Love from Lucy

Here are some recent pictures of our sweet little Lucy admiring her awesome Minnesota Twins slippers! Thanks Uncle Kevin and Auntie Katie!

 

Grabbing her toes

 

Watching the feet

Look of shock when we told her how badly the Twins played this season. :)

Sad News

This week we lost a very dear family friend, Kathy Ruenger, after a long battle with breast cancer. Kathy and her husband Dale owned Willow's Edge Kennel, and we have know them ever since they were planning a 'C' litter of Large Munsterlanders. The day that Kathy called Daniel to tell him that Chief was born was a great day in the Storm household. :)

We stayed in touch with Kathy and Dale over the past 5 years; they are the most wonderful, friendly, and generous people! They love their dogs, they are avid outdoorspeople, and they have always been incredibly welcoming. Kathy has answered many of our puppy and dog training questions, she treated us like family (the Ruenger's have our wedding picture in their living room and photos of Lucy on their refrigerator), and she lived life to the fullest!

You can read Kathy's obituary here. We will miss her very much and we can't imagine going to Willow's Edge without seeing her. She was a wonderful woman and our thoughts and prayers are with Dale and the rest of her family.

September Happenings

Well, here is where we were one year ago today...

 

 

...And now our sweet baby girl is enjoying her first autumn.

 

Lucy recently learned how to clap. Good thing because the Vikings need a cute little cheerleader. :) Here is she is sporting her Vikes onesie courtesy of Grandma Nola.

 

The air is started to be more cool and crisp in the evenings so we need to bundle up a little bit before going on a walk. Here are some pics of Lucy getting ready to go on a walk with the pups.

 

 

We love you Lucy Bear!

The Seasons are Changing!

 

Along with the cooler, crisp days and earlier sunsets - we have another sure sign of fall in Madison: Baby Consignment sales! Yay! Lucy and I love digging through racks of clothes, tables of toys, and other bins of stuff for great finds. She is such a good baby, she is content to just hang out in the pack and touch the different pieces of clothing while I fill up a bag. Good times.

 

Here are some of our finds from the Half Pint Resale!

 

Lots of cute PJs

So, for not very much $$, Lucy has a nice winter wardrobe with lots of 12 and 18 month old clothes. :)
Lucy, I hope that you love consignment and garage sales as much as your mama and grandmas do! 

Lucy is 10 Months Old

Our Lucy is officially 10 months old! 

She is doing great - she is a quick little crawler and she is pulling herself up on everything! :) She loves books, blocks, playing on her little piano, petting the dogs, listening to music, and touching all kinds of textures.

Here is our sweet little cowgirl - she is almost 20 pounds!

One of Lucy's other tricks - I put her in the Pack and Play in the morning so she stays out of trouble while I am getting dressed. :) She likes to smash her little face against the mesh and make noises. So cute.

We love you, Lucy Goose!!

Labor Day!!

On Labor Day we spent sometime laboring on house projects! As you know, we are working hard to spruce up our place so that we can get it on the market. We were very fortunate to have our family visit and help us with the tasks. Mom, Dad, Kevin, Katie, and Anna made the trek  from South Dakota and Uncle Glen traveled down I-90 to work with us. We got a ton of work done!!
We could have been on a HGTV television show! :) The Glens painted the house and Kevin installed a bunch of pavers and did some landscaping for us.

We had a beautiful weekend for painting - the weather was perfect. Not too hot and no rain!

 

Uncle Glen painting

 

 

Check out the yard! Full of scaffolds, gutters, landscaping tools, etc.

 

 

Dad painting

Kevin worked hard to lay an awesome paver walking path for us. Thanks, Kevin! You are the best!!

 

Kevin had a very cute and sweet little helper - Anna!

 

Kevin's other helper - Dan! :) Unfortunately Dan was dealing with a foot/joint issue over the weekend so he could not spend much time on his feet as he wanted to!

 

Our little peanut loved playing with her older cousin Anna! Anna was so good to Lucy - she is going to be such a great big sister! 

 

Lucy did have kind of a rough weekend though with 2 visits to the Urgent Care. :( She was a bit under the weather, she was running a temp on and off, was fussy, not eating well, etc so I took her to the doctor on Sunday. Lucy was diagnosed with an ear infection. After some antibiotics and baby ibuprofen she was feeling much better. Yay!

 

With all of our outdoor work, we stirred up a lot of insects! Unfortunately our curious little Lucy Bear was stung by a yellow jacket. It was so sad. She cried and cried and her left index finger swelled up. She didn't have hives or any difficulty breathing but we took her to the urgent care again just to be sure. Yikes! Two visits in two days!! Thankfully, our baby is just fine. Good thing that Lucy is so tough.  :)

 

Katie was a wonderful baby sitter! She and Grandma took the kiddos to the zoo.

 

 Katie and Anna at the penguin exhibit

We took all of our workers out to dinner for hibachi! We thought that Anna would love it but she actually wasn't a big fan. 

 

 Anna didn't want to watch the fire!

Thank you so much for all of your hard work, Mom and Dad, Kevin, Katie, and Uncle Glen!! The house looks great! We are so blessed! We are very appreciative that you would spend your Labor Day weekend helping us out.

End of Summer Happenings

As we enter September, I wanted to make sure that I caught up on some late summer posts! I can't believe that we are approaching the end of summer. We had such a great time with little Lucy during her first summer! During the past few months she attended 3 weddings, she went camping for the first time, took swim lessons, visited cousins and grandparents, went to birthday parties, spent time with friends, and went from a baby who is content to sit to one that is all over the place!!  We love you Lucy Bear!

 

In late August we attended the Orton Park festival on Madison's East side. We listened to music, had a picnic, and watched some amazing acrobatics in the big Oak trees. You are not allowed to take pictures during the show because the flash may distract the performers but here is a shot of some of the set up - ropes and ribbons hanging from the trees! Daniel and I have wanted to go to this show for a long time but it seems like we were always busy during festival weekend. We are glad that we were able to go because it was awesome! If you live in Madison, we highly recommend that you attend.

 

We enjoyed a picnic before the show. Here is little Lucy eating her dinner. She was very excited to hold baby tomatoes in her hands.

 

We continue to receive weekly CSA baskets of vegetables from Crossroads Community Farm. The produce has been delicious and plentiful despite the drought this summer! We are fortunate to get so many amazing, organic veggies and we are happy to help support a local farm. Here are some peppers that we got recently. Yum!!

 

A few weeks ago my office mate Sara's little girl, Emma Grace, turned 1 years old! Lucy and I went to celebrate with her. Here are Lucy and Emma Grace checking each other out while standing around the coffee table. Side note - those coasters were a big hit with the kiddos! Who needs toys when you can make noise by hitting a coffee table with a wooden coaster!?! Good stuff.

 

 

Little Lucy and Brand New 1 year old Emma Grace!

 

Emma Grace and her mama Sara

 

Happy Birthday Emma Grace! We wish you a wonderful year to come filled with lots of adventures!!

Zoo Outing!

We are lucky to have a free zoo in Madison! It is so fun to take Lucy to see the animals and to meet up with friends during our visits. Here is a picture of some of our Mama/Baby friends on a recent zoo outing. Lucy loves her little pals - MacKenzie, Nolan, and Eagan! Lucy and Nolan are 2 weeks apart and she is about 2 months older than MacKenzie and Eagan. I can't wait to see these guys grow up together. It is also really wonderful to have some mama friends with kids the same age - I am always emailing these ladies with baby questions and updates on Lucy's milestones!