Recent Happenings

We have been very busy the last 2 weekends.

We traveled to Naperville to celebrate my grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary and to attend the Napeville Central class of 2000 ten year reunion. We had a wonderful time celebrating with family and catching up with old freinds
This past weekend we traveled to the west side of the state so that I could compete in my first 1/2 marathon. My time was 2:01...now I just need to break that 2 hour threshold! I finished off my active day by dancing the night away with dear friends to celebrate at a bachelorette party. Needless to say, I was struggling to stay on my feet by the end of the night!

Summer...come back!

Ok, I've been HORRIBLE about keeping up with the blog over the summer, but school is back in session for Branden and our schedules are back in full swing, so I thought I'd update you on how we've spent our last three months...

- Branden stayed home with Annika over the summer, arranging field trips, play dates, and trips to the park. He was a superstar dad!
- I was busy at work with a new position and spent a lot of time running, training for my first 1/2 marathon
- We enjoyed a visit with the Johnson clan before the 4th of July. Annika and her cousin Will had a blast getting to know each other
- We spent many weekends at Shorewood, introducing Annika to Lake Michigan and the beach
- Annika became obsessed with my parents' golf cart. "Golf Cart" is now her favorite phrase

Amongst all of the joy and fun, there was a lot of sadness as well.

- We said goodbye to 2 beloved family pets - The Johnson's dog, Lolly and the Peckenpaugh's dog, Mittens
- We traveled to Ohio to celebrate the Life of my grandmother, Mildred "Mickey" Wilson who passed away in July and is greatly missed. Watching both of our moms lose their moms in the past 6 months has been incredibly hard.

Though we are sad to see summer go, the thought of crunchy leaves, pumpkin spice, apple pie and football make us excited about autumn.

We love you and miss you Grandma.

Learning to Pray

As the days, weeks and months continue to fly by Annika has undoubtedly made the transition from baby to little girl. She is taking in the world around her and absorbing information like a sponge. Over the past month she has started to get the hang of praying before meals (or at least the concept of folding her hands). It's so cute (and a little scary) to see her imitate us. We are realizing more and more each day that our job is no longer just to make sure she is kept alive and happy, but to set a parental example...ahhh the responsibility!

Here is a photo of her clearly not at a meal, but "praying" as we took some photos of her in our backyard

Here are some other family milestones from the past month:

- Annika has made the transition form slim to plump in the last 3 mos. She is now in the 80th percentile across the board
- Annika's look is about to change. Her top 4 teeth finally broke through this weekend
- Branden has officially started his summer daddy-daycare responsibilities. Annika is going to keep him very busy!

- Rachel has started training for a 1/2 marathon this fall with a running group in Kalamazoo. Pray for time and endurance!

Duluth

This month we made a road trip to Duluth, MN to pay our respects and celebrate the life of Branden's Grandma, Patsy Thompson. Though the reason for our visit was sad, we had a wonderful time gathering and catching up with the Johnson family.





Some highlights from the trip included:

• Celebrating Branden's 30th Birthday
• Seeing and staying at Branden's sister Julie's house
  
• Seeing aunts, uncles, friends and cousins for the first time in over 5 years
• Annika's first experience with a dirt bike
• Annika playing with Lake Superior stones at Canal Park
• A chance visit with Annika's cousin Will
• A rest stop at a petting zoo in the Dells on our way home

We will miss you Grandma

Tulip Time

About a week ago we took a trip to Holland to give Annika a glimpse at our collegiate Dutch heritage. Not having grown up in Holland I didn't have a little Dutch outfit for Annika to wear, but we did enjoy watching Dutch dancers, some delicious carnival food, fun with our dear friends Courtney and Curt and of course, photos by the tulips.

This was Annika's reaction after I told her she was going to get a $50 fine for picking a tulip

Happy Easter

This Easter my sister Becca and her husband Chris moved into their first house. We had a lot of fun helping them paint and are so thrilled for them and all of the memories they'll create in that home. In-between the craziness of the move, we took a little time at the Peckenpaugh cottage to celebrate Easter. Annika had a blast pulling things out of her Easter basket and playing with Easter eggs. Unfortunately she experienced a little separation anxiety during church...I think we have a task ahead of us to make sure she likes worshiping at church as much as she likes her Easter basket.

Because of the beautiful April weather, we also had the treat

of a walk to the beach. It made us excited and hopeful that summer is just around the corner.

P.S. For those of you who are familiar with my mom's beautiful smocking, you might recognize Annika's Easter dress. I've been begging her to pull some of it out of storage and she shared some very special pieces with me, including this dress that Jacki wore for her first birthday. It was so fun to see Annika in it.

Not so good...

I'll admit that I'm the type of mom that takes hundreds of photos of Annika to get just one good one that I can share with all. I've had a few conversations lately about how digital cameras give us such an easy ability to filter out all of the bad photos and how our kids aren't going to have any photos worth looking back and really laughing at.

So...about a week ago I was in Chicago for work and because the timing corresponded with Branden's spring break, he and Annika came along. Since they were getting to spend a fun day without me, I instructed Branden to take a few photos. He's going to kill me for posting them, but this is what I got. I thought everyone might enjoy a chuckle today.