the sun'll come out

after days & days of clouds, rain, and SNOW...we finally had some lovely weather today. I headed out to take some seventeen month "fall-ish" pictures of miles. we are still hoping to make it to the orchard, but time is running out. he got a little antsy toward the end... thank you bribery & candy corn. I swore I wouldn't use that tactic, but it works EVERY time! he turned seventeen months on the 22nd and has definitely turned into a little boy. he is a walking tape recorder and feels the need to label (say the name for) everything. he goes around saying "dog", "window", "airplane" (when he hears one), "tv", "doggies", etc. what he sees, he says. unfortunately for mom & dad...what he hears, he also says. yikes! he's starting to put words together. he pointed at my sweatshirt when he came home tonight and said "jacket off". he'll be rattling off sentences soon! his new favorite game is to be chased. he says "get you" and runs away. adorable. we are in the final stages of moving him into his new "big boy room" - pictures soon. but in the meantime...I hope these will do. enjoy!

my favorite

leaf

confused as to why this pumpkin isn't orange like his!

miles, what's on your socks? "punkin!"

"peace out"
(this is his newest phrase...thank you uncle brian!)

first haircut

ok so "first trim" might be a more appropriate title. it is obvious that miles doesn't exactly have a head full of hair, so we honestly thought he would be two years old before needing any sort of haircut. however, he has developed something resembling a mini-mullet as of late and both kyle & I decided that this was NOT the look we were going for.
I was going to line up an appointment at some adorable little kiddie cuts salon, but decided that this would a.) be a waste of money given the few strands of hair he needed cut and b.) traumatize miles. he's in a stranger-danger stage and has a meltdown when any sort of person in charge gets too close. exhibit a - he fell apart when I had to stand on the scale at last week's OB appointment. he was sitting in his stroller and apparently got pushed too close to the scale. I wanted to cry too but for a whole different reason of course. oh I digress...we opted instead for a mommy haircut.

miles did GREAT and sat in the stool like a big boy.

both great grandma's observed and nana caught the hairs to preserve in his baby book.

miles was a bit skeptical at times, but we managed to snip off the mullet and trim a couple of stray hairs here and there.
and the best part of the whole experience for miles? candy corn.

t-minus 99

we've hit the double digits in the baby k.2 countdown!! I'm feeling great and cannot believe how much my belly has popped straight out. these are the 24 week pictures from two weeks ago. yes, I'm larger now.

who's bigger?

mr. & mrs. hemmer

I had the pleasure of serving as a personal attendant this weekend. a little background info...jenny is the little sister of my best friend, laurie. the shevik family is like my second family and jennifer is just like a little sister to me! now that you aren't confused: jennifer married her high school sweetheart, brice, on friday, october 16th. the bride was beautiful, the ceremony was sweet, and the reception was lots of fun! amazingly it was the first time in at least three years that all of the sheviks and beckers were in the same place at the same time. here are some pictures from the day:

ring bearer - bennett

marc, kyle, seth, and brian enjoying a beverage

world's most adorable nephew, josiah!

a rare photo of us with laurie & brian
(we haven't seen brian since our wedding)

before you fall off your chair in hysterics, let me explain:
there was a similar photo taken in 1995 and again in 1999. our mother's desperately wanted an updated photo, so we were forced to take this one with the professional photographer. the only complaint from the mothers this time?? "we forgot to add the spouses!" shucks.

my mom & dad with gary & jan shevik (my other mom & dad!)

me and the gorgeous bride

bennett

miles had lots of fun with his friend, bennett, this weekend. our good friends, the sahlstroms, were in town for brice & jennifer's wedding (melissa is jenny's oldest sister). bennett is going to be three in a few weeks and miles thinks he is great! you may recognize bennett from our pictures at the honker baseball games this past summer. bennett always has something funny to say and I don't think he realizes that miles isn't able to carry on much more than one word conversations yet. however, he did his best to "teach" miles how to be a ring bearer (even though miles will be doing this for the 2nd time!). they had lots of fun being little boys together - as evidenced by the lack of a face shot...they were always running away from the camera!

ring bearer 101

zooming johnny tractor across the table at the rehearsal

c'mon let's go check out the dance!

whoa...what's going on in here

two VERY tired boys who can't stop moving!!

vikings AND twins!

I suppose if you don't live in minnesota, you may be unaware of what an exciting sports weekend we had! if you do live here and were unaware...you're apparently living under a rock. daddy was in the cities all weekend (make that saturday through tuesday night), but that didn't stop miles and I from watching the vikes and twinkies in style. I'll admit that I'm not a huge sports fan, but I do enjoy the occasional game on tv. especially when it involves good company and yummy appetizer-ish foods.

miles and I went over to nana and papa's house for monday night football. mr. monkey donned his little vikings jersey (thanks craig, courtney, & carly!). he ran around and clapped when he saw the players. however, I think the highlight of his night was "stepping" and eating dessert with nana. fyi: "stepping" has become one of his favorite activites. he loves to go up and down the steps and he was pumped to see that nana has an old buns of steel aerobic step in the house. the most perfect way to practice going up and down. he now will use anything for a step and begs to "hold on" to the railing and go downstairs. here are some funny shots from the night. pay no attention to his filthy, dirty face. neither my mom or I realized that we did a ridiculously bad job of cleaning him up after a spaghetti dinner :)

with nana and papa the night before the vikes game

heading over to nana & papa's to see the game

woo hoo vikings! (note the step circa 1986)

any old bucket will do.

miles' first ice cream and m&m cookie with his nana
for those who don't know my mom - she eats ice cream with cool whip EVERY night!

tuckered out

during sunday's twins game, I received a call from kyle asking if it would be "ok" if he got tickets to the tie breaker game on tuesday night. not one to stand between my husband and baseball, I gave my blessing. not to mention that I knew it was to be his last game at the dome. josiah's daddy also headed to up to see the game...so beth and I planned a little game night with the boys! after a quick photo shoot and a stop at the clinic to verify that miles has a cold and NOT an ear infection, we started watching the game a couple of hours late (thank you MOXI). we whipped up some delicious frozen/boxed appetizers (mini egg rolls, pizza rolls, buffalo chicken bites, jalapeno poppers, need I go on?) and plopped down on our beach blankets to enjoy the game. have I mentioned that I'm in LOVE with my MOXI (think TiVo) and cannot bear to watch live tv anymore. well, the game went so long that we actually caught up to real time and were "forced" to watch the end of the game live. the horror of it all. all I can say is - good work twinkies and good luck in new york!

for cute

so excited to be holding his slider bobble head

kisses for slider...the bobble head NOT the real guy...much too scary!

"bumping" down the stairs - we've graduated from "turn around!"

pizza picnic

the lovely snell ladies

these four beautiful ladies used to be one of our favorite families to babysit for. my sister, beth, friend, jayme, and I began to babysit for the snells when erin & anna (the twins/youngest) were just 6 weeks old. they will turn 17 on october 23rd. feeling old. they drove down this weekend to visit and meet josiah. it was great to chat with them and the four kiddos had a blast playing with one another. we wish they lived closer to us so they could be our babysitters like we were theirs :( I guess we'll have to settle for the occasional visits instead.

kaidance, erin, abbie, miles, jessica, madi, josiah, anna
(not pictured: julie (a.k.a. snell mom & taxi driver))

little momma kaidance holding josiah - she's going to make a great big sister (again!)

silly madi sat in the doll stroller and miles jumped at the chance to push her around

sigh-ah

miles refers to his little cousin, josiah, as 'siah (see pronunciation in post title). he's convinced that all babies are named 'siah. lately he will tell me "shhhh, 'siah sleep" - note that josiah is not in our home at the time! when beth was pregnant we would often talk about how it would be nice if they had a girl, because our family would have one of each. but then again, it would be great if they had a boy, because he and miles would become best buddies. lo and behold, we were right on target with the latter. josiah has turned into quite the little chatterbox and his happy-go-lucky personality shines through (unless of course he's hungry...then WATCH OUT!). we are extremely fortunate to live so close to our family and get to see little 'siah (and beth & seth too) at least a couple of times each week. a few weeks ago we went over to brian & blair's house for dinner. miles decided that 'siah made a comfy pillow!

last week miles and I headed over to nana and papa's house to watch josiah while nana helped great-grandma and great-grandpa out. miles was a great helper and I was encouraged to see that he is taking his role as future big brother very seriously:he even showed 'siah how to properly watch baby einstein.

and although I marvel at miles' "gentleness" and his caring gestures of hugs and kisses...he is, in fact, still a 16 month old and I feel it is safest to have josiah in this:

finally fall

I have to admit that although I loved the weather we had here this summer, I have been waiting for the crisp fall air to arrive. imagine my delight when we woke up to 55 degree temps! last week was soggy, cool, and rainy, but I had to work the entire week (yes, FIVE whole days - it was not an easy task). this week has been chilly, but I'm pumped to bust out my warm sweaters. not to mention the fact that I do not own any summer maternity clothes! miles loves to take walks outside and collect things like leaves, sticks, acorns, and pine cones. he still loves to take a wagon ride and gets fairly upset when we have to put the wagon away. here are some recent photos from the other day:

a boy and his leaf

playing ball with daddy

picking the last of this year's tomatoes - miles has LOVED to do this!

he shoots...he scores!
and to think - kyle wants to tear this ol' hoop down

the latest - pushing the wagon