A sad good-bye to a beloved friend

 Today we had to say good-bye to our dear friend Gretchen. She suddenly became ill on Saturday and we weren't initially too worried.By Sunday night we were very worried and she was at the vet by 9:00 a.m. this morning. A long story short she was in kidney failure and an x-ray later showed her stomach was up too high and would require emergency surgery. The vet did not think she could survive surgery and our amazing vet helped us to make a very difficult decision.. Our vet was amazing and has known Gretchen for years. We felt comfortable with her and we knew she really cared, she was even teary-eyed. That's the impact Gretchen had on people.

 We thought Gretchen and Cassidy would grow up together, and they have been the best of friends for nearly 3 years. Here is the first time Gretchen met Cassidy.

 Gretchen thought Cassidy was a great tasting toy that we brought home.

 They would snuggle together and for awhile Cassidy could not fight off the licking, but that quickly changed.

 Gretchen thought Cassidy was a great addition to the family.

 On a car trip one time we looked in the back at the baby mirror and what did we find, but Gretchen sitting atop of Cassidy in her carseat.

 A cute family picture.

 Cassidy learns the fine art of how to grab Gretchen's tail.

 Resting on her princess pillow. She was always our princess even when Cassidy came along and she liked to remind us of that.

 Playtime in Cassidy's room. Gretchen was always game for some fun with Cassidy.

 My favorite thing to do with my kids. We did this from the time Cassidy was a baby until now. The two best snugglers around.

 Gretchen finding the leftovers after cookie baking. She ended up with flour on her head.

Gretchen's favorite spot to sleep during the Christmas holiday. She was convinced there was a dog at the very first Christmas.

Gretchen was a dear friend and our house will never be the same. No more barking, no more little dog snuggling to keep us warm on those cold winter days. She was a great dog. To all you dog lovers out there, you know the love of a dog is unconditional unlike any person. You can scold them one minute and the next minute they think you're the greatest thing ever. Oh how our family will miss her. We love you Gretchen!

New haircut

Hello all. Today I got a new haircut and since my dad is away on an overnight work trip it seemed that we should update the blog so he could see my new haircut. While I'm at it I thought I'd throw in a couple of pictures from the past week.


It was a long night by the time we were done with the haircut, and my patience had worn thin. My mom must really love me because she even finds the humor in my temper tantrums. In fact tonight I laid face down on the driveway having a major fit. She didn't care, so it really didn't work well. Well here is my new haircut. You can also see some great video of me singing and showing off my new haircut, without a grumpy face at the link below


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmCZizEwb7M&feature=youtu.be


On Monday Mom and I went to Hennepin to meet up with Natalie, Erin and Addy. It was a lot of fun and the weather was nice so we checked out Natalie's park together. this was my first time on a merry go round.


Over Easter I got to play with Chris' darth vader helmet. I made everyone try it on. Daddy again is very successful at making me a nerd. He's so proud of me.

I love, love, love the Mickey Mouse clubhouse episode called, "Dr. Daisy." I also own the book of this story and I love to play pretend. Finally, I got a doctor kit. Thanks to Aunt Jen for this great gift. I have been fixing up all of my friends, family, and stuffed animals since I got my official Dr. kit. I even make mom and dad be goofy, minnie mouse, and all other characters from the story. The last two days I have convinced mom I have to take my doctor kit to day care because my friends and Ms. Keisha were sick and needed me. What can I say, duty calls!

I am such a great doctor.

Visits with Friends & Family

A few weekends ago we went to the Dupage County Children's Museum with my friend Kayleigh. I absolutely love playdates with Kayleigh. In fact just last weekend they came to our house and I was jumping up and down with excitement when they arrived.Kayleigh and I at the museum.Here I am showing Daddy the inside of the train at the museum. He didn't fit as well as I did. This was a really cool mirror tunnel. How many Daddy's and Cassidy's can Mommy handle :)

Kayleigh's parents were very smart and told us we should do water play at the end of our trip to the museum, and they told Mom to bring me a change of clothes. It was soo much fun, we didn't want to leave that area.
I was not really sure about this boy here. The water play area had tons of things you could hook up to spray water all around. In fact I got drenched when some little boys set up the tubes to spray in my direction.

Getting my hair dry before heading to the bathroom for a change of clothes. I was completely drenched by the time we were done. I wonder why I even bothered with the smock?!?
The weekend before the museum trip I went with Mom, Aunt Jen, Ellie, Isaac, and Gramma to visit Aunt Kim, Uncle Jason, Carly and Molly. It was sooo much fun. Gramma got a little sick of hearing me say, "Be Careful Gramma" as she was driving. I yelled it from the way back of the car. I heard the rumble strips on the side of the road and I was fearful. I was just advocating for my safety, something Mom and Dad have already taught me. Don't worry Grandma I also tell mom to use two hands when driving, you're not the only one I worry about my safety with.

We took a trip to House of Bounce, and I liked it even more this time. Mom and I climbed up and down things. It was quite a workout.
Just climbing out of the bouncy house. Good thing I let Mom put pigtails in my hair.

In an effort to keep all kids happy (which is difficult when there are kids from 1 1/2 years old to 15 years old) we went bowling. It proved to be fun for everyone involved. We all played one game and it was just the right amount of time. Here I am sending my ball down the lane. I was pretty good at this bowling thing. I'm going to have to take Daddy next time to show him my skills.
Here is our whole group, we had two lanes. The adults were on one lane and the kids on the other.
All of us little kids liked to help cheer each other on. It was hard being patient when it wasn't our turn, so we got good at cheering.
This was my ball, isn't it nice. When it was all said and done I had the highest score for the kids side and Mom had the highest score for the adults side. Watch out world, the Gerken's are forces to be reckoned with.Have I told you how much I love my mom and dad and I want to do everything they do, talk like they talk, wear what they wear, go where they go, etc. Well while Mom and Dad were making dinner one night I grabbed mom's coat and put it on (she's supposed to hang it up, right Dad!), grabbed her bag and said I'm going to work. I also like to wear Mom's shoes, take her keys and head outside to go to the store. I'm getting to be very grown-up.

Well that's it for now, but we will post again soon, because we're taking more pictures now that we are playing outside in this beautiful weather!

I'm Back

My apologies for my extended absence, I've been busy growing and learning. I am now on the downhill slide towards 3, which I know is hard to believe.


Awhile back I discovered a pile of my things that were being put away in the attic. Mom and Dad didn't think they fit, but I thought the boots, sunglasses and hat did. Am I not stylish in this outfit.

I have taken to telling my Mom and Dad that I "need" things. They try to correct me to tell me that I really "want" them, but I think they are wrong. On the way to daycare one morning I told my Mom that I needed a light saber. She was shocked at this proclamation. Of course she had to call Dad and tell him. He was so excited that once he got home from work he went through some of his hidden toys and found a light saber for each of us. Mom thinks I'm a lost cause and have gone to the dark side, I'm not sure what she means by this.

I really enjoy book time at night, and I like it even more when I can read to Daddy and put him to bed.Just a funny picture mom took of me this morning. I really like to do everything that Mom and Dad do for good or bad. I think I need deoderant like mom and I need to floss my teeth. Well this morning mom decided to let me floss my teeth. In fact she convinced me if I finished brushing my teeth I could then floss. Yep, that's right she bribed me to brush my teeth by telling me I could floss afterwards. Good dental hygiene is very important to us.

I will try to put more pictures up again soon. We really need to get some video because my vocabulary is changing far more than my looks. In fact the other night I told mom the dinner she made was delicious.

Primping for the Holiday

Last weekend we went to a small nearby town that does a lights display in a park that you ride a train through. It was really neat. Here I am with Dad waiting our turn for the train.
This was the train. Kids and adults got to ride on it.

Mom and I have been baking up a storm. Here we are working on Nana's logs. Mom's favorite.
And then we worked on the birthday cake for Baby Jesus. We are finally done with all of our baking and food preparations.
Today Mom and I went to get our haircut and ready for our Christmas festivities. Mom's hairdresser even curled my hair. Aren't I stylish?
And here I am with Peg, the hairdresser. I look very grown up in this picture.
And then we went home for some lunch before nap time. Almost time to start our Christmas traveling.

No excuses...picture update

Tons of pictures and a quick update while we prepare for Christmas!The second weekend of November we visited the Schahls and had a great time. Aunt Kim read to all of us.
Carly, Molly and I had a sleepover in their room. We had so much fun together, even if we did get to bed a little bit late each night.
We danced, and played sleepover even in the middle of the day.

We went to House of Bounce and had a great time jumping and going down slides. Aunt Kim was so smart and made peanut butter sandwiches for the trip home, because she knew we'd be tired after all of our playing.
It's only about a 20 minute drive back to their house, but as you can see we were tuckered out.
We spent Thanksgiving in Dixon. Gram and Bakka went to Hawaii and they brought me and all my cousins back a hulu outfit, too cute.
Good dental hygiene is important, even at a sleepover.
Gramma taught me how to make a turkey, it was my first one ever. We did the stuffing, then sewed it up and later basted it.
Here we are with our turkey ready to go in the oven.
Wow we did great work, it looks picture perfect.
I learned to do the basting, until Gramma said ok let's get the legs. She meant the turkeys legs, but I thought she meant mine and I jumped backwards at least a foot. I was done helping after that. Mom and Gramma laughed pretty hard about it.One night we went to the Strocks to celebrate Ellies' birthday. Here's the young girl cousins watching dinner get done.
That night I had a sleepover with Carly and Emily. It was Emily's first sleepover without her parents, and she did pretty good. Carly and I took care of her.The next day Uncle Andrew played Barbies with the girls. He such a good uncle, we love him.

I don't always love to brush my teeth, so mom came up with a solution one morning. I love to brush hers, so before work we brush each others. It's a lot of fun and we're practicing good dental hygiene, it's important to us.
And now onto our Holiday preparations. Mom and I did cut-out cookies.

Then the next day we took the cookies to our friends the Hellman's so Kayleigh and I could decorate them. We went there to visit Kayleigh's new brother, Sam.

We had a lot of fun. Our moms want to plan more playdates because they said we play so well together.

At our house we celebrate St. Nick Day and he put something in my stocking on his feast day. So cool.
Here I am working on my decorating skills for spritz cookies. Mom turned her back on me for one minute and look what happened.
Whoever gets this cookies is luck, I think. It's like a prize.
Mom's friend Becky brought us an advent calendar from her Disney cruise trip. Dad and I every day find the right number, open it, read what it says and share the piece of chocolate inside. Thanks Becky, we love it!
See here's our chocolate, yum.
One of dad's co-workers bought this for him and I. We put it together right away. Dad has already taught me to love Star Wars. I even have a Star Wars poster on the back of my bedroom door, much to mom's dislike.

Well that's it for now, time to get back to baking. I am having a great time this year baking. In fact every night when mom picks me up from day care I ask her if we can go home and bake. It's a lot of fun. Once the holidays are over maybe she can start teaching me to cook. Have a great holiday everyone!