pumpkin" came and hid for the kids. She was most of the time but not in this picture. The kids had fun looking for these and then coloring on them. We also made pumpkin paper bag puppets and did some coloring.

Brian and Dylan in the woods at frisbee golf.

Playing with the rocks and waves.

Bride and Groom to be!

Mommy Megan and Ian.

Lisa, Erik and Dylan.

Mom and Dad.

Snow on the trail but still a perfect hiking temperature! So pretty!

Lutsen Sea Villas 2009

This past weekend was our annual trip "up north." We have been staying at the Lutsen Sea Villas for the past 5 years I think. This year was a bit different since we had 4 kiddoes with us but it was just as fun as ever! We still got to do everything we normally would do which was wonderful! I feel so lucky to have such a fun adaptable family!

Linnea and I went up on Thursday morning with my parents. We stopped at Gooseberry Falls on the way and bundled Linnea up in her snowsuit and took a look at one of nature's beautiful creations. She loved it! She waved and waved at the water and her face lit up...too bad I couldn't capture it on camera!

Erik, Lisa, Dylan, Brian, Megan, Dylan and Ian all also came up Thursday evening. Chris couldn't get the whole day off work so he came Friday early evening.

We had some story time with Uncle Erik.

Lake Superior with very loud crashing waves time.

Resting and eating time.

And it is not a trip with the Henjum's without a hike. Luckily both families with the small ones found these great backpacks at garage sales so we stuck in the kids in and off we went.

What great daddies! Lucky kids I tell ya! One is asleep and one is looking the other way...silly girl!

We also had a bonfire one night and squeezed a game of frisbee golf in. Some of our group also hit the pool for some fun and we were able to play games every night once the kids were off to dreamland.

The happy family of three.

Daddy and daughter. Love.

What a fun trip!

10 Months Old

Here I am at 10 months with my elephant. I turned 10 months right before our annual family trip up north so mom thought it would be fun to take a few monthly growth pictures up there instead of in the chair and crib here.

I have some news that my parents were afraid to mention on the blog yet because they think I am teasing them again. See, around 2 months I teased them and slept thru the night for about 2 weeks. But since then, I have been waking up a few times a night and needing them to help me fall back to sleep. That is, until they put me through baby boot camp, sleep training, crying it out, whatever you want to call it. Anyways they have been doing this to me since I was 9 months old. The first week they slept downstairs because then they would be farther from my screaming. But I only screamed for a half hour that first night. The rest of the nights I would whimper just til mom left the room. I have heard them say they did this because getting up every 4 or 6 hours for 9 months is long enough. We all need more sleep and we will be happier and healthier. So I did it. I sleep through the night now! Even on trips and at the grandparents house I do okay. I may need to sleep with mom or dad after sleeping a while on my own but they think that's okay for now.

They did just throw something else new in my life. A different bedroom! My nursery is now their old room and they are in mine. Last night I woke up terrified in there after sleeping for 2 hours and mom had to calm me down with some rocking and rereading my fav bedtime story. However, mommy played with me a lot in there today and I napped in there so I think I am more used to it and will be okay tonight. I do have some teeth coming in though.

Oh this is tough being a baby...I could go on and on!

Yardwork and playing!

Miss Linnea got to join in the fun of cleaning up grandma and grandpa's old yard in Richfield. It was a perfect day for it on Saturday. I also ran in the 5 mile Run for the Apples at Pine Tree Apple Orchard with a good friend of mine. We have been doing it for the past 6 years! It is sooo fun! And I was happy to do it in 48 minutes...I wanted to get under 50 minutes so I achieved my goal and without much training! yay!

Here she is helping with the yardwaste...or maybe playing in it in the trash bucket! Whatever works!

She really loves playing with this monkey and her table!

And just being smily!

Now we are off to Lutsen for our annual family trip! Have a great weekend everyone!

Lead

Hello everyone!

Sorry there are no pictures on this one, I haven't uploaded our most recent shots yet! Hopefully tomorrow!

I just wanted to do a quick blog to clear some things up about the lead in Linnea's blood and possibly our house. Linnea has a somewhat high level at 8.3, but not high enough to be super concerned. Chris and I had our levels checked too and we also have some but nothing to be too concerned about. Ours are around 3. Danger level is 10 or higher.

Our doctor gave us many tips on how to lower our lead levels and assured us that lead does leave the body so we will all get checked again in 6 months to see what our bodies our doing. For now we will just be even more careful and aware when working on our house and follow our sheet of how to lower lead levels. We have been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, covering up the walls in house with drywall and had our air ducts/vents cleaned out professionally. We also called the Dpt of Health to see if they had tips about lead levels. We learned from them that walls that possibly had lead paint on them need to be covered with drywall or wood paneling. Perhaps that is why there was so much wood paneling in our home, and we took it all down. So now we are starting over. We did use some lead remover before repainting Linnea's room last summer so her room is probably fine but we want to drywall it anyways, just to be on the safeside. Chris also bought an inhome lead tester so we know which rooms to drywall for sure and we are working on that.

It is definitely safe for us to be in our home and for others to be in our home. I hope I didn't scare anyone, I just wanted to keep people updated.

Talk to you soon!

Snow on October 12th 2009

Linnea is happy in the snow just like her mama! It is sort of odd it snowed on October 12th but hey...we made the most of it! It is Minnesnowta afterall! This won't stick around though. It was warm enough to go on a short walk, but then we snuggled and played inside the rest of the day!

A Visit from our Family in Colorado..warning lots o pics!

I would like to introduce 2 month old Kendall Marie Frost! She is the newest addition the family in Colorado and we got see her three days in a row! She is a very sweet and brave baby to visit Minnesota last week with her mommy Katie, brother Parker and uncle Graham. We kept her super busy and had so much fun! We went to a storytime, visited great grandma, went to an apple orchard, Graham made dinner for the dinner party at mom and dads, went to the Como Zoo, Mall of America, IKEA and had a pizza party with almost the whole family at great grandmas!

I got to cuddle with Parker while Katie packed. Katie and the gang stayed at my parents house and Linnea and I decided to do the same. It was so much fun!

This was early in the morning before their flight out here. What a proud great uncle!

Amy and Kendall.

Kendall and Linnea on the way to Minnesota Harvest Apple Orchard. We were quite the sight...three carseats and three adults and at one point one (great)grandma was also in the mix!

Here we are at the zoo...it was very fun to see the excitement on the kids faces! The animals were very active which we all enjoyed.

Here is newborn Kendall on a pumpkin! Graham thought we were nuts for posing her this way, but you cant lie...it is very cute!

And here is waving Linnea with the pumpkins.

Graham and Parker on the wagon ride.

Parker on the playground.

Mommies and babies on the wagon.

Mommy and Linnea on the swing!

And the slide...

And Linnea swinging all by herself!

Reading before bed.

Snuggling with a wonderful great Aunt!

Playing marbles and watching the Twins.

And one proud Great Grandma! Thanks for the fun guys!

Kids in Costume

Here is our little mouse!! Linnea and I went to our first Halloween party and boy was it spooktacular! The second Saturday of every month we try to get together with our new parent group. This month was this past Saturday.

It was so much fun to see all the babies in their costumes...however we are quickly becoming more of toddlers than babies. Almost all the kiddoes were crawling, scooting, standing or pulling themselves up! Linnea of course preferred to sit and watch and stand and walk with help from mommy. She is leaning a lot more on her bottom so I think crawling is on the way!

Here are three of her friends...another mouse, a pumpkin and a strawberry! I love kids in costumes!

ADORABLE.