What a great weekend!

What a great weekend we had! Friday after work we headed up to my mom and Tim's house. When we got there Amelia was all wound up and she didn't sleep at all in the car. We had a tough time getting her to bed. She was suppose to sleep on a mattress on the floor next to us, but she wouldn't stay put, she'd get up and run around and giggle! So finally we had to put her in the crib in the other room where Paul was suppose to sleep. Paul ended up sleeping on the mattress on the floor. He slept there just fine and he was sleeping right next to me so I could keep an eye on him, or at least know when he moved! I think it was about 12:30 by time we got the kids settled in!

Saturday, we all headed to the salon that Amber works at to get our hair cut. Amelia got her very first haircut! See the pics below! We only cut a little bit off the bottoms, maybe an inch at the most! It looks so cute as now she has even more curls than before! It really made it curl up without that extra weight on the bottom. They are more like ringlets. She sat pretty well during her haircut, it was hard to keep her still, since she kept getting distracted. I'm sure the next time will go a lot better!

During the haircut

After the haircut

My Grandma Jensen was having our annual Jensen Family "Golf Day" at her house on Saturday with my Grandpa's side. It was a tradition started many years ago as a way to celebrate my Grandpa's birthday, which was in May. Back in it's hay day it was a blast! They had set up a "Golf course" up and down their driveway and around the back of the house, they put metal coffee cans in the ground for the holes and my Grandpa's sister Norma had made him flags to go with each hole. We use to have a putting contests with a "pot of gold" and prizes for highest score and lowest score for both men and women, and they'd have prizes for us kids too. It's not as big as it was when I was a kid, but it was fun getting to see some of the relatives we only see a couple times a year.

Only the guys golfed this year, it was too hot out! The rest of us sat in the shade! Amelia and Paul had a good time playing with the kittens and with our Dog Abby who has lived at Grandma's for almost a year. Paul enjoyed crawling around and we had a tough time keeping him off the gravel driveway and keeping him from putting rocks in his mouth! We had a bonfire on Saturday night and that was a lot of fun! Sara and her fiance Adam came over for the afternoon/evening. And Sara asked me to be her Personal Attendant. I feel very honored that she asked me to be a part of her wedding day! She is getting married October 27 of this year! Everyone had a good time. We stayed up way too late though! I think it was about 1:00 by time we got back to Fergus.

Pauly and one of the kittens

Paul really liked our Fat Dog Abby!

Sunday we went over to my Grandma and Grandpa Gregg's house for brunch and to spend the day with them. After brunch we went out on the pontoon with Granny and Papa, and Terri and the girls. We spent the entire afternoon out on the lake, it was such a nice time. Paul didn't know what to think of his life jacket when I put it on him, but as witnessed in the picture below, he fell asleep shortly after we got on the lake!

Amelia was a bit grumpy when we first got on the lake, we had to wake her up!

Mr Paul sleeping in Granny's arms with his shades on!

Paul and Courtney after he woke up from his nap!

Britta (under water) Daddy and Amelia swimming!

Taking Pauly into the lake for the first time!

Just chillin' on the pontoon while everyone else swims. His hair is full of sunscreen, that's why it's sticking up! He won't keep a hat on so we had to put the sunscreen on his head!

We had a really nice time visiting with everyone yesterday. The kids had a great time out on the lake. In fact at one point when we stopped the pontoon to talk to someone on the lake, Amelia got upset because she wanted to go swimming and she kept saying "Water" "Water". So then we had to go somewhere that she could go swimming. There are no public beaches on East Battle anymore. There use to be one, but it is now privately owned. So we could anchor the pontoon off shore a little bit, just far enough so it wouldn't get stuck and then everyone could jump off and swim. Amelia really enjoyed that. She would be shivering in the lake, Kev would pull her out and put in in the boat and she'd say to me "Mommy, water?" And kept repeating until I put her back in the water with Kevin.

Kevin and I got completely fried out on the lake! So bad that I was freezing cold the entire ride home and I felt like I was going to get sick. We put sunscreen on the kids and of course neglected to put it on ourselves and it was the first time either one of had been out in the sun for an extended amount of time this year.

When we got back from the lake we had a bite to eat before we headed home. Jake and Luke joined us for dinner as well as Luke's girlfriend Joelle, who lives in Dallas and had flown in yesterday morning. Ron didn't get to join us until right before we were leaving, because he was bailing hay all day.

It was a nice weekend all around! It was great getting to see both sides of my family all weekend. It brings you back to reality and lets you know what's truly important in life!

I hope every one's summer is going well for them!

Until next week....

Storm pictures...

These pictures were taken tonight off our front step at about 9:30ish, after we put the kids back to bed after we had been in the basement due to the siren going off.

These are some very cool looking clouds!

The darker more ominous cloud kept moving in.

And the last one...

finally an update

Sorry that it has taken me so incredibly long to give everyone the "Taaffe Update!" We're all doing well. Keep busy, as always. The kids are growing fast! Paul started crawling (on his hands and knees) about a month ago or so. And a week and a half ago on his 7 month birthday he got his first tooth. Also about 3 weeks ago, he pulled himself up in the bathtub, I don't know what I'm going to do with that kid! He keeps standing up in the tub now. I think I need to get one of those bath rings/chairs for him to sit in during his bath. He has also mastered the two steps from our playroom to our kitchen. Goofy boy! I don't know what we're going to do with him! His newest trick is "growling" we call him our little tiger! He's getting so big. He likes to pull himself up on everything and anything in site! Amelia was never a climber, but I think he's going to be! This morning when he woke up, I went and got him out of his bed and he was standing in his crib. Good thing we have the mattress as low as it will go!

Amelia is keeping us very busy. She really enjoys the outdoors. She loves to "Slide" and gets upset when we can't slide any longer. We have a small playset in our backyard, nothing real exciting, but she likes it. There is a swing for her and a swing for Pauly and then the slide. We plan to customize it a little more. Kevin picked it up for $50, it was used, but it's one of those nice wood playsets, and he spent about $50 in supplies stain, and it works great for the kids! They really seem to enjoy it. Also we got a bike trailer for the kids to ride in and we go for bike rides when weather permits. They both enjoy that as well. Kevin also got that for a steal. We have $1.99 invested into it! One of Uncle Gene's neighbors was throwing it away because one of the windows was torn, so we got some clear duct tape (yes, they make clear duct tape) and fixed the window and it's good as new. It is almost like brand-new and what a wasteful reason to throw it away. It works for now, until we can afford to buy the one we really want...which who knows when that'll be since it's about $350 or so. So for now, this one works.


I think that's our update for now!


Have a good day!

the taaffe update

Since it's been almost a month since our last blog. Thought I better give everyone an update!

We're surviving! That's a good thing right? Both kids are growing very quickly! Paul just had his 6 month check up last week and weighed 16-1/2 pounds and was 27 inches long. So he's getting bigger! Amelia at her 2 year check up was 26# even and 34-1/2 inches long. Paul is getting into everything now. He's half crawling/half scooting everywhere. It won't be long and he'll be full fledge crawling. He can sit himself up now. Before we had to sit him up, but he can do it himself now and thinks he's such a big boy! He's getting into Amelia's stuff and loves every minute of it, while we hear a lot of "NO, NO BABY! MINE!" coming from Amelia's mouth! Good thing she is currently napping, as he's been getting into her toys since he got up from his nap. He already enjoys torturing her baby dolls. He was trying to tip over her little pack n play that she has for her dolls. And she sat there and laughed. Amazingly she didn't scream at him while he was doing it!

Our vacation to the North Shore was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We couldn't have asked for a better time or better weather. The kids had a blast. We spent lots of time hiking and also swimming. The weather was in the 70's the whole time! Like always, the time went by quickly.


I had a good Mother's Day. Hard to believe I was celebrating my 3rd Mother's Day already. Crazy how fast the time goes! My mom, Tim and my Grandma all came down for the weekend. And then yesterday we had brunch at our house for Mother's Day and Mary and Ron joined us. It was a very nice weekend!

Hope everyone is well.

thank you...

Thank you to all who attended Amelia's birthday party last night! We truly appreciate each and everyone of you that were here to help her celebrate her 2nd birthday! I can hardly believe she's two already...where does the time go? I think the birthday girl had a great time and enjoyed entertaining all of you in her tutu! Thanks for all of your wonderful gifts. We're so thankful for all of you who have chosen to be a part of her life and are glad you could be here to help all of us celebrate Amelia's life! She's such a vibrant little girl, I can't imagine my life without her! She has brought so much joy into our lives the last two years it's just amazing!

Thanks again! Hopefully I can get some pics posted in the next few days. Also if anyone has pics they'd like to share from the bday party we'd appreciate it, we didn't get very many on our camera!

In Honor of Amelia's 2nd Birthday

I just got this today and thought I'd share it with everyone since it's been two years since I've been a mom!

Before I was a Mom...

I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.

I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.

I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom - I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on.

I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.

I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom

I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots.

I never looked into teary eyes and cried.

I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put them down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.

I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

I never knew that I could love someone so much.

I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom. I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.

I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom. I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

What a great day...

Today was a lot of fun. We had a day out for work. The day started out with all of us from work renewing our CPR cards, okay so that wasn't that exciting, but it was something that had to be done. Today we got out Christmas presents from our Doctors at work. Our Doctors took us to Cooks of Crocus Hill on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, to take a cooking class. We took a bus from Northfield Bus Lines to St. Paul. The Drs bought us Panera sandwiches for lunch, so we ate those on the bus, they also had beer, margaritas, mike's hard lemonades, water, juice, iced tea for us to drink on the bus. The bus ride was a lot of fun, everyone started drinking on the bus and kicked back and relaxed. We played a trivia game on the ride to St. Paul, the first round everyone got a cookbook of some sort, you picked it out as you got the questions right. All the questions were on cooking. When we got to Cooks of Crocus Hill, we started out at the bar in the place where we were going to be cooking our meal...I'm starting to sense that maybe some of my co-workers have drinking problems...well no, not really, they are a fun loving bunch who like to have a good time...sometimes a little rowdy...but I don't think alcohol plays much of a roll in that! They had already prepared an appetizer for us, figs wrapped with smoked mozzarella and prosciutto, sounds gross, but they were great! Then we split into five teams...by doing the old fashioned 1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5 okay well you get the picture. We were on a team building mission. My team was another assistant who just Graduated from school in December and was hired while I was on Maternity Leave, and two of the three Drs were also on our team. We were "team building with taste", we were making Salsas and Margaritas.

My group cooked Chili Rellenos with Salsa Mexicana...they were horrible...in my opinion anyway, it was Pablano peppers stuffed with chopped mushrooms, mixed with shallots, breadcrumbs, queso blanco cheese with a sauce that had goat cheese in it. Number one I don't like mushrooms and number two, the sauce was horrible...but it could be the smell of it while it was cooking, it was dry white wine mixed with shallots, garlic, tumeric (a horribly stinky spice) and heavy cream. I cooked the sauce and I got voted Best Chef on the bus ride home...they must have felt bad for me, because all the groups were done cooking and I was still working on this sauce.

Other things we had were Guacamole and chips, Crab cakes with tomatillo sauce, skirt steak fajitas, Giant Prawns with Pineapple salsa. I could have only had the guac and been happy as a fat kid with cake. But I tried them all and I'll tell you I only cared for the fajitas and the guacamole. However the whole experience was a lot of fun! When we were all done cooking, we got to sit down and enjoy what we slaved away making!

On the ride home we voted for the Best Chef Award and the Not So Good Chef Award. I won Best Chef and I'm sure like I stated previously that it was because they all felt bad for me! I got a coffee mug that says "Employee of the Month", I was informed that it could become the traveling trophy if I would like...you just never know what may end up in the white elephant gifts for the Christmas party in December. We played two more rounds of trivia on the ride home, winning more fabulous prizes. The "Silver Round" I won a 7 pc Margarita Set. Other prizes included in this round included Pyrex portables set, a party set which included wine glasses and plates that you could set your wine glass in and walk around with it, some stoneware baking dishes, and mixing bowls. Then we played the Gold Round, which the prizes were even bigger, they included the waffle iron s that most hotels have these days for their continental breakfasts, a large electronic crockpot, a electric fry pan with a removable insert, a griddle with removable racks that could go into the dishwasher and 2 quart ice cream maker. I chose the Ice Cream maker, Amelia and I may try it out tomorrow! Everyone earned a prize each round, what you got just depended upon where you fell in the order and whether you answered the question correctly or not. There was 2-3 of each prize.


Just had to share my fun and exciting day!