Sledding

During the month of December we have had lots of snow and some pretty bad weather. We are at my mom and dad's right now, and they have about two feet of snow on the ground. The temps have also been pretty cold. But yesterday, it was in the +20s so we took advantage of it and went sledding!! Here in Thief River there is one hill where everyone goes sledding. We met our friends Lori, Chris and Ashley (and Lori's family) and had a great time!

Elise had SO much fun, she wanted to go again and again and again. It is a pretty long trek back up the hill, but she trudged back up every time and did not complain. And as soon as she got back to the top she wanted to go down again. She would have kept at it all day, but the rest of us petered out long before she did.

This was Anja's first time sledding. She was pretty laid back about it all, but seemed to enjoy it.

Christmas

What a great Christmas! We are at my mom and dad's this week, and were at their house for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve we had some special people for dinner, some friends of mom and dad's, and a cherished family member, my dad's cousin Irene. What a fun time talking, laughing and thoroughly enjoying each other's company. Elise was a great host, engaged everyone in conversation and was very entertaining. Anja got tired fast and went to bed halfway through dinner. After dinner Elise opened two gifts, a barn set from my mom and dad (she loved it!) and a game which some friends had given her (she really wanted to play but I still had not figured out the directions by her bed time...it could have been I was having too much fun visiting with everyone to really focus on reading the directions :). We set out cookies for Santa (the first year Elise has wanted to do that), then she was off to bed. I have to say, it is nice to be able to threaten that "you have to stay in bed tonight or Santa won't come!" After that it was more visiting and laughing, then wrapping presents. We got to bed after midnight. Around 4:00 am I sneaked upstairs to set out some Santa presents for Jason, my mom and dad, then went back to bed until about 6:00, when Anja decided she wanted to get up bright and early on Christmas morning.

Christmas was a great day! This was the first Christmas Elise understood the full meaning of Santa leaving gifts, and looked genuinely surprised when she saw that the previously empty stockings were now stuffed with things, and there were presents that hadn't been there before!

We opened presents, and loved watching Elise and Anja. Anja really caught on to the opening gift process. Before long she parked herself under the tree and started opening every package she could get her hands on. There were a couple where we had to track down the paper she ripped off to read the tag and see who it belonged to. She got furious when we took her away and would not let her rip something open.

Around noon my aunt, uncle and cousins came, and that was a new round of fun. With four little kids around, the gift opening got a little wild, but they had a great time and that is what it is all about!

My mom and dad gave Elise a mini trampoline, and it has provided endless fun. She has now started jumping from a stool onto the tramp, sometimes she lands on her feet and sometimes she chooses to land on her butt. She is burning off the energy! Elise had a great time showing her cousin Gavin how to jump.

We so enjoyed both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and are forever thankful that we have families to love and who love us and who we have great times with.

December

Playing a little catch-up with what we've been doing this month...
We continue to get settled into the house, and the girls enjoy playing in all the snow we've had this month (well, Elise likes playing in it. Anja can't move too much in her snow suit, so she just sits...not too much fun for her.)

Anja started walking!We walked through a blizzard to go see santa (that is our house in the background) Anja did not like Santa

Elise said she did not want to sit on his lap, but she would stand next to him and talk to him.

The weather this month has been wild, like I remember it being when I was a kid. We've already had two official blizzards, and have several inches of snow on the ground. Right now we are at my mom and dad's for the holidays, and they have even more snow on the ground. Poor Dutch, when he walks through the yard he bellies out in the snow. Our landlord doesn't allow dogs, so Dutch will be staying at my mom and dad's when we head back south.

Lismore

A little about Lismore, the town where we are living...
Population 297. There is a meat market (they also carry some "staples" like some basic soups and cereals, but nothing perishable. Except meat, of course :), a gas station (just gas, not a convenience store), the city building, the gas company, what looks like a lumber yard but I haven't seen any kind of signage, a post office, bar/grill, and a couple other business like construction company offices or something. We live two doors down from the Catholic church (it was built in 1906 and is really beautiful). The house we are renting used to be the priest's house. It is really well built (as the land lord said, "they weren't spending their own money so they didn't care how much they spent"), has gorgeous wood work. The main floor has been somewhat updated (the kitchen is particularly nice), but the upstairs looks like it hasn't been touched since 1970. I don't think it's been cleaned since 1970 either. We took up the carpet in Elise's room and THOROUGHLY cleaned. She is now moved in and sleeping in there. Jason and I are still sleeping on a futon in the living room, and Anja is sleeping in what will be our room. Next we are going to tackle Anja's room, hopefully pulling up the carpet in there and again thoroughly cleaning.

The people here are really nice. Adrian is the closest town of any size. It is 7 miles away, has a small grocery store, a hardware store, and school (that is the school district we are in). We are doing ECFE in Adrian and have met some nice people there. Worthington is about 20 miles, and we go to storytime there. We are still exploring other opportunities for fun activities for the kids. In general we are really happy and having a good time.

Thanksgiving

Mom and dad hosted Thanksgiving this year, with "the usuals" in attendance (you know who you are!). Elise helped prepare the turkey, and while she was helping had LOTS of questions about turkey anatomy and turkeys in general. She decided that our turkey was a girl and corrected us whenever we called it "he". She also got the idea somewhere that the reason the turkey is special on Thanksgiving is that we bring the turkey back to life on that day.

Elise was really cute, said "Happy Thanksgiving!" to everyone, and at dinner went around the table and asked each person individually "what are you thankful for?". Elise had a great time playing with Gavin, and Anja joined in on the fun occasionally, when the older two weren't playing too rough.

On the job front, Jason has heard that the transfer will not happen January 1st, but sometime in the second quarter. So things will stay the same for a few months, what a relief!

The Waterpark

This weekend my mom's sister, my cousin and her two little boys met us at the water park. We had a great time and were all exhausted at the end. On the way home Elise said over and over again "I'm sooooo tired".

We also heard some gossip this week that Jason may be relocated by the first of the year. Just when I thought things were going to settle down...

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Elise and I made Thanksgiving turkeys today!

Catching Up

I have some catching up to do on this blog. We've done lots of little things in the past few weeks and I'm putting them all together today.

First, I completely forgot to give an update on Anja following her one year check-up (I was reminded when I read my sister-in-law's blog and saw the update on our nephew following his appt...Thanks Brttany!). Anja had her one year appointment right before Halloween. She was fine until I laid her down to be measured then she started crying and would not stop. And she would not be still because she just wanted me to hold her and squirmed and writhed around until I picked her up. We managed to get a length measurement (29 1/2"), but she was moving around so much that we could not get a solid weight. She is some over 18 pounds. Which puts her at 50% for height and around 8% for weight. She was born fairly large (8.2 pounds and 21"), but since then has proved to be a peanut. I've got her in 12 month clothes, but the pants kind of fall off of her. Anyway, I asked the doctor if we should be concerned about her low weight, but he said no. He said she looks healthy so it is just the way she is meant to be. My dad's family is small, so maybe she is taking after that branch of the family tree.

Ok, a week or so ago we attended a Teddy Bear Band concert. There must have been a couple hundred parents and children there. Each kid brought a teddy bear and the band played "audience participation" songs. Everyone was entertained.

I think this is cute so I'm including it...Elise loves to paint, we paint several times a week. Well, Anja HAS to do everything her sister does. Since painting would be way too messy, I've always just tried to keep Anja distracted during painting time, or we do it when she is napping. But I finally figured out a way to include her. I gave her a brush, a dish of water and construction paper. When she dipped the brush in the water then on the paper, the water made the paper turn a darker color, and she was "painting"! And everyone was happy...hooray!

Winter has hit Minnesota. It is cold and we have snow, so break out the snowsuits! I found a cute one for Anja and she looks really adorable in it. A garage sale find...I found this blow-up toy for $5 dollars at a garage sale. It had never been used and the girls LOVE it. Bonus points for mom!

My cousin's son, Gavin, had his third birthday today. He LOVES John Deere and that was the theme. We all had a great time. It was a total pleasure to watch Elise interact with the other kids, share toys, and have good manners. It's been tough at this age for her to watch other kids open presents and get the attention. Today I was especially proud of her.

Election Day

For both my girls, this was the first presidential election in their lifetime. And it was a historic one. I wanted to make sure I documented their participation (they both came with me to vote).

Halloween

Anja had her first Halloween last year, but since she was just 5 days old this year really felt like her first. She wasn't too actively involved, but she did get dressed up to ride along to the community Halloween party. She took it all in from the stroller.

Elise's costume this year was more involved than any other year. She was a fairy and I decided to do some upgrading by decorating the wand a little more, and making some matching do-dahs to put in her hair. I also did up her hair (I've never really "done" her hair before), and put some sparkly stuff on (fairy dust, after all!). She really looked too cute for words. One of those times when I think she is so darn cute I wonder if she can really be my child.

A Beautiful Day

Last weekend it was COLD, windy, and it snowed. Yesterday was sunny, almost 70 degrees, and beautiful. We enjoyed the day by playing outside. There were leaves to roll in and throw around, there were crab apples on the ground to squish, there were pine cones to pick up and collect.

Pumpkins

Aaah, October...Leaves falling, crisp air and...pumpkins!! We got this year's pumpkins from a small, local grower. They are beautiful! We had a lot of fun picking out the perfect pumpkins.

Then, the carving. I was worried this would be more stressful than fun, trying to balance the needs of a one-year old and three-year old while wielding a knife. But it all worked out well, Elise and I carved her pumpkin while Anja was napping then Anja and I carved her pumpkin while Elise was napping. Each girl got my undivided attention and it was a lot of fun.

The Flu Shot

A couple days ago I took Elise in for her flu shot. The night before I pondered the best strategy for making it go as smoothly as possible. I had a lot of anxiety about taking her in. If you have a baby, you know how traumatic shots can be. HOWEVER, in my opinion, it gets much worse once kids hit age two and they can verbalize their pain and horror. Babies look at you with an expression that seems to say "how can you do this to me?" But once a kid can talk, it is not just a parent's imagination laying on the guilt, it is the child's own voice. "MOMMMMM!" "STOP!" "NO!" And they crawl up into your lap, believing you will save them from the impending attack, but NO! They find out you are an accomplice! And they say things like "You let them hurt me!"

So, I thought and thought on how to make this flu shot experience go as smoothly as possible. Should I tell Elise ahead of time to prepare her for what was to come? What if she freaked out as soon as I told her and cried for the whole time before, during and after the appointment? Should I not tell her about the shot? She would be calm ahead of time, but I ran the risk of her panicking when the needle came in and it all happening so fast she felt ambushed.

About an hour before the appointment I decided to just see what happened and wing it.
Me: "I'm taking you to the doctor this morning"
Elise: "Is the doctor going to give me a shock [shot]?"
Me: "Maybe"
Elise: "I think the doctor will not give me a shock"
Me: "ok"

In the car..Elise: "I will tell the doctor not to give me a shock"

In the parking lot...Elise: "I think the doctor will not give me a shock"
Me: "I think you should prepare yourself in case the doctor gives you a shot. You should think about being brave."
Elise: "Ok, but he's not going to give me a shock."

We walked into the room and we weren't even in the door when Elise said to the nurse "I don't want a shock."

Nurse to me: "Are we doing a flu shot or FluMist?" (I see the heavens begin to open. I can hear the angels quietly begin to sing)
Me: "We can do FluMist?"
Nurse: "Yes"
Me: "YES!!" (Hallelujah!! The angels are now in full-blown chorus. My anxiety is gone, I am smiling. I love this nurse!)

A squirt up the nose and we were done.

Oh yeah...next week when I go in to get my flu shot I'm getting FluMist too :)

Anja's First Birthday Party

Our sweet little Anja had her first birthday party last weekend. We had it at my mom and dad's. Lots of friends and family came and it was a great party. Elise had been quite excited about the party and had been asking about it for days. On the day of the party I picked out an outfit for her but she decided it was not dressy enough, so she picked out her own dress and dressed herself. Then she was a really big help putting up decorations and cleaning. Tough to be the big sister NOT getting all the attention, but she did a great job.

Anja seemed to enjoy herself also. She really did not get into the cake, which is the main event at the 1st birthday party. She stuck her finger in a few times and tasted the frosting, but that was about it.

She DID enjoy the presents, though. She pulled things out, pulled off wrapping, and played with all the toys