Shelly inducted into OHS Hall of Fame

On Friday (9/7/12), Shelly was inducted into the OHS Hall of Fame! She is the youngest inductee by five years and her resume is so impressive!! I can't express how proud I am of her. She was so poised throughout the ceremony and when she gave her speech. She spoke of the wonderful experiences she had through her athletic career and how many positive things she learned through sports that she has taken throughout her life. She talked about friendships she made that have sustained her throughout her life, including having her competitors cheering for her when she hit a good shot in tennis. She also talked about how it is her goal/wish that her kids have the same experiences that she did.  She will go down in history as one of THE BEST female athletes at Owatonna! She was very gifted, athletically, but she always gave 100% and she never gave up--and that allowed her to be so successful!

The award ceremony was at 4pm at the High School. There were 5 inductees (4 athletes and 1 coach) who were selected from 90 nominees. There were many current Hall of Famers who were present as well, along with many teachers, coaches and family. I feel absolutely horrible that we didn't get any pictures with Shelly, but it was such a crazy afternoon/evening with the kids! Bishop was in heaven...running around the school hallways and having Madelyn to chase him around! Luke was in the hall with Bishop throughout the entire ceremony and Ryan spent the majority of the time in the hall with Madelyn. Mrs. Carothers was gracious enough to hold Madelyn while Shelly gave her speech, so he could watch her.

After the ceremony there was a BBQ and then the football game. It was a very nice day and evening, but cooled off quite a bit when the sun went down. All the inductees were recognized at half time of the football game. Mr. Giga read their resumes and presented them with their plaques. It was a very nice ceremony and event and it was so nice Shelly could be recognized in this way. She never asked for recognition or wanted to be in the spotlight, she just worked hard to do the best she could.....and that landed her the most highly regarded award possible.....The Hall of Fame.

Nora and Nana at the game

Bishop and Madelyn trying to find The Husky!

 Bishop had such a love/hate relationship with The Husky! He wanted to find him ALL NIGHT LONG! He would sometimes be confused and ask where the Bunny was.....but when Luke would take him to see the Husky, he would cling to Luke for dear life and say...."no no, I"m SCARED"! It was pretty cute! He would wave and wave and wave....one time Bishop and the Husky waved back and forth for probably 5 minutes--that made Bishop's night!

The ceremony at half time!

Shelly receiving her award

 After the game there was a reception at Torrey's. Shelly's good friend, Stacey, came to congratulate her and hang out! My parents put the kids to bed and Luke and I joined them as well! It was an exhausting day (especially for Shelly....being pregnant and in the spotlight), but it was still fun to get out and catch up with Stacey!

It was an exhausting day for the kids too! They did relatively very well, considering all that was going on! When we got home (probably around 11 or so), we found Bishop sleeping in his bed like this!! He was exhausted!

 It was just 2 years ago that my dad was inducted into the Richfield Hall of Fame! It is such a great honor for my dad and sister to share!!! Congratulations Shelly and Dad! You are the best!

My Little Helper and Jake's house

Bishop has loved helping out with Nora recently, especially when it comes to feeding her! He loves to hold her bottle and feed her her baby food! She gets a big kick out of it too! It's a bit messier, but he does a pretty good job!

Nora had to eat some prunes to help regulate herself! She actually enjoyed them! :)

Bishop made a fort to play in and he insisted that "baby" play in his fort with him! They're going to have so much fun together.....they already are!

We visited Jake's house on Thursday to see some of the updates--Rich has done SUCH a nice job! It looks awesome!! THere's still some work to do, but the bedrooms look 100% better! Here are some before and after pictures!


Before:

After: It's hard to tell what the floors looked like in the first pictures--but they were pretty rough! The initial plan was to carpet them, but Rich started sanding them to find a beautiful (original) hardwood floor!

Grandma was pretty happy we came to check out the house! :)

 This brick was covered and Jake wanted the original brick exposed--it looks awesome!

Labor Day weekend!

Labor Day weekend was spent at home this year! It was so nice to be home for 3 straight days! Saturday we had some of my HS friends over for a BBQ. It was great to see everyone and the kids had a blast together! We borrowed a bouncy house from our friends, The Kahlert's and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it! Bishop brought out a bunch of toys to put in the house!

The Eckerman's! Anna, Sawyer, Christian and Jeff!

Nora and Daddy!

 We took a picture of all the kids. I love these moments--it's complete chaos, but great memories! I wish I could have gotten a closer picture of the kids, but I couldn't really zoom in anymore or I'd cut someone out!

It was so fun to have Matt and Kristen Skala and their girls join us! We've been trying to get everyone together for a long time....and I just threw it out there and was happy that Anna, Michelle and Matt could make it! Hopefully we'll do it more often and more of our friends will be around!

Nora, Bishop, Megan, Kelsey, Liam, Christian and Sawyer

Sawyer--what a honey! 

Let the craziness begin! ;) The big siblings are taking charge here!

Sunday we walked to Lake Harriet Bandshell for Church. Mount Olivet was the church performing the service, so that was nice! We had breakfast at the bandshell, walked to the Farmers Market and stopped at the park on the way home!

Bishop helping feed Nora her bottle on the walk home!

We have been spending more of our time down in our basement, which has become the play room. Bishop loves it and he prefers it to going out and doing other things. We offered to take him to the pool on Sunday, but he decided to stay in and play. On Monday we started off the morning.....painting! :)

Painting in his pull-up!

We walked around Lake Harriet on Monday and Bishop biked. He did awesome! He biked most of the way and then walked for a good portion. We stopped at the rose garden (I had never been) and Bishop stopped to smell most of the roses. He would smell them and then say....mmmmmm........

Smelling the roses at the Rose Garden

While Bishop was napping today, Nora and I hung out (Luke went for a bike ride). I caught her looking into the mirror and smiling at herself! :) She's growing and changing so much! She can sit up unassisted with no problems...she'll turn around in a circle and she can pretty much get to whatever she wants....she can reach for things and grab things very easily. She's eating very well. She's still working on the sleeping.....so hopefully she figures that out soon! She's such a joy! She smiles all the time, she's such a sweetheart!

Looking in the mirror

Big Smiley Hugs!

Bishop and Nora

This is kind of a random post of recent pictures!

Bishop has loved playing in the backyard with the new garage! He's dug dirt and made ramps and walked back and forth on the bridges he's built to the neighbors!

All smiles to play outside!

All smiles watching Bishop play

Luke's cousins family sent these adorable outfits for Bishop and Nora from Switzerland! I absolutely love them! Thanks Sarah, Travas, Ava, Cam and Carlo! We miss you!!

On Friday night I had a date night with Bishop! Luke went over to help paint at Jake's house and Eileen came over to spend some time with Nora, so I took Bishop to get a haircut and new pair of shoes. I offered to take him out for dinner after we went shopping--but he said he wanted cereal for dinner, so we went home! :)

On our way to get his haircut

He does so well at his haircuts! He just sat and ate his sucker and played with a couple trucks the woman gave him. He gets his hair cut at Kids' Hair and each chair has a TV, and Toy Story was on, so he enjoyed watching that!

After his haircut we went to get him new shoes. Let's just say...I lost! He found a pair of light up Spiderman shoes that he fell in love with! I got him to try another pair on, but he kept going back to the Spidey shoes. Now, there's nothing wrong with them....but I swore my child would never wear light up character shoes!!! Ha! He wasn't begging for them or throwing a fit, which is why I got them for him. It didn't help that there was another boy in the store, his age, who just got them. He was SO happy! I think I might have to send Luke to buy his shoes next time! :)

VERY proud of his new shoes

Spidey Shoes!

Jake's New House!

My brother in law, Jake, bought a new house in South Mpls (near one of our favorite restaurants, Buster's)! The closing kept getting pushed back, but he finally closed while we were in the Boundary Waters. We went over to check it out after getting back. Rich and Eileen have been working nonstop since he closed to get it ready to "move in". He will have 2 renters. I took some before pictures. Luke stopped there today and said the bedroom that is almost finished looks beautiful! Rich is a perfectionist and he knows what he's doing (he built his house from the ground up BY HIMSELF)!

Bishop playing in the closet!

Rich taking the wallpaper off

One of the bedrooms upstairs

Bedroom on the main level

Kitchen

We are so happy for Jake! It's been a lot of work already, but it's going to look great and it's fun to be a homeowner! Congrats Uncle Jake!!