Vegas, Baby!

Aaron and I went with our friends, Mindy and Mike (also my business partner) to Vegas at the end of February.  Initially, it was just going to be a girls trip, but then we decided to be nice and invite the hubbies along.  I had talked to Mindy back in August when I saw Faith Hill and Tim McGraw were going to be in concert at the Venetian.  I have always wanted to see them in concert and have never flown to a destination for a concert.  So, we booked our trip right then and there.  I had only been to Vegas one other time.  Aaron and I had stayed at Mandalay Bay, which, despite being a beautiful hotel,  was too far to the end of the strip.  We wanted to stay in the middle of the strip!  Caesars Palace got the vote!  Plus, it was in close proximity to some amazing shopping!

The two hour time difference was ROUGH!  I was ready to pass out each night by midnight!  Aaron managed to do more gambling and win more money than I did.  I was perfectly entertained people watching!  Mindy and I sat at this bistro in Caesars and were highly entertained for 2 hours people watching while we waited for the guys to return from golfing.  Amazing concert.  Amazing food.  Amazing shopping.  Amazing trip with friends.  But, I was so happy to return home to my babies!

Aaron and I in front of the pools at Caesars!

 Since I was in marathon training, I had to do a long run of 12 miles (which, I did on the treadmill and wanted to poke my eyes out the entire time it was so boring!)  But, my recovery drink was a mimosa.

 The night of the concert, we ate at Ruth Chris' Steakhouse

 My hot date!  

 We sat in the balcony, but it was only a 1800 person venue so it was very intimate.  Tim and Faith talked with the audience, sang some amazing music...VERY cute couple!  The only disappointment was that Tim McGraw had WAY to much clothing on.  He wore a 3 piece suit the entire time!   He was still hot, but I am just saying.

 After the concert, while the boys played craps, Mindy and I headed up to Toby Keith's and had a little too much fun!  I mean, look at the size of those drinks!  By the time we drank them half way down, they were warm!

Again, we were very entertained people watching.  A cowboy...in Zubaz.  I am really glad those pants stuck in the 80's!

 The next night we headed down to Fremont street.   Mindy and Aaron both struck it big on the Wizard of Oz slot machine!  We headed back at midnight once the shady people started to come out :)

Birthday Boy!

Happy First Birthday my precious, but rambunctious boy!

 We had a low key first birthday with just our family since we had just gotten back from MN.  I have to say, Chet was not so sure about his cupcake!  He did try to take a bite and then just poked at it.  I think he was a little tired.

I took Chet to his One year well baby check two weeks after he turned one, but his stats are:

Weight:  23 lb 13 0z (81st percentile)

Height:  31.5" (92nd percentile)

The bad news from his check up is that he is on his third double ear infection!  It seems that everytime he starts to teethe or come down with a cold, the ear infection makes its appearance.  So, back onto antibiotics he goes.  I think we are looking square in the face with tubes in the near future.  

The big change from last month's update is that he is a walking machine!!!  He is so proud of himself!  And, he is now into EVERYTHING!!!  I mentioned before his persistence when he focuses on something.  Now multiply that by 100!  If he starts to explore something he shouldn't and we take him away, he gets really mad and then repeatedly tries to do it again.  I think I had to close this one cupboard at least 10 times in a row yesterday!  

I can't believe how different boys and girls are--Anatomic differences aside.  The amount of energy this little dude has is mind blowing!  And, he is so much rougher and less of a snuggler than Elsa was and is! 

Here is a cute picture of Elsa holding Chet's hand while watching Dora

I guess I should give some updates on Elsa!  

She continues to thrive in preschool.  Miss Thornton says she is such a good leader and loves to help in class.  I am amazed at everything she is learning to do and is getting better at.  She is starting to write her name and loves to recognize letters.   She LOVES coloring and is getting good at coloring in the lines.  We have her enrolled in pre-ballet/tap with two of her friends, Annie and Kate, and they are so adorable in class!  I can't wait until her first recital in May!

She is very affectionate and loves to give kisses and hugs to us.  But, she is definitely starting to exert her independence!  We are trying to deal with some lying.  The funny thing is I googled tips on how to deal with this and everything focused on children that lie at this stage actually have higher IQs!  I think I would rather have a child that didn't lie than a child with a slightly higher IQ!  

We are still having some difficulty with sleep during the night.  If she wakes up she comes into our room and we have to go into her room.  usually it involves laying down with her until she falls back to sleep--bad habit, I know.  It will be interesting in our new house since the Master bedroom is on the main floor and the kids will be upstairs.  

I am glad that her current school and a parochial school that we are looking at near our new house have school uniforms!  She is very insistent on what she wants to wear.  The other day she had a melt down because I wouldn't let her wear a tank top and shorts to school....it was 15 degrees out!  She is sneaky in the morning, because she will wake up and shut her door and start to get dressed.    I would say 95% of the outfits don't match and are a mix of PJs and clothes.

I think that brings us up to date with the kiddos.  This is going to be a crazy month of packing and finalizing things with the new house!

December cruised by

I felt like I just blinked and December was over!  Lots happened this month.  This little man turned 11 months.

He has turned into such a character!  And, he is very persistent!!  He constantly likes to crawl up the stairs and gets quite ticked if you interupt this activity.

There are four new teeth coming in making for eight total.

Has been sick ALOT!  We even went to the emergency room last month because he was coughing so hard and vomitting.  They took a swap for whopping cough, but suspect croup.  He has had two double ear infections.  We never had to deal with ear infections with Elsa!  Poor lil guy can't seem to catch a break!

He loves "so big", waving, and it starting to walk along furniture.

Favorite foods:  Yogurt bites, hot dog, mac and cheese, ground turkey, black beans, peas, bananas

Thinks dropping food on the floor is a fun thing to do!

Christmas was fun this year as Elsa is starting to understand more about it!  She even sat on Santa's lap with NO tears!!!  Although I did learn my lesson!  We went on Christmas eve and it was then I learned that she wanted a guitar!!  Where in the heck was I to find a guitar this late and why did she want a guitar??  Fortunately Target had a $10 dollar Leap Frog guitar that is only mildly annoying.  We don't really plan on buying the kids everything they ask for.  But, I specifically told her the only way Santa is to know what you want is to sit on his lap and tell him.  And, it was the only thing she asked for.

The only thing I disliked this Christmas was decorating.  I know I am a scrooge.  But, with a soon to be one year old constantly pulling everything down, it was not fun.  Instead of our stockings hung by the chimmeny with care, they were flipped up on the mantle so as not to cause head trauma to the previously mentioned destructor :)

And, I kept the ornaments to a minimum.  I think we hung only 10 ornaments and they were all up high.

Elsa did have fun helping me put up the lights though.  She is such a big helper!

She loved playing with "her computer" under the tree.

We went to the Children's mass at Church on Christmas eve and then came home to open gifts from the Grandparents and cousins.

 And the fun tradition of leaving a letter for Santa with a treat.  Elsa wanted to leave fruit snacks :)

On Christmas day, they opened up their gifts from Santa and we baked cupcakes to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

 I had off from the 27th-New Years Day, so we traveled back to MN to see family.  Elsa had a lot of fun playing with her cousins!  Here are the Anderson cousins on Sunday of the Viking Packer game.

Also, some news from December: We put an offer on a house and are under contract!!  We decided that after moving 9 times since being married in only 10 years (which involved two countries, four time zones) we wanted to settle down!!  Here is a picture of the outside of the house.  We move in around Feb 14th.  We are so excited!!

And, you heard it here:  NO MORE MOVING UNTIL THE KIDS ARE DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL!!!!

Chet 9 months old

I am really falling into that "the second child is less documented" thing!  I missed the  8th months photo, so I better get my rear end in gear before he turns one!

Weight:  22lbs 8 oz (88th percentile)
Height:  31" (>100th percentile)
Head:  48 cm (>100th percentile)

Wearing Size 4 Diapers

Clothing:  Can still wear some 12-18 months things but I have started to just buy 18-24 months so he can wear them longer.

Favorite Songs:  Itsy Bitsy Spider, You are my sunshine, Jesus Loves Me

Taking a bath in the "big kid" tub and makes a HUGE mess.  He LOVES to splash and I feel like I need to be in rain gear.   He recently discovered, how do I say this...his privates in the bath tub.  He loves to give it a squeeze and he will just giggle.

He is crawling all over the place and is starting to stand up with the support of furniture.  He is quite proud of himself.

FINALLY started sleeping through the night!  He usually has some oatmeal or rice cereal followed by a bottle at 7:30-8 pm and will often sleep until 6am.

Starting to eat more solid food.  Some of his favorites include banana, macaroni, peas, strawberries, and toast.  Although after a few minutes of eating, it turns into a game and he loves watching food drop onto the floor.

Loves to go for walks.

Our good friends we met in England came to visit us and Chet and Nolan are going to be best buds.  Elsa and Linnea picked up right where they left off.  Both of their children are about 2 months on either side of ours in age, so it is really fun to get the kids together! We took the kids to the Children's museum and they had so much fun.  They had this great area for kids under three and Chet loved crawling on and through the blocks and found mirrors quite entertaining.

 Elsa and Linnea had fun playing with water, dressing up as firefighters, and painting.  The girls were so cute together and they hadn't forgot about each other!

I continue to enjoy the relationship that is developing between Chet and Elsa.   It makes my heart swell.  Elsa is just a sweet heart and will tell each of us how much she loves us on a daily basis.  She absolutely loves her new school and I am so amazed at how much she is learning.   They utilize zoo phonics to teach the alphabet and teach them to identify letters based on phonetics rather than the name of the letter.  In addition, she is really enjoying Mandarin and will entertain us with songs she is learning.  I don't know what she is saying, but I know it is not English :)  Aside from the specific things she is learning, the biggest benefit I have seen is how she is developing a love for learning.  She wants to come home and practice her numbers and letters and is so excited to tell us about things she is learning!

Chet 7 months old

 Here is our monthly shot of Chet at 7 months old!  He LOVES to smile and giggle!  And, you can see from the photo below, he is drooling like crazy.  But he got his lower central incisors within days of each other July 26th.

 He is able to sit up for longer periods with no assistance and, by the way he is rolling around, we are starting to baby proof with babygates and outlet covers.  One of his favorite spots is underneath the coffee table!  The other one is by the end tables because he loves to crinkle the pages of our magazines.

 I think this is the cleanest he has ever been after a meal!

In July, we went to Madelia (my parents' hometown) for the annual Kelly reunion.  Most of the family had never seen Chet so he got lots of attention!  I hadn't been to the Kelly reunion for YEARS, so it was fun to catch up with the relatives.  Aaron and I played 18 holes of golf with my cousing Rachel and her husband, Phillip.  It was LONG as I had never played that many before!  Then, we went to Schell's brewery in New Ulm for a tour.  Here is a photo of me and my grandpa in the gardens!  Three generations!   

 Chet was fascinated with the plastic cups!

 The Baumlers!!!

 The various beers we were allowed to sample.  No, Aaron did not drink all of that.  I only had 1-2 samples and stuck with root beer the rest of the time.  It was hands down the best root beer!

4th of July

It was so hot on the 4th of July!  It was about 100 degrees and VERY humid.  We knew if we did anything, it would mostly involve staying indoors with air conditioning.   Fortunately, our friends, the Schuhs felt the same way and invited us out to their house in the country.  The heat didn't seem to bother the girls and by dusk, it had cooled down to the point where we could sit outside without looking like we showered.

 Poor Chet, the only boy....

 Elsa loved playing with their new litter of kittens!

Aaron bought these sparklers and they were a big hit.  Definitely larger than the sparklers I remember from when I was little!

We didn't really get to see city fireworks because of being in the country, but the kids had fun nonetheless.

Chet 6 months

CJ is 6 months old!  The above picture is a little blurry because the kid can't sit still and the chair kept rocking!

His 6 months stats from the pediatrician:
           Weight:  19lb 12 oz  (85th percentile)
            Height:  29"  (97th percentile)
            Head:  47cm (97th percentile)

He is wearing anything from 6-12 months or 12-18 months right now.

Size 3 diapers

Sleeping:  not so much.  Will wake 1-2 times in the middle of the night for a bottle.  We are trying to ween him from the middle of the night feeding by reducing the amt of formula we put in.  Keeping our fingers crossed that it works :)

Loves his exersaucer!  Loves bouncing in it or if we help him stand on our laps

Love brother and sister time!

One of my favorite things he does now is he loves to explore our faces when we feed him his bottle!  He will touch our lips, cheeks, and nose as he is feeding.

Feeding is quite messy as he recently discovered the excitement of blowing rasberries and blowing food all over us!  Likes:  yo-baby, lentils, vegetables, most fruit   Dislikes:  cottage cheese

He can sit up with assistance but loves rolling around on the floor