The Wedding

Well I was going through stuff and I found the "This is your Life" CD that John and Ben put together for me shortly after Erik and I got married. Since this blog is about the Apple Valley family I thought it would be fun to put this clip up for all to share...kind-of a how it all started type thing. (Don't worry, you guys are not going to be subjected to a bunch of OLD home movies all the time) This is a record breaking length video...more than 8 seconds. In fact it is almost four whole minutes so grab your popcorn and let's go down memory lane. Look for some fun cameo appearances.. I have not watched this in such a long time. I love it..ah sigh. Was Erik really THAT young when we got hitched? Of course I have not aged at all..hehehe.

Magic Slideshow

I didn't work at the Y today, so I thought it would be good to clean up the house. When I looked around I was overwhelmed at how fast things can get out of hand! So I thought it would be fun to put together a before and after slideshow...yes this is probably most entertaining to me but I have to say it has already paid off. Emily was practicing her spelling list at the kitchen table. When she was done, I asked her to put away the marker bin. She huffed and says, "you always make me do everything!" I then calmly told her to meet me in the basement. I showed her the magic slideshow and asked her if she still thought SHE did EVERYTHING. Of course she had no answer, but gave me her embarrissed smile. I also overheard Ry tell his friend not to mess up the house because mom worked hard today. Hooray for fun slideshows!!! A picture is worth a thousand words. Fear not..as you can see I still have a huge pile of laundry hehehe.

A Hint of Christmas

We are getting ready for Christmas around here. The tree is up, the house is lit and we have even purchased a few presents. Already we are having fun making plans to celebrate this month. One thing we are excited to do is go downtown to the Nutcracker display. Hopefully we won't run out of time before the big day.

The Theater!

We just got home from a really fun show called..can you guess.."A Year with Frog and Toad." It was at the Minnesota Children's Theater. The set looked just like the books. The music was so much fun...and Frog and Toad were fabulous. They acted out different tales from the books..like cookies, flying a kite, planting seeds, sledding and scary tales. (Andrew was not too sure about the scary tale part) It is so cool to go and enjoy stuff like this with the kiddos. It made us want to go back and reread those books again. Of course it also made me want to go to the next play at the Children's Theater too. We always have so much fun at the Children's Theater! I am very excited that Mrs. Pigglewiggle will be there soon...not to mention If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Yes, I need season tickets. hehe

Thanksgiving

Can you believe that there is only one week until Thanksgiving? Poor Thanksgiving gets squished between Halloween and Christmas and it is such a great holiday! This is a picture of my one lonely Thanksgiving decoration. It was made at a Super Saturday one year...let's just say it has character and leave it at that. I hope that wherever you are that your Thanksgiving is wonderful!! I hope your food is good and your company is better.

Grandparents come to town

Over the last few weeks we have been visited by three of our four grandparents from the west coast. We had fun taking Grandma Glenda and Grandpa Lee to the YMCA where they could see the kiddos in action. We also enjoyed going to the BEE MOVIE with Grandpa Dan. But, the best part of their visits was spending time just hanging out with each other...FYI Grandpa Lee makes a mean milkshake!!!

Ryan gets baptized

Ryan was able to be baptized this past Saturday at our church in Burnsville. It was such a great meeting. Emily gave a talk and so did Grandma Ginger. He even got to discuss video games with grandma in the middle of her talk...could life be better for Ry? It was very special to have Grandpa Lee here to baptize Ryan and great to have some of our family and close friends there to support him. Right after he was baptized he asks, "is that it?" After the ceremony, we hit a yummy buffet. What a happy time.

Andrew's Halloween Dance

I know that I am slightly obsessed with the whole blog thing...but I have to say that Andrew totally cracks me up so I have to share. We were waiting for the school halloween parade and Andrew just heard that music and went with it. Notice how impressed the people are in the background.

Halloween fun

We had so much fun this year. Emily was both a Diva and a baby, Andrew was a ninja turtle and Ry was a ninja. Andrew has one of those hard plastic masks, but the poor kid could not see with it on. (and I didn't know it) He was ready to go and walked into a wall and then he turned and fell off the porch stair. So needless to say had did not use the mask and really has no interest in putting it back on ever. Yes I did laugh..it was funny and he wasn't hurt. We did all the regular stuff..school parties, brownie party, pumpkin carving, trunk-or-treat and of course trick-or-treating. This year I got to stay home and pass out candy and Erik took the boys out with some neighbors, and Emily went out with some other neighbors. I loved the quiet house. I vote same set up again next year : ).