More Pictures

I see you Grandpa...
Getting a tiger tattoo just like mom.
Eating ice cream at Grandpa's employee picnic! We love that Grandpa works at Schwans!!
Tommy eating his ice cream too.
Tommy on a pony during the employee picnic from Schwan's.
Great Grandpa holding onto Sammy. He passed him off pretty quickly - he's too heavy.
Eating corn on the cob.
Pissed that we took away the corn on the cob! :-)
On a tractor with Grandpa
Tommy loves his Uncle Jerry -- he owns the tractors!
Sammy on a tractor with Grandpa
Tommy extremely happy on a combine!!! He thought the combines and tractors were really, really cool.
Getting into the tractor. He was very, very excited.
Let's go Grandpa!!!
Sammy was having fun too.

Pictures Attempt #2

Grandpa tickling Tommy on the way to riding tractors.
At Fawn-Doe-Rosa in St. Croix Falls -- the goose just pecked Tommy's finger. Per Tommy, that was a "silly goose".
Feeding the goats. Daddy held the bag of food too close to the fence and one smart little goat grabbed the whole bag.
Sammy enjoying Fawn-Doe-Rosa too.
Tommy's first tractor ride with Grandpa!!!
Feeding a doe at Fawn-Doe-Rosa.
Riding the Dizzy Dinosaur at the Benton County Fair
Sammy "enjoying" the Benton County Fair.
Playing the games at Benton County Fair. Tommy's a natural and won all sorts of things.
Feeding the goats at Fawn-Doe-Rosa
Riding the motorcycle ride at Benton County Fair
Riding the "jeep cars" at the Benton County Fair
Riding the space ship at Benton County Fair
Driving the pontoon with Uncle Ronnie
Riding the bikes at Benton County Fair
Tommy's first fish!!!
Casting with his Lightning McQueen fishing pole
Squishy face smile!!
Little Sammy boy.
Tommy driving the pontoon with Uncle Ronnie - we had our first fishing trip and Tommy had a blast in the boat - even though it was 100 degrees out. He had a lot of fun and caught a lot of fish. Thank you Ronnie and Robin!!!!

Mini Vacation

After Sammy's little surgery, we decided a little vacation was in order. We headed out to Taylors Falls, St Croix Falls overnight, then to Stillwater, and then to Grandpa and Grandma's. We had a great time visiting the scenic Taylors Falls area, eating ice cream, going to the rock store, and just checking this out. We then hung out at our hotel, with Mommy, Daddy, Tommy, and Sammy venturing in the "big pool". The boys and Mommy & Daddy had a blast. The next morning we visited Fawn-Doe-Rosa, a wilderness, learning center/petting zoo at the top of the hill in St. Croix Falls. It was really cool and I'm pretty sure the boys enjoyed it as much as John and I did. After that we went to the drive-up in Taylors Falls and had some awesome food before going on the St. Croix boat venturing up the river. It was pretty cool, but I think the boys will enjoy it a lot more when they are a little older. Tommy had a blast running around with another little boy and girl though.

We also ventured into Stillwater for the candy store - where we actually got to witness the whole "kid in a candy store" theory. It really was amazing how quickly he moved through there collecting different things.

We then ventured down the road - debating the whole way if we should get another hotel or just drive all the way to Grandpa and Grandma's in Marshall. Tommy wanted us to push on -- although Sammy was wanting to stop. We pushed through and made it to Marshall Friday night - really, really late Friday night, but made it. Saturday we ran out to Granite so Tommy could see the tractors and got to go on his first tractor ride with Grandpa. He thought this was AWESOME! He was in heaven, and I'm pretty sure that Grandpa was pretty happy about it too. :-) Tommy is now looking forward to harvesting season so he can go on the combine with Jerry and maybe even a big grain truck. We got to visit with my cousin Theo from France, as well as Uncle Leslie, Uncle Jerry, Great Grandpa & Grandma Nelson, which is always a good time.

Sunday was also full of excitement. We got to go with Grandpa to his work picnic. Schwan's has an awesome employee picnic at the college where Grandma works. They have a catered lunch, all the free ice cream you can imagine, jumpy things, pony rides, petting zoo, carnival games, cotton candy, snow cones, etc. It's a great time. Tommy made his way around to everything and absolutely LOVED the pony rides and it was a great day for everyone. Sammy even enjoyed the petting zoo....and the ice cream :-)

Hope you enjoy the pictures. I tried to include something from everything. We had a great time and are looking forward to many more great mini vacations like this one!

Well -- hopefully I'll get the pictures to load soon. I'm having some troubles. I'll keep trying soon!

Surgery last week for Sammy

As some of you know already, little Sammy had a little surgery last week. He was born tongue tied. Depending on the severity, the doctors sometimes decide to clip this and sometimes don't, especially if the baby isn't having any problems eating, etc. Sammy didn't have any problems eating (still doesn't), but after his teeth started coming in, the area started getting irritated and he developed a sore with some scar tissue in the area and the ENT doc thought it should be clipped. Since he's already 9 months old, we were informed they would need to sedate him to do it. Yeah, Mommy was not thrilled about this.

So last Wednesday 8/10/11 we headed to the Surgical Center and they put Sammy under and clipped his tongue. They also removed that area of irritated skin and he got 2 stitches. He did Awesome (which in my head I knew he would, but was scared to death about the sedation portion of it). Everything looked good, surgery went well. He's already healed up and at some point will realize he can stick his tongue out now. The doctor did submit the area removed for pathology, which came back just fine as well. Hopefully this is the first and last time we have to deal with sedation for any of the kids. :-)

Sad Day in Herring Household

RIP PorkChop. You knew how to press our buttons, but you were our baby before we had babies. You were a good dog and we already miss you greatly. Hopefully you are not feeling any pain anymore and playing with Lucky in Doggie Heaven.

PorkChop had slowly been going downhill lately and we had to make the tough decision to bring him to put him down before he got worse. We think it was a form of cancer that started in his mouth and had progressed rapidly in the last couple of days. The decision was definitely not an easy one and I think both John and myself were hoping it wouldn't actually come to this at all, but we knew it was the right decision when he was having a hard time eating his favorite - pig ears, and also had a hard time with the last meal we bought him of a roast beef sandwich. He was a wonderful dog who we are already missing dearly. RIP PorkChop. We love you and as Tommy says "I'm sad" which pretty much sums it up for all of us. :-(

Granite City Days 2011

Helping Daddy mow the lawn.
Sitting on a dump truck at Granite City Days
Sitting in a fire truck
Face Painting of Race Car "just like Lightning"
Happy, Smiley Sammy with Big Brother.

Spent the day with the kids and John at Granite City Days in St Cloud at Lake George. It was awesome. Tommy had a blast with petting zoo, bouncy things, seeing firemen and fire trucks, sitting in a fire truck, lots of little activities, balloons, riding in a horse drawn wagon, face painting, and numerous other things. It was a great day! Sammy had a great time and was awesome, which made for an easier day for Mommy and Daddy. Forgot our camera, but got a few pics from Daddy's cell.

I have to share this as well because Tommy cracks us up --
The other day in Target Tommy saw a guy wearing a cowboy hat. Everyone wearing a cowboy hat is a cowboy. He busted out laughing and says to us -- Haha, a cowboy in Target?!?!?! It was hilarious the way he said it -- like what the heck is a cowboy doing in Target.

He has known what the Mississippi River is for about 2 years now. Now Daddy is teaching him the new names for it...namely Old Man River. We drive over it now and he tells us -- Daddy, that's the Mississippi. It's Old Man River :-)

John flew through a "yellow turning to pink light" tonight. Tommy instantly, "Daddy, why did you go through a red light?" Guess we're not getting out of any tickets any more.

6 months old!!

Can't believe my baby is 6 months old today!! Sammy did great with his shots. Cried for a little bit, but distraction works wonders :-) He's 21 lbs 10 oz (off the charts) and 28 inches long (95th percentile). Big brother came along too and did a great job. Sweet talked the nurse into $.30 and a sucker, and a mint from Mommy's work...and talked to Sammy all through his shots to make him feel better.

Sammy is rolling all over the place and can't be far away from crawling. He's in the "phantom" stage where you can't really see him moving but one minute he's on this side of the room and the next he's on the other side. He's getting so big and is such a happy baby now.

Tommy is doing great! He is such a good big brother. He spends a lot of time trying to make his little brother giggle, which we absolutely love. He's been helping Daddy fix things around the house and helping Mommy cook, still getting upset when we empty out the dishwasher without him or doing laundry without him. He's a great helper!