Prayer for baby Stellan

The little baby who I had written about a few weeks ago, Stellan (McMama's youngest)is very sick again. He has been diagnosed with RSV, basically meaning what started as a common cold has progressed into a very serious and threatening illness for the little guy. So, if you think of him, say a little prayer for this beautiful little family. You can check out McMama's blog (My Charming Kids is linked lower on the left hand side of the screen) for updates strait from the source.

Sigh... Another one has come and gone.

I think the whole world is joining together is a collective SIGH. The Christmas season has past us again for another year. Farewell to 2008, hello 2009.

I love this time of year, and I love spending time with all our family - but wowza I'm beat. We hosted my side of the family this year, and it was SO much fun. The meal turned out fantastic, which considering it was my first time hosting, I was pleased about. We played game after game, which honestly is probably my favorite part of Christmas. Even after being told "I stink at spelling" I showed them all by whooping them all in Upwords! Pit was a loud roaring good time also.

Once again, Grady was showered with gifts. My only "not me" for this Monday is that I definitely did not succeed in "not spoiling" him! But, we are beyond thankful for everyone generosity and are encouraged by the fact that he is a much loved baby.

As promised, here are a few pictures of our celebrations for your viewing pleasure.

Better late than never right!

Its been a busy, but good week in the Falk house hold. We had our Christmas #1 with the Falk side of our family on Sat, which was a very good time. Of course, G-man and cous Jackson were showered with gifts, all of which they loved and will love for quite some time. Grady seemed especially taken with the lovely silver bow that adorned one of the first gifts he opened. He played with that silly bow until it completely fell to pieces. One highlight of the day (besides the fantastically amazing meal Gwen put on) was that Jackson and Grady seemed to get over their shy feelings, and behaved like buddies! We even caught them conversing in baby language a time of two. The battles over toys even stayed at a minimum! I will post pictures of both Christmas shin digs when they are both over. You can look forward to a cute one of Grady and Jackson sitting like such big boys in their new lazyboy chairs that came from Grandma and Grandpa F.

Christmas #2 is coming up starting tomorrow and we are very much looking forward to it!
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It was brought to my attention that I missed my "Not Me's" on Monday (I apologize). It would seem that my silly stories are actually read by some people.... So here they are - better late than never!

I definitely did not spend the better part of an hour crawling around the house "chasing" my nine months old around. And his silly laughter and frantic high speed crawling was defiantly not just as much fun for me as it was for him!

And I surely did not lapse in my supervision skills one second to long, which was definitely not just enough time for my baby to push the bathroom door open, find the toilet paper and proceed to unroll nearly the entire thing. I then definitely did not simply roll it back up in a haphazard form for future use...

I also have not given into the fact that Grady generally only likes to play with things he can't have. I surely did not stock the lower kitchen drawer with all the wooden spoons, spatulas, measuring cups and more simply to let him "think" he's gotten into something he shouldn't. And I don't smugly enjoy the good 45 minutes that his sneaky discovery buys me in the kitchen.

To add onto the above "not me" - I surely did not discover that he had figured out how to pull open a drawer by the discovery that he had cut himself on the cheese grater... oops. Maybe I shouldn't have typed that one... oh well - it wasn't me
anyhow.
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Until next time - Have a happy happy Christmas and New years. I hope you find peace and love in abundance during this time.

Happy birthday to.... Me!

Another year older, and another year wiser... right! Who knows if that is true, but I can say that my 25th year was a year full of change and growth for me. I entered this year knowing that my life was going to change ten fold with the arrival of our then unknown baby. What I didn't know was how MUCH it would change, and how much growing it would require. I think in a lot of ways, I grew up last year. Becoming a mom has asked that of me.

I think my hope for life in the coming year, is that I will have the courage to know myself and the strength to be the women I know I can be.

When I think about next year, I have NO idea what is in store for us as a family of three. But, I do know this. Life is good! No scratch that - life is GREAT. I love who I am, I love my family, and I love our life. So here's to 26!

More Not Me Monday's

Without further build up, more Not Me's. A time when women across blogger world admit their shortcomings and live to smile about it.



This past week, while visiting my Grandmas house, I surely did not watch absently as my son crawled over to the table, and began to pull himself up on the back of the thick wooden kitchen chair. I did not think to myself "hmm, I wonder if that chair is solid enough for him to yank on it like that" only to have my thought finished by the vision of my baby tumbling backwards, followed closely by the large, very heavy wooden chair. And I defiantly did not get there too late, only to see that the chair had landed smack on his face. When I did remove my screaming baby from under the wreckage, there was surely not a large nasty bruise right under his eye...

And when we arrived home, Dan surely did not high five our baby and say "way to go buddy. Your first shiner". That was definitely not us.

I surely don't laugh every time our baby refers to him dad as "Diddy". I must not think it is just the cutest thing ever.

When taking Grady to the health unit for another weigh in, I did not see the nurse sceptically looking and my bruised baby thinking who knows what in her head. I surely did not hug my little man closer and proceed to tell the story only to assure myself and her that I am a good and safe mama even though my babies face might not look it at the moment... We then did not share an awkward giggle, knowing without saying it, that she was asking herself if she believed me.

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Here's a pic of the damage. It healed quickly, and really wasn't that bad.

I noticed today that its been almost a week since I posted. Technically, I have an hour and half before its Monday again - but I thought I should at least post something in between my "Not Me's". What to write.. what to write... oh I know. I got Grady weighed last week (on Monday actually) and he was *drum roll please* a whopping 23 pounds and 13 oz or so. Technically he was 24 pounds even while wearing his shirt and diaper, so when you factor that out I would guess he was around that weight. At seven months, he was 23 pounds and 4 oz, meaning he's only gained nine or so ounces in two months. However, he did grow a little under an inch in length coming in at 29 1/2 inch's. I guess that when you are constantly on the go, except for when you are sleeping, you don't gain as quickly :D. Ah, we love our little into everything G-man.

Other than that, things are pretty normal and steady around here. He has yet to pull our Christmas tree down, which is fantastically good.

Tune in Tomorrow. I will post some stories that are quite the doozy tomorrow :D

Not Me Monday Fun

I shamelessly follow a fun blog titled My Charming Kids written by a mom known as Mckmama. She and her family have a pretty amazing story in which they were told by the Dr's while pregnant with their 4th child, that her little unborn baby would surely die of a heart defect. They said that if he made it to his birthday that he would be terribly sick and would die shortly after. Mckmama used her blog as a place to rally other believes in prayer for her unborn baby. About 5 weeks ago he was born perfectly 100% undeniably healthy. With not a sign of any heart failure at all. For weeks the Dr's waited for the other shoe to drop so to speak, only to admit that something had happened to heal this little baby. Its a pretty neat story of Gods healing power. This beautiful little guy is proof that God gives and God takes, but God is always good.

Anyhow, on to "Not Me Mondays". McKmama started this Monday tradition to demonstrate that NO ONE is perfect and we as mothers fall down and make mistakes many many times. It is true that there is a underlying pressure on all of us to be perfect, which lets face it, is just never going to happen. I say if we do our very best, and love our children with all our hearts then we are doing a good job. The Not Me's are a way to sound off about our shortcomings in a humorous and fun way.
So here goes my first set of slightly sarcastic, hopefully light hearted "Not Me's!"
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A couple weeks ago, while swimming with Shannelle and Cous Jackson, I surely
did NOT huffing and puffing carry my 8 1/2 month old up all the stairs to top of the water slide only to realize that this possibly was a bit fast and big for me to take my baby down. And then I surely did NOT decide to wing it anyhow and proceed to place my baby on my lap, before zooming (yes zooming!) down the large very fast water slide that was NOT meant for moms and their babies. And Shannelle and Jackson did not see a terrified expression on my babies face when we splashed much to fast into the waters below. Nope, NOT me!

And, after months of adamantly insisting on making 100% of my babies food, I definitely did NOT go out and purchase a few jars of Heinz baby food... And I defiantly do NOT cringe every time I feed him this food. No sir, NOT me.

And that's enough for this week. Tune in next Monday for more Not me Therapy. Feel free to check out Mckmama's blog for her "Not Me's" or for more on Stellan's story.

Content

Today is just one of those great days. I don't know what makes this day any different than other days, but it is. I just feel SO content with my life. There is nothing more or less that I want right now. Wait, scratch that... there is nothing more that I need right now.

It hit me just after lunch today. I was cleaning up the regular bomb shell of a lunch mess that Mr. Independent makes while feeding himself. Grady was playing on the floor behind me, rolling his little orange car around. We had a good CD on, full tummies and a warm house. Nothing out the ordinary, but the feeling of absolute completeness came over me. I realized just how blessed we are right now, and just how fast these days are going.

Just thought I'd share. And the fact that Dan and I are going on a solo date tonight might also have brightened my day!
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G-man turned 9 months old yesterday. NINE MONTHS. Wowza. I don't have an update on his stats, but I plan to take him in to get weighed and measured soon.

Santa = Scared G-man

Well as the title states, Grady had his first visit with Jolly ol' Saint Nick.
Here's how the visit unfolded.

The mall we go to has a fairly nice Santa Booth that features dancing elf's, a rotating stage, and of course a Santa who's beard and belly are the real deal. While G-man and I waited for Dan to arrive, he was very into all the hoopla and was determined to touch the elf's. When it was our turn, we walked right up to the big guy and plopped Grady down for a quick photo. Stunned, Grady looked up at Santa, looked back at us, up at Santa, back at us, and once more back at Santa. Locked in on Santa, his little lip suddenly popped out, he sucked in all his breath and just started to scream! So that was the end of that. We quickly whisked him away and back down off the stage. However, everything at that point suddenly seemed to become very scary and he no longer had any interest in even peeking at the dancing elf's. After a few minutes he recovered, and we picked up his first, very stunned looking, picture with Santa.
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If you are interested, you are more than welcome to leave "Comments"! To do so, you just click the "leave comment" link below. A new screen will pop up with a place to type your comment. Then you just click "Name/URL", and type you name in the space. Next click publish comment and your done! I'd love to know who all the hits are from!
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Here's a picture of our not so scary little Santa!

8.5 month update on G-man

Myself and few friends who have babies born around the same time occasionally update one another on who are babies are becoming. I thought I'd share our newest update on Grady with all my blogger readers.

Grady is just about 8 1/2 months old. He still a little charmer, and is very loved by a lot of people. He's been crawling for a while now, but he prefers to do it "army" style. He just started pulling himself up on things, and gets so proud of himself when doing so! He quite a chatty little man, and is almost constantly babbling. He says mama, hey, hi - but is still working on dada. We've noticed recently that whenever the phone rings he yells out "HEY". He also claps when he's happy or excited to see someone. His new favorite game is catch with daddy. He would toss his little football for hours if there is someone to play with!

He eats almost everything, but is very expressive in letting us know when he doesn't like something. We have a pretty funny video of a cranberry/chicken meal "miss". He's almost fully on finger food, but I still give him a little puree with every meal. This is in addition to still getting a lot of milk.

As for sleeping... he is very sporadic with sleeping through the night. More often than not, he does very well and mostly sleeps right though (around 11 hours). But just when we think he has it down, he starts waking up again. And when he wakes up, it is not often just to calmly cuddle back to sleep. He is so sleepy himself that he can be a bit hysterical. But we know him pretty well, and can usually calm him down and help him fall back asleep.

He loves to swim. We usually go once a week or so. He passed level starfish with flying colors. Not that they don't all pass ;). He also loves music - particularly when I play the guitar and sing with him. At this point he doesn't know any better than to love it.. ha ha.

He's amazing. And we are loving being his mommy and daddy. I don't think we could have predicted just how amazing he would be, or how much we would love him!

Another practice run with my new photoshop. And what can I say... our boy loved the leaves!

Home... err, kindof I guess.

This past weekend, Dan, Grady and I took a quick day trip to Drumheller to visit Rachelle and Alex. It was the second time I had been "home" in the past 4 years!!! Even writing that astonishing to me. Drumheller was my home. It was where I was raised, where all my friends were, and where I have a million memories from my past, and yet I haven't even been there more than twice in 4 years. Driving down into the valley was a little bit of a strange experience. Even though it has been such a long time since visiting my hometown, driving down the hill seemed like something I could do with my eyes closed. Everywhere I looked I was flooded with both good and bad memories (mostly good). We drove through the intersection where my grade 9 self crashed my car into grade 12's Mr. Popular. We drove up the street past our first house in that town. We took a quick trip past the High School. We ate at the local favorite Bernie and the Boys, which was a good as I remember. And we went swimming in the pool where I spent countless hours swimming lanes during the years I was on the swim team. Overall almost nothing has changed, and yet it is all so different.

It was good to be back, but at the same time I realized that Drumheller is not my home anymore. Dan and Grady are my family, and wherever they are is home. That is the way is should be, and the way I want it to be!

It will always be fun to go visit "Auntie" Chelle though. She is hilarious and we are constantly laughing when we are together. Grady has his first trip down the big water slide with her, which was pretty fun to watch! It was easy to go for the day, and I hope we do it more often.

Oh, and Grady pulled himself up to full standing today for the first time. He's been able to get up to his knees for a while, but never his feet until today. He did it while he was playing with a box of cheerios. When he finally struggled to his feet he looked at me with a big silly grin as if to say "Wow mom, look at me go!!" Gone are the days that we can hide things on the couch...

Done and done

For the past week or so, I've been playing around with my blog layout. I used a new (and free) background, and have been working with photoshop to create the banner. I'm happy with it, so for now its done and done. Maybe I'll change it again around Christmas time.

Speaking of Christmas. We are getting pretty excited for our first year as a family of 3! Now that Grady is so into everything, I'm wondering how we are going to manage with our Christmas tree. I'm thinking of tying the tree to the wall somehow so that G-man can't pull it over on top of himself. As for gifts, we are thinking of getting him a few boxes and bags as these are the things he will be the most excited for. Kidding, but I do think that this year will be more exciting for us than him.

As for everything else; Nothing huge has happened lately. Grady has started waving, and clapping. And yes, it is as cute as you imagine. He has started to kind of pull himself up on things, so we've had to lower the crib mattress. I'll post a few new pictures of our handsome little man.



Bring on the snow!



Go Flames Go!

More Than Enough

This past Sunday at church the pastor said something that really struck me. He said "If everyone met a need when they could there would be much less need in our world". He is so right.

I truly don't think I am a selfish person, but I think that living a life that meets needs whenever you can calls for a new level of generosity and humility that I don't think most of us naturally have. Looking back, I remember how growing up I constantly had some type of collection on the go. I remember having a collection of mini-erasers that never got used, more rocks than were in the driveway, and foreign coins from country after country. Basically, I realize that it is in my nature to hoard things. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who has a house full of junk and other than the coins, these collections have long been gone. But, I do tend to hold my cards close so to speak both with possessions and my emotions.

I guess sometimes it feels like there will always be someone else who will step up, or that it doesn't really matter if we do nice things or not. But as the message implied, single actions add up to equal one big change. One of my favorite quotes is by Edward Everett Hale "I am only one. But I am one. I cannot do everything, but I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can" . I guess this is all just to say, that I realized that I have a duty keep the bigger picture in perspective knowing that my little part in the overall story matters. My view of God has radically changed over the past few years, but I do believe with my whole being that God would be happy to see his children loving one another with the kind of heart it takes to live up to the quote I sited from our pastors sermon last Sunday.

I sincerely hope that Dan and I can be examples of this kind of love in the world to our little man. It does matter more than any of us know.

Trick or Treat

Well, our first Halloween with a kiddo has come and gone. Our little Dragon didn't experience very much tricking or treating, but did look very cute in his costume. Here's a pic of our fierce little fire breather.



Halloween was a fun night. As we have for the past few years, we got together with Jeff, Shannelle and the Bumble bee also known as Jackson for supper while we handed out candy. As per usual, Uncle Dr. Jeff brought along some tooth brushes to hand out with the candy. And we are pleased to report that our house did not get egged for this little tradition! We ended up having around 45 trick or treaters visit our door. I'd venture to guess that we supplied half the high school with tasty treats (and of course their very own tooth brush). Whatever, I say if they take the time to dress up then they can have a mini O'Henry from me.

I think the best costume that came to our door was a 13 year oldish girl who looked JUST like the middle child from the Incredibles! It was amazing. She got extra candy. We got a chuckle out of her buddy who was apparently feeling very Fan-cee in her mothers too large high heals. I believe she was dressed as a dead bride...

We also had a few other visitors, including Grandparents, and the mix family. Little Dragon Grady seemed to gain courage from his new persona and enjoyed the evening with "Unicorn" Carly without even shedding one tear! He's so brave.



For whatever reason I love Halloween. I enjoy the costumes and love giving out candy. Dan and I know that there are teachable moments regarding some aspects that come with Halloween, but for now it is simple innocent fun. I'm already thinking about his getup for next year....

Yes, I'm Ma ma

This past weekend it happened! I was sitting working on the computer while Grady played on the floor behind me. He was chattering to him self, saying the usual Ga-ba-ga, Mmmmm-ba and so on. Or course this very cute, so I was sitting listening to him telling stories when I heard Mmmm, Mmm, MA MA Mom! I almost fell off my chair I was so excited. Of course, I tried to reinforce this new little word by repeating it many times, to which he would usually answer back with just a little smile. Over the past few days he has picked this word up with flying colors and can often be heard chattering mom mom mom. I love it. Now, I am not naive and know that he is not fully aware that I am Mom as is demonstrated when he calls his bear Mom, his rattle mom, or anyone who will listen mom. But I love it all the same! I am Ma ma!

Watch out World!

Baby gate is up, plugs are blocked, candles removed... He's officially on the move! Our baby is now a crawling, into everything little munchkin. Life with a baby on the go has changed things in our house. Just a few weeks ago, we could put him down in the middle of the room, leave for a few minutes and come back to find him as we left him. Now however, if anything is left open you will often find two little legs sticking of whatever space he can cram himself into. His new favorite toys to get his hands on are: 1. A bag of pasta, 2. The remote ,3. The phone, 4. The garbage can... and the list goes on. You'd think with a house full of age appropriate toys, he'd be more than content; but it seems he has an unusual knowledge of the things he can't have and those are the items he wants more than anything. The new challenges are minor compared to all the joy this new stage brings our house. He is SO proud of himself when he crawls to get the things he wants, and we love watching him learn new things!

In other news, he still despises yellow beans. He loves to read - especially his "Buzz Buzz Busy Bees" book, followed closely by "No No Noah!". He is babbling a ton. He likes to go into the nursery at Church, and does really well around other kids... except Carly Mix who seems to intimidate him with her cute little girl looks. He's still a big strapping healthy little man who we are beyond in love with.

Love Love Love you

Dan and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on this past Thursday (the 25th). Its amazing how fast time has flown by. We have now been together almost 7 years! We had a great date day in Calgary to celebrate (mmm, Red Lobster) while Grady hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Falk.

Looking back on that time in our lives, I am struck with how far we have come together. In 2004 we were new university grads, with not a penny to our names (and lots of school debt!). We were renting a little 1920's farm house that featured a pink themed bathroom and shag green carpet in the living room. We didn't have Internet, only had 3 T.V channels (4 if you count the blurry CTV), and our family consisted of us, Walter the fish, Callie our cat, and for a brief time Tucker and Charlie - R.I.P little kitties (lol...not funny at the time though). Dan was working for the city, looking for something more fulfilling, while I spent half my life (or it felt like)working as a youth worker at Grimmon House. Life was so different back then, and yet it was great. We have so many fantastic memories from those days. We started with nothing, and yet we have built a life together. Things have not always been easy, but through it all we have had each other. Even though our relationship has changed, and will continue to change, I love him more than ever. He is an amazing man, who I am blessed to be loved by.

Now here we are, 4 years later - living in a house we own, no silly pets(although we'd like that to change soon), driving cars that don't need to be fixed every month, and are happy in our jobs. Best of all, we have an amazing little man who is part of both of us. '

I can't say that we were always "content" during those times, even though we realize now that those were special, once in a life time days. Realizing that reminds me to appreciate what we have today. Grady's baby days are also not always easy, but they too are once in life time and I am trying my best to take them all in, and fully enjoy them while they last. Too soon he's going to be a six foot tall teenager who is way to cool for mommy! One of the songs I have in my "playlist" at the bottom of the screen titled "Your Going to Miss This" reminds of this every time I hear it!

More Family Pics

Thanks for the stollen pics of Grady mom!

He's half a year!

As impossible as it seems - Grady is already 6 months old! In those short few months, our lives have changed 100 times over. True, we do at times miss some of the freedom that we used to have, but when people tell you "your life will change" they don't tell you how much fuller your life will become. We are holding onto each moment, realizing for ourselves that they pass so quickly. We are a blessed family, and have had a great six months.

As for updates on our family. First, Alex proposed to Rachelle (my sis) - and she said YES!!! YAAHHH!!! He has been part of our family for a long time now, but they are making it official sometime in May or June of 2009. Plans right now are for it to be a tropical wedding, which makes it extra exciting. And she asked me to be the maid of honor, which of course I am honored to do!

Second - Grady is changing daily. He can sit up now without support for pretty much as long as he chooses to. He's not crawling, but is very anxious to get moving which can be very frustrating for him at times. But - he's adapted and has figured out that he can roll from one end of the room to the other to get the things he wants. I am often surprised to find him in a a variety of sticky situations as a result, including having his head stuck under the couch...

He is eating two solid meals a day in addition to all his milk. So far, he's a great eater. He loves both fruit and veggies, which is amazing considering I'm his mommy... I sincerely hope he is less picky than I am. I decided a few months ago to make all of his baby food rather than buy it. I find it very fun and easy, and am really enjoying preparing his meals. The only food he has struggled with so far is yellow beans. I do admit, his facial reactions to them is a pretty funny.

Amazingly enough, fall is here already. I am sure the new season will bring it many changes, challenges and much joy.

Summer Pic

"I Saw God Today"

This morning, like most mornings, I woke up to the sound of the monitor buzzing to life as Grady woke up a little earlier than usual. I decided that I would leave him for a few minutes to see if he'd fall back asleep (as I was crossing my fingers for). But he was wide awake and ready to tackle the day, so I grudgingly dragged my lazy self out of bed to get him out of his crib. When I walked into his room, he looked up at me and gave me the biggest Grady smile that comes from the bottom of his toes and fills his whole body with happiness. In that moment, I felt more love for that little boy then I knew possible. He has a joy within him that blows me away. At almost 6 months, he is already the best person I know - and I have full faith that his life makes this world a better place. I know that everyone probably feels this about their own children, but to me he is an amazing miracle. When I look at him, I see that God is at work in this world. The gift of Grady gives me hope.

"Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever truly has" - Margaret Mead

We did it! Family Camp 08'

Well, as the title states, we decided to go ahead and tackle family camp. For those who don't know, that means camping for nine days... with a 5 month old. We were blessed to be able to spend this years camp week in my parents brand new trailer. Despite numerous spit ups, stinky diapers, and muddy river feet we did our best to keep it as clean as it was when we got it. Compared to our previous stays in the slightly less luxurious "scamps" (no offence Chelle and Alex, we love it but it just doesn't compare :D) we felt like we were really living it up! That mixed with all the fanatic meals that were brought for us, we had a really relaxing and lazy week.

Grady did amazing, which I am sure comes as no surprise to anyone who knows him. He slept nearly as well as he does at home; even through the HUGE lightning storm, the insanely sensitive middle of the night fire alarm, and all the lovely Karaoke - "Turn Turn Turn". Dan and I have such a special place in our hearts for Harmatten and we felt very proud to have our beautiful little boy there with us this year. He had lots of fun playing with (OK really looking/meeting/squealing at) his friends Jackson, Carly, Finlay, and Gabriel.

We also really enjoyed one of the speakers this year. The Irish accent was entertaining - and I personally really felt touched by his sermons - especially his very first one. For the first time in a LONG time, I wanted to stay to listen to him speak, and was slightly sad that I had to leave every night to put our little man to bed.

It was nice to come home at the end of the week - but we did have a really good time and are pretty proud of ourselves for tackling camping!

(By the way - has anyone seen Evan Alminght??? Kidding! Too funny)

The life and times of the Falk Family

I decided to go ahead a start up a family blog. I'll do my best to keep this updated with all the exciting (or not so exciting...) happenings of our little family.