A sunny weekend

Not much new news from Wisconsin! Nate's brother, Keith, came over on Friday night so that he and Nate could play guitar, hang out and catch up. The next day was sunny and WARM, and the boys had tons of fun with their Uncle Keith. The photos include one of Gabe and Keith fixing Gabe's tractor. He was so excited to have it fixed that he rode it around for most of the afternoon -- Sunday too! His favorite game is to hook up the old wagon to the tractor and haul Asher around in it. Asher doesn't seem to mind too much --- he screamed like crazy when I tried to remove him from the wagon!!

At the beach

The other day I took the boys to their favorite park, down near the beach. Asher discovered sand, with his bare toes, for the very first time. Gabe, in true Gabriel fashion, did not want to take his shoes and socks off and get his feet sandy. What a weirdo! But We had a great time and are enjoying the milder temperatures that mother nature has thrown our way lately. It's been a nice change!

Asher's animal sounds

Enjoy this short clip of Asher making all the animal sounds he knows. The only one we left out -- on accident -- was "Lizard" in which he sticks his tongue in and out like a little lizard -- very cute! I'll have to post it later! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Today is Nathan's 31st birthday! The bummer is, it's a Tuesday, so he has to work. Yuk! But we're still making it special! I can't share all the details, otherwise, I"ll spoil the surprise for Nate! But I'll blog more about it later.
The photo of Nate and the boys was taken this morning, when Nate opened two of his presents. The other photo was taken of both boys while they were being lazy, watching CARS this afternoon while I baked.

Oh My NOLA! What an evening!

I haven't blogged yet about our amazing evening last Friday. I took the night off work and Nathan took me out to see Harry Connick Jr. at the Milwaukee Theater as part of a birthday present to both of us.
It was an incredible concert! Connick is on his New Orleans tour, with a full band, many of whom are actually from New Orleans, and WOW! He did a bunch of songs from his new "Oh My NOLA" CD, as well as a few old tunes from previous CD's. As it was Good Friday, he did an amazing version of "The Old Rugged Cross" that nearly got a standing ovation. But the best part was, that A.) He was funny and seemed likable (I hate it when stars come off as snobs) and B.) He sounded even better live than on CD, a rare thing indeed.
After the show, Nate and I drove around the corner to the back of the theater. Nate had taken this photo (above) at Preservation Hall a month before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. As luck would have it, we had an extra 11X14 print that Nate had used to enter a photo contest here in Milwaukee, so he decided to go try and give it to him. When he got to the back of the theater, Connick was already done signing autographs, but Nate gave it to a security guy, explaining that it was a gift, and put one of his business cards with the print. The guy promised to personally give it to Harry, and even though we figured the odds were slightly against us, we were still pretty happy to think that possibly, our gift had gotten through.

A few days later, Nate recieved this e-mail at work:

hey nathan...

how kind it was of you to give me that incredible photograph - it's an amazing image... it really means a lot to me... i hope you enjoyed the show... take care

harry connick, jr.

A fun little quiz

I sort of had a feeling I would come out as a "mac." But this was still a fun little quiz! (If you take the quiz, on the last question, pick any "code" and it will give you your results.)

You Are a Mac

You are creative, stylish, and super trendy. You demand the best - even if it costs an arm and a leg.

Are You a Mac or a PC?

I'd like a sub sandwich, hold the mayo and the coyote...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/04/chicago.coyote.ap/index.html

Okay, my only experience with coyotes was when I was on my honeymoon in Deadwood South Dakota and we had left our windows open, only to awake at about 5 a.m. to the song of several coyotes who had circled below the window at our B&B (which was in the black hills). It literally made the hair on my neck stand up -- such an eerie sound to hear in this day and age.

So, I'm thinkin'.... in this case ... I WOULDN'T have been the guy who finished his sub sandwich before heading out the door while a coyote was waltzing around the place. Huh. Maybe it's just me...? But look at the photo! Doesn't he look like he's just waiting to eat somebody's face off???

Heart-to-heart

Great news! This morning, I got to hear our baby's heartbeat for the very first time. I'm in week 14 already, but at my last checkup, week 9, it was too early to hear it. So it was a great joy to finally get to hear it. Asher went along with me, but he didn't seem too impressed. :) The rate was 169 ... which means a girl, according to the old wive's tales...

Ahhh...oonagi!

Here are some shots of Gabriel doing yoga with Nathan. Nate, thanks to an "investigative" story his magazine is doing, has embarked upon a 12-week super fitness regime, complete with daily workouts (one day of which, is yoga) and a prescribed menu. He's doing very well -- showing much more willpower than I ever could, considering I am NOT on such a plan, and constantly wave chocolate, ice cream, or whatever else I'm feeding "baby" right under his nose. I'm quite impressed. And if he ends up looking like the guys on the brochure when he's done ... I'll be a happy woman! :) Hee hee! But anyway, Gabriel has decided that he will do the workouts too. So he faithfully puts on his workout clothes (shorts and a shirt) and treks upstairs to our attic playroom/workout room with Nate nearly every day. It's just tooooo cute. Especially the way he comes downstairs afterwards and says, "Mom! Look how big my bumps are getting!" as he flexes his arm muscles with pride. Of course, I "ohhhh" and "ahhhh" at all the appropriate times. He's such a little man!