the big roll

Samuel might be a little wiry, but he sure is strong. Actually, when I looked up "wiry" it already means strong: being lean, supple, vigorous, sinewy. That pretty much sums up Samuel.

Would you believe this picture was taken after he rolled from his back to his belly? It's true. Monday, June 20th was his first roll. He's only 4.5 months! My other kids did this much later. But they were back sleepers...

Here's the proof:

date night

Sunday June 19 was our 7 year anniversary. Since we had been to a wedding sans kids the previous evening, I didn't think we would go out on our actual anniversary (leave Samuel for two nights with a babysitter and a bottle? outrageous.). However, I was wrong! Terry lined up our favorite babysitter and we took off. I even dressed up. We went to Ruby Tuesdays and ate a lot. Got some ice cream at Cody Park b/c it's cheap and really good. Looked at the flooded river and drove home surrounded by dark thunderstorms.

Guess whose idea the "ring bump" was?

snooze

(reminder: Terry was gone for two whole weeks at the beginning of June. He took about 30 people from Gburg to Tijuana, Mexico and LA. So I took our three kids with me to SD to pass the time. Alas, this is the life of a youth pastor's wife. Also, Terry took our camera so I only had my cell phone to document our trip.)

This is what we all felt like while in SD - exhausted. We are so incredibly glad to be home with daddy again. This is also what we did a lot of when we got home.

dinos

(reminder: Terry was gone for two whole weeks at the beginning of June. He took about 30 people from Gburg to Tijuana, Mexico and LA. So I took our three kids with me to SD to pass the time. Alas, this is the life of a youth pastor's wife. Also, Terry took our camera so I only had my cell phone to document our trip.)

The day before we left SD for good to finally come home to Terry (can you tell I was ready?), I figured we'd better do something to get out of the house and make the time go faster. First we went to exercise Bo at the pond again. Good times. Though Noah did have to do #2 and we couldn't find a bathroom. That was interesting...

Then I took the kids out to Dinosaur Park! I hadn't been there since I was a kid probably or I can't remember I guess. Anyway, it seems so much smaller to me now. All those dinosaurs used to be larger than life.

Take this one for instance. We spent a lot of time climbing on this Stegosaurus as kids and it seemed like a mountain. I'm as tall as it is now.

This was still too big for Evie. I had to help her to sit on the head - there was no way she could climb it.

Triceratops. Evie was also too small for this one. Guess she was too small for all of them. Samuel was just chillin in his baby sling with mama. That boy does not like strollers much. Not that I could have used one here...

Tyrannosaurus Rex. Da big guy. All he's good for is sliding down his tail. And playing hide and seek under. Silly kids.

SEVEN

Seven years ago, Terry Biers and Eva Kveene were joined in marriage. It had been kinda a rocky road to get there, but I don't think I've ever made a better decision.

The first time Terry met me I was sitting with his family in church because his sister Shari was my good friend. He thought I was a foreign exchange student since he had not heard me speak. His plan was, since it was his major, to teach me English. However, he soon found out that I was American and could speak English. I guess my cheekbones and deep set eyes make me look, well, Norwegian!

While Terry was on his two week mission trip, I took a leaf out of his book and made him a packet of letters to remind him of me and the kids while we were away (he did the same while I was in Mexico during college). I even used the same letters that he wrote to me - I just wrote on the back. But I included pictures as well. So he had 15 envelopes - 1 for every day. He of course saved all of the photos and I've put them on my cool MOPS collage board at the front door. It's a good way of documenting our years together:

Old MacDonald's Farm

(reminder: Terry was gone for two whole weeks at the beginning of June. He took about 30 people from Gburg to Tijuana, Mexico and LA. So I took our three kids with me to SD to pass the time. Alas, this is the life of a youth pastor's wife. Also, Terry took our camera so I only had my cell phone to document our trip.)

On the first Thursday of our trip, June 2, we went to Old MacDonald's Farm with my good friend Faith and her 3 kiddos. They're all about the same age, even baby Norah born just a month and a half after Samuel.

The kids are having breakfast at my folk's before we hit the road to the hills. Samuel later peed through that cute outfit during the kids' train ride. He needs bigger diapers or something...

It was a really hot and windy day with no trees or shade. My kids were pretty whiny but we made the most of it. There were horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, pigs, etc. The baby nursery was definitely the cutest. Here's a little newborn goat. He was so cute.

After two hours we went to Faith's house for lunch and an afternoon baby nap - Norah on the left and Samuel on the right. 

yogurt revisited

I have been making home made yogurt for several months now in my crock pot. I've had to add pudding to it though to thicken and sweeten it up (store bought adds lots of thickeners). It's been good, but not as thick as I'd like, especially after I tried some Greek yogurt this week. Yum-my! Plus, there's more protein in that somehow so I thought I'd give it a try.

It turned out amazing. Still not quite as thick as Greek yogurt but when I read that label there was thickener in it as well.

I made yogurt like I usually do (half gallon/8c skim milk in crock pot all day, etc. - see my other post link above). When it was done growing the bacteria last night at 1030 I placed all of it in a coffee liner lined colander (I used like 6 or 7 liners). I then set it over a pot to drain all night in the fridge. There are the liners left over.

Here's what's left in the pot this morning: whey, the liquid portion of milk. That's like half of what I started with. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. Perhaps I will use it in place of water to make home made bread like I read here.

Like I said, it made half the yogurt I usually get, but it's much thicker and yummier. See how it's set up so nice? It was like sour cream when I dumped it out of the colander but then I whisked it and it loosened up a little. I think if I used 2% or even whole milk it would be a lot thicker as well. Might have to try that when Samuel is old enough.

Whey. I read that I should put it in a glass container so I might have to transfer. Not sure what's up with that...

I added 1 teaspoon vanilla and a quarter cup sugar and it tasted amazing. Terry said, "That's what yogurt should taste like - tastes like store bought." But no thickeners or additives. Just milk and starter yogurt! My belly thanked me after a donut breakfast - needed some sustenance this morning. It was delicious peeps. You should try it.

Storybook

(reminder: Terry was gone for two whole weeks at the beginning of June. He took about 30 people from Gburg to Tijuana, Mexico and LA. So I took our three kids with me to SD to pass the time. Alas, this is the life of a youth pastor's wife. Also, Terry took our camera so I only had my cell phone to document our trip.)

When I was little my grandparents lived very close to Storybook Island - we walked there all the time. Now my kids love it too. We went there three times during our two week stay. Samuel doesn't like his stroller - weird right? So I had to haul him around in the carrier thing on my front not long after I took this picture. He's heavy!

So here's the kids on our first time there. Check out Rapunzel and Flynn Rider behind us. Yeah, probably not actually Eugene Fitzherbert but I like to think it is b/c I love Tangled.

the ranch

(reminder: Terry was gone for two whole weeks at the beginning of June. He took about 30 people from Gburg to Tijuana, Mexico and LA. So I took our three kids with me to SD to pass the time. Alas, this is the life of a youth pastor's wife. Also, Terry took our camera so I only had my cell phone to document our trip.)

After spending two nights at my folks' house, we needed a change of scenery. So on Monday May 30, we loaded up (a lot of work with 3 kids!) and headed to Terry's parent's place for the following three nights. What's great about that is that his sister and my good friend Shari lives out there. In fact, she and Jesse and my very first niece lives in the same house we lived in before we moved to NE just a half mile from their parents.

Tuesday we went for a walk down to the bridge and enjoyed the swollen creek. We couldn't go over to Shari's yet b/c Evie still had RSV (she got sick 3 days before we left). We all did get to go swimming twice together at the Y later though. Fun stuff.

One of those afternoons Noah, Samuel and I visited Shari and Grace. She's so squishy! And she's the most laid back baby I've ever known. My kids were good babies, but they were nothing like Grace.

2 day apart cousins play. Chillin in their sleepers.

We discovered Samuel was strong enough to sit in this baby seat that Terry's folks had. What a strong 4 month old!

This photo is from the following week on like Wednesday, June 8. They were checking each other out.

At some point on this trip Noah lost his first tooth, though we couldn't find it. We think he swallowed it!

Day 2 of the 2 week trip

Terry was gone for two whole weeks at the beginning of June. He took about 30 people from Gburg to Tijuana, Mexico and LA. So I took our three kids with me to SD to pass the time. Alas, this is the life of a youth pastor's wife. Also, Terry took our camera so I only had my cell phone to document our trip.

We arrived on Saturday May 28. Went to our old church, Parkview, on Sunday and saw some good friends there. It rained all day. Talk about depressing. My parent's house is a lot smaller than I remember when I was little. So we were getting very stir crazy. Monday turned out better. I took the kids with my dad to watch Bo, their dog, swim at his favorite pond. The kids had a blast throwing rocks into the water. While the kids played I talked to Terry - that was like a lifeline!

The day before we left, Saturday June 11, we went there again. This time Bo let the ball go over the waterfall. My dad had to traverse a slippery board to retrieve it from the stream. Isn't the dog supposed to retrieve?

U2

On what was supposed to be the last day of the world, May 21, 2011, Terry and I finally got to see U2 live in concert in Denver for their 360 Tour. On that day, exactly a year before, Bono had surgery.

We bought our tickets nearly two years ago with our friends from home, Todd and Frannie. However, Bono hurt his back in a rehearsal in Germany and had to have emergency back surgery. So our show, along with a lot of others, was postponed a whole year. It would have worked fantastic last year since I was only 7 weeks pregnant. This year however, we had almost 4 month old little nursing Samuel at home. There was NO way we were not going though. We ended up splitting up the kids between the replacement grandparents Kathy and Cheryl. Kathy took the big kids and Cheryl took Samuel. It was hard to leave him, but we made it through.

We arrived at our seedy hotel (my bad on the reservations) that Saturday afternoon, met up with Todd and Frannie and walked to P.F. Chang's where we also met up with some more transplanted friends from home, Matt and Amanda. Then Matt drove us all to the stadium and we trekked up there.

We were SO excited! Me especially. I do get excited...

Todd is handing out the tickets

After we made it to our seats, we took a good look at the incredible stage. This tour was and is the most expensive ever. They toured with a crew of like 476 people. It was impressive.

Just waiting in anticipation. We're all big U2 fans. Probably not as huge as Todd here, but still. This was his 4th show but he was in the front row his first time. Screamed like a school girl.

I almost forgot to mention Crazy Girl who sat in front of us. She was smoking pot, drinking cup after cup of beer (thus missing like half the concert), dancing drunkenly and making out with her boyfriend right in front of us. She had to be like 40. I just cannot understand why you would do that at a U2 concert? Wouldn't you want to be in your right mind and soak up the awesomeness?

Eeeeee. This is prior to Crazy Girl's arrival. They were late. Had to get their beer you know. And then more. And then more. And then pass around the joint.

Cool mirror ball at the top of the stage, which was 176 feet high

The Fray, who we like, opened. So that was fun.

While they got set up (and waited for darkness I spoze), they had random facts going across the huge LED screen. Can you believe that's how many abortions there are? SAD.

YAY! The concert begins. It was amazing to see them in real life.

"The claw" lit up in all different colors. The sound was amazing. The screen made it so you could see in better detail. My dad, after he watched our footage, said it was a spectacle. He just likes the band and their music, doesn't need all that extra stuff.

Larry Mullen Jr, The Edge, Bono, Adam Clayton. Best band ever.

BONO!

Blue spaceship. The bridges revolved around the inner ring.

The LED screen split apart into it's parts and descended. Quite cool.

The band had lights on their jackets.

Bobbing heads for Crazy Tonight.

The spike lit up too

A red steering wheel-like microphone descended from above and Bono swung on it.

There's Terry and I at the very end, after like 2.5 hours. I was exhausted! My voice was hoarse for like 3 days afterwards from screaming, yelling and singing at the top of my lungs.

After a late night and poor sleep we ate breakfast with Todd and Frannie and said good bye. What a fantastic time we had.

builder

Lately Noah has been really into building things. Even when we were in SD during Terry's mission trip, Noah enjoyed building Lincoln Logs or castles with Mega Blocks. He especially likes to follow the directions and do it all just right - he freaks out when there's a piece missing. These pictures are from a while ago, but he's still just as into legos as he was a month ago.

Shari and Jesse got him this 3 in 1 car set for his birthday. He's been making it every breakfast or lunch.

Admiring

Even Samuel seems interested.