Take it to the Bank

Happy Snow Day!  

Baby Maren is almost 2 weeks old, but I thought I should tell you about her first outing.  A couple weeks ago I was putting money in my piggy bank and was having a hard time, that is when I realized that my problem was that my piggy bank was full!!  I asked Mama what we should do about it and she decided that it was time for Ellen and I to get a bank account.  Mama promised that we would do it on Saturday.

Opening our bank accounts wasn't quite as easy as Mama had thought...first off, baby Maren decided to join our family early, I didn't see why that should change our plans so after lots, and Lots, and LOTS of asking Mama loaded baby Maren, Ellen, and me into the car and we headed to the bank.

Once we got there we learned that the bank no longer has a coin counter and we had to count and roll the money by ourselves.  Mama wasn't so sure about it, but once again, she promised and I wasn't willing to go home without a bank account, so we sat down and started counting.

Luckily they had these neat little trays to help sort the money, and Ellen LOVES sorting things so she was a big help.  They also had these fun tubes to help roll the money as well.

 It only took about an hour but in no time, we were done!  Both Ellen and I got a bank account, Mama said that baby Maren was too little to open one yet, but we will start filling her piggy bank so she can get one too someday.

I can't wait to save up lots of money.  I am not sure what I am going to spend it on, but Mama said that the bank is the safest place to keep our money until I figure it out.

Have a great night!
Linden

Introducing my Baby - Maren Josephine

I know this is old news, but I had to make it official by putting it on the blog...I'd like to introduce you to Maren Josephine, born January 10th at 4:24pm, 7 pounds 14 ounces.  Her first name is pronounced Mar-in (Mar rhymes with Car), and her middle name is in honor of Papa Bob whose middle name was Joseph.

Mama had her regularly scheduled appointment on the 10th and the doctor was a little concerned with how much progress Mama had made and how fast she delivers her babies, so they sent her to L&D to be monitored.  After a couple hours of monitoring they decided the safest option was for her to be born.

I didn't know any of this was going on because I was at school, but at the end of the day my friend Anna's mama said that she was going to bring me to Gretchen's and that is when I knew, Maren was on her way!

It wasn't long after I got to Gretchen's that Daddy showed up and said we got to go meet her.  Ellen was so excited to meet her, but then when we got in the room she wasn't interested at all so I got to be the first to hold her.  After a few minutes Ellen warmed up and was so excited to hold baby Maren.

Mama wanted to make sure that Ellen and I would have lots of fun things to do at the hospital so she surprised us with some fun new things for our babies.  Ellen is too little to help take care of baby Maren, but she does a great job of taking care of her baby Josie.

Dr. Thorson was Mama's doctor, and she said that Mama did a great job.  It is a good thing that Mama was at the hospital when baby decided to come because it took less than 20 minutes once things got going.

Daddy has been doing a great job helping Mama, and keeping us busy so Mama can take care of baby.  He made sure we got to go to the hospital to visit our new baby a couple times, and has been playing a lot of games with us.  Too bad it is too cold to play outside very much.

Speaking of cold, Maren's first trip outside was pretty freezy, it was -10 degrees with -30 wind chills.  Thanks to a warm carseat and cozy blankets, she didn't even know that she had gone outside.

Baby Maren is pretty sweet.  She may only be 6 days old but she is a very good baby.

She does NOT like to be hungry and makes sure Mama knows when she is.  She is a little trickster though and makes Mama work pretty hard sometimes to feed her.  I think it is kinda funny because Maren will cry to tell Mama that she is hungry, and then when Mama is ready Maren will refuse to open her mouth, but if Mama puts the food away Maren will get REALLY mad.

Maren has been pretty sleepy, which Ellen isn't impressed with, but Mama promised that it won't be too long before Maren will be a lot more fun.  For now, we get to hold her and snuggle her.  She is starting to become more alert and loves to look around which makes holding her even more fun.

Have a great day everybody!
Linden

Climbing is Not Just For Monkeys

Winter break is over, but it is not too late to tell you about more of the adventures we had.

One of my favorite parts of winter break was getting to hang out with my Cousin Tyler.  For Christmas he took Ellen and me to Vertical Endeavor so he could share one of his new hobbies, Climbing.  I loved getting to hang out with Cousin Tyler, and Auntie Missy and Wendy all morning.

The first thing we had to do when we got there was get our harnesses and climbing shoes on.  The shoes were kinda funny, but Tyler assured me that it would help me to be a better climber.

Next we got to listen to an orientation to teach us how to use the equipment and make sure that we know how to stay safe.  I am pretty sure this was Mama's favorite part because our feet were on the ground :-)

After that it was time to go!  Ellen was pretty timid at first and needed a lot of help.

But it didn't take long before she started to get more and more brave.

And pretty soon she was climbing all over the place.  I think it was a good thing that Mama was helping me when Ellen decided to climb up high for the first time, because she wasn't so sure she was ok with it at first.  Ellen climbed so high that she was a little nervous getting back down.  The funniest part was that she needed to have a rope tied to her harness so we could make sure to get her back down, because she didn't weigh enough -- they called it a monkey tail.

Me, on the other hand, I had no problem from the very start.  I LOVED climbing, the higher the better.

Not only did I get to use the auto-belays, my cousin Tyler belayed me as well!  It was a lot easier when Tyler was helping me, and it was even more time that I got to hang out with him, which was great.

It was also great having my Auntie Missy there to climb with me.  I love that we get to have so many adventures together.

We had a ton of fun, I can't wait for Tyler to come home again so we get to hangout and hopefully make some more great memories!
Linden