with lots of love...

a month ago today we welcomed our newest addition to the family...Brody Richard

weighing in at 9lbs 6oz

&

21 1/2 inches long

(pictures @annitorriniphotography)

3 Prayers

I found these 3 simple yet very powerful prayers to pray over my children online today from Proverbs 31 Ministries ...

* I pray they grow up to be some of the most godly people in their sphere of influence.

* I pray that they would be caught when they make wrong choices.

* I pray that God would save them from the wrong friends and save them for the right friends. And that goes for their future spouses as well.

Fall Favorites (2)

Pumpkin Patches and juming in a pile of leaves is another fall favorite of ours around the Ver Strate household. We visited Paul's market in Apple Valley with some friends and picked out a few pumpkins to decorate this month and had some fun in the leaves this weekend!! 

Pink Fire Trucks

Who said fire trucks could only be painted in Red?!!???
We made it out to Home Depot today for the kids workshop, the theme was fire safety. They had the Eagan fire dog there, fire trucks out for the kids to see and the kids put on their aprons and built a wooden fire truck and painted it as well.  Addison decided to build the new future of fire trucks...and they come in the colors of Pink with a mix of Yellow in it!!!

Happy Birthday to Our Sweet Lil' Bella Babe

(c) Annie Torrini Photography

(to see more 2yr pics and family photos click on the above link)

 

A few weeks ago we celebrated our beautiful lil' girl's 2nd birthday!! She had sooo much fun!

 

Since Addison loves to build and destroy towers and her favorite characters are from Sesame Street we decided to go wih an Elmo and Cookie Monster Construction theme. 

helping daddy set up for the party!

the kids got to decorate their very own hard hat to wear around the construction zone!

the kids bounced and bounced and bounced and just kept bouncing, the parents had to drag the kids out of there:)

after a few tries mommy and daddy made the perfect cookie monster cake for our little construction builder!

WHAAAT?!!!???

Below is by far the funniest moment I have had with our little girl! We were waiting at the doctors office for her 2yr check up and she figured out that she can open the door and run in and out of the room. I asked her to come back into the room with me and she comes around the corner with her hands on her hips and exclaims "WHAAAT?!!??" and then proceeds to walk out of the room like she owns the place!! :)

 

 

 

 

Fall Favorites (1)

I love this time of year!! The cool crisp air, bon fires, chili, football season starts, apple orchards and nothing like a good ol homemade apple pie!!  Mmmmm Mmmmm!!
Addison and I visited an orchard with some friends down in Lakeville and she had so much fun picking apples, she kept saying, "I pick apple!" and would show me each one. What to do with all the yummy apples we picked...well first off I made a delicious apple pie today!! I found the recipe from all recipes.com
Apple Pie by Grandma Ople
Ingredients:

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced
• cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (I added this on my own to the recipe)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

here are some fun pictures from the orchard

pulling her wagon to go apple picking

checking her apples

 

Turning 2

All of Addison's friends are turning 2!! We have had so much fun celebrating all her friends, here are a few pictures from the parties she has been too....

Adry had a Minnie Mouse party at her house with lots of outdoor fun activities and ice cream cake!!

Adelyn had an fun pool party Elmo Style andat one point ALL the kids made it into the pool:)

Summer and Lilly shared their birthday party(they were both born on the same day only hours apart from each other) we played at the burnsville splash pad and had lots of snacks and cup cakes 

Sydney had her party at Blackhawk park and we watched a fun puppet show, did a craft, played at the park and had a yummy lunch!!

We were out of town for Faith and Noelle's party, but heard it was super fun and we still have some friends turning 2 in the fall/winter months!

Next up to turn 2 is Addison!!

baby boy VerStrate

Here is our little bundle of joy growing ever so fast in my tummy.

I am now 26 weeks. I am guessing I have a future NFL Kicker growing in my tummy or he is getting way tooo much chocolate:) The doctors can't even get him to keep still long enough to take his heart beat. I feel him move all through out the day and into the night. He is going to have to learn quickly that when 10 o'clock in the evening comes it is sleepy time for mommy NOT play time!! I still have my cravings, most of my pregnancy I have craved popcorn, beer( I don't even like beer and don't freak out if you are reading this...I have not had any beer to drink, just a weird craving), and pickles. Lately it has been funnel cakes, and strawberries with Nutella chocolate!! Addison is very excited for her little brother to arrive, she loves going to the doctors with me to hear his heartbeat, she talks with him, tries to hold mommies belly saying "I hold brouder", and will give zurberts to mommy's tummy and tickle my tummy saying she is getting baby brouder:) The cutest is when she hugs my belly and gives it kisses and telling her baby brother "love you brouder"

Monkeying Around!

We took Addiosn to go see Curious George at the MN Childrens Museum and found ourselves getting more and more curious and having lots of FUN!! Not sure who had more fun though, mom and dad or Addiosn:) here are some pics of our day!

playing minature golf with George

building towers with daddy

future construction maker??!!!??? she loved her hard hat!

There was a room with lots of tunnels, bridges and slides for her to run about!!

showing daddy how the gears are suppose to work!

They had a huge bubble station...every kids dream!

Racing boats with daddy

lots of water fun!!

here daddy was showing Addie how to operate a crane...

here is the crane and the truck to
place the beams on...                                           I think daddy had more fun with this one:)

We found a room where the kids could become scientists, so Addison put on her lab coat and came up with her own formula on how to make playdough!!

Mommy had to take a bathroom break and this is what I came out too....

Addison playing with face paint!! As she painted her face she would say "pretty"

Our little Warrior Princess

Going through the Scary moments...

Over the last week I have witnessed what no mom likes to go through, watching their little girl(or boy) go through a scary moment.  :-(
When Addison was playing on a small trike at her grandparents in MI,  she turned the handle bars and she started to go down a hill, she started going faster, a small cry turned into a blood curdling scream and then crashed! I couldn't get to her fast enough, but when I did I held her so tight and cuddled her for hours.  Her scream is what haunts you as a mom. You wish your child would never have to go through a scary moment but they are bound to happen. Scary for them and for you.

Building Trucks

The first Saturday of the month Home Depot offers a kids make and take workshop. They have a section if the store set up just like daddy's workshop would like to hammer, sand, and paint all sorts of fun stuff. Today they had the kids build a little truck. Addison's favorite part was to pound the hammer on the wood and color her truck that her and daddy built!

A Dancer, A Baker, A Construction Demolition Maker!

We have been having so much fun watching a our little girl learn new skills and discover new things in life. 

She has recently found a love of dancing! If dancing with the stars is on TV she is right there dancing along with the dancers, if music is playing of the radio she is most likely dancing away, and she has this toy tractor that plays 10 secs of music, yes she is pushing that button over and over and telling mommy and daddy to join her on the dance floor and dance with her:) here is a short video of her and her friend dancing away sorry it is a sideways view....

She aslo has a love for cooking or baking with mommy and daddy. She really loves helping daddy mix egg as she calls it Saturday mornings while making breakfast.  She pulls the chair to the side of the counter climbs up and and insists on helping us:)

We love to play with blocks around our house, build them up as high as we can and then Addison will come along and torpedo them all down to the ground!! She recently has started identifying each color that is on the block. The other day we were playing with the big duplo lego blocks and Rich was trying to teach her how to build symetrical(don't ask its an engineer thing) he had a tower going pretty good all the way up to the ceiling and here comes Addison to PLOW right through it all:)

A few other things that Addison loves to do is play in water(whether it is a puddle the size of a quater or a big pool of water, she is in it:) ) bounce around on anything she can make bounce, eating corn on the cob, taking care of her dolls/stuffed animals and making sure they have a clean diaper on, blowing bubbles, coloring, and she also has started using 2-4 word sentences!! Here are a few more pictures to enjoy!!