Halloween pictures

Sam at the office!

Emily and her friend, Dayton as 50's kids.
Sam as Darth Vader with the neighbors, Holly as Queen (someone) and Colin as a storm trooper.

Benjamin as a cute little (sleeping) pumpkin.

My kids...

New Jersey Pictures

Benjamin and I recently returned from visiting my 91-year old grandma. We flew out to New Jersey, so it was a bunch of firsts for him - first time flying in an airplane; first time meeting Grandma Nana; first time at the shore.

We got to spend time with Grandma, Grandpa Don, who flew in from Texas to help, Cousin Amy and her family (husband Chris and boys Nicholas and Owen), Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob, and Aunt Linda and Uncle Dick.

Cousin Amy's sons, Owen and Nicholas, with Ben.

This is why NJ is called the garden state.

Touchdown, Cowboys!!! (Grandpa Don was teaching Ben how to cheer for his favorite team.)

My cousin, Amy, gave me this wonderful toy for Ben to play with.

Just looking cute!

Check out the thumb between his fingers.

Ben and Nana having a conversation.

Hanging out with Grandpa Don.

Benjamin and Nana taking a quick nap.

Dreaming sweet dreams of airplane rides. (Notice the smile!)

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

How Tall This Fall - 2007

Some Favorite Pictures

Benjamin enjoying his bath.

Sam "watching" Benjamin for me when I had to leave the room for a minute.

Sam holding Ben in church before Ben's baptism.

I caught Ben sucking his left first finger while clasping both hands together!

My babies

Ben's Baptism

Ben was baptised on Saturday, October 6th at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. He was so good - he didn't fuss at all during the mass - even when Fr. Dodge poured the holy water over his head!

My busy family...

Even though my blog has been slow, my family hasn't been!

Samuel turned 7 on August 25th.

School started on August 30th. Sam's in First grade and Emily's in Eighth grade.

Rob turned 40 on September 4th.

Lots of pictures to follow...

Sam's 7th birthday

Rob's 40th Birthday

First Day of School

Riley meeting Ben

Ben on the Bilibed

Sam and Hawkeye

Emily and Benjamin

Ben's first picture

Sam's lost tooth #4

Busy week!!

Well - where do I start?

On Monday, August 13th, my water broke. Emily was at Camp Cormorant, Sam was with me, and Rob was playing basketball at the Y. He wasn't answering his cell phone or pages from the Y, so I waited an hour or so and then took Sam to the Y and picked up Rob on the way to the hospital. They admitted me and we waited and waited and waited and waited! No contractions or anything!

Finally the next day, they started me on pitocin to start contractions, and at 4:41 PM, Benjamin Michael Wagner was born! He only weiged 6 pounds and 3 ounces and is 18 inches long. He is such a tiny peanut, we can't get over it! I think that he's the spitting image of Sam when Sam was born, although Sam weighed 7 pounds and 3 ounces.

We got to go home on Thursday, but Ben's a little jaundice, so we had to take him to the clinic on Friday for a test. He was still a little high, so the home health nurse brought over a Bilibed for him to sleep on. He's supposed to be on it as much as possible - only coming off to eat, have a diaper change, and a bath. It's hard to watch him there and not hold him all the time, but he sleeps so much that it's OK. I'm told he's sleeping so much because of his jaundice. However, after his test today, he's doing much better, so we don't need a test tomorrow and can wait until Monday for the next test. They just prick his heal and take some blood - so far he's slept through all of the pricks!

Emily's back from camp and had a great time. She met lots of new friends and was so sad to leave. She was also pretty excited because the camp director told her that she should go to camp in June next summer and then could be a CIT the rest of the summer! That's Counselor In Training, and usually you have to be 15 to be one. She'll only be 14 next summer, so she's thrilled!

And, Sam's other front tooth came out, so his talking has changed a little. This one came out without Brittney's help, but he wasn't happy about it. He got a little happier with his silver dollar from the tooth fairy!

I'll be posting more pictures very soon!

Lost tooth #3!

We had to have Sam's "old" teacher pull his tooth out! He won't let anyone do that but Brittany. She's pulled all 3 of his teeth now. However, he's graduated to the after school room and Brittany's in the early childhood room, so we have to make a special trip to see her! :-)

Neat thing

My mom was recently awarded a Faculty Excellence Award at one of the colleges that she teaches at. This is a neat little blurb about what she's done, as well as a small interview that they did with her.

http://jonesinternational.edu/special_events/graduation/faculty.php

Weekend News and Fence Pictures

We had a wonderful weekend. Dad drove up from SD on Thursday and spent the afternoon with Sam. Emily got home from dance camp around 4:30, so we were all able to spend the evening together. Melissa joined us on Friday and Grandpa and Grandma hung out with the kids in the morning (plus Rob in the afternoon) while I worked. We had a very enjoyable weekend with great weather. Dad and Melissa left on Sunday morning and Emily flew out a few hours later for Georgia. She'll be back on Sunday.

Sam wasn't feeling well on Sunday, so we made a visit to the walk-in clinic. He had a fever, swollen tonsils, and no appetite, but no strep throat (as of yet). The doctor said "virus." We had him rest most of the day and this morning he was ready to go to day care. We did ask that he not play baseball, though - don't want to tire him out too much. Tonight is our summer picnic at work; there will be lots of great food and Games to Go (inflatables that you jump in) - I'm counting at least 12 outside now!

Below are some pictures of our new backyard fence. We LOVE it!!

Independence Day

Rob, the kids, the dogs, the boat, and I went to Fort Pierre, SD for the holiday. We left on Saturday morning and 7 hours later finally arrived. It was hot, muggy, and there were a ton of biting flies that didn't seem at all detered by any type of repellant. But I camped 5 nights! We spent our days boating and relaxing, so it was a nice time. However, I absoutely hate the evening of the 4th when we go to town and try to blow off a finger or two lighting fireworks in my in-laws driveway. I sat inside, biting my tongue, for 2 hours before they were done.

Unfortunately, we got some awful news on the 4th. My brother's girlfriend's son was killed in a car accident. Mike and Kim have been going out for almost 7 years, so he's the closest thing to a nephew that I have. His obituary is here: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/07/09/obituaries/local/160f4a243e386411862573130012b52d.txt.

My dad and Melissa happened to fly to ND on Friday the 6th and headed to SD to spend time with Melissa's family before coming back to Fargo, so I was able to ride down to Sioux City with him for the services on Monday and Tuesday. Mom and Dennis drove from Ohio and were there Sunday through today. Words cannot describe the sorrow his mother was experiencing. Please pray for her.

I returned home to find that our fence was almost 1/2 done! It should be finished tonight, so I will take a picture and post it. It will be so nice to not have to hook Riley up every time I let her outside!