Sweetly four

Sweetly four
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

Happy Birthday to our feisty, handsome, opinionated, stubborn, sweet, sneaky, smart, and uber lovey middle child.

We love you, Freddie!

Holy guacamole!! You are four!

More scenes from Freddie's 4th birthday!

Kid guitar from Mom and Dad:


Modeling a partial birthday sweater knit by Mom (still not done, nearly a month after his bday - still needs a right sleeve!) and holding Super Zhu and another little Zhu Zhu:



A sweet build-a-dinosaur gift from Aunt Wendy:


A birthday cake!


The cake (thanks, Target):

First Easter

Happy Easter!
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

Jack-Jack adorns the blue bunny ears and Rod-boy tradition continues. Wonder if these ears will keep for my future grandkids? ;)

Funny Bunnies

Funny Bunnies
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

A belated Hoppy Easter, blogger friends!

Happy (almost) 4th Birthday, Freddie!!!!

My big birthday boy
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

We celebrated Freddie's 4th birthday this weekend with a party at Chuck E Cheese. He was so excited to have his party outside the home this year and Chuck E Cheese was his choice because of the games and ticket blaster!!

ticket blaster fun!

ticket blaster fun!
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

T-ball buddies

T-ball buddies
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

Freddie started T-ball at our local rec center last Monday. He's lucky to be on a team with his two good neighborhood friends, Peri (the cutie to the left of Freddie) and Henry (not pictured). Sammy was lucky enough to be allowed to play with the 4-year-old ballers last Monday.

Jack's First Birthday!

We had a Milk and Cookies party in honor of Jack's first birthday. Godparents Cody and Ashley drove down from Duluth, the Bueno bunch drove over from Wisconsin, and a small few Minneapolis friends - and our honorary family member Samantha :) - came over to help us celebrate our baby's first year. Thanks to everyone who helped make this day special for Jack! And many thanks to my happy baking friends - Ashley for the TDF chocolate gooey butter cookies, Suzanne for the oatmeal raisin cookies - the same cookies she brought me when she came to visit brand-new Jack in the hospital, and Holly for making the centerpiece chocolate cupcakes! Also, a nod out to Holly's DH Jesse, who not only looked after the queso during the festivities but also applied the blue sprinkles to the cupcakes so artfully.

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Boy!

For more pictures and more details, check out the >>> flickr set <<
Still a Work In Progress as of 4/23/11! Just waiting on more pictures from party go-ers :)

Twins Home Opener!

Jacob picked Sammy up a couple hours early from school last Friday, April 8th, so that the two of them could attend the Twins Home Opener at Target Field. It was a beautiful day for a baseball game!

Here are some pictures that Jacob took.


It was a sold-out game.



See the tiny glove in the corner of one the buildings behind the stadium? (in the picture below)

Twins hat

Twins hat
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

Freddie didn't get to join Jacob and Sammy at the Twins home opener on Friday, but he did get this hat!

A sad story.

After sending out the aforementioned email to local friends, my friend, Tami, responded back with this story.

My sister's pediatrician just went to a funeral for a little child who was in a short backed regular booster seat that was the correct size for him. His sibling in a tall, hard back booster survived as did the other sibling in a regular infant car seat. The parents actually passed away too...it just proves even more that the right car seat saves lives!
We are strict about car seats over here too!

CPSafety has a good article on The Basics of Booster Seats. It's really good info. Funnily enough I actually got a few emails back with questions about boosters. Hopefully this helps!

expired car seat

expired Britax Roundabout car seat
Originally uploaded by sweetietooth

The best thing to do with an expired car seat? Well, my first choice is to save it for the Babies 'R Us Trade-In event, where BRU will take your expired, old, or broken baby gear items and in return give you 25 percent off the purchase of a new baby gear item. BRU will also destroy expired seats for you. But if you don't need to trade-in for anything, or just want the seat gone, cutting the straps is a good idea. Here is our out-of-date Britax Roundabout, straps cut and awaiting further demolition.

I have more pictures of the expired car seat, and it's long-expired friend, up on my flickr photostream, including a couple pictures on where to find DOMs.

PSA: car seat expiration

I sent this email out to many friends this morning, after a couple of days re-visiting car seat safety. I'm posting it here for my friends in bloggerland, in the hopes that someone might find it helpful!

Just this week I confiscated a car seat with a manufacture date of 1999 from a friend. No car seat lasts that long, especially given our extreme weather here in Minnesota. Plastic, which most car seat frames are made from, takes a beating in super cold and super hot temperature, compromising the integrity of the seat.

Manufacture dates can be found printed on the side or back of the car seat. Here is a link to a great resource about seats, including expiration dates. And just to make it easier on you, in case you don't have the time or desire to scroll through a google doc, I will say that the majority of popular seat brands (Graco, Britax and Evenflo) expire six years from the date of manufacture.

Also, the Minnesota booster law is 8 years and/or 4 feet 9 inches tall so don't feel bad investing a quality booster. Your child will be in that for a while! If you are curious about car seat laws in Minnesota here is the state's official website.

Here is a quote from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety:

In Minnesota, 83 percent of child safety seats are used incorrectly (based on 2008 safety clinic observations). The three most common mistakes are incorrect restraint for the child, loose harness, and loose installation of the restraint in the vehicle.

Check your manufacture dates and tighten up those harnesses!

FYI Jack will be one next week and he'll remain rear-facing until he hits the rear-facing limits of his seat. The car seat that Sammy (and Freddie) used as an infant (manufacture date of 2004) has it's straps cut and it waiting to be officially destroyed - it is expired.

For more info on extended rear facing click the link above to check out this website: Joel's Journey

Scoot over to Tami's website for some unbelievable pictures of Jack!

Tami Tripp Photography Blog ! >>> CLICK HERE <<<

Jack's Sweater

Jack in Jack's Sweater, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

I finished Jack's birthday sweater on our trip. I figured since he grows so fast and has no idea anyway, I'd spoil the surprise and go ahead and let him wear it a couple weeks before his actual bday.

Can you believe it? Jack is turing one soon!

Spring Break in Arkansas, 2011

on the lake, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

James took the boys out on the lake Wednesday morning. They had a blast doing everything with Ba, and really enjoyed all the field trips, too.

Here is a quick synopsis of our week:
Sunday when we arrived they played out back in the hose. Freddie got down to his skivvies. It was that warm. James made us pizza in his outdoor pizza oven for dinner. Yum!

Monday Sammy and Ba drove the tractor and moved rocks, in addition to other farm chores. He loved it. Sammy repeatedly talks about driving the tractor all by himself. Then, James, Jacob, Sammy and Freddie spent the rest of the afternoon in the creek.

Tuesday James took the boys fishing and they did more farm work. My mom and I went into town to have our hair done :) That night we had a party in their outdoor kitchen. The kids loved this - James grilled burgers and dogs in the huge outdoor fireplace and then we roasted *many* marshmallows and made s'mores. James, Jacob and Sammy camped out in a tent in the backyard.

Wednesday the boys went out on the lake and had lunch at Gaston's Resort. Sammy came home with trick candy (not the eating kind - watch out if he comes up to you and offers you some!) and Freddie a fart whistle. lol My mom and I did yoga and played a bunch of games on the Wii while Jack napped.

Thursday the guys went caving. More pictures and details to come from Jacob! Mom and I did more yoga, then I caught her up on Glee's second season while Jack napped, then the three of us hung out outside in the sunshine and toured her beautiful flower beds. My mom made chickpea chili for dinner. I am going to get the recipe and share it with my vegetarian friends up here because it rocked.

Friday, sadly, we loaded up the car and started our drive home. There were tears shed nearly the entire drive to Branson.

Thanks so much to my parents for having us! It was truly a magical spring break for our family - the stuff that memories are made of.
We love you!

Spring in Arkansas!

so hot, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

We had the best weather for spring break in Arkansas! It was unseasonably warm but none of us were complaining. We reveled in it and I am pretty sure we all want to go back.

Thanks to Nana and Ba for being such wonderful hosts! Sammy was sad to leave, to put it mildly.

It's-a bubble time

It's-a bubble time, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Spring break in Arkansas. It was actually a little too hot for Freddie to be wearing those pants - notice his red face? (but he loves them - thanks, Papa, for stitching them up!)

Jack at Denny's

Jack at Denny's, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

The first stop of our first road trip of 2011. This is the Denny's off the highway in Clear Lake, Iowa. Giant gold stars to all three of our kids for being such good car travelers. We drove from Minneapolis to Monkey Run, Arkansas, for spring break, March 19-26.

more of cute Jack at the hospital

, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

more cute pictures from the hospital on flickr. follow the link under the picture!