Family

The other day I was looking through pictures of our family... I'm amazed at how fast time goes and how much God has truly blessed us!

I love looking at family photos b/c it brings back so many memories! We moved around a lot in the first 3 years of our marriage and have finally in the last 3 1/2yrs settled down in Mason City, and it's finally feeling like "home" to me!

This first family photo when was taken Thanksgiving 2008... Gunnar was 2 1/2 and Conrad had just turned 1.

This next picture was fall of 2009... less than a year later and we were a family of 5!

This photo was taken 1 month ago at a family wedding... 1 1/2yrs laterish and look at how much we've changed! Gunnar went from being a preschooler to a little boy (he's 5 now!!) Conrad is much more preschooler looking than toddler... and Bennett, wow, shes not a baby anymore!! She has turned into such a little toddler!!

We are so blessed!!

Birthday Madness!

Last Saturday we celebrated Gunnar turning 5 and Bennett turning 2 years old! We had a packed house, to say the least (close to 50 friends and family)!! Thank you to those who came and helped make Gunnar and Bennett's birthdays memorable!

Here are some of the kids enjoying some tasty food! Thank's to our family for helping to make/serve food !!

After food we opened present's! Bennett had Dana's help unwrapping... I didn't get too many pictures as present time was very chaotic!! Gunnar and Bennett sat on the floor and we handed them presents to open as they were surrounded by all the kids (12 total)!

Then it was time to sing happy birthday and eat cake!! I forgot to take a picture of Gunnar's cake (it was a dirt/worm cake in a planter) so this is the only one I have!

I also made cupcakes w/ worms and flowers. Instead of cutting cake we just gave all the kids cupcakes and it was way easier....

And Bennett's flower cake... Ashley (our roommate/live in nanny/all around awesome girl) Helped me cut out all the flowers and leaves... could not have done it without her!

We also had a fun birthday surprise.... we gave the kids 2 new puppies!! I'll introduce them in a post later this week!

Again, thank you to everyone who came and made this day so fun/special!!

Preschool Graduation

Almost 2 weeks ago Gunnar graduated from preschool!!! And both boys had an end of the year program that some very close friends were able to come enjoy with us! The boys sang lots of songs with there classmates... and Bennett was entertained by taking pictures of Chad and Liz!

Gunnar loved his teacher Mrs Murray and the preschool director Mrs Meyers!

We are so blessed to have such great "family" here in Mason City! All the kids loved having Aaron & Dana, Chad, and Liz at there program... we all celebrated with ice cream afterwards!

We are so proud of Gunnar and his success in preschool! The fall will begin a new journey for us all and Gunnar can't wait!!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day everyone! We're not big into celebrating many holidays, notice none of my kids are wearing green... but just to add a little fun to our lunch I made green scrambled eggs for the kids. They all loved them!!

Bennett is 21 months old!!

(not the best picture quality, but she sure is cute!)

Bennett turned 21 months old a couple of weeks ago... I cannot believe she will be 2 soon!! She is such a little sponge following her brothers around trying to say and do everything they do. She is also such a girl!!... she's pretty dramatic and doesn't put up with the boys pushing her around. She is totally obsessed with Spongebob Squarepants.... it is the only show that keeps her attention and she loves Patrick and Gary the snail. Bennett also enjoys playing with her play kitchen... she pretends to fill cups in the sink and will share her drinks with you.

She knows tons of words and loves repeating things... we are avid movie quoter's in the Seydel house and even Bennett has some favorite quotes. From Despicable Me she likes to say "it's so fluffy!" and If we say squid launcher she says "Oh Yeah"! So hilarious!!

We've had a long winter filled with sickness... mostly ear issues. She had tubes put in her years last July and the left tube fell out just before Christmas.... really 4 months is all we got!? Any of you moms out there with kids who have had ear infections/tubes can understand my frustration! So, Bennett ended up having an infection for over a month which developed into bronchial spasms (asthma cough)... we got on meds and she's been good for a couple weeks now. On top of the ear issues/colds she has also been cutting teeth like crazy and we also took away her pacifier!! Nights for the last couple of months have been hard, but are getting better now!

It's been a long time since I've updated on Bennett's eye stuff... back in October Bennett had surgery on her eyes to straighten the alignment (she was born crossed eyed, and surgery w/ patching is the only way to correct the type of crossing she had). The surgery went great... it was an outpatient surgery so we were home by noon and by 5 that evening she was playing and eating normally. There was some redness in her eyes for about a week and you could see the stitches if you looked closely, pretty cool. So six weeks after surgery we had a follow-up appointment with her Dr. who was very pleased with her progress... her eye alignment is very close to centered now and to the untrained eye you don't notice any crossing. We have to go back in July for another follow-up appointment, but until then we don't have to patch or anything. The whole surgery process was much easier than expected (besides all of the patching issues we went through beforehand) and we feel so blessed that her eyes look so good! We know that any day her brain could just stop using the eye correctly and start crossing again, but we know God is in control and we are just so thankful!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Last night I made Chicken Tortilla Soup and it was amazing!!

By far one of my favorite soup's ever!! So, naturally, I wanted to share the recipe with the world... or whoever reads my blog!

1 cup Pace® Picante Sauce

2 cans (10 3/4 ounces each) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 cups frozen whole kernel corn

1 can (about 15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 soup can water

1 teaspoon ground cumin

4 corn tortillas (6-inch), cut into strips

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces)

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

• Stir the picante sauce, soup, chicken, corn, beans, water and cumin in a 4-quart slow cooker.
• Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours or until the chicken is cooked through.
• Stir the tortillas, cheese and cilantro into the cooker. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Serve with additional cheese, if desired.

You can also find this recipe at the Campbell's Kitchen Website.

http://origin.www.campbellskitchen.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?recipeId=50414&fbid=ECxnqW_cNpZ

Once I got everything in the Crockpot it didn't seem like very much soup... and I wanted leftovers! So I added 2 extra cans of water, and some tomato juice (1-2 cups)... this gave me a larger mass of food and it also made it more soup like... the recipe called it "creamy", but mine was just plain thick, which isn't a bad thing, just not what I was going for! Also, instead of using corn tortilla's I used flour and instead of using pace picante sauce, I used salsa ... again, just a preference/what I had on hand thing. The family loved it, even the kids! It's really good by itself or as a chip dip if you're not into soups!

25 Degrees

It was 25 degrees out yesterday so the kids and I bundled up and headed out to have some fun in the snow! It's not very often I get all 3 kids together in one picture so these pics are super special! We made some fun memories!

Mischievous Little Girl

This is what becomes of cereal when a 20 month old gets a hold of it... 2 boxes all over the living room, she was so proud!!

The Things that Entertain

We spent Labor day weekend at Thaddeus' parents house and Grandma Lori found lots of fun stuff for the kids to play with!

Like this big box, which Gunnar pulled and pushed everywhere!

And this box that Conrad pretended was his airplane!

Bennett loved riding on the car creeper!

And she especially enjoyed her ride with Conrad!

We spent some time hanging out on Tank's dog house... Gunnar wanted to do a pull up on the metal pole, but he was just a little too short!

With the help of Daddy, Bennett was able to reach the pole!

We never know what fun we'll get into at Grandpa Teddy and Grandma Lori's house!

We had a great weekend!!

Weekend with Conrad!

This last weekend Lori, Thaddeus' mom, let Gunnar and Bennett stay with her and Ted, while Thaddeus and I had some time alone with Conrad!!

We started out our weekend by having a lunch date at Taco John's (Con's choice!) just mommy and Conrad! He loves their potato ole's!!

Then, with a full belly, he took a great nap while I vegged on the sofa!

The majority of our weekend was spent at Rhythm Church finishing the bathroom remodel project for service sunday night. Conrad helped take all of the cardboard to our van... and then later he helped put it on the burn pile!

Saturday morning was spent in our pajamas playing with Geo Trax. We have a huge set, but Bennett tears everything apart and the boys usually end up fighting so we don't play with them often... Conrad loved having all the Geo Trax to himself!

Saturday night we went to Kohl's (I had some Kohl's cash I needed to spend!) and got Conrad a new toy!

I had a great weekend with Conrad all to myself! (Thaddeus was at the church most of the weekend) It was nice to only have 1 kid for a couple days and be able to give him all my attention!! Thanks Ted & Lori!!

Bennett is 15 months old!!

Bennett turned 15 months old ten days ago, on friday the 13th!! So I'm a little behind, but I wanted to update everyone on her stats and how things with her eyes are going!

Stat wise, she weighs 20lbs (20th%) and is 30inches tall (45th%). Everyday she learns something new... she is the silliest little girl I know!

A few words she can now say:

Bennett

mommy

daddy

hi... bye

hi dad

cake

juice

night night

i did it

banana

eye

head

Bennett loves her blankies and bear... so much so, that nobody can hold them but her! She also loves her Mommy a bit aggressively at times... she screams if the boys sit on my lap and if I give Thaddeus a hug she tries to pull his arms off of me! Like most little girls she has a bit of an attitude and has already figured out that if she screams/yells when the boys take toys from her they'll get in trouble! But, mostly Bennett is just so silly... she likes to blow bubble with her mouth or make all kinds of silly sounds. In the last week she has really found her nose, actually her nostrils, and she enjoys walking around the house with her finger up her nose! (It's pretty darn cute, but something we are working on stopping!)

Last week Bennett had another eye appointment in Iowa City. This time my mother-in-law came with me, and I was so glad to have a little extra help!! We were able to schedule Bennett's surgery for October 12th!! Her eye is so close to be the same vision as the other, that they let us schedule!! I am so excited to have a date and be able to plan a bit! We still need to patch until the surgery date, but only 2-4hrs a day. She has a pre-op appointment 2 weeks before the surgery where they make sure her vision is still were they want it, so please be praying that the patching continues to work and we can go ahead with the surgery!

It was great to talk with her doctor and ask questions about the surgery and things we should expect afterwards. There is a 30-40% chance she will need further surgery to fully correct (or at least mostly correct) her eyes.

Bennett is growing up so quickly!! We love life with our cute pigtailed girl!!

So Much To Do!

Last week Bennett had an eye appointment in Iowa City, so the kids and I went down and spent the night with Thaddeus' parents. We always have a great time at Ted and Lori's house, and there is always so much to do!

Our evening was filled with races on the driveway...

Running up and down the sidewalks...

Taking care of the flowers with Grandma Lori...

Smelling all of the flowers...

Playing in the pool...

And watching Fifi try to get the pet toads!

Never a dull or boring moment when we're with the grandparents!

Baby Love

Bennett sure loves her Grandpa Teddy!