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Three weekends ago, we hearty folks living in Minnesota, had our first snow of the year. I had a couple hours free that morning, so we had a family fun day in the snow. Last year Grace had a hard time moving around in her snow suit, but this year she had no problem. I am really looking forward to all the winter fun we are going to have as a family.
It was much to nice of a day to stay inside, so the three of us went out for a fun walk in the woods near our house. These walks are more of an adventure for Grace then her normal walks through the neighborhood. She runs all over the place pick up things she finds and yells “DADDY!!!, Come look what I found!!!! Then we talk about what it is and then she runs over to another new thing and we talk about that acorn, stick, bug, snake, etc. I remember back when I was a kid and all my little adventures in the “big wilderness” commonly known as my backyard. I really am glad that Grace has the same sense of adventure that I have.
~Ben
Of course little Hannah came along for the ride. Pretty soon she’ll be keeping up with Grace.
Rachel and I shot a wedding for Liz and Matt over in the Stillwater, MN area and were stoked to see that they had brought in a photobooth for their guests. Right away we knew we had to hit this up before we left that night. I thought they turned out pretty good.
It was such an awesome night out, so Grace and I went out to goof around in the street on her bike. I have been going out with her whenever it’s been nice out and teaching her how to move the pedals with her feet. She’s actually getting pretty good at it and even knows how to go backwards now too. At one point she got going really fast and took a turn a little too fast. I was amazed when she was able to pull out of it and avoid wiping out. Here are some shots of her tonight.
here are a few quick photos from this afternoon. She has so much hair compared to Grace (who was nearly bald for her first year of life). I am so excited right now and I can’t wait to bring her home tomorrow. I have a ton of photos, but I’m only going to post a handful right now. I’ll have a full gallery setup in the next few days.
~Ben
At 3:14pm today Rachel gave birth to Hannah Faith Berndt.
Weight: 7 lbs 10oz
Length20″ 1/4
Everything went about as good as it could go. Once the girls are sleeping, I’ll upload some photos.
~Ben
I got the welcomed wake up nudge from Rachel this morning at 3:20am. . . “Ben, I think you need to call Gerhardt and see if he can come over and watch Grace. I think my water just broke.â€Â  It didn’t me long to get out of bed and into action. Thankfully Gerhardt answered his cell phone after only a couple rings and drove over within 20 minutes. I called up my parents to give them the heads up and we hit the road to the hospital around 4:40am. It is just about 6am right now and the adrenaline buzz is starting to burn off now. Rachel’s dilated to 4cm and having minor contractions. It will probably be a while before things really start progressing, but who knows. I will be updating my personal webpage on a regular basis, so check back there often.
~Ben
Well today is the due date for Rachel to give birth to our second daughter.  This morning I was reflecting back to the days before we had Grace. I remember being in almost surreal state of shock at how much this little child will change our life. Looking back, I hadn’t even scratched the surface at what was to come down the road. There was a fundamental shift in my life’s priorities and values. Two years ago, all I could think about was epic mountain bike rides and full day session out on the lake windsurfing. Going out at night with Rachel and not coming home for hours was not uncommon either. Now that’s not even on my list of things to do. When I was a punk highschooler and thought I knew everything, I’d look at my dad and wonder why he worked so much. Now that I am a father,  I can completely relate and it has made me feel a bit ashamed of being that nieve teenager not so long ago.  Â
All this makes me think . . . How much will my life change again with the addition of another person to our family? One thing is evident to me. No matter the costs, I am positive that I will become a better father and husband as a result
~BenÂ
I shot a couple really impromptu shots a couple weeks ago with Rachel and Grace. I’m hoping to get some time tomorrow to do some more planned out shots showing Rachel at full term.
Autumn has been taking its time to get here this year. Two weekends back, the three of us went up to the north shore to shoot a friday wedding(more about this to come shortly) and we had a blast goofing off in the leaves up there.  I was a bit suprised to see very little in the form of color on the actual shore, but we drove a good 15 minutes inland and found plenty. We were with my parents and so my mom gets credit for the photo of me and grace(great photo by the way). I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend to be up there.
This week I plan on posting some photos of an awesome wedding I shot up on the shore on that friday and also some engagement photos on sunday in Nisswa.  Â
During Grace’s afternoon nap we discovered that she can climb out of her crib in its lowest setting. We knew the day was coming, but was hoping it wouldn’t be so soon. Her crib converts to a toddler bed, so we were for the most part set up for the transition. We thought of one problem with the new bed, Grace moves around a lot when she sleeps. So we bought another mattress for her to sleep on the floor with and it will double as a crash pad. Tonight she started out in the crib and then moved to the lower mattress and then thought it would be more comfortable to be half on and half off. She is growing up so fast.
~Ben
