the girl of my dreams

i am still walking on cloud 9 since giving birth to my sweet little girl 9 days ago. we welcomed clara cynthia zielke to our little family of 5 on thursday september 4th at 4:16 am. she weighed more than both her brothers at birth, 8 lbs 3 oz and was a perfect 21 inches long. she looks just like hudson and is so far a sweet, easy little babe. i’m still in this state of awe that i have a daughter and have loved every minute of watching her brothers fall in love with her. it’s been a dream. we love you clara girl.

life lately

as we count down the days until baby arrives and (sigh) summer comes to an end, i’ve been reflecting on what a fun summer it really has been. to be honest i was dreading my due date being at the very end of summer knowing i would be 9 months pregnant in the heat of it. but, thanks to a somewhat mild summer that i am convinced God made just for me and a pretty easy uncomplicated pregnancy it’s been great! here is what the zielke boys and i have been up to summer 2014.

hudson requests to go to the skate park, baseball diamonds or tennis courts every single day. he has gone through phases of obsessing over each one throughout the summer. his scooter “tricks”, baseball swing and tennis volley have come a great distance since june and his sweet little brother loves to tag along to all of these destinations. so thankful for his easy going spirit.

after watching hudson for countless hours scootin’ around on his scooter brekken decided to figure it out this month. he can make it all the way around the block now! always trying to emulate his big bro.

our garden has been a big hit this year with hudson. his favorite is to dig for carrots, wash them off with the hose and munch away like peter rabbit. you wouldn’t blame him after tasting one. so good!

this sweet girl and my boy love to hang out on a regular basis. their friendship continues to amaze me in so many ways. we love you rea.

we sure love minnesota summers!

brothers share a room

in preparation for baby z #3’s arrival (due date in 5 weeks!!) we moved the boys into hudson’s room to share. this has been the plan since we found out we were expecting and i have been nervous everyday since. my stubborn, doesn’t want to miss out on anything, first born takes a good long while to fall asleep. he loves to put up a good fight before letting his eyes close for the night. he has significantly improved over the last year through a lot of training, but it can still be a battle. my second born is the opposite. on most nights he doesn’t make a peep before dozing off. he falls asleep quickly and peacefully. so, as you can tell they are not a match made in heaven to be roommates at this point in their life. but, we don’t really have a choice. after a lot of prayer and chats about sharing a room we pulled the plug a couple weeks ago. the first two nights were just a disaster. they both were under the impression that it was party time and chatted, brekken jumped around in his new bed, sang, and called us in several times before we brought brekken back to the baby room for the night. BUT, by the grace of God we just laughed and enjoyed this hilarious failure. due to our own stubbornness we did not give up on trying night number 3. and thankfully this worked! the boys figured it out and eventually went to sleep, through the night and woke up as usual. since then it’s been so much fun to see their brotherly bond grow even more. hudson loves to tell brekken a couple stories or ask him to say random words as they fall asleep. he gets really sad if we move brekken back to baby’s room when one of them wake up too early, and he loves to tell people about his brother room. so thankful for these little guys. and now we are almost ready for baby to arrive!

breakfast on the farm

last saturday was the final breakfast on the farm at my cousin’s organic dairy farm in mcintosh minnesota. we have never been able to make it up for the annual event until now! it was everything we anticipated it to be. delicious pancakes with strawberries and ice cream (yes ice cream!), sausages, and every kind of milk you could ask for was served to over 1000 people. we checked out all the cows, calves, and field cats after enjoying our pancake breakfast followed by the boys sitting on every tractor, four wheeler and motorcycle in the vicinity. the boys were in their little heaven and I got to visit with all my family. it was a pretty great morning.

the lee family farm is selling their cows after many years of farming so the breakfast will be an event of the past. we are sad that we only made it to one, but so thankful for our one time. it will be a great memory for years to come.

following the leader

there are several days lately that it seams as if brekken believes we are playing follow the leader with hudson being the leader on every turn. he copies every move his brother makes. today at the playground hudson jumped from one slide to the next with brekken following him every step of the way. he would sometimes trip or fall behind and would race as fast as his little legs would take him to the next slide that hudson was at. the other day hudson was on his way out the door when he bent down to fix his shoes. brekken followed suit. our little follower also tries to repeat any funny sound coming out of his leaders mouth. it just makes me giggle.

hudson is growing into his role as big brother in the sweetest way too. he is always making sure brekken will be joining us for our plans for the day, asking to help him in small ways and giving him random hugs. earlier this week i told brekken i needed to check his diaper to see if we needed to change him. hudson ran over to him, pulled back his pants and diaper and proudly proclaimed that no, brekken had not pooped. he is getting more and more ready to be a big brother to two little siblings.

the amazing emily v. captured these sweet brothers a few weeks ago with our beautiful city of minneapolis as the backdrop. i’m beyond thankful for her and her talent.

the month of may

i haven’t updated my blog all month because we have been too busy playing outside FINALLY! it’s been one beautiful month so we have spent every moment we can at the park, beach, on walks, in the sandbox, having picnics and eating lots of popsicles to celebrate surviving the longest minnesota winter ever. we’ve been watching my belly grow and grow this month too. i’m 26 weeks pregnant and feeling great. we are all looking forward to meeting this little peanut and finding out if my boys will have another brother or a sister! enjoying the days with just 2 babes for now though!

take me out to the ballgame

ever since the twins baseball game a few weeks back and the complete baseball set (bat, glove, ball & tee) from daddy, hudson cannot get enough of the sport. he asks to go watch random baseball games, run around the baseball diamonds, play baseball in any form, and talks about it non-stop. he has now recruited his little bro to love the game. this wasn’t so hard to do since brekken is his little shadow most days. i caught a little video of the two attempting to play ball together. melts my heart seeing these two become good friends.

 

the week it was nice out

last week we got a taste of what summer will be like. glorious, amazing summer that we miss so dearly. it was a complete blessing getting the weather last week since it was during our 10 day stretch without brad. i don’t know how we would have made it through the week in one piece without this taste of summer and bop bop. my dad flew up for 3 days to distract us from the missing man in our home. it was the perfect visit we all needed.

twin’s opener for kiki’s birthday! hudson kept asking why the baseball players weren’t throwing him the ball. he wanted in the game!

this is a nice preview to my summer. my sandbox obsessed boys played for hours. i gladly sat and watched.

nothing beats ice cream on the deck after a hard day of playing in the sun.

hudson practicing his t-ball skills so he can go play with the twin’s one day.

one of my favorite moments of my dad’s visit. him reading my sweet son my mom’s favorite children’s book. she would cry through the whole thing and i never understood why until i became a mom. i can’t get through the first page now without falling apart. my dad did just fine though. he is not as emotional. such a sweet, precious moment.

thanks for visiting dad! the boys had a blast.

 

my tiny dancer

my sweet little brekken bradford turned 1 and half yesterday. he continues to be my sensitive, sweet, easy going little boy. i can’t tell you how many times a day he melts my heart with his sweet little voice, amazing hugs, smile and my favorite lately his stellar dance moves. his bsf teachers tell me he is the only 18 month old singing and dancing during music time. they think he belongs on stage. here is a little preview of his current dance moves and singing. happy 1/2 birthday my tiny dancer.

Brekken’s Dance Moves

Can we go back to our Mexico house?

This was the question Hudson asked the first morning we were home from our week vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I couldn’t have agreed more. We had the best time soaking up the sun, swimming countless hours in the pool, playing at the beach, taking in the gorgeous ocean view, spending quality time with our family, and eating all the Mexican food we could handle. It was pretty much heaven.

The rest of our vacation through pictures:

Two very excited boys flying to Mexico. Hudson was so pumped to be on an airplane that he coudln’t sleep or watch any of his favorite videos during the first 3 hour flight. The passengers ahead of us told us he was one curious little boy with all his questions when we landed. Yes, we know that.

The view from our “backyard”. Brad made many trips down those rocks in attempt to catch fish and crabs. He was never successful, but Hudson adored his persistence. “Daddy is trying again!!”

It was SO much fun to hang out with our handsome little nephew Bear and gorgeous niece Lanie. The cousins had so much fun playing together. Well mostly Lanie and Brekken (our two little social ones).

We also celebrated Brad’s birthday during our Mexican vaca. He hasn’t had an opportunity to spend his birthday with his mom and sisters in too many years to count. It was a special blessing.

Hudson spent the first half of our vacation too scared to go past the stairs to swim. His cousins and brother were the exact opposite. He randomly asked me for his life jacket on of our last days there. I put on his jacket and he jumped into the pool and requested not to be helped after. I guess he wanted to do it on his own terms. Not very surprising.

We spent two days at a nearby beach playing in the sand and running back and forth with the waves. Brekken was a little unsure of the ocean. He enjoyed watching his big brother run around at least.

My 15 week belly picture with all my babes. Still can’t believe we get to have another child join our family. So thankful this babe seems to like Mexican food. Didn’t have a minute of nausea while I was there. God is good to me.

The whole gang. What a fun group to vacation with. So thankful for every one of you.

Hudson all ready to go home. Well not emotionally since he kept saying I want to stay here forever and ever. And asking, why do we have to go home? All vacations have to come to an end is all I could muster up for an answer. Trying to tell myself the same thing….