Rosie's tooth

Yesterday was a big day for little Rose!!! She lost her first tooth!!!! It's been loose FOREVER, but when she went to her mom's yesterday, David pulled it out for her. She assured us that it didn't hurt though! She was so excited about losing her tooth that she wanted to show EVERYONE! She wanted Grammy and Grumpy to come up, but settled for showing them this morning since the girls are with Grammy. However, we did have to call my parents to come over and check out the missing tooth that's making it impossible for her to whistle! She even had to go over to Tara's house and show her too!

She was quite proud of her missing tooth and held it for a long time with such reverence. She has had a little organza bag that she's been waiting to put a tooth in to put under her pillow. When we were finally able to get her to go to bed last night, she slept with her feet up by her pillow, so that it would "be easier for the tooth fairy" to get to her tooth. She woke up this morning with $5 for her first tooth. However, she left it under her pillow in her little tooth bag and explained that she was going to save the money there until the bag was full and she had no teeth left!

Christmas 2008

We hope that everyone had a safe and VERY merry Christmas!

We had a great time with all the family!! Our first Christmas was the Sunday before and we spent the afternoon with Grumpy's family. I got to hang out with some of Aaron's cousin's that I hadn't met before and some that are constants in our lives...but we love Eddie anyway! ;) We spent Christmas Eve in Lindsborg celebrating with Aaron's family. All of Grammy's family was there as were Aaron's brother and sister and their families. David was able to spend the holiday with us as well and got lots of cool gifts too!

Christmas morning was at our house. Santa of course visited the kids during the night and left David a spin art toy and movie. Rose was given a hair crimper/waver - which has been used SEVERAL times since she opened it! Kambren got clothes and a bee book/activity. David and Rose went to their mom's for a couple of hours and got Nintendo DS's from her - which I'm sure made their day! That night we went to my parents house. Rose has been wanting an Easy Bake Oven for months and my mom has been teasing her constantly about getting one. Anytime Rose wouldn't do what she asked or was being mean to her, my mom would just look at her and say, "Easy Bake Oven." After weeks of hearing that, I told my mom that she would have to give her the oven if she was going to tease her about it. Mom got her one, but the funny part was that Kim had found an Easy Bake Oven at Goodwill for $0.75, and Rose wrapped it up for my mom for Christmas. The look on my mom's face when she opened it was hilarious! However, seeing Rose open hers was even better! ;)

Rose was thrilled for the day after Christmas because I promised her we would see "Marley and Me." She had been counting down the days until it opened. She woke up on Friday and said, "It's Marley and Me day!!!" The movie was really cute, but because it was about Marley's life it ended sadly. I was crying, but Rose was SOBBING!!! She cried on my shoulder during the credits. However, she seemed to take it better after we talked about dogs suffering. She still talks about loving that movie!!

The following day was Christmas on my mom's side and we got to go to Munden and see most of the family up there. It was great to let Rose play with her cousin Lydia - even though they fought like sisters most of the time! Kambren enjoyed playing with Wesley who is a month older than her - and WALKING everywhere!! I'm not ready for that yet - and I'm always telling Kambren to quit pulling herself up!

We hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday and we wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

A little update

I'm sorry that I've been so slow in getting things posted! Hopefully, I'll be able to update this thing later this week/weekend with some Thanksgiving pictures as we all had a great time in Springfield with Granny!


This past weekend was the big hunt for Aaron. He and the guys spent A LOT of time out in the wilds of Ottawa County. Aaron brought no bounty home for our tables. However, I'm currently pressuring him into going hunting with my dad part of this weekend since it's the big pheasant hunt with lots of out-of-staters. I need my pheasant meat - it's the best!!! (Hint, hint Daddy! If Aaron doesn't go, you'll have to supply my need!)


Since Aaron was out most of the weekend, the girls and I had lots of time on our hands. Saturday we went to the park where several people were having an open house. After doing some shopping, where Rose bought Christmas gifts for Great Grandma Patrick and my mom, she talked me into buying her some honey. The guy who was selling it also had those honey sticks that come in different flavors. Rose bought 10 of them and they were gone in 30 minutes!


The best part about the park this time of year is the gingerbread men that surround the park. Several years ago, Dad bought all of us our own gingerbread men and the city painted our names on them. I've been meaning to get the kids' pictures with them for years, but haven't ever made it. Since it was in the 50s, the weather was perfect for us girls to be out. We walked all over the park and looked at hundreds of gingerbread men to find ours. About 1/2 way through the park, we found Rose's. However, as Koelling luck would have it, Kambren's was the very last gingerbread man in the park. It's on the pole heading out of the park. Rose had so much fun finding all of her friends' little gingerbread men. It seemed to take forever to walk through our little park so she could sound out names and see if she knew them.


Sunday afternoon the girls and I made the long trek down to Lindsborg so that Grammy could see her girls. It had been awhile and Grammy was delighted to see Kambren crawling around and standing up! We all had a hoot watching Rose run around the kitchen while Kambren tried to keep up. I'm fairly confident that Kambren will be walking within the next few months. Scary, huh?


Rose and I finally talked Aaron into getting all the Christmas stuff out of the garage on Monday. Last year we bought a white tree...it's very ROSE! You won't believe the complaining that took place Monday afternoon...it seems that I'm well on my way to becoming Grammy with the amount of Christmas decorations that I have. I have 8 tubs - which is pretty bad given the size of my house! 8 TUBS!!! Aaron must have screamed that at me over the phone 15 times! I told Kim that and she didn't know what he was complaining about since she has 36 tubs! ;) Rose decorated the tree for us - at least the parts she could reach. She ended up having to redo almost 1/2 of what she had done since we now have little fingers to pull them off. Kambren loves the white tree with the lights and bright decoratiosn on it. She managed to pull several ornaments off before Rose figured out that she had to decorate higher!

We really don't have a lot going on these days...trying to stay on top of the housework. It was so much simpler for us (meaning Rose and I) while Aaron was out of the house. He had class on Monday night too, so he wasn't around to mess up our hard work. He was home last night though, so when I got up this morning, I noticed that I can no longer see my kitchen table. Boys are SLOBS, I tell you!!

Tonight, Santa is coming back to Minneapolis. Rose is excited to have her picture taken with him. Santa came to church on Sunday and she told him she wanted a pony. Yeah - that's just what we need! She told me later that she wasn't happy with Santa for telling me what she told him because that was supposed to be a secret. Apparently the pony she wants is a "Get up and go Pony." Those cost about $200!!! Last week it was a Nintendo DS, which cost about $160. Is she insane???

Hopefully tomorrow I can get those pictures posted. Hope that everyone is doing well!