Not too much to report....

....just a whole lotta this happening at our house. Be gone, germs!

Our new church

Some of you know that we recently switched churches. It was a hard choice. I miss some of the people at St. Christopher's and really missed the St. Francis service, but it was the right decision. We are now attending a "Reconciling in Christ" ELCA Lutheran Church, which means the congregation very openly wells everyone to our church. I had been going to MOPS there and heard great things about the pastor who also happened to join me on a winter run one day last year. It was a cold Sunday morning, and I was having a terrible run. Literally when I felt like giving up, I ran past the church, and Pastor Kinens, who was dressed in his full robe, ran for a block with me! He motivated me & encouraged me to run a marathon someday. Since that day, there were a number of things that led us to this church. During the first service Casey realized the pastor worked at the church he attended as a kid! While I loved the beautiful River Hills setting of St. Christopher's, I really like attending a church that is on the main street in the town where we live. (It's right next to my favrorite bridge.) The pastor is also very involved in Cedarburg issues. It feels more like a community. Stephan has been enjoying confirmation class on Wednesday nights. They have some fun service projects coming up. And Miss Norah LOVES Sunday school! All summer she reminded us that when she turned three, she would be able to go to Sunday school. She adores her teacher & all the singing they do. I also signed up to help with the 3rd grade class. Stephan offered to come sometimes...apparently a few boys "rule the class." I am looking forward to it anyway!

At home on a fall day....

No pictures here. I am home with Stephan who has a fever. Poor bud, he feels pretty miserable. He is watching Band of Brothers though so life is not too terrible. He just popped his head up and said "I like history, Mom." What a revelation! :)

Stephan just finished his fall soccer season. He moved up to the next age level (U-14), but had the same coach. They had one tie, one loss, and the rest were wins. We were really proud of his dedication and good sportsmanship. He is interested in joining lacrosse next spring.

Stephan has been doing very well in 7th grade and continues to make new friends. The quarter ends this week. He has a few more assignments to be graded, but if the gradebooks closed today, he would have 5 A's and 3 B's, which includes a A in math!

This week is Teacher's Convention in the state & all public schools are closed on Thursday and Friday so he will be off to Halloween Camp at Camp Matawa during the time. He is excited about archery time in cool fall weather surrounded by the remaining colorful leaves.

And if you didn't believe me that Norah is obsessed with twins, this is the conversation she had with Casey at Home Depot this weekend. Norah: "I want twin babies." Casey: "What?" Norah: "I want a twin brother and sister. Can you and Mommy borns them. Please borns them. Can you do that? Grow two in Mommy's tummy. Ok? Thanks." Casey was speechless :)

Museum visit with Cousin Evie

We went to the museum with Grammy, Molly and Evie. Norah was very excited about the butterfly room, dinosaurs, the igloo, and the rocking chair grandma in the Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit.

Norah's real favorite thing? All of the fountains in the museum. She just wanted to sit and touch the water at every fountain she found. Here she is admiring the water in the rainforest exhibit.

Norah was also fascinated by the butterfly feeders and the fruit left out for them to eat.

A few fun pictures from the fall...so far!

Lily and George are best buds.

Norah LOVES to ride the tractor with Casey.

One afternoon when Casey and Stephan went golfing, Norah and I went to the zoo (one of our favorite places) with Grammy.

We always take a picture next to this little gorilla. I'll have to compare them in the same post sometime to see how the kids have grown and changed.

Norah is 3!

Or should I say "Norah has been three....for two months!" I am a terrible blogger. I cannot even remember when I last blogged (even though I could easily look!) I am back and ready to post updates on our lives.

Oh, Norah. She is such a dear. I can't even find the words. Singing, dancing, painting & swinging at the park remain her very favorite things to do. She also loves to make believe all sorts of things liked grocery store, library, day care drop off, and more. She comes up with all sorts of imaginary scenes on her own. And every profession seems to end in "er" like "librarier" and "marching bander." (It's so cute that I don't even want to correct her.)

Norah loves classical music and requests it regularly, especially songs with "lots of violins."

Norah has been on not one, but two field trips. Yellow school bus and all! Her class went to the apple farm and pumpkin patch. (See picture above.) She might have been more excited about the bus than anything else, but she was still proud to bring home a bag of apples, a tiny pear, a pumpkin, indian corn & more.

Norah can make the letter N (although it's messy) and O in attempt to write her name. Her favorite place to practice at home is on a big dry erase board. I can often hear her reminding herself how to do the N..."up, down, up."

Norah wants to be a vet, a zoo keeper and a marching band...er when she grows up. (And don't try to tell her that some zoo workers are vets...)

Norah talks regularly about becoming a big sister. Specifically, she would like twins and she is very firm about this. "Two babies, Mommy, I want you to have twins and that means two." I believe this is because her friend Annabelle is going to have twin babies at home soon. When we go to Costco from time to time, the carts have seats for two kids. She tells anyone and everyone in the store that her baby brother or sister will sit in the other seat. Then I get looks like "Oh? Are you, uh?" No, no I am not...

Norah is going to be a witch for Halloween. I can't wait to take her Trick or Treating this year! I think her shyness has finally worn off (for the most part). She briefly wanted to be a hippo and a pig instead of a witch. I should clarify that was to be a hippo AND a pig...at the same time. Not one or the other. Both. I had no idea how to accomplish this, but my wonderful hair stylist helped me get her excited about being a witch again. After all, it was her idea that she talked about for months, and we already had the hat. The new complication...she wants to ride a broom. "For REEEEAL, Mommy, I want to fly for real. Not pretend." Sigh.

(Stephan update and more pictures to come this weekend. Seriously!)

Summer fun!

We had a very busy weekend! Luckily Stephan brought his camera along when we went to Casey's work picnic at his boss' lake house. The kids enjoyed boating and tubing on Little Cedar Lake.

On Sunday, we each had a great day with one of the kids. Casey and Stephan golfed with Pops at the Bog. Stephan has been very enthusiastic about his golf game lately and has been asking to play on a daily basis. This is music to Casey's ears, of course! Norah and I did fairly routine things...ran errands (she went potty at EVERY single store...I think she likes to check out the bathrooms everywhere we go) and cooked a few meals for the week, but we had such a nice time! She was so sweet and funny all day. I mean more than usual. I just wanted to write down everything she said because she had me laughing the whole time. We also had a wonderful first day at our new church. It was not an easy choice to make this switch, but we both agreed on our way home that this is the right place for us. We look forward to September when the youth programming starts. Norah is very excited to begin Sunday School!