Big Girl Bed

When we came home from the lake, it was time for Anna to finally sleep in her big girl bed. She's been a saint ever since we made the switch. The first night she was a little scared, but Paul stayed with her until she fell asleep. Here she is all snuggled in.

Deer Lake, Marians, Christmas #6

Despite two kids with strep, we enjoyed our long weekend at Deer Lake. Kristin and Mom were there with us Christmas day; Tim & Kate and Katie & Smokey came up Friday while Pam & Dick joined us on Saturday.

Friday morning, all 6 of us set off to see my dad's sister, Marian, and her husband Don. We had to stop at Wayne's for breakfast; a long wait just for breakfast. We headed to Rice Lake to see them. Being that we haven't seen them since my dad died, it was a long overdue visit. They had never met the kids, and very nice to catch up with them and let them meet Anna & Alex. Thankfully, those 2 were on their best behaviors.

We headed home and the Andrews kids that live in town were there to enjoy a wonderful spaghetti dinner, made by my mom. We played games and hung out that night, as usual. Saturday, Pam & Dick joined us and we enjoyed time together relaxing at the cabin. Anna and I made it outside to play in the snow, but not for long as it was icy and she didn't want to play in the snow with me. She did like playing guitar hero though.

Finally, my cousin Katie getting a good snuggle with Anna. We're so thankful for how far Katie has come over the last year, after her accident in New Zealand. Anna & Katie are very good buds. She even let Katie give her a bath & to bed that night!Then preparations for "first annual family drunk night" began. Kristin had decided we all needed to get drunk when we were all there together. It didn't exactly happen, as Paul was too sick with the flu to participate and the rest of us didn't overindulge. But, we did play drinking games...with our parents (including family feud & categories). Strange. Then, we had to get out the wii and play some guitar hero, boxing and tennis. Good times!

Sunday, Paul & I left and headed to Christmas #6...with Paul's mom side. Paul's aunt Shell lives in AZ, but recently bought a house near Deer Lake in WI and invited us all over to her place to celebrate. All the localities (and Shell, Rob and Hannah) were in attendance. The kids got majorly spoiled from all Paul's aunts & uncles...typical. I got hit with the flu while I was there, so I have zero pictures from there.

Christmas #5-with mom & Kristin at the lake

We made it up to Eagle Ridge at Deer Lake on Christmas day...around 3:30. It was a little tricky navigating through the snow to get into the cabin, but worth every step. Mom had already opened up the place for us and tried to warm it up and Kristin was just behind us. Mom made us a good chicken and rice comfort meal for dinner. The kids opened their presents from Mom & Kristin after dinner. The rest of us didn't exchange gifts-but Kristin & Mom got ornaments from Alex and calendars with pictures of all the kids. The kids were spoiled ROTTEN! Kristin gave Anna Dora candyland, a Dora tent (with a tunnel), and a Dora cellphone and a cute sweater dress. Mom gave Anna a big girl comforter for her bed, clothes, and Chutes & Ladders.
Kristin got Anna & Alex a little people racing ramp that Anna loves so far. Alex got lots of clothes & PJs (including a vikings outfit) from Kristin & Gma. He also got a Mickey mouse book (that Anna likes more than him at this point) from Kiki.
After present opening, Anna directed who was going to play candyland (I'm dora, daddy's backpack, grandma's boots and Kiki's diego...mom is putting alex to bed). Anna beat everyone and enjoyed all the attention. She also got Kiki & mom in her new tunnel & tent.

Christmas #4-At home with the kids

Paul worked hard to get Anna's bed set up to be a big girl bed while she slept away in her pack & play that night. But, she kept complaining about her butt hurting. Thinking it as just diaper rash, we put diaper cream and let her climb into bed with us.
The kids woke up at 7:30 and we opened the gazillion presents among our family. Anna got her big girl bed, bedding, legos, bristle blocks, and clothes. Anna's favorite toy was the $2 Dora sunglasses she got for our trip to Disney World. Alex got a tool bench, a sports game, clothes and books. The family room was blowing up presents and I was going a little crazy with all the stuff.
After breakfast and gifts, we gave the kids baths. Anna kept complaining about her butt, so I thought it may be a urinary tract infection. Called the doctor and they said since Alex has strep, she should go into urgent care because it was most likely rectal strep. So, Paul went off to urgent care with Anna, I stayed home with Alex and packed to go to the lake. She got ointment and a strep test done, but we didn't hear more about that until the next day. We headed to Deer Lake to meet my sister and Mom for Christmas #5...how many more can we do?!?

Christmas #3-Andrews

We brought the kids to day care Christmas Eve and went to work as usual. In fact, we were the first ones at day care that day and I was at work earlier than usual.
Paul and I met for lunch and some last minute shopping at the mall. We got the call from day care that Alex had a fever and had diarrhea in the morning. He had thrown up the night before, but at the time we didn't think anything of it. I hurried home to get the kids and in the meantime Alex had thrown up again (which the day care people said was the first sign of strep for infants). Kristin came over to hang out with Anna during her nap time and I headed to urgent care with Alex, shortly before it closed. It was a relatively short wait, and the strep culture did come back positive so we had to get to the pharmacy before it closed! The doctor hasn't seen many infants with strep before...it's not very common. We headed home and literally a minute after coming in, the family showed up...Mom's family was all coming to my house for Christmas (with a 9 month old with strep!) My uncle Jim & aunt Kim came, along with their kids Carrie (& John), and Kevin (and girlfriend Amanda) and Kevin's kids Hailey & Lucas, and Kim's parents. My uncle Dick & aunt Pam also came, and one of their kids, Tim & his wife Katie. Mom made pork tenderloin for all of us. We tried to keep Alex in isolation. He came out for dinner and a bottle and ended up throwing up all over my chair with grandma :(

But, we still enjoyed ourselves! Anna got spoiled and got a little purse with a doggie from Kim & Jim and a personalized book & ABC puzzle from Pam & Dick. Alex got PJs from Pam & Dick and a puzzle and a teddy from Kim & Jim.

I sang at church-the 9 and 10:30 service. Mom, Kristin, Pam, Dick, Tim & Kate were all able to come to the 9 o'clock service. Paul stayed home and put the kids to bed. It was a long night for mom, but more restlessness to come later that I was unaware of.

Christmas #2-Mattsons (Dads side)

Christmas #2 was today with Paul's dads family. Paul's dad has two brothers-older brother Bruce and twin Keith. Festivities were at Keith & Auries and Keiths oldest daughter Melissa and boyfriend Eric were there. Bruce & Christine came all the way from New Zealand. Then, the 10 of us too! Anna and Katelyn got sleeping bags from grandma & grandpa for the cabin. Anna loved her new bag. Alex got a couple trucks to beef up his collection.
Wayne & Alex--
The cousins: Alex, Anna, Brooklyn and Katelyn

Our family-

Anna in her sleeping bag-

Brooklyn on the sleeping bag-

Christmas #1-Mattsons

First Christmas celebration was yesterday with Paul's immediate family-Wayne & Rhonda and brother Craig and sister-in-law Tiffany and their kids Katelyn (2 1/2) and Brooklyn (11 months). It's always fun to have the kids together. Anna & Katelyn LOVE each other. They are generally good together too. Brooklyn likes to try to keep up with the girls and Alex hasn't figured out that he's the only boy yet...poor guy. Wayne & Rhonda thankfully made it safely after the over 90 min. trip down in the snow, as did the Bloomington Mattsons. We quickly put all the kids down for a nap and played games, a rare opportunity. When everyone woke up, it was present time! All the kids were SPOILED. Anna got a kids digital camera and clothes from Craig & Tiff (Katelyn got a camera too), Anna got an easel from grandma & grandpa, Alex got a ride along car toy from grandma & grandpa, Alex got toys & cute clothes from Craig & Tiff. Katelyn got a big wheel from grandma & grandpa and legos from us. Brooklyn got a big car like her big sisters from gma & gpa, and a little people farm from us. We also gave the girls a flower tent (with butterfly wings). We set that up for them and Anna & Katelyn (& Brooklyn) loved playing in it! We are so blessed with our kids and our nieces this Christmas season. More to come tonight as we celebrate with Paul's extended family tonight (Christmas #2...don't ask how many we have, it's not pretty!)
Brooklyn on top of the box of her car--Anna playing with the magnetic letters on her easel--
Katelyn trying out her big wheels (Anna's behind on her Dora bike)Our favorite picture. Katelyn tickling Alex! He wouldn't stop laughing :)

9 months old

Alex turned 9 months old yesterday. We went to the doctor for his appointment on Thursday. He weighed in at 19 lbs, 5 ounces and measured at 29 inches (that's bigger than Anna was at 12 months), but he's 45% for weight, 90% for length and 75% for head size. This month's big news for Alex was his first word..."HI". He says it a lot, and we really think he knows what it means, he is so friendly! He continues to be worlds best baby, except he's lazy when he goes to drink a bottle (never wants to help mom or dad out by holding his bottle, although we're teaching him that's not acceptable these days!). He is also loving to stand, holding on to things; including his piano. He is also very busy crawling these days too. Even getting him to sit still for this picture was hard because he wanted to crawl off the chair. But, his favorite thing continues to be Anna, his big sister. Maybe he'll get that word down too. We're looking forward to a busy Christmas with both the kids!

Mr. Claus

We went to Santa tonight. Anna's on protest with the big S, she just doesn't want anything to do with him. But, Alex loved him! What a doll Alex was!

Happy Birthday Kiki!

I know it's a few days late. This was recorded before her birthday and before I left for Dallas. Since we're celebrating tonight, had to get this up now.

Anna loves her Kiki!

Alex's First Word

AP All Day

Alexander Paul is AP. Thus, he needed a AP jersey! It finally fits and AP had a good game with the former TP group today.

Bath Time

Alex is our second kid. It's taken 8 months for us to get a picture of him in the bath and in his frog towel..

8 months old

Alex is 8 months old now! Hard to believe. He continues to be world's happiest baby and is crawling everywhere now! It's adorable to see him scoot around. He has three teeth on the bottom of his mouth. He eats almost every baby food (made it through meats too), but is starting to figure out that he'd prefer to eat regular food. It's messy, but he likes to try to feed himself the best. It's always an adventure at the dinner table! He likes to be anywhere Anna is-getting into her stuff. She does not appreciate it when he touches her inflatable Dora.

Thanksgiving with the Mattsons

Since we're not celebrating on actual Thanksgiving, Paul's family got together on Sunday. Had to take the opportunity to get the kids in a picture together. They're getting so big.

Firsts for Anna

It was a few days of firsts for Anna. She had her first dentist visit Friday morning (auntie Docia is so proud!). It ended up being a "happy visit" because she didn't really want to have them investigating her teeth. She went up & down in the chair, they counted her teeth and she got a toothbrush (which had a monkey on it so we're all good!)
Saturday, Anna had her first hair cut. My hairstylist insisted we go to the salon for her first cut. I was a little sad about it, since it means she's getting older; but we're so glad we did it. It looks so cute. She was very cooperative-especially after they gave her a sucker. She ended up having to sit on dad's lap, but only because she got bored waiting for the person to be done with her other client and get to her (a lesson we'll put in our arsenal). Here's some pics.

Moving!

Alex is army crawling everywhere. Now, Anna thinks its a good idea to army crawl too and gets him all excited. He especially likes to crawl into tunnels...under the table, under the bridge at daycare, etc. Here-he's going behind the chair (just because he can)

Chilling

I came home one night and Paul had taken this picture. Cute!

Enjoying the Nice Weather

We have been quite spoiled with the beautiful weather over the last week. Last Friday, I had to take the kids to the park because once before I went there and didn't have my camera. The kids love going on the swing together and it's just too cute not to capture. Then, Sunday we introduced Alex to the beauty of the wagon. They both enjoyed the walk around the park before watching the Vikings game.

2 Little Monkeys

Our kids made pretty cute monkeys for Halloween.

First festivity was at the daycare party. Both kids did eventually get dressed up (obviously, we did not have trouble with our 7 month old-he goes with the flow, but Anna wanted to wait until we got there). But, how cute is this? Our little monkey eating a banana!

Then, we came home & carved pumpkins Anna with her pumpkin, carved by Daddy

The finished products: Anna's on the left, ours in the middle (P heart J) and Alex's on the right
Alex wearing his "I love my mummy" bib...had to be done
Friday, we had another Halloween party at ECFE (still waiting on that picture). Anna didn't want to take off our costume then! Came home, napped and then auntie Kristin & Grandma came over to share in the festivities. Anna learned how to say "trick or treat" and "Happy Halloween" before heading out with all 4 of us. What a beautiful night to go trick or treating. We went around the cul-de-sac and a couple other houses. Once Anna got the hang of it, she really liked it. She loves M&M's and tries to convince us everyday she needs to have a piece of candy.

Alex's First Halloween-

Anna BananaThe family before we embarked trick or treating!