Lest you think we forgot Father's Day...

we didn't :-)

Breakfast involved these blueberry streusal muffins along with smoothies.



Dessert was inspired by the scrumptious strawberries that Stefan picked almost entirely on his own when we went strawberry picking the other day. Let's just say that trying to pick strawberries when you have a baby in a carrier isn't the easiest thing I've ever done. Thankfully my boy was quite the dedicated picker. (I did find quite a few half eaten strawberries as I was cleaning them. But hey, that's half the fun, right?)


And the rest of the day included lots of hugs, kisses, gifts, relaxation, etc. Stefan and Olivia are so blessed to have such a wonderful Daddy!

Fun day in Madison!

In lieu of a vacation (since Brian is accumulating vacation days very slowly to say the least!) we are trying to take advantage of Saturdays that Brian doesn't have anything at church to go on little family outings. Today we decided to go to the farmers market in Madison. Oh, was it so much fun! I honestly felt like I had stepped back into Europe for a minute! So many booths, crowds of people (obviously a very popular place!), random musicians around playing for a few bucks, etc! Loved it! We also briefly went inside the Wisconsin capitol building (the market is all around the the capitol building), enjoyed some gardens and a walk next to the lake.

Some friends of ours just happened to be going to the farmers market today as well. We happened to mention it at church the other day and found out we were both planning on going to the same place, so we decided to meet up for a picnic lunch on the grass and then later on in the day we met up again for ice cream! So much fun to do something together as families!

My four month old!

It's very hard for me to believe that Olivia is four months old today. I feel like life is just zooming by and I need to stop and catch my breath and enjoy the moment.

For comparison sake, here is Stefan at four months.

Off to go enjoy a few snuggles, coos, and smiles from my growing girl!

Big Red Barn

One of Stefan's favorite books at the moment is Margaret Wise Brown's Big Red Barn. She is the author of the classic Goodnight Moon which we don't have, but seeing how much he loves this one we might have to get that for his birthday this year. It is so beautifully written and illustrated. Good children's literature is so fun to read. In my opinion, if I don't enjoy reading it, then it probably isn't written well enough for children to want to listen to it. Anyway, this post isn't about children's literature so I will stop myself. But if you got me going...well, I have a lot to say about that topic. So back to the book. Stefan loves it, and we have read it dozens of times. It starts out,

"By the big red barn
In the great green field..."

I hope you can find our "big red barn", the "great green field", the "big pile of hay and the little pile of hay."

Toward the end of the story it reads,
"And there they were all night long
Sound asleep
In the big red barn."

It was so cute to see Stefan lay the animals down in our barn. I didn't even tell him to do that! Love, love ,love that!

(p.s. I did not stop reading to take pictures. I got the camera out after we had had our beautifully, fun reading time. It was actually Stefan's idea. We got the blocks out to play together and I asked him what he wanted to build. Usually it's a tower, but today he said a barn and pointed to the book. I couldn't have been happier to oblige. Oh, and we got a little carried away and added everything...even the animals! I hope you enjoy the pictures!)

Fun times with friends!

Today we headed back to the Arboretum, only this time with some of our friends from church. The kids had an absolute blast together (and got completely soaked-what kid doesn't like that?!) and we moms did as well! We walked around the arboretum, played in the fountains and then finished up with a picnic lunch. I'm so blessed to have friends with kids to do things with!

(I got there and realized I had left my camera battery at home. Thankfully someone else had their camera!)

Reading in our fort

Yesterday Stefan and I made a fort in the living room. I couldn't figure out how to take a picture of both of us in the fort so you'll just have to believe me that I was really under there with him. We cuddled under the sheet -- I mean fort-- with pillows and a book. Somehow being under there made reading so much more exciting. I'm willing to do just about anything to help my son grow a love for books. Yes, even crawl under a fort in the living room. Fun memories with my boy!

Arboretum

Here are some pictures from our outing to the Arboretum. We took way too many to post them all here. It is just a few minutes from our house and free on Mondays--love that! It was so beautiful and we had a nice time and got some much needed exercise and fresh air walking around. Stefan loved the alphabet garden in the "Children's Garden" area. He got the biggest smile when we walked up and he saw all the letters. He then ran to each letter as we called them out. So fun! He loved playing a game with Daddy under the great big tree and collecting pine cones and rocks!

Final day with Grandpa & Grandma!

We went out to eat on Monday night. Stefan made his Grandma proud by using chopsticks. He did pretty well! Unfortunately the picture of all of us at the table at the restaurant didn't turn out, but thankfully I got a great shot of the kids with their grandparents!

Grandpa & Grandma Hanson are here!

As you can see Stefan and Olivia are very happy to have a visit from Grandpa and Grandma! They got along splendidly. Olivia showed off a few smiles and rolled over this evening for the first time. Stefan loved playing with the new cars they brought him and even took some time to read with Grandma. We're so glad they could come see us.

Our little house!

This is for those of you that have been asking for pictures of our house. Here it is. Unfortunately that top window is just an attic. Too bad it's not an actual room! It's a cute little two-bedroom house~about 1000 sq. ft. The driveway is long and narrow with a garage at the end. It is quite the job to get the car in and out of it, but we've mastered the technique! Our neigbors are very close (just a narrow driveway between us), but thankfully on the right side we have a church as our neighbor. It is a nice lawn and provides a little more privacy. We're grateful for that as that is the side of the bedrooms. It would be nice if it we could run around in that lawn but it is fenced in. Our yard is very tiny and doesn't provide a lot of space for a curious toddler to explore. That's ok. We're thankful we have a yard at all. We listen for "our" bells at noon, 3 pm, and 6pm. Noon is our favorite one. We get lots of practice counting to 12 and then the bells play three or four hymns. After they are done Stefan yells triumphantly, "NIGHT NIGHT!" We've never mentioned that to him but he has associated the bells to lunch and then naptime!

We are thankful that we are able to rent this house from a couple in our church. They are very gracious landlords, and this house was truly a provision from God.

(Inside pictures coming eventually!)

My cool dude!

It's all in vain

Notice where the passy is NOT, and where the finger IS. This is seriously stressful. Really. And if you are thinking, "Oh how cute!" stop right now. I have visions of a ten year old sneaking her finger in her mouth and being made fun of by friends. I mean, I can't just have a ceremony and get rid of the finger.

Well, I tried. Countless times I have taken the finger out and put the passy in. But nope, she's a stubborn girl.

Oh well. I'll stop stressing. Maybe.

Yum, yum, and more yum!

We just tried a new version of a fruit smoothie. Last week a local store had a case of mangoes on sale dirt cheap. I snatched them up and had on my mind to try a mango banana smoothie recipe that I had seen. The recipe included coconut milk but I thought I would just make it with yogurt since I have never used coconut milk. [Side note: Brian told me that when he was in Singapore they always used coconut milk in smoothies. I bet that was fresh though. Mmmm. that really sounds yummy. ] Anyway, would you believe that I was walking through Aldi the other day (love that store!) and they had coconut milk? So I tried the new smoothie recipe. Can it really be called a recipe with only three ingredients? I don't think so, but that is neither here nor there.

1 Mango
1 Banana (best if frozen before hand)
Coconut Milk (about 1/3 c. -- I just poured some in)
Add water as needed until desired consistency.

Blend all ingredients in blender.

Um. this. was. yummy.

And I'm not really a mango fan. I know my family is horrified about that, but I'm just not. But this was delicious. We had this yesterday and we liked it so much that I made some more to compliment our breakfast this morning.

Stefan declared it yummy.


What's not to love about this face?

Seriously. You should try this sometime. It's yummy. (The smoothie, not the face.)

Playing with friends!

Yesterday I watched a friend's two children for the morning. Stefan loved having some playtime with Phinehas and Phoebe. Our driveway is in absolute crumbles, but apparently it makes it all the more fun!