Happy Birthday, Grandma Dorine!

We love you! Love, Franklin, Lorina, and Eliana

Things about Grandma Dorine...

Recently, I was looking at another blog and was inspired to take some pictures around the house of things that remind me of my mom. I thought it was an especially good idea since Ellie won't get to spend much time in Grandma Dorine's house. Here are just a few of the pictures I took.

... a picture mom made and has had on the wall as long as I can remember...
... thread, ready to be used for some creative project, next to the sewing machine...
... the sewing machine...
... bells in the china cabinet...
.... bumble bees...

Welcome to the World, Aili Annalise!

Pictures of Dad and Mom with their baby girl. Mark is my brother and Kristen is his wife. Mom looks real good even after having the baby and then a week with no sleep!
Cousins sleeping...
When I have Eliana to myself, I still think she's little. Then I hold a newborn again and realize how much she's grown... although Ellie was never as small as Aili.
Aili is so small she can fit in Ellie's lap!
Just a note to my brother Matthew... Mark and I decided you have to name your first son Oliver so that we can have an Ellie, an Aili, and an Ollie in the family. :)

Naturalization...

This is a picture of Dad, Franklin, and Ellie right before Franklin's naturalization ceremony. Now that we have that done, we are just working on getting the rest of the paperwork completed so we can head back overseas.

Visiting Caleb

We went to the Twin Cities this last week and one of my favorite things to do in the Cities is to visit my friend Becky who had a baby last May. So, while Becky and I visit, Ellie visits with Caleb. At first she sat on her own.Then she realized that maybe it was too much for herself...
...so she got Mommy to help. All the while Caleb played happily with Eliana. I think it's cute how babies find each other interesting. :)
While Caleb was napping, Ellie played in one of his toys. It was fun to watch her explore a new toy.

Random Photos

Above: Eliana practices sitting.
Below: Franklin grew out his beard and Eliana LOVED touching it. It's gone now, but she still touches her daddy's face.
One of our friends from church gave us this little phone/rattle for Eliana to play with. Since Eliana loves to put things in her mouth, it looks like she's talking on the phone whenever she plays with it.
This is a pic for those of you who don't live in MN... you'll appreciate seeing how much snow we've had recently. I think this picture was taken after three blizzards... there's even more snow now.