Justin James Hier

I'm an Aunt!  Justin James Hier arrived at 7:33pm on Thursday, February 20th.  He was 9lb. and 22in. long.  He was born during a major snowstorm here in MN.  That next day on Friday when we would have loved to go see him, the roads were pretty packed with ice.  The normal 45 minute trip to their hospital probably would have taken 2 hours.  So unfortunately, we didn't get to see him until we went to their house yesterday.  He's so cuddly and perfect and I'm gonna love being his favorite Aunt!

 

(These first pictures were sent to me or posted on facebook)

 

Poor Laura!  She texted us a picture of her "hobbit" feet the night before he was born.  So swollen.  And unfortunately, they still look like that!

 

Before they left for the hospital.

 

He's just perfect!

Bennett is thrilled with this baby!

Ashley is too except she wasn't feeling that great again when we were here.  She has been battling a fever for the past week and had been 2 days fever free.  Of course though she ended up getting it back when we were at their house so her and I left early.  I guess it just means that her and I will have to go visit them again real soon - shucks :-)

Family Picture

Our church is doing a new picture directory since we are having our 100th Anniversary this summer.  I've been pretty involved with this process which made me really busy in January getting all of the families pictures scheduled. 

Anyways, here is a picture of my family.  Everyone got a free 8x10 and then of course had the option of buying more.  I didn't buy any because they were pretty expensive.  But gosh did I want to.  This picture is the free one and the one that is going into the book but the photographer took some with a black background too and I liked those even better.  Even though I do like this picture a lot, I think Bennett is positioned kind of funny - like he looks too tall.  In the pictures with the black background Bennett is sitting on Mike's lap instead of standing and it looks a lot better.  So here is our picture - the first family picture we've had in almost 2 years.

Ashley's 3rd Birthday

Ashley turned 3 on December 29th.  It still shocks me that she is by no means a little baby anymore.  She had a great year and learned so many new things.  Here are a couple of her achievements during the past year. 

• She is talking a mile a minute.  Most of it is very understandable which is great.
• She gets shy around new people until she finds a common interest.
• In November/December she finally became fully potty-trained.  Once it clicked for her, she got it and hasn't had any accidents in probably a month.  She is even trained overnight which is great.  And to my surprise, a few times in the past couple weeks she has even gotten up overnight by herself, walked to the bathroom and goes and then puts herself back to bed.  The only reason I even knew she was doing this is because I'd hear the toilet flush while I was sleeping. 
• She is awesome at knowing her letters and numbers.  We are working on learning to write them but so far the only letters that she is able to write well is an A and H.  She can make circles too though so I suppose she could write an O too. 
• She really likes looking at books but she doesn't have the patience to let me real a whole book to her.  It has to be one that really peeks her interest otherwise we only get a few pages read.
• She still loves her puzzles.  She is a master at 24 piece puzzles and with alittle help she has done 60 piece and 100 piece ones.  It's usually my go-to thing if I need to occupy her for awhile if I'm busy with something.
• She can dress herself which is extremely helpful to me.  But, if she gets something stuck, it's all out war - she needs my help but doesn't want it.

She got a bike for her birthday from us.  She's been practicing in the garage and is all ready for spring!

Thanks to Kristen for the awesome cake!

Mielke Christmas

On the 26th we had our annual Mielke Christmas.  Oh how I wish we'd have these a few times a year!  The family company is great and a lot of fun and the food is always sooo good too.  Added bonus, I only have to drive 3 minutes :-)

 

They dumped out a container of tools, and things to take apart.  They unscrewed things for quite awhile.

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day we went to church in the morning and then to my mom's for a big Christmas Dinner at noon.  After that and before the huge mound of presents, my mom wanted an attempt at a family picture. 

L to R:  Martin, Lisa, Rachel, Mike, Bennett, Kristen, Ashley, Mary, Julie, Dennis, Laura (and baby), Jon, Chris, David & Josh = 15 (almost 16). 

Lisa's boyfriend was there so he took the picture.

 

The only reason I posted this picture is because after I looked at it, it made me laugh. If you look at my mom, there is a blur right across her face.  I didn't know why my camera did that until I realized it was flying wrapping paper that was being shot into the garbage bag.



Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is so much different for us now than it used to be a few years ago.  It used to be that we did not go to Christmas Eve church because we had family Christmas with Mike's side in the cities.  After that we would rush the hour home to get back to my mom's so that we could open presents with my mom and siblings.  Now, we don't have Christmas with my mom because of Dennis and his kids not being able to be there that night and now we aren't able to go to Mike's family's either because Bennett is in Sunday School and the Sunday School kids have their service on Christmas Eve.  So, after Christmas Eve church, the four of us get to come home and have our own Christmas.  Santa comes while we are at church...which is when Santa came when I was a kid too.

 

Bennett was a shepherd in the service.

I did not ask them for this but this is what I got the first time I said 'smile'.  And honestly, it's my kids to a T and I love love love the picture!

Bennett asked Santa for a green combine.  Santa spent a lot on this gift alone so he better play with it and not break it!  ;-)

Ashley's favorite gift was this Little People house and playground.

Bennett's gifts:  combine, grain semi truck, a toy camera, kids bath soap and a book

Ashley's gifts:  Little People house, playground, toy cash register, a puzzle and a hairbrush

Mike's gifts:  a Twins shirt, headphones and a popcorn tin

Rachel's gifts:  a Willow Tree Angel and a wall shelf

 

Overall it was a nice night.  The kids were happy with their gifts and waited patiently and let one person open a gift at a time.  By 9:00pm the kids and Mike (he didn't feel that great that night) were all in bed already so at 10:00pm I went back to church for the Candlelight service since I didn't really have anything special to do sitting at home awake by myself.