10 months old!!

It's been a while since I've updated everyone on Case and since he turned 10 months old on Saturday, it seemed like the perfect time! I feel like I can't even call him my baby anymore, he has changed so much since we've left Maryland! He has learned to "scoot" (he doesn't crawl). Instead, from a sitting position he puts his arms out on the floor, pulls himself with his arms with his legs behind him, dragging one of them and using the other one to push with. It's super cute, and we like to call it the "Tiny Tim". He's gotten really good at it and can move around so quickly!

Recently, he learned to crawl up the stairs here at the Eikums and it's almost all he wants to do now. His favorite thing is being "chased" up the stairs. We were of course following him to make sure he didn't fall back down the stairs and now he loves the chase game, especially when Matty does noises along with it. He also recently learned to pull himself up on just about anything. He walks along the furniture and LOVES walking behind his toy walker. He's gotten pretty good and he thinks it's the greatest thing ever, as always smiling his big toothy grin! Case also thinks it's the greatest thing to stand up. He practices all by himself by sitting on the bottom step and standing up and down, giggling away! He can now stand for 3-4 seconds all by himself.

He loves being tickled, and getting anyone to smile at him or laugh with him about who knows what! We love him so much and we are so grateful that he's such a happy baby! We had his "9 month" appointment but because of all the moving/visiting family and trying to get into a pediatrician here it was actually two days before he turned 10 months old. He weighs 17 lbs 9 oz (which is the 5th percentile!!) and he's 29 1/4 inches long (70th percentile). Still a string bean! We'll see if he stays on the charts, he dropped from 25th to 5th percentile in four months! But he's eating like a horse now, he loves real food, especially blueberries! I'm not sure if that's going to help him pack on the pounds, but we'll see! So, here's the good stuff... a bunch of Case pictures!

Happy Case

My new favorite picture of him...
Eating his blueberries
At the zoo in the butterfly area
Case and Cousin Macey

These are from the day he turned 10 months old, how did this happen!?

Farewell to good friends

Matty and I love hanging out with some of our friends from college, the Darrs and the Aldrichs. Unfortunately, we cannot seem to manage being in the same state at the same time as the Aldrichs. They spent a year and a half teaching English in Thailand and Korea and when they moved home, we left for Maryland a month later. Now that we are back, they are taking off to teach in the Philippines. So on Saturday we got together with our usual group!

(Lisa Aldrich, me, Matty, Steve and Sarah Darr, and Andy Aldrich)

We first went to Steve and Sarah's for some appetizers and a little Norwegian Golf. Sarah and I played Steve and Andy, and we won! Steve tried to blame it on Case being too distracting or in the way or something, excuses, excuses... Then we headed to Brasa which is a Creole restaurant. It was really good, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone! After that we walked down to Grand Old Creamery where we of course made a scene - I won't mention which couple was the worst, but between the three of us couples it's always somebody! We always have a great time with these couples, and pretty much spend the whole time laughing, but after the fact I can't even remember what about!

Fun, Food and Freedom

The title of my post definitely sums up the fourth of July weekend. We had plenty of fun, plenty of food and of course, the 4th helps us remember how wonderful our freedom is in this country. However, there is a great story behind how I can up with this title. My mom had this close group of friends from college (she went to Bethel as well) and they are really good about having reunions, keeping in contact, etc. They named themselves the FFF. For years I heard about the FFF and never knew what it stood for, always assuming it was something cheesy about Friends Forever yada, yada, yada. So when I was in college I finally decided to ask her what it stood for. And you guessed it, she said, Fun, Food and Freedom!?! I thought that was hysterical. "Freedom from what?" I asked, and her response was, "Well the Bethel rules of coarse!" Can you tell she was in college in the 70's?! So anyways, that's what popped in my head when I thought of the fourth of July weekend.
On Thursday night we headed to the Saints Game with some of our good college friends, The Darrs, Hyders, Schiestls, and some friends of theirs we just met The Bohlens. It was a perfect MN evening, but I can't even tell you if the Saints won or lost.

Hannah picked Case and I up from the game to head up to her cabin for the weekend. It was great hanging out with her family and some of their family friends. On Friday morning her mom made some delicious chocolate chip pancakes and then we spent the day reading and relaxing in the sun! That evening Andrea, Ryan and Coleman came over to hang out. It was, as always, so much fun to see the boys play and it was great catching up with Andrea and Ryan.
Matt drove up that night to join us. And after Andrea and Ryan left the rest of us stayed up late playing Hoopla and Pass it Pictionary. It was so much fun just sitting around the table laughing and playing games.
On Saturday we woke up to Monkey Bread, does it get any better than that? We then spent the day floating in the water, on the boat, kneeboarding and tubing. Matt, Case and I went on the tube all at the same time. It was so great! Saturday night we made a fire, had smores (my favorite thing, ever!) and watched fireworks. The fireworks woke Case up so we grabbed a blanket and he came and snuggled and watched fireworks with us. It was a perfect end to the weekend!

Where the Corn Grows

We had a great time in Iowa a couple of weeks ago! Case experienced many "firsts" during our week down there. It was great to see all of the extended family who hadn't yet met Case. I wish I would've had my camera for more of it, but the highlights are as follows. Cornie taught Case how to click his tongue and he hasn't stopped doing it ever since!
On Tuesday, Matt's Aunt Miriam and Uncle Dave came over for lunch. It was great to catch up with them and Case loved playing the piano with Miriam. That night we just relaxed with Matt's parents. On Wednesday we went to visit Case's great-grandma, Angeline in the afternoon. That night Matt's aunt Arlis and cousin Brenden came over for dinner, we hadn't seen them in five years. It was a great night where we heard lots of stories of Cornie's wilder days!
On Friday we headed over to Cornie's parent's house for the afternoon.
Here's a four generation picture with Case, Matt (Daddy), Cornie (Grandpa) and Arend (Great-Grandpa). Case is named after Arend's Dad who's name was Cornelius, but also went by Case.

Case took his first tractor ride with Grandpa and then Matt and Cornie took him on a ride on the "gator". Case LOVED this, jabbered the whole time and he swung his arm up and down in constant excitement, it was great! That night a group of the aunt and uncle's went bowling. We split into teams and my team won (meaning Matt's team lost!). Although, I have to say, it had little to do with my skills.

Saturday was a nice relaxing day with more family and Uncle Ryan came down to join us!

Sunday was the real fun! Dave and Miriam bought a boat since we've been there last so after church, we all headed up to Lake Okoboji to go boating. Case wasn't so happy about the life jacket he had to get into, but once he had it on he started to enjoy it all.

Karleton taught him how to drive the boatit didn't take long before Case had it all under control

Case went tubing for the first time with Daddy. I wouldn't say he loved it as much as he was pretty much just taking it all in.

And then he enjoyed playing in the sun with Grandma

That night we all headed over the the Johnson's for dinner and then we packed up and headed home. It was a wonderful week! And now here we are, back to "real life! Matt's so thrilled to be back on staff at SGF and we've already enjoyed so much of being back in MN. We had a great 4th of July weekend, I'll try to blog about soon! Oh, when will playing catch up end!

Cambridge

Matt, Case and I spent last week in my home town, Cambridge, with my family. It was a great week! We spent several hours eating, reading, eating, relaxing, and more eating! Matt and I were anticipating the return of the one fast food restaurant we like... Taco John's! It did NOT disappoint! We even splurged and got Churro's because we've been without good old Taco John's for 10 months, not an easy thing to do. We also went to some great local places, Herman's Bakery, the Pizza Pub as well as some others, but there's nothing in Cambridge as good as my dad's grilling and my mom's cooking! Case had a great time playing with Gidge, my parent's English Bulldog, as well as enjoying chasing the cat with his new found scooting skill. We went to the Cambridge Dog Show where Case met a Great Dane as well as some other dogs. One dog tried to take a bite out of him, suffice to say I am no longer a fan of blood hounds after that incident. But all the other dogs were great and Case loved it.
Another day, we went to the park. It was so much fun, Case loved the swing and the slide. He got tired from all the playing and then just snuggled with Nana and watched all the big kids play.
On Father's Day, Matt and I got to go to our church, it was so great to be back worshiping with everyone. Then we came back to my parent's house and spent the evening with my parents, Brooke, Alisha, Scott and Macey. It was a great summer afternoon and Macey and Case had a great time in the kiddie pool.
It was fun to celebrate Father's Day with Matty. He's such a great Daddy to Case, I've loved seeing him in this new role. Case got him a baseball and a bat!
We're now spending some time in Iowa with Matt's family... basically eating, reading, eating, relaxing and more eating! But after the week is over, I'll blog about our week here!

Home Sweet Home

Last Monday, Matt and the moving truck rolled into town and it has been nothing but good times since that evening. We had about twenty friends come and help us move into the Eikums. The guys unloaded our boxes at the Eikums and then drove around picking up our stuff that was stored and moved it and the rest of our stuff from MD into a storage unit. While the guys did that, the ladies had us totally unpacked within an hour. Then we all sat around having pizza, laughing and telling stories on the Eikums patio, it was so great to be back with these good friends!
On Tuesday Matt and I did the last of the settling in at the Eikums. Case can now scoot around and get into everything, so I got a little creative during the unpacking...
Then on Tuesday night, drum roll please, we took Case to his first Twins game! We went for Hannah B's "Birthday Week". Case LOVED the Twins game and we beat the Pirates 8-2!

Case is telling the players what he thinks they should do...
My favorite little twins fan...
Did I mention Joe Mauer went 4 for 4 that night!!

It was a GREAT night! Go Twins!!

Last few things from Maryland

Our last few weeks in Maryland were so much fun and SO jammed pack that besides graduation, I haven't had a chance to blog about any of it. So here are my last few fun Maryland memories.
One BEAUTIFUL Monday morning, several PC wives and kiddos decided to go strawberry picking at Butler's Orchard.
Since Case was in my sling the whole morning, I didn't do much picking, instead I mooched off of the ladies whose kids picked way to much for them to bring home! But I had fun taking loads of pictures.

Teresa, Marie, and Rachel

We all packed lunches and enjoyed a picnic at the Orchards playground. It was great!
That night we had our last date night with The Hansen's at Red Rock Canyon and then to Barnes and Noble where Tiff and I got ditched as Jason and Matt had so much fun going through all the History books together!
We had our Ladies Night Out, our last official PC ladies event. It was, as always, such a wonderfully hosted event where we were spoiled rotten and had way too much fun together!

Tiff and I
Our FUN table, Teresa, Amy, Miran, Tiff, Jen, Me, Siobhan, Amanda and Shari
Lilli Leslie and Julie PurswellWe had our last gym day and hang out time at Jen's afterwards, our last Mahaney meeting and then our end of the year dinner.

Matty and I at the dinnerMatt and Jason

The week of graduation we spent our days packing and our evenings hanging out with friends one last time. On Saturday we went to Devon and Kristine's for another fabulous one of Kristine's meals and another round of Cornhole (a fancy version of bean bag toss) while Case and Korey had fun cheering us on. On Tuesday we went out for Mexican with our friends Jordan and Tali and watched the NBA finals over ice cream. On Wendesday Matt and I headed up to Columbia (near Baltimore) to my friend Dana's house for dinner. Dana has been such a great friend to me this year, she's made me several delicious meals, helped with laundry, watching Case and so much more. I'm so glad we had a chance to join her, her husband Mike, and her daughter Clancy for dinner.
Thursday was my last full day in Maryland and Matty and I made the most of it in between the last little bit of packing that always sneeks up on you. We went into Damascus (the little town close to us) to a little Diner caled Tom and Ray's, they have the best breakfast ever! We packed during Case's morning nap and then headed into Damascus again for lunch to The Music Cafe, it's a great coffee house with soup, sandwich type food. They have the best vanilla chai I've ever tasted. Then we finished the packing during Case's afternoon nap, rested up and then went out for dinner with Mike and Sarah, our host couple for one last meal together. We went to Houston's and they spoiled us with some really great and thoughtful gifts. Including Flags of our Fathers on CD so Matt could listen to it on the drive home.
Back in September, when Case was born and we brought him home from the hospital I took a picture of him in his car seat on the front step of his first home. So on his last day there, I took another picture on the front step as well as one of him in his first nursery, so here are the pictures!

Case's first nursery
On the steps September 2008

On the steps June 2009
So long Maryland!!

On Friday, Case and I flew out! On Saturday some great friends came and helped Matt and my dad pack up the truck, but since I wasn't there, no pictures. Thanks guys! On Sunday, Matt, my dad and my father in law drove our truck and two vehicles back to MN. They arrived safely home last Monday. Tomorrow I'll post on our first week in MN, it's been fabulous!