Our New Place

About 5 weeks ago we were blessed to be able to move into our own place! It is a townhouse in Onalaska. We have our own entrances and a parking spot in the parking lot behind out building. We also have washer and dryer hookups in the basement, so we don't have to do coin laundry anymore! On the main floor we have a living room, closet, and kitchen/dining room. Upstairs are two bedrooms and the bathroom. The basement is unfinished, but it is the size of the other floors, so there is plenty of room for storage and for a little play area. We have all of the essentials unpacked, but there remain boxes in the basement waiting for us to go through them. We do feel settled, but will feel even more so once we get pictures on the walls. Here's a few pictures to give you an idea of what it's like. Please excuse the boxes. I took these the week we moved in.

Upstairs - looking from the doorway of our room you can see the kids' room, the top of the stairs, and the bathroom is on the left in the hallway.

This is looking all the way through our place. I'm at the front door and you can see the back door in the kitchen. The doorway in the hall is a nice sized closet.

Our kitchen. Not much counter space, but it works. A small pantry is to the right of the refridgerator.

Emily's First Haircut

This last Sunday Emily got her first haircut - ever! She had such beautiful curls that you couldn't tell how long it really was. It was starting to get really snarly, and not looking so nice, so it was time for a trim. We went over to Tim and Jess Payne's in Bangor. They even let her watch Sponge Bob on TV so she would sit still. Jess did a great job. Her hair looks so nice! She even put a few curls into a bag for us to take home and put in Emily's baby book. Emily's hair looks pretty similar to what it was before, but it's softer now, and just slightly shorter. Thanks Jess!

The Before...

And After!

And afterwards she even got to ride on Joshua's big giraffe!

Trick or Treating

This year our family did trick or treating for the first time. We weren't sure what to expect, but it went really well. We only stopped at 3 places, but Emily did very well saying Thank You and bye-bye. It was a good start. She was a ladybug, and Joseph was a pumpkin. They looked so cute I want to dress them up again! Emily liked her costume, and kept the hood up the whole time. Joseph didn't know the difference since he slept most of the time. The weather was nice, so that made it easier, too. Enjoy the pictures.

Emily enjoying her spoils, including stickers.

The whole family.

Joseph in his pumpkin outfit.

Joseph and Emily with Daddy.

I think I have a picture just like this, but for Emily's first Halloween.

Emily's all ready to go (except for shoes).

Pumpkins

This year for the first time, Emily helped make a Jackolantern. It went pretty well. She likes to point at it and say pumpkin! We thought she wouldn't like getting dirty and sticking her hands in, but boy were we wrong! She dug right in to finding those seeds and putting them in the bowl. Here are some pictures, but not quite in the right order. After Emily's was done, then Daddy did a second one for Joseph, who was napping at this point I think.

Mommy cutting out the eyes of the Jackolantern.

Emily helping Mommy and Oma pick out the seeds.

Emily helping scoop out more seeds.

Emily and Daddy with the finished pumpkin.

Homecoming

Joseph is sure growing fast. He can hold his head up for short amounts of time before it comes crashing back into our shoulders. And he's been smiling for a little over a week now. It's not consistent enough to get it on camera yet, but we'll post his little gummy smile when we can.

This year we were able to make it to WLC's homecoming. We actually had great weather for sitting outside all afternoon. It was fun to see all my college buddies again. We stayed at Tim and Jess Kveen's. Emily had quite the time with the baby gates. She was somewhat upset that she couldn't follow us from room to room like she's used to.

Joseph's first football game!
Trying to get 3 kids to smile at the camera is a challenge!

All the cousins.

Moving

Hi everyone,

Yes, we're moving. We're heading to Onalaska, WI at the end of the month. We've been thinking about it for quite a while, and after much prayer enough things seem to be leading us to do this now. We have Joseph's baptism affirmation in church on Sunday, so I'm sure we'll have more pictures to share after that. Here's 2 more pictures of Joseph. The one is from the first week he was home and shows how much hair he has. The other is of Joseph and Brian. Joseph is wearing the outfit that Brian wore home from the hospital when he was born.

It's a Boy!

It's a boy! On Sunday night, August 23, Joseph William was born. He was born at 10:04pm and weighed 7 lb 6.6 oz, and was 22 inches long. He has lots of very dark hair. He even has more than Emily did! He was baptized in the hospital the next day by Grandpa Unnasch. Mommy and baby are doing well. We're all glad Grammy Unnasch is here to help us get back on our feet. Emily likes Joseph and runs over to him whenever he squeaks. Here are a few pictures. I'm sure we'll update more as we take more pictures. Joseph William Bartelt

Emily just after giving Joseph a kiss, and Joseph yawning.

Emily is "counting" to Joseph out of a counting book made for Brian when he was a baby by his cousin, Michelle.

Emily's Birthday

Our little girl is officially 2 years old! We had a nice, quiet day on Monday. Since a full size cake is a lot of dessert for the three of us, we got some frosted cupcakes. Emily seemed to like them, and didn't make as big of a mess as she did with her cake last year. After supper we let Emily open her presents (some Dr. Seuss books) and cards. She really enjoyed all of the cards. The pictures were pretty. She'll have another little birthday celebration sometime around the new baby's baptism for some family that will be here then.

The Wedding!

Just over a week ago, on July 25th, Brian's brother Kevin and his fiancee Amanda got married. It was a wonderful wedding. Everything went very, very well. It was a fun weekend all around. We're very happy and excited for them. Brian and I both stood up in the wedding, and Emily was the flower girl. They had the couples walk into the church together, and Emily was playing shy, so Brian just carried her. It's OK, she still looked cute. She was very tired most of the weekend, but it was still great. Here's a few pictures.

The three Bartelt sisters!

The Bartelt side of the family.

Here's Emily with the bride and groom.

Brian and I taking a break from the formal picture taking.

This is Emily in her dress. She didn't like it at first. It was too poofy or something. She kept playing with it. There are fake petals in the bottom of her skirt.

Of course we couldn't stay at a hotel a few blocks from Lambeau and not go to the Packer pro shop! They didn't get the old fashioned helmets, but Emily did manage to come home with that Packer ball (thanks to Grandpa B.).

New Bed

Ah, how this post has changed in my mind so much since I first thought of writing it. If I wrote it on the first night we set up the bed, it would have been a very positive, happy note. Emily loved her twin bed and couldn't wait to crawl all over it. We put her to bed and she stayed there and slept all night! (We didn't have the bed on a frame for the first week or so.)

Then I don't know what happened, but we had a few (or a lot of) bad nap/bedtimes. It seems sometimes she just keeps popping up out of bed, and other times she'll stay in bed and go to sleep. And in the morning, she's getting up about an hour earlier than when she was in her crib (which wakes Mommy and Daddy up earlier, too). I know it will all work out in the end, but the transition has not been as easy as I had hoped. Yet as Brian reminds me, it's good that we're doing this now before #2 comes along. Here's a couple cute pictures of her in her new big girl bed.

4th of July

Yeah, I realize I'm a bit late posting about the 4th, but it was fun, so I'll share. We didn't take Emily to a big fireworks display because 1) it was way past her bedtime, and 2) she probably wouldn't have liked the noise.

So instead we bought a few simple things to do at home after Brian got done at work. First we tried the black snakes. You light them, and then a trail of black foam looking stuff "grows" out of it. Emily hated it! I don't know if it looked creepy to her, or if the flame at the bottom scared her. So next we tried the snappers. These are the little things in the white wrappers that just make a popping noise when you throw them on the ground. I wasn't sure she'd like them because they're noisy. But she loved them! She actually probably threw most of them herself. And she threw them just hard enough so they'd actually pop. So that was our big 4th of July celebration.

Oh, and did I mention she was "cooking" crackers that day, too?

Father's Day

I know I'm a little behind on my updates. For Father's Day weekend we were in the Beaver Dam/Friesland area. On Saturday Emily and I went to Amanda's bridal shower (future sister-in-law), and then spent the day with the Bartelt side. It was a very fun day for all, and Emily had a blast, even though she didn't get a nap. She even got to play in a kiddie pool and sandbox!

Then on Sunday we spent the morning and early afternoon in Friesland with the Unnasch side. Emily did very well in church, bouncing back and forth between her Grammy and me. When we headed back home it only took her about 5 minutes to fall asleep in the car. She was a tired girl, but still traveled well. We're hoping the trip at the end of this month goes well, too.

Rhubarb, Shoes, and Peek-A-Boo

So I finally made that strawberry-rhubarb sauce. I tried to give it to Emily straight, but she didn't really seem interested. Later I put some on ice cream (my favorite way to eat it), and then she couldn't get enough of it. So that's fine. We'll work her up to eating rhubarb straight.

A week ago I got Emily a pair of white Sunday shoes at a garage sale. They're the mary jane style with a velcro strap. Well, since there are all broken in, Emily can open and close the straps easily. She's been taking off her shoes for months, but now she can even put those shoes on! They're not always on the right feet, but that doesn't take long to fix.

The last couple of days we've spent a bunch of time in the car. On our way home the other night Emily decided to start playing a game with us. She had a blanket on her lap, and she pulled it over her head. Brian and I asked "Where's Emily?" and then she'd pull it down and giggle. I think she could have kept it up for hours! We've played that game at home if Brian or I throw the blanket on her head, but this time she started it. I'm glad she keeps herself amused and is such a good traveler!

Last Week

Last Sunday Emily spent the day running around with Uncle Chad and Aunt Kim. They were in town for an anniversary celebration. Then on Monday Grandma and Grandpa Unnasch were in town and we went to Minneopa to grill out for Memorial Day. There Emily "played" frisbee and ran around for quite a while. So the next couple of days she took really good naps. :) It was really fun to see everyone, though!

I'm glad it's summer now because Emily can't get enough fruit! I cut up the watermelon my mom brought and I think she'd eat the whole thing in one sitting if I let her. This afternoon she went over to the fridge, and after I opened it she went after a container of strawberries. I'm hoping to make some strawberry-rhubarb sauce. We'll see how she likes that!

On Saturday I found a bedrail for a twin bed at a garage sale. My parents brought my old twin bed from their house, so now we just have to get that all set up and Emily will have a big girl bed! I don't know which day we're going to tackle getting that up and her crib down. Otherwise it's been a nice, quiet week.

Window

So in other family news, we had a window break on our van. I was driving Brian in to work so I could have the van on Friday, and the window behind me suddenly shattered. We were on Hwy 14, and a pickup was passing us, but I've never seen a side window go out like that. A small spot near the top broke out, and the rest was all cracked up. We turned around and came home, and every time I hit a bump, a little more glass fell out! Luckily this was the opposite side from where Emily was sitting, and none of the glass blew in. If it came in it just fell straight down the side of the door. We were able to find a company that had the window in stock, so it was fixed that afternoon. Otherwise we would have waited until Tuesday because of the holiday weekend. So that was our little adventure. I'm glad it turned out well, but I sure hope it doesn't happen again!

New Seat

Emily is now officially out of her highchair! For a couple weeks she's been trying (and succeeding) to climb into Brian's or my chair when it's time to eat. She didn't seem to like sitting in her highchair anymore. So now she has her own booster seat! She sits right up to the table like a big girl! The transition was so fast I don't think you can even call it that. I put her in her booster seat once, and there was no looking back. I hope all her big girl transitions can go this smoothly, even though I'm sure they won't. The next one up is when we move her out of her crib next month. I'll let you know how that goes.

This doesn't mean she still doesn't climb into our laps. On Sundays we'll occasionally buy a newspaper. Today Emily decided she needed to read it with Daddy.

Doing Dishes

Tonight Emily and I were doing dishes. She gets excited when the water starts running and tries to pull over a chair. She really just likes to play in the water. Well, tonight Brian caught us on tape, and then did some fun editing. If you listen closely and turn up the volume, you can even hear her latest word!

Books

In case there was any doubt, Emily still loves books. They've been great in the car because she'll sit and look at all the pictures while we drive. Last week we went to the library and she picked out two board books. When I had to take them away from her to give to the librarian to check out, she started crying. As soon as I gave them back, she was fine again. Here's a picture of her actually sitting in her book crate reading her books. I'm glad she likes them!

Caring Emily

A couple of weeks ago Emily and I were playing in her room. Her curtains were open and the sunlight was warming up the floor. Emily was pretty much playing by herself, so I stretched out on the floor to soak it up. Soon Emily brought over her 2 stuffed animals from her crib so I could hold them while I "slept." A few minutes later she was patting my head. At first I wondered why she was hitting me, but then I realized she was probably trying to run her fingers through my hair like I sometimes do for her when she's upset. She was so sweet.

And this last weekend little Jonathan was here with Jess and Tim K. He's almost 6 months old, and I wasn't sure how she'd do around him. She actually was very nice and gave him toys and stared at him. She only ran away if he started crying, or once when he sneezed on her. She didn't seem to mind if I held him, either. They were pretty cute to watch. I don't think either of them was quite sure what to make of the other one. But this weekend did make me feel better about Emily handling being a big sister.

Easter Dress

As some of you know, I made Emily's Easter dress this year. It would have been faster and cheaper to just buy one, but it gave me experience sewing for her. (Thanks for helping with the zipper, Mom!) It turned out rather well, so hopefully she'll get lots of use out of it during the summer. Here she's walking around on the rocks at Grandma and Grandpa U.'s after church Easter morning.

First Post

Hello family and friends,

This is our first official post on our new blog. I will try to keep it up to date with stories and pictures of Emily, and occasionally Brian and I. I hope this will be easy to use and read so it will let you get a glimpse of our daily life. Enjoy!