Welcome Maelee!!!

I suppose we are far overdue for some updates and new pictures. First - the big news, Andrew and Annabelle have a new cousin. Miss Maelee Marie Raisanen was born on June 17th - 7.0 lbs and 19.5 inches and lots of red hair like her proud, big brother, Nikolas. We are heading down to meet her in a little over a week. Yay!
It has been a hot summer here in Minnesota. Upper 90's for the past week and for the week ahead. Hot we can handle, it's the humidity we don't like. We resort to hanging out in the pool all weekend.
And.... here's the pool. 3 out of the 4 of us fit in it.
Haha just kidding. We have a bigger pool. Andrew is sporting a pretty nice tan, thanks to endless weekends in the pool.
Annabelle has been broadening her diet with fruits, veggies and cereal. So far she loves bananas and applesauce. Not much else. She sure loves making a mess while eating. Daddy's in charge of feeding her.
Here's Andrew and our neighbor, Milena, in the pool. Not sure what they are doing...
At the end of June we went to see Thomas the Train in Green Bay. Andrew had a blast. He's still talking about it. We got to ride on a passenger train and see Thomas up close. He also got to meet Sir Topham Hatt. While we were in Green Bay Andrew went to his first movie at the theater - Cars 2. We even saw it in 3D - pretty cool. Of course Andrew only wore the 3D glasses during the previews and proceeded to watch the rest of the movie without them. Not sure how well that worked out. Mommy and Andrew ended up going to see the movie again in 2D when we got back to Chaska.
Here's Miss Annabelle at the 4th of July parade. Just hanging out waiting for something exciting to happen. Annabelle stayed up to watch the fireworks that night. She was rather unimpressed by them. No giggles or cries. We normally go to see a big display at the local race track, but due to our government shutdown those fireworks were postponed. Hopefully we'll get to see those fireworks soon. Maybe even this weekend!
Mommy has a hard time walking past an outfit like this and not buying it. So cute!!
Apparently it's a genetic problem. This outfit is from Grandma Raisanen.
Lock 'em up and throw away the key!
Annabelle is still quite petite for her age. She's just over 7 months old, but weighs less than Andrew did at 3 months. Her height is good, so the doctor says she's just itty bitty. No worries. She's sitting up well and lately she's been getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. Almost ready to crawl. She still sleeps great (thank you Annabelle)!
Andrew is Mister Busy Body, just go go go all the time. At preschool he is learning to spell and write his name. He loves playing with his best friend Lucas at preschool every day. Last weekend he went to Lucas' birthday party at the fire station. The boys had a blast. They got to see a fire truck and meet real fire fighters.
We are planning a trip to the Minnesota Zoo this weekend with our friends, the Debbouts. If it gets too hot again, we may end up at the Mall of America. Either way, I'm sure we'll find some fun times.
Enjoy the summer, stay cool!