The Girls

Last weekend was a nice weekend to be out and about. It was a little breezy but the sun was shining and it felt good. We went on a long walk Saturday morning and then came back and sat in the front yard. The girls shared some snacks and toys. :-)
Matt captured some sweet pictures of the girls...

I love seeing the bond they have already. So sweet and loving.. now if only it will stay that way :-)

Easter

We had a great holiday weekend back in Iowa. Saturday we went to DSM for Jack's birthday party, then went to my dad and Barb's that night so Kaiya and Avree could play. Sunday we went to church with Matt's parents and ate with them. Avree woke up to an Easter egg hunt inside the house and then had another egg hunt outside the house after church! What a great Easter Bunny! :-)
Avree, Matt and Papa played soccer for a little while (Avree starts soccer team next week!) It was a nice, relaxing Sunday!
We then headed back over to my dad and Barb's for ANOTHER egg hunt! The kids played for a while, some napped and the adults played pitch. We had a great Easter and we are so blessed!

Here is our attempt to get Easter Pictures:

Avree's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe Avree turned 3 and the beginning of April! I feel like she should maybe be 2! :)
She had a great birthday weekend. Her birthday feel on a Monday this year so she got a fun filled weekend leading up to her day. Her weekend started off with Matt coming home early from work on Friday to set up her birthday present from us... a TRAMPOLINE! We got that set up and she was on it non-stop. She didn't want to sit down to eat supper cause she wanted to be jumping! :) On Saturday my dad/Barb came down bringing Jack and Kaiya. Avree adores Kaiya so much and they get along so well together! So they had fun running around outside and jumping on the trampoline.

Avree couldn't wait for the netting to get up so we let her jump for a bit before starting on the netting :-)

FINALLY.. everything is set up and done :-)

Sunday was her party, which turned out GREAT! It was a tea party themed birthday and I know my grandma Farley was looking down smiling and SO happy we were having a "tea party".
We had some fun "tea party" food, and some yummy cupcakes. We played "pin the petal on the flower", and "stack the sugar", we did face painting, and color/decorate a take home bag.
We are so blessed with great friends and family who made the party! Avree had a great day and got lots of fun toys.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Avree:

Avree enjoying her cupcake:

"Pin the petal on the flower"

Avree getting help opening her gifts :-)

The setup of the room:

The yummy cupcakes and bakery cookies:

The yummy food:

Emmersen getting some attention from Harriette:

On her actual birthday (Monday the 4th) we took her to Crown Center and ate at Fritz's Train restaurant (which she loved!) and then played in the exhibit they had ("under the sea"). She had a great day! :-)

The train dropping off our food:

Avree enjoying the "under the sea" exhibit:

Avree sleeping on the mermaid's bed :-)

Avree and the octopus..

Avree and her birthday balloons:

Here are some photos Matt took for Avree's 3 yr photo shoot: (it was very windy that day)
Talking on her phone:

We love you Avree Grace!!

Sorry, been a while!!

I always seem to go in spurts.. I update the blog every other week for a while, then I get behind and forget all about it. :S
Updates:
We are still doing good and we are loving this awesome weather. Last week and part of this week is has been 60-70's! We have been outside a lot. We have been on walks, Avree has been riding her motorized "four wheeler" and playing in her sand box. But I heard that next week we might get snow!? WHAT! This is crazy weather!
This weekend Emmersen will be 6 months old!! I can't believe it. I for sure think the second time around goes MUCH faster! I really feel like she should only be 2 months old! She is sitting up for a short amount of time by herself and she is doing this "backwards scoot" where she arches up her back and kicks/pushes her feet and she moves all throughout the room. Pretty funny to watch but also a bad thing, cause she WON'T sit still and stay in one place if you lay her down. She LOVES her big sister and cracks up laughing at her.. even when Avree isn't being funny. :-) I love how Emmersen lights up when she sees Avree.. melts my heart! So glad they will have eachother growing up.

Avree will be 3 here in another week and a half! CRAZY! She is becoming quiet the "little lady". She is such a sweetheart and is always doing things to help mommy, daddy or baby sis out. :-) She still has her "moments" and is stubborn and still a little shy, but when she opens up she is such a wonderful little girl!

Matt and I are truely blessed with amazing, healthy girls!

At the beginning of March, we went to the Great Wolf Lodge with my Dad/Barb, Shelly/Jay, Steph/Luke. We had so much fun and the kids loved being able to run around and swim.
(the pictures I took inside the indoor water park are really foggy)
Avree and Kaiya going down the slide-

Aunt Shelly and Em-

The guys did this all weekend... played cards

Emmersen really liked Luke! :-)

We also ate at the TRex restaurant..

The same weekend that we went to The Great Wolf Lodge, we also got Emmersen baptized. She did GREAT and of course was so adorable in her white dress. We asked "Uncle TT" (Matt's youngest brother) and "Aunt Shelly" (my sister) to be her Godparents.
Here are a few (from my little camera) pictures from the baptism:

Sickness hit the Melhus Girls!

Last week Thurs, Avree started getting a mild cough and a runny nose (clear). Well it kept getting worse and Friday night she had a temp. It didn't last very long.. maybe an hour or two but her cough was sounding worse and worse.
On Monday, I was talking to Barb (Nama McCulla) and she has told us that "Aunt Steph" (Kaiya's mom/Barb's daughter) got Bronchitis the day after we were at her house. (We went back to Pella the 1st weekend in Feb, for Kaiya's bday party).
We had a Dr appt Monday night for Avree, so I thought for sure Avree had bronchitis since she was exposed to it. But I was surprised when the Dr said her lungs and ears were clear, but her throat was red. She has a throat infection (not strep). He gave us a prescription and we were on our way.
Well Emmy started getting a cough too and it was starting to sound like Avree's. So the next day (Tuesday) I made an appt for her. I figured it was probably a throat infection... NOPE.. A double ear infection and the starting phase of bronchitis!! I couldn't believe it (well actually I could, but I couldn't believe Avree didn't catch bronchitis but poor little 4.5 month old Em did!) They didn't want to wait for a prescription to kick in, so they had to give her an antibiotic shot! I felt so bad for her, cause just last week she had to get a couple shots and now another one a week later! Poor thing! She wasn't very happy and had a hard time falling asleep last night. Thankfully she hasn't been fussy (her normal, smiley self) and is eating and sleeping fine!!
We are *hopefully* on the mends and Avree will be going back to school tomorrow! (yay, for me) I am just so glad I decided to make another appt on Tues (we were just at the Dr monday night for Avree), otherwise I am sure Em would have gotten a bad cause of bronchitis (just because she is so little).
Hope you all stay healthy :-)

Dr. Appt

Well Emmersen FINALLY had her 4 month check up.. more like 4 1/2 month check up :) She was suppose to have her dr appt last week but we had to reschedule cause of the "big snow storm" we were getting.
She had to get her 4 month shots too, which I hate! I always had Matt come with me to Avree's dr appts when she had to get shots (I think he missed one) and he started coming with me to Emmersen's too but he wasn't able to make it to her 4 month shot appt. But big sister Avree was with me :-) Avree first started off sitting with Emmersen on the table, but then Avree started getting a little worried that she was getting some shots too. She kept asking if it was baby Emmy getting the shots and not her. :-)
Emmersen did great with the shots, cried for a couple seconds and that was it! Yay!
We have confirmed she is our short, little "beaner" :-) She was measured at 23 3/4 inches long (10-25%) and weighing in at a whopping 11 lbs 13 oz (5-10%). So she isn't going to be as tall as big sister Avree but that is ok! :-) As long as she is healthy (which she is!), that's all we care about.
Well nothing else new in the Melhus household... same old, same old :-)