Meet Oliver

We went for a road trip again. This time we went to Illinois to see the newest little Steffen baptized. Oliver is adorable and seems to be a very content little boy this first week of his life. I was surprised how much our kids oohed and ahhed over him. Sophia wanted him all to herself. When she had a turn holding him if someone wanted to take the little guy she possesively flung her arm around him saying/whinning NO, as only a determined 2 year old can. Anyways, we had a great visit.

Christmas Dancing

I wish I could include sound with this, but our camera isn't that high tech.Anyway what you are watching is the kids dancing to The Partridge Family Christmas, so you can imagine what it might sound like, it's the exact same songs I rocked out to as a little girl at Christmas. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I can never seem to get these images in the order I want, you'd think I'd learn but I don't. Anyway, I'll take you through our weekend backwards. We ended it with making advent wreths for, as you may have guessed the beginning of advent. Even Sophia did one with minimal help. Friday we got our tree and the kids did an excellant job decorating it. And Thanksgiving day while Alex watched the parade, Sophia, Max and I made ginger bread and began to make our ginger bread house and nativity pieces, before we went to Dale's sister's for Thanksgiving dinner and hanging out. It was an eventful weekend and we wanted to let you know we are so thankful for our wonderful family and friends - hope you had a great Thanksgiving. (And for all you non-Steffen's Sara (Randy's little sister) had her baby the 28!! A little boy Oliver Patrick, he's adorable and healthy and Sara is doing well, I think Eric is too.) Happy Late Thanksgiving!

The pictures of our fall vacation to the midwest

We had a great fall vacation, I guess I put these pictures in backwards - opps! It started with my cousin's wedding in Indiana, that was so beautiful and fun. Alex and Randy went back to NY while Max, Sophie and I went back to IA. We stayed with my Dad and his wife, visited a lot of people and relaxed. I was able to see a good friend of mine, Cathy (from the children's theatre in jr. high and high school)get married. And then Cletus and Margaret brought us home. We were fortunate to have them stay for a couple days with us. We're looking forward to coming back for Christmas.

Celebrating Sophia's and Aunt Wanda's birthday. Sophia wouldn't let me get a picture of her on Aunt Wanda's lap or alone with the cake, so artfuly done by Aunt Donna.

Off to Iowa where we visited lots of our relatives. Here we are with Aunt Audrey, Max and Sophia and Madison. (We saw lots of family , but I didn't get as many pictures as I thought).

Randy and the boys at the reception. Oh, I forgot to mention the reception of the wedding our little ringbearer(Max) walked down the asile and laid down on the pillow on the first step of the altar and then proceeded to army crawl to my cousin (the bride's maid he was asigned to stand by). Ah, they keep things interesting don't they? The bride delt with it beautifully, and just laughed.

My cousins, Sara, Emily and me at the reception.

A few pic of our trip back to the midwest

The four kids right before my cousin's wedding in Indiana.

Sophia's Birthday

Hi! We have had fun visiting family in Indiana and Iowa (Oct.31-Nov.10), having Margaret and Cletus (Randy's mom & dad) visit here (Nov.11-13), as well as Bruce and Russ (Kara's uncle and partner) immediately following, and I'll have pictures of that in the days to come. But today is Sophia's birthday! And she's 2!! She had a fun day.She visited her friend Paul. Went out to eat with Aunt Kathy, Uncle Dale, Sammi, and our crew. Had a Dora cake. And was squealing, waving her arms with excitment and giggeling as she opened her gifts. And ended the day in her new big girl bed with Dora sheets, snuggeling her Dora.

Hallowen - Early

The kids got dressed up and trick or treated at Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dale's today. Since we'll be gone on Halloween (we'll be in Indiana having the rehersal dinner for Sara's (my cousin) wedding), and the Harvest Festival, complete with costumes, was today at church so we made a one stop trick or treating run after the party. Alex was Indiana Jones, Max was Spiderman and Sophia followed in Max's footsteps and was Tigger.

ER

Yesterday at about 4(pm) Sophia slipped off one of our benches at the kitchen table. When I picked her up, she was gushing blood like crazy, and screaming. I called Randy and then the pediatrician. By this time I could see she had all her teeth and there was a big bite out of her lip, as well as a 2nd bite or cut. I took her into see the pediatrician and she recommended we take her to the ER to get stiches. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dale took the boys - thank goodness- and off we went to the hospital. We got into a room rather quickly (for the ER), and they decided they were going to stich up her lip in both places. They would have to sedate her to do it and she had had a snack at 3:30 so they had to wait until 7:30 to start the stiches. It took about an hour to stich her up and they ended up putting in 10 stiches in total. Six in one cut and 4 in the other cut. We had to wait until the medicine wore off to take her home, so about 10 we were heading home. She was fussy today and her lip was sensitive. But she seemed to be doing a lot better after her afternoon nap.
And then today we celebrated Randy's birthday. Complete with an angel food cake just like when he was growing up. :)

Raingutter Regatta

Tonight was Alex's raingutter regatta for cubscouts. All of us went to cheer him on. He won 2 and lost 2 so that was good. He seemed fairly pleased with that. He also got to carry in the American flag for the opening ceremony for the night. It was a great surprise. Everyone had a very fun night.

Pumpkins last weekend

The kids and I went with our friends, Holly and Clari, to Tim's pumpkin patch. The first thing we did was get our pumpkins. Then we took them back out to the van. I dropped my camera off with the pumpkins, but I shouldn't have. The best was yet to come. They had fun going through a hay maze, and seeing and petting a bunch of farm animals, including a bunny some goats, and two 800lb. sows. But the best they said was playing in the corn box, a big sand box full of corn instead of sand. It was the perfect day for it and the drive was beautiful, a great fall day.

I had to share this picture of Sophia in her pigtails or you may never see her like that. She tends to pull them out. Randy think she looks like Aunt Sara with them in. And the other of Max and Sophie I just wanted to share.

Boy Scouts

Alex started boyscouts last Monday. I guess technically he isn't a boyscout for all you from or in the boyscout world. You work up to boyscout status is how I understand it. Technically he is a cougar scout. But he's very excited about it and loves it. Max has gotten very excited as well and can't wait until he can join (which isn't until 1st grade). So currently Alex is working with Randy on a boat to race in a rain gutter with all the other boys in his den.

Camping out in the treehouse

Tonight is the night for the annual treehouse campout for the Steffen boys. Sophia is still too little, so she's in the house with me. The boys were very excited. I went out to snap a few pictures and as I was leaving Alex and Max were making shadows on the celing of the treehouse with their flashlights. Creatively making big feet and big hand shadows, with lots of excited chatter and laughter. :) (I just realized our internet is being fickel I'll have to put the pics on later. Sorry.)

Treehouse pics

MRI

Max had his follow up MRI Monday (follow up to the CT scan from when he was a baby)and yesterday we were told everything's fine! We were so glad, yet not really surprised to get the good news. So he just has a big head. :)

Suprise, or maybe not.

Hi! I know we've called a lot of you. But I wanted to post it, because we didn't call everyone. We're having a baby!!! It's due April 7 and we had our first ultrasound today. Everything seems good so far. We're excited, so are the kids. YEAH!!

Hello Autumn

Pumpkin bread is always a favorite around our house, especially when fall rolls around. It's become a fun little tradition that reminds me of making and eating pumpkin bread with my mom. So today the little munchkins and I made a couple loaves.

Baby and Raspberry

I forgot the picture of Sophia lifting up her nightgown was in here and wanted to share it. Last Saturday I was trying to busy her with something other than clinging to me at the moment so I asked her where her baby was, and that was her response! I was surprised to say the least. I asked her if she thought she was Aunt Sara and she nodded yes. (Of course later when I tried to get her to do it for Randy she actually went and got her baby doll.)
The other picture is Max and Sophie by our raspberry bush. We got 6 berries from it! Silly uh? But considering it started as a little 4 inch shoot from my friend's plant, a couple years ago it's doing pretty good. There's a hand full of berries to rippen yet as well. Max wants to make jelly :) oh, and the last picture is one Max took of the raspberry bush.

In His Tuxedo

I wasn't going to put this on our blog, thinking people will see him at the wedding. But it occured to me, many of you won't be there. My cousin, Max's godmother, is getting married Nov. 1 and Max is one of two ringbearers. He is very excited as you can tell in the picture. He is so excited to wear his tux and dress shoes. He keeps talking about his wedding.

Maid of the Mist and Cave of the Winds

In Canada

Museum of Play in Rochester

Our own little small vacation

The weekend before Labor Day Randy took Friday off and we went back to Niagara, we can't get enough of that place. We always talk about going and riding the Maid of the Mist (the boat ride into the falls) and doing all the things there are to do there, so we did. We rode the Maid of the Mist, did the Cave of the Winds, which isn't a cave at all, there used to be a cave there, but it has since crumbeled into the water, maybe 60 years ago or more. The Cave of the Winds is now a VERY close walk to the American Falls, we did it at night and it was really fun. We walked to Canada the next day and say brick City, a room full of impressive lego creations,and Ripley's Believe it or Not, which Randy says hasn't changed one bit since he was a kid. To finish our vacation we went to Rochester's Strong Museum of Play - the kids had a blast there!

Marbles

We had our first cool fall day today. It was so nice! We also got the basement picked up and the boys rediscovered their build-your-own-marble-ramp toy. They were very excited to show off the ramps they built.