Happy 4th Birthday Elsa

My Dear Elsa,

Wow!  I can not believe that you are 4 years old!  It just seemed like yesterday and Daddy and I were praying over you.  You are truly a miracle baby and came into our lives when we did not think we would be parents.  Every day I thank God you made me a mommy!

You have been the most laid back child (more so apparent with your wild brother, but that is a whole other post)!  You have the most amazing heart and are so caring about other people.  I love how you great us every morning and every day when we pick you up from school.  You love "squeezes"  and always tell me to "squeeze harder".     You are so affectionate and I hope that NEVER ends.  Every time I pick you up or drop you off at school, you always want to hold my hands during the walk.  And, you always have the biggest, most infectious smile on your face!  You bring so much joy to those you meet.  Even complete strangers will comment how friendly you are!  You love to say Hello to everyone we pass.  

Favorite songs:  Shake your booty;  Call me maybe;  Momma's broken heart (Miranda Lambert)--which you LOVE to sing the chorus!  Really, any song that comes on the radio, you say "Turn it up, this is my favorite song"

Favorite games:  Hide and Seek (you are getting better at this but you still like to hide in the same exact spot) and Memory (you are one smart little cookie and always beat your dad and I)

Favorite books:  Anything related to Princesses;  Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see; your Bible for little girls.

Favorite foods:  You are at that stage where you are a very picky eater, but at least you will try 1-2 bites "You gotta try new foods because they might taste Gooo-oood";  You constantly are asking for a snack or chocolate even after you tell us you are full at dinner.  One of your favorite treats is Smart Cow Frozen Yogurt Bar and you love to add gummies and marshmallows to your Chocolate yogurt.  

You LOVE to color and play with stickers!  Looking at your art projects from the year, it is amazing to see the progression from coloring with scribbles to drawing things we can actually understand.

Your artistic ability was certainly not inherited by me as your artwork already surpasses anything I can produce.  We created a wall with your artwork in the kitchen where it is proudly on display.

I love to watch you read to Chet and get him to understand things.  I know you get frustrated when he takes your toys, but you are so good and usually let him continue to play with it.  You are a very patient  big sister!  

You are also such a big helper with Chet and always let us know what he needs or what he is doing.  I can tell you are going to be a great mommy some day!

You have had some difficult adjustments with moving to the new house.  I know it was hard to leave your friends.  You still like to come down into our bedroom every night since you aren't quite comfortable sleeping upstairs all by yourself.  

You love to dress in short sleeved shirts and tank tops...even in the middle of winter.  I know when you are at the age to flee the coop, you will venture to a warmer climate!  

This past year you were enrolled in Ballet and Tap and you were such a good dancer.  I didn't know how you would do on stage in front of all of those people, but you LOVED it!  You even made dad into a dancer!  You both did a disco routine for the dance recital.

You continue to love school and enjoy learning.  Your dad and I are very proud of how you pay attention to your teachers and how much you have learned.  Your teacher, Miss Thornton, says you are a natural leader and are always willing to help out in class.  This year, you learned zoo phonics and are even able to start reading some words!  I love how you sing Mandarin songs and are learning another language!  The other day, you told me "i really like to try hard at school, mom".  If I tell you how to spell something you can write out the word all by yourself.  

I am so proud to be your mom and, although I love watching you grow, I will always yearn for you to stay this age.  The age where you still need me.  The age where you LOVE to be around me.  I hope that this will never change.  I am so excited to see what this next year brings!  Happy Birthday, my precious darling!  Love, Mom

We had several celebrations for her birthday.  I think that may have been too many because she woke up the morning after the party with her friends and asked "When is it my birthday again?"

When our families were in town, we celebrated her birthday with her Grandparents, Cousins, and Aunts and Uncles.  She saw a picture of a Strawberry Mousse Cake on a recipe I cut out from Southern Living and wanted me to make that for her birthday.  It was not a straight forward cake and it had very ambiguous directions...let's just say I am glad I bought enough ingredients because I had the opportunity to make the cake twice.

You can see her covering her eyes...at all three parties, whenever we would sing "Happy Birthday", she would get so bashful!  

Then, we took her to "The cat in the hat place" for dinner on her actual birthday.  Chet stayed home with our babysitter, so Elsa got some undivided mom and dad time.

And, her final party was for friends at the NEW Zoo.  11 kids + 6 adults = pure chaos!  We joked that even with the 6 adults it was difficult to "control" the kids!  Even though it was a blast, I joked about just having cake at a park with a playground next time since that seemed to be the favorite part of the day!

This goat LOVED Miss Kate!

 Chet LOVED feeding the Barnyard animals!

All the girls of the party

That evening, we went for a walk around our neighborhood and Elsa insisted on riding her scooter in her princess dress...priceless.

Winter Fun

This has been a LONG winter, but we have tried to make the best of it.  In February, the week before we moved, we took the kids sledding at Baird Creek Park.  It was the largest hill I have ever went tubing on!  Elsa had a blast but Chet didn't know quite what to think and screamed the whole time.  They have a tow rope that pulls you to the top of the hill.  It proved to be quite the challenge as Aaron and I would each have one of the kids.  I would have to lay on the tube and have Elsa lay on top of me.  Trying to hold on to her and the rope provided quite the work out!  I ended up taking Chet into the Chalet since he was not enjoying the experience while Aaron took Elsa down some more times.  I wish I would have captured Aaron and Chet plowing into me as I was trying to get out of the tube.

Then, in March, when the weather was really cold, we decided to take the kids to a local hotel (Tundra Lodge) and use the water park.  It took about 20 minutes for Chet to decide he liked it.  He cried the first 20 minutes because of how noisy it was in there.  Once he got wet, he had a blast!  He loved this water fountain and the lazy river.  I almost got him to fall asleep on me when we were tubing on the river.

 Elsa LOVED the water slide and climbing the pirate ship!  Unfortunately, I only have this picture of her enjoying dippin dots!

Even though I love the snow, I have to say I am very excited for Summer!  I leave out spring because it seems as if we are going to skip that season this year.

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!!!!