Thanksgiving and such

Our picture-perfect apple pie.

The first annual Metzger family Gobble Wobble run/walk! Sophia rode on Ben's back while he ran for the majority of it but I couldn't keep up with him to get any pictures!!

Everyone vegging out after eating a ton!

Ben and the kids all bundled up. It's freezing here right now!

The Guitar

Some friends from church gave Caleb and Sophia this guitar a couple weeks ago. They have been non-stop musicians since then.



I love Sophia's face in this picture. She looks so pathetically sad that Caleb has the guitar and she doesn't!

Here's a little glimpse of our red kitchen too. It used to be a horrible yellow. The cabinets will someday be white.

Halloween!

Here are some photos from this year's Harvest Party at church. We had tons of fun!

Caleb was Elmo!

Sophia was Gabriella Montez from High School Musical.

Elmo and Cletus. Once again, my lovely husband dressed as Cletus for the Harvest Party. This time he was a construction worker. His personality completely changes the second those teeth go in and the glasses go on. If you've never seen it, you are missing out. I didn't know when we got married that Ben had split personalities!

Gabriella enjoying some pop...a very rare treat!

The whole family. I was Emma Mae, Cletus' pregnant wife....no, I am not really pregnant!!!

High School Musical

This is a story Sophia narrated over the past week with the help
of me, Ben, and some different babysitters she's had (Liz and Alison and Luke).
I thought I would share it with you.

High School Musical
by Sophia Folman

Gabriella and Troy went skateboarding. Then they had tape on their shoes so they could jump and not lose their boards. After that, they sledded because it was snow time. And then, when the snow starts to melt, they take a run.

They ran for four miles. Then they rested and had a snack. After resting they went home for hot cocoa and dinner. Then they cleaned up the mess.

The next day they went outside and raked up leaves and jumped in them and raked them up again.

They went shopping and bought a new laptop.

I love when they kiss. They had a good weekend. They went to the grocery store and got a hundred stuff.

Dear Gabriella and Troy, I hope you have a good night at the grocery store. "How did you get out of the grocery store in the middle of the night? It was locked," their friends asked. They unlocked it because they had keys and then they went out and locked it.

They walked, walked, walked, walked and then Gabriella and Troy went to Troy's house. Then they swimmed, swimmed, swimmed in circles until they kissed. And then Troy and Gabriella swimmed home.

They rided horsies and the horsies were wet but they were holding on so they wouldn't fall off. Actually, they were on the same horsie and Troy was hanging onto the horsie and Gabriella was holding onto Troy.

Sharpay and Ryan walked two miles and they snapped their fingers for their show. And then they got to Sharpay's favorite store which is called Awasha. At dinnertime they went there and then they went shopping and then they stayed there all night. Ryan put his arms with Sharpay's and they made a big circle. Then they snapped until 5 in the morning. They they were singing "blah, blah, blah." And then they clapped. clapped, clapped until 4 in the morning because their mom and dad wouldn't let them out of their bedroom. They shared a bunk
bed. Ryan and Sharpay ate breakfast by theirself early in the morning because their mom and dad said they could.

Then they went, "cute, cute, cute, cute," for 42 days. Ryan and Sharpay got their eyebrows pierced. It felt funny.

Bolton (Troy) climbed rock. It was bigger than a house. When he got to the top, he crawled back down just like a baby. Troy held his arms out and jumped and Gabriella jumped into his
arms. Then Gabriella climbed up the mountain and climbed back down again and then she caught Troy. Then they both went, "snap, snap, snap" for 32 hours.

Troy dressed up as Mickey Mouse and Gabriella was Minnie Mouse for Halloween. They went to McDonald's and had sandwiches and treats. They also went to the Harvest Party. There, they jumped and had fun. They were still dressed up and they went to Troy's house. They danced and sang on the couch. Then they went, "blah, blah, blah, blah." Then they fell asleep on the couch. Then they woke up and jumped in the air and would catch each other.

When they were at school and they went to the gym they played a game called Splash. Then they went to the library and checked out a book called, "High School Musical 2." Then they went to Troy's house and got Troy's dad's truck and went to Gabriella's house and then went back to Troy's house and gave his dad's truck back. Then Troy walked to Gabriella's house because it wasn't that far. Then they played a game called, "Troy, Gabriella, Troy, Gabriella."

Troy and Gabriella flew, flew, flew to places called Horse Horse.

The End

Our Vacation

We took a little vacation to Bayfield, Wisconsin a few weeks ago to camp for a few days. It was a blast...for the most part. We got there on a Tuesday night and I entertained the kids in the car while Ben set up the tent in the pouring rain and then we went to town for dinner. Wednesday and Thursday were beautiful though. We went to Madeline Island, checked out the shops in Bayfield, picked apples and attended the apple pie contest to sample the pies before the AppleFest. Then, Thursday night Caleb woke up coughing so bad he couldn't breathe and Ben had to take him to the ER. The doctors there thought he had pneumonia; another doctor here thinks it was croup. Either way it was very scary. So, we got up first thing Friday morning, I entertained the kids in the car while Ben took our tent down in the rain and we went home and vegged for a few days, watching High School Musical over and over and baking. These are a few of the photos from our trip.

A couple more photos from this week

Our little model. Notice the hair blowing in the wind!

Caleb having some ice cream his Aunt Karen bought for him.

Sophia and Caleb at Carnival Thrillz. We went there tonight with some friends. It's this place in Canal Park where you pay a few bucks and there is a jumping castle, slides and other stuff for kids to play on. They have to wear socks in there and Sophia ran off of the mats onto the tile floor, slipped and smacked her face on the floor 20 minutes after we got there. The poor girl got a bloody lip and bruised her gums pretty badly. Two of her teeth are a little loose from it.

She's a trooper though. She screamed for a solid 10 or 15 minutes straight and then decided it was time to play again. If you click on this photo and look at her smile you can see, it doesn't look quite right!


Caleb on the back of a car at Thrillz, having the time of his life.

Sophia is 4 (going on 14)!

Sophia turned 4 last week and she celebrated all week long. My brother Steve and his family came up and spent the night at our house last Sunday and celebrated her birthday with us Monday. We had a great time and even went up to Gooseberry Falls with them for a couple hours. Then, on Wednesday she had a party with her friends. The theme of the week (not just her party) was princesses and she wore that dress (a hand-me down from her cousin Megan) for about three days in a row!

The birthday girl!

Sophia and her cousins Sebastian and Lily.

Making a crown at her princess party.

Random Photos

Here are just a few photos from the past couple months. I could have put lots more up but didn't want to bore you. These are some highlights.

Sophia and her cousins, Bronte and Renae in Canal Park.

A bear outside the chocolate store in Canal Park. Caleb really loved that bear!

Sophia and Ben's first kayak ride in Lake Superior.

Caleb and I at the end of our first kayak ride in the lake. As you can see, he really enjoyed it. It took him five minutes to fall sound asleep in the kayak.

Sophia at Enger Tower. Some friends got married there last weekend and Sophia and I had a little photo shoot after. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding!

The house

I finally had a few minutes to download the last two months worth of photos onto my computer and thought I better update the blog. Sorry it's been forever. I have some photos of the house for those of you who have been wondering how it's coming along. With lots of help from family and friends we were able to get a bunch of projects started and/or completed before we ever moved in. It was a huge blessing because since we moved in it has gone much more slowly... Here's some of the work. I'll post more as we continue to do work...especially whenever we finally make it into our bedroom!! Please, don't ever paint the trim in your bedroom pink, especially without cleaning it first!

The new fence. They did a great job. I think it's the straightest fence in Duluth!

My lovely husband!

Sophia's room. The canopy lasted about 3 days before being ripped out of the freshly sheet rocked ceiling during a temper tantrum. It sure was cute for three days though!

The safer way to let them help!

Caleb's room...we still need a carpet remnant and the green doesn't look quite so neon in person!

Our house

Here's a photo of the front of our new house. We close on it this Thursday and then will start digging in on the work that needs to be done. We are excited. The grass/dandelions were a foot long at least but Ben and a friend spent the morning working on it and it is getting better already!

You got it.

So it wasn't that difficult...but our hair does look really similar from the back doesn't it??

Pop Quiz!

My brother Don and his kids are visiting this weekend for Bronte's soccer tournament. We went down to Canal Park today and got this picture of me and my nephew Aaron. Your job is to guess which head of hair is mine and which is Aaron's. He does have quite a nice head of hair for a 14 year-old boy!

One more thing...

I had to save this for a different post. A couple days before we left for California we made an offer on a house and it was accepted so we had the inspection the day before we left. During our whole trip Ben was on and off the phone with our realtor, the banker, plumbers, etc...negotiating and finding out info on the house. After dealing with a whole bunch of stuff we decided today we are for sure getting the house. They have accepted our counter-offers and we sign the papers tomorrow. The closing will be June 8th! We will stay in this apartment until the end of June so we have a few weeks to do some work on the house and get packed up and move.

We are really excited! The house needs work but it's going to be a great house for us. The funny thing is, it's only three blocks away. Since we have been married we have only lived within a 6 block radius. We used to live at 7th and 7th, now we are at 10th and 10th and we will soon be at 7th and 10th - right in the middle! It makes moving trucks very affordable since they charge by the mile!

California!

We got back from California on Tuesday night. We spent about 9 days there and we had a blast! The first four days were spent near Anaheim (home of Disneyland) at a National Vineyard pastors and leaders conference. The conference was really good and they planned some free time into it so we could hang out with people and see some sights. This was good since we had Sophia and Caleb with us. They had childcare and fun stuff planned for the kids during the conference so they really liked it too.

When the conference finished the rest of our staff went back to Duluth and we stayed for some much needed vacation. We went to Disneyland on Friday and then to San Diego from Saturday until Tuesday. We got to see some great beaches, SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo. We all had a great time!

When I downloaded my photos off the camera we had 541! Don't worry, I've only put a few highlights on here.


Notice Caleb's finger in this picture. Contrary to what the picture shows, he really loved Mickey Mouse. All day he would see him on stuff and scream, "Me Mouse, Me Mouse!!"

This was the "Shamu Rocks" show at SeaWorld! It was probably my favorite thing we saw on the whole trip. This guy surfed across the whole pool on the whale's back.

A day at the beach. Of course the water was never actually warm enough to swim in!

At the zoo!

Sophia has been working on this sucker all week long. I think it was the highlight of the trip for her!

A Career for Sophia

It was beautiful weather here yesterday and we went down to the lake for awhile last night to enjoy it. I pulled out my camera and Sophia really wanted to take a picture of us. It turned out great. I think we have discovered her calling in life! You might actually start seeing photos with both of us in them more often now.

This is a good thing because exactly seven days from now we will be on an airplane to sunny Southern California. Maybe she could actually get some good photos of us at the beach!

And it begins...

Caleb got his first (of I'm sure many) stitches last night. I had to stay home and get some work done while Ben took the kids to small group with him. The kids were upstairs with the babysitter, Sierra, when Ben heard Caleb start screaming right at the end of the night. Sierra came running downstairs and Caleb's eye was bleeding like crazy. As far as they could figure out, one of the kids tried to give him a hug and accidentally knocked him over into the TV stand in the bedroom they were in.

Some friends brought Sophia home to me while Ben took Caleb to the ER to get a couple stitches. He said he did a great job. He cried while they did the stitches but then sat up, waved and said, "bye bye" to the nurse and doctor as they left.

The poor little guy has no chance really. Ben has all sorts of scars from where he got a few stitches here and there. Every one has a funny story with it....like hitting himself in the forehead with a tennis racket! Caleb just decided it was time to start following in his daddy's footsteps, at 16 months old!

Why we live in Duluth...

We went for a bike ride along Lake Superior today and it was awesome. It was my first time on a bike this year and Ben's second. It was a beautiful day - sunny and around 45 or 50 degrees. It's warm for Duluth right now, anyways! We started by the lake at Brighton Beach and rode up Scenic 61 (which goes right next to the lake) for awhile. Then we found a picnic table and stopped to have lunch. After lunch we continued up the shore a little until Caleb started to reach his meltdown point and then we headed back. It was a blast! The kids did pretty well in the trailer and each took at least a little nap in there. It was a good reminder of why we live in Duluth. You can't find that good of scenery for a bike ride many places. We even saw a few loons on the lake today!