I'm Gabe Sandholm

Last night Sully decided he needed to wear Gabe's glasses. Gabe humored him--because it was cute--but we now need to explain to Sully that, no, you don't need to wear our glasses all the time.

Oh, well. Anything to be more like Dad.

Basketball 101

Gabe cleaned up the basement to make room for Sully to play basketball down there while we wait for it to warm up and move all of his ball-related activities to the backyard again. He's gotten pretty good at the whole basketball thing, and apparently made seven baskets in a row last night!

Gabe captured made a little video with his cell phone, posted here for your enjoyment. I'm not sure what Sully likes more: chasing the ball around or shooting it.

Old Time Rock 'n Roll

When we went to Fargo at the end of January to see Cole and C.J., they were getting ready for an ugly sweater party just as we were packing up to drive back home. Cole put on some music before we left, and Sully had the best time ever having his own dance party. The song that made him the happiest was Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock 'n Roll" -- so happy, in fact, that we had to buy it so he could "wok 'n woll" (in Sullyspeak) at home. Unfortunately, iTunes didn't have the actual Bob Seger version, so we had to settle for some random cover band version instead. It is close enough to do the trick while we wait to go buy an actual Bob Seger CD so we can upload the original.


Without futher ado, here's a video of Sully busting a move to "Old Time Rock 'n Roll." You'll notice he is looking up a lot -- he is watching the TV screen. At C.J. and Cole's house, the TV had a trippy screensaver playing that was fun to watch while the music played. Our house isn't that high-tech, so Sully is just watching a black screen with white words on it telling him what song is playing. He doesn't seem to mind, at least.

MotoX Sully

Sully and I went along with Gabe to the International Motorcycle Show on Sunday. While Gabe ogled the Sucker Punch Sallys and talked to the people in the Kawasaki booth about how to modify his bike for ape hangers, Sully and I wandered around. He loved to stop and sit on the "baby motorcycles."

Introducing Sandholm Productions

Gabe had his 31st birthday on Monday, February 9. In classic Ranae-style, I ordered Gabe's birthday present late and it showed up on Tuesday, February 10. Oh, well. Sully and I got him a new Flip Video MinoHD (thanks to the Bechthold's for showing me what a Flip Video camera even is via your blog!), and now Sandholm Productions is born. We will be regaling you with several Sully-related videos, and Gabe and I will probably be making cameo appearances. Lucky you.

Following is the first video for your viewing pleasure. Nothing will ever be Oscar-worthy, but we are having fun. :)



P.S. Gabe had a good birthday -- thanks to Cheryl and Grandpa Kragt for coming up for his birthday weekend! Gabe and I took advantage of the free baby-sitting to go to a party at a friend's house on Friday night, and on Saturday night we all went out to dinner at the Edina Grill. Sunday we had homemade pizza before they left.

To celebrate the actual day of Gabe's birth, I decided last minute (Monday morning) to throw an impromptu birthday party on Monday night. Four of my colleagues and a boyfriend of one--all of whom Gabe knows and likes--came over for dinner and to play Catchphrase. Good times. Now if I could just think ahead a little bit.

Ravioli Party 2009

We took our annual New Year trip to Seattle, and one of the highlights was the New Year’s Day: Hennessey Annual Ravioli Party (Or NYD: HARP for short. Ok, so maybe I just made that up, but if you are into acronyms, it might work.). We had an awesome time making sausage (the men), making homemade ravioli (the ladies) and eating ourselves silly after it was all said and done.

One of the coolest things I like about each year is that Seth’s mom makes all the wee ones little chef’s hats. We now have three of them, and I’m starting a collection. I think these are going to be my dining room wall décor, one way or another.

It was also Hawkeye Bowl Day, and the Sandholm men were showing their gold pride. It must of worked, because we won. As Sully says, “Go Hawkeyes!”

Christmas, Sullivan Style

It is safe to say that Sullivan thoroughly enjoyed Christmas this year. This was the year of the Sheldon Christmas. Even though Sully was sick the whole time we were there with a 104 degree fever on Christmas Eve and needing nebulizer treatments for his cough, he was still a pretty happy little bugger.

Sully's favorite thing to do this Christmas:

--Helping to decorate the tree.
--Helping to make gingersnap cookies.
--Helping hand out gifts and then help people to open their gifts after he handed them to them.
--Singing "Jingle Bells" with Dad.
--Playing Play Doh.
--Playing "Match," a.k.a. the game Memory, but with the cards facing up to match the pairs instead of trying to remember where the pairs are like the big kids play the game.

I expect that Play Doh and playing "Match" will be part of a long term trend, but each of those were pretty popular during our Christmas festivities. Here are a few photos of him throughout the month.

P.S. Don't forget to check out the video in the below post. It expires on January 15 unless I hear of great demand for me to purchase the download rights for $5. I think it's worth a couple weeks of funny, but let me know if anyone thinks it needs to live on forever. The stars are we Minneapolis Sandholms along with Gabe's brothers, C.J. and Cole. We're like the Backstreet Boys. Except I'm not a boy. And it's elves. But, just saying. I still think it could be considered as impressive as the Backstreet Boys. Maybe.

Happy Holidays From Sandholm Ranch

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas From Sully & Bear

Sully loves Bear, the bear his adopted Grandma Terri bought him for his second birthday. Earlier this week Sully insisted on having Bear wear the Santa hat, and then he decided he would, too. Gabe got a couple photos on his cell phone.

This kid cracks us up on a daily basis. :)

The Sullivan Sandholm Show

Here they are -- all 184 of Sullivan's professional photos for your viewing pleasure. Let us know what you think! We obviously think he's model material, but we have to -- we're his parents.

Sully Glamour Shots

Sorry for such a short post considering I haven't updated you all in years, but we had photographer Jacquelyn Senske come to our house for an hour on Sunday to follow Sully around and take some photos for his two-year birthday. She posted some initial shots up on her blog here. Jacquelyn was awesome and Sully had a great time with her.

We will have lots more photos to share once we get the full CD the second week of December. And I'll get some other ones up from this fall in the next couple days (hopefully). Yes, I understand that no one believes me anymore when I say this, but I do have the best intentions. :)

And yes, we did just cut his bangs that morning. Hence the "British-rocker-too-short-but-who-gives-a-shit" look. Note to self: don't cut bangs on day of photos.

Sully Does Fall

Sullivan and Gabe went for a walk last weekend around Lake Harriet. Well, it was really more of a 3-mile amble with stops to look at the ducks; pointing out and petting the various dogs; letting Sully out of the stroller to walk in the way of other walkers, joggers and strollers; and then making Sully a pile of leaves to jump in and throw around. Gabe got some super cute photos on his cell phone (yes, we need to get better about carrying around a camera with a charged battery and then actually getting it out to take pictures).

One the agenda for this weekend:

- Go to Shriner’s Circus to let Sullivan see real elephants
- Go to pumpkin patch to get into the Halloween spirit
- Buy Sully a Halloween costume of some sort (probably whatever is left on clearance at Target)

Sully is currently at home with Grandma Pipho as he has these two days off for school conferences. Gabe and I are going to Sully’s conference tonight at 5:30 PM. Will be interesting considering Sully is definitely reaching the terrible twos, as evidenced by the following:

Favorite Phrases
--"No!” (said while flinging his arm at you as if to hit you)
--"My do it!”
--“Daddy!”
(Sidenote: I am currently a second-class citizen at home. This has proven a nice thing as Sully has been sick and only wants Gabe to help him/rock him in the middle of the night; this sucks when I would just like a hug before the kid goes to bed.)

Fun New Behavior Issues
Has begun hitting his teachers and parents when he doesn’t get his way.

He stands and cries inconsolably when he doesn’t get his way or you don’t understand what he is asking. Most recent example was the “Great Breakfast Stand Off” yesterday morning. We made Sully a toaster waffle, but he then decided he wanted Oatscreme instead for breakfast. We asked him to eat one bite of waffle before he could have Oatscreme; he instead chose to cry and scream for 20 minutes. It’s a constant War of the Wills at our house. He’s a stubborn bugger.

This one is actually kind of fun – he thinks it’s hilarious to fall down. Whenever he has fallen, we’ve always said, “Oh, ka-boom!” or “Oh, you went boom!” Goal was to make it seem fun and not like a scary thing he needed to cry about. Well, mission accomplished.

Now he will just walk down the sidewalk and then all of a sudden turn himself into a Indian-style seated position and lay on the ground and say, “A-boom!” He did this repeatedly on another Lake Harriet walk all of us did on Sunday. Cute, but you seriously don’t get anywhere, and it’s really annoying to the people around you.

Hopefully he is nicer at school than at home. But he’s still cute, and he’s still our Sully.

We Survived the Iowa v. Iowa State Game

Just a quick update to let you know we had a good time at the Iowa v. Iowa State game! Gabe, Cole and I had a 4:15 AM wake-up call on Saturday morning, and we were off the farm and en route to Iowa City at 5:10 AM. We made it to the parking lot in Iowa City at 7:15 AM after waiting for one of Cole's putzy friends at his hotel for probably 15 minutes.

I have no photos of the tailgating, but some key points to share:

1. An Iowa Hawkeye canopy (a.k.a. tent without sides) is key when tailgating in the rain.


2. Even more key than the canopy is to have neighboring tailgaters who actually know how to put up and take down said Hawkeye canopy.


3. It's always good to have tailgate neighbors who accept beer as payment for their help and as a symbol of your gratitude.


4. If you decide to buy and use a power inverter device, make sure it is powerful enough to run your crock pot.


5. If your power inverter device doesn't work, make sure you are tailgating close enough to a university building that may have outlets available. Gabe managed to hunt and find an available outlet at the EPB (English-Philosophy Building) to get our chili up to lukewarm-ish. Next time we'll just bring our camp stove. Fancy power inverter is getting returned to Best Buy.


6. Target makes a pretty nice rain boot. I bought these to wear to the game. My feet were dry and mud-free!


7. Never be in a rush to get your calzone at Sam's Pizza after the game. We only waited for probably 60 minutes before the waitress even came over. And that was after Gabe finally flagged her down. But the calzones are pretty much worth the wait. Really. Just don't be too hungry or thirsty before they (or the waitress) decides to show up.

And here is a photo of the yahoos who were sitting two rows in front of us during the game (photo courtesy of http://www.fannation.com/). These guys were the only Iowa State fans in probably a five-ish section area, and they were lucky enough to end up next to a very ginormous Iowa season ticket holder who made sure to cheer intimidatingly at these guys by standing up on the bleacher and screaming at them while spittle flew out of his mouth (Iowa guy is seen here with hands over face on cell phone). Not sure what the mix-up was, but I don't think Cyclone dudes were supposed to be sold tickets in our section. Oh, well. No one beat them up, at least.

Oh, and we won! Iowa 17, Iowa State 5. WOO! woo.

Tailgating Weather

Gabe and I are in the midst of enjoying the Iowa football season, and tomorrow is the big Iowa v. Iowa State game. We have major tailgate plans with a crock pot of chili; sausage, cheese and crackers; veggies and dip; and peanuts and M&Ms. And this, my friends, is the weather report:

We are planning to get to Iowa City at 7 AM with an 11 AM game starting time. I think I might need to take along a change of clothes. I wish I had rain boots! Good lord. You'd think living in Seattle for 8 years would have prepared me for this, but this is no Seattle rain -- I expect this will be a flipping deluge. Wish us luck.

And I'll provide some updates soon regarding Sullivan, what else we've been up to -- things of this nature. Promise.

Happy 4th of July!

Ok, so I’m not the most punctual person. However, I did want to share a few photos of Sully celebrating the independence of the great U. S. of A. Due to his early bedtime, no fireworks were on the docket for us this year; however, we did have a good time at Lake Harriet where Sully had his first lake splashing/falling down face first/walking in sand and water experience. We also enjoying lunch at our local Chinese restaurant, Szechuan Star. The Chinese invented fireworks, so we felt this was very appropriate. Who needs barbecue or watermelon?

Sully at the lake, looking forlorn while playing with his belly button. Dad and sandwagon are in the background.

Sully reading his fortune at Szechuan Star. Note: he did not eat anything while there, but he did insist on having his fortune cookie opened.

Sully wearing his 4th of July Parade hat from daycare. He put it on himself, and on the back is where the little cut out bear is that he colored. He has a bear on his hat as he is now a "Bear" at daycare. He graduated this month from a Duckling. He's getting so big!

The Homemade Cookie Bouquet

This past weekend was our niece Katelin's high school graduation. For her graduation party, Katelin decided to not go the typical graduation cake approach and instead have various cookies and bars available for the party attendees. I thought this was a pretty cool idea, and it also made me think, "You know, a cookie bouqet would be awesome!" However, I am cheap. The cookie bouquets I'm familiar with tend to be a bit expensive.

I'm not a crafty type, but I decided that it would be cool to see if I could make some cookie bouquets for Katelin's graduation. I didn't ask her if that would be OK -- I just went ahead three days before her party and just bought the stuff and started in on this project. Glad she is laid back and didn't mind that I decided these bouquets needed to be the centerpieces for her tables.

I really didn't know what I was doing and was fully expecting this entire project to not turn out, but it wasn't too bad! There was a lot of help and input on this project, and I'd like thank the following (it's like the Oscars!):

• Mom for designing the "Pat Pipho Open Heart Surgery Zipper Method" for keeping the dowels in the cookies while they baked, and also providing the double ovens and manning them to ensure the cookies were baking appropriately (we only burned one pan's worth).
• My niece Brittney for cluing me into buying frosting in bulk at the grocery store bakery to save time on the whole frosting situation, as well as helping me frost.
• My friend Staci for coming over and helping frost cookies.
• Deb (another of Katelin's aunts) for helping me put the bouquets together the day of the party.
• My loving husband Gabe for buying the frosting and wrapping several cookie sticks with floral tape to make them look like real stems.

This was definitely a family affair, and something that probably won't ever need to be recreated unless someone asks me for it specifically. Then I will do it. Probably.

Over 100 cookies with sticks in them later, and we were done. A few photos for your enjoyment. That one that turned into a word jumble says "Congrats, Katelin!" That layout isn't my best work, but hey -- if you stare at it long enough, you might be able to read it. :)

The Sully Paparazzi

Mother's Day brought me a new camera, and we have been busy taking loads of Sully photos. Here are a few from the month of May. Since we moved to our permanent residence in January, we've misplaced the old camera cord again...once we find that, you will be able to see some more Sully milestones. Most notably, his first birthday. Ahem.

Most of the time we really are pretty good parents. I swear.

"I love walking around. It's fun."

"Hi, Mom!"

"Dad, pick me up -- not take my picture!"

Best Mother's Day Card Ever

When I picked Sully up from school yesterday, I had this little gem waiting for me. This is the best Mother's Day card ever. And, in case you can't tell, yes, he is happy and laughing in this picture! I had a few colleagues who thought he was really mad and screaming. Nope, this is definitely him laughing. Love it.

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March Madness

March has been a bit nuts for us, chock-full of a lot of running around and not enough relaxing. The biggest contributor to the craziness has been the amount of travel that both Gabe and I have had. Gabe started off March in Louisville, Kentucky for a couple of days; had a weekend in Vegas for a friend’s bachelor party; flew directly from Vegas to Santa Barbara for a day; flew to Sacramento for another day; came home. Once Gabe returned home, I flew to Vegas for five days to work at a client’s user conference. Then it was Easter. Now Gabe is gone again to Anaheim and San Diego, returning on Friday. While this amount of traveling may be normal for some families, I don’t like it. I’m more of a homebody type. The good news is that I believe that most of my travel is done for the year. Gabe, on the other hand, will always have as much travel available to him as he is willing to take. Funny how traveling becomes less fun the more you need to do it.

Gabe was also busy this month taking two classes which he finished with his last final yesterday. Just four more classes to go until he has his MBA. Yahoo!

In addition to traveling and studying, we’re also in the process of demolishing our basement. Well, let's be clear -- Gabe's brothers Cole and C.J. began the process of demolishing our basement. While Gabe and I have been running around like crazy people, his great brothers have come over to help us get going on some of our house projects. So very nice of them.

While we had in mind to tear out the basement and sheetrock it, we had a new issue pop up when things started to thaw around here a couple weeks ago. A wet spot appeared on the carpet. We were actually hoping that the cats were beginning to pee on the carpet, but no. It was some sort of basement water issue. Our goal is to someday (soon, hopefully) have our basement be this awesome recreation room good for movies, playing and lounging; however, this sort of usage requires a dry place so as not to wreck everything in the basement. So, we called a basement guy from Complete Basement Systems to give us an estimate on what it would cost to get a dry basement.

According to this guy, it will cost a lot. About $10,000. Ahem.

The $10,000 includes digging a drainage trench around the perimeter of the basement, putting in gravel and something that looks like rain gutter in said trench, re-cementing it. It also includes a wall vapor-lock system that will keep moisture from wicking through the walls and directing that moisture into the new trench. It also includes a sump pump and a drainage system into the front yard. And, it includes digging a trench down the middle of the basement floor to capture any water that may be leaking in through the seams of the house beams and the cement foundation.

All we need to do is completely demo the basement—which we are already in the process of doing. What we weren’t planning to do, though, is dig out the finished bathroom that is down there. Because the bathroom is on an external wall, we would have to completely rip out the bathroom, including shower, for the trenching to happen. Yet another expense.

Our next steps are to get a couple more estimates and see where things shake out. We really want to ensure we are fixing the basement infrastructure up right so we never (well, hopefully never) have to have water be an issue down there again. However, what does “right” look like? A full system with trenches and vapor lock walls and a sump pump? Or is it the $169 sump pump that was advertised at Menards that we bring home, jackhammer a hole, stick the sump pump in it, call it good and hope and pray everything will work? I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the middle, but not quite sure what the answer is yet. If you have any ideas, let us know.

And I can’t believe I just wrote on forever about sump pumps and basements.

Sully @ 15 Months

I took Sully in for his 15 month check-up last week, which -- unbeknownst to me -- included shots. I had no idea. Oh, well. He now has his MMR and chicken pox vaccine. No thimerosal was in either shot. I'm currently paranoid about autism and external factors -- like preservatives in vaccines -- increasing the chances of or even causing autism, so I was sure to ask the doctor whether or not there was any thimerosal in either shot. Our doctor's office doesn't use thimerosal in any shots for children under 3. Good to know.

As for vital stats, Sullivan is still pretty runty. He's only in the 7th percentile for weight; 18th percentile for length; but he's sporting an 85th percentile for head circumference. Little body, ginormous noggin. Still cute, though. :) Here are a couple photos I took of him at the doctor's office while we were waiting for the nurse to come in and give him his shots.

Sully is also a walker! He walks around like a champ. He started really taking steps on Gabe's birthday (February 9), and has been improving ever since! So fun to see him running around. He likes to be chased and also to just run off, have you say, "Hey, where you going?," and then he just keeps going off and laughing. Such a goof ball.