Emma & Sonja's birthday party!

 Emma and Sonja began their party by decorating their very own Birthday cake with fairy picks and sprinkles!

 Auntie Lisa and Uncle Marcel invited us over for soup and cake! It was yummy!

 Adrina did the usual--rested!

The girls received many great gifts and are so happy to be four!

Thanksgiving 2012

We hosted (Ryan cooked :)) Thanksgiving at our home! Adrina wore Sonja's "I'm Stuffed!" shirt. Emma and Sonja sat at their own table for dinner and Adrina spent the majority of the day resting!  It was a wonderful day shared with family!

Adrina has some dark hair!

 We've been enjoying making comparisons between Emma's hair when we she was born and Adrina's hair.  Emma's hair was just as dark, but no where near as thick!  Adrina is still holding onto almost her whole head of hair!  There's so much there that we have been able to have clips in it almost every day!

 She loves to snuggle on her tummy and prefers to nap on her side!  She's been such a sweetie. We have been enjoying our first month with her and are very excited to our Christmas adventures!  We are especially thankful this holiday season for a happy, healthy family, but still miss Nana Cheryl EVERY day. We believe that Adrina's dark, full head of dark hair is God's way of connecting her with her Nana that she wasn't lucky enough to meet. 

Sonja's visit from Seattle

 Emma's cousin, Sonja came to visit shortly after Adrina was born.  The girls enjoyed playing together! It was also fun for grandma and grandpa Sluke to see their 3 granddaughters together! 

Coming home day!

 On November 15 we were able to head home! It was a chilly day! The second we got in and took Adrina out of her carseat, Emma insisted on reading her a book! 

 Adrina might not like the bow as much as mommy does, but she sure looks cute!

 Emma had to be sure Adrina's toes were nice and warm!

Flashback to November 13, 2012

 On November 13, we welcomed this little beauty to our family. She's already a month old and just as beautiful as ever!

 Emma is such a proud big sister!  She's quite the helper too!

Winter Dance Show

 Today was Emma's Winter Dance show with Just for Kix of West Fargo.  She did an amazing job--much more dancing going on than we witnessed last year!  Her team consists of 3 and 4 year olds and they danced to "Bravery" and the Finale Christmas song with all of the other dancers!

Nickelodeon Universe

This past weekend we enjoyed an afternoon at Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America! Elliot's brother, Brett and his wife, Ashley and their 2 kids--Elizabeth & William joined us along with our hosts, Emma's Godparents-Matt & Stacy!

 Elliot bought enough tickets for Emma and her cousin Elizabeth to enjoy a few rides! 

 Then--Uncle Brett bought daddy a ticket to walk on this HUGE ropes course!

I don't know who had more fun, Elliot, Brett & Matt or the girls!

Birthday Baking

Emma and Mommy made birthday cupcakes Tuesday night for Emma's birthday party on which will be tonight!  A few friends are coming over to share some pizza, cupcakes & ice cream--yum! 

)

 She chose chocolate cake with mint chocolate frosting. We also added in some Andes mint chocolate pieces. :)

Birthday girl

Happy 4th birthday to our beautiful daughter Emma! You changed our world for the best 4 short years ago and we love you very much. You are growing into such a smart (and sassy) and beautiful young lady!

Welcome back!

I haven't posted on our personal blog in nearly a year, but I figured it's time to get back at it!

Thanks for following our family blog! 

We welcomed our 2nd beautiful daughter late Tuesday, November 13 (11:37pm)!  She was 7 lbs 6 oz and came only 36 hours after our Monday morning appointment.  I had contractions throughout Monday evening and watched the clock during school all day on Tuesday with contractions ranging from 10 minutes apart to 6 short minutes apart when I left the building at 4:15 pm.  I managed to stay at home until 9 pm--when my body or brain just couldn't take it any longer. Elliot arrived home from Bismarck at 7:15 pm--he said with 'plenty of time.' We headed to Essentia and were greeted by a midwife that I had many appointments with throughout the pregnancy.  Less than 2 hours after we were hooked up to the monitors and my water broke-Adrina was here!

It was, yet again, another amazing and frightening experience, but I wouldn't change it for anything in the world! I am enjoying my time at home with her--it's going WAY too fast!