Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas!




Merry Christmas Everyone! We had so much fun celebrating Christmas with our families. Thanks for all the wonderful presents. Anya has been thoroughly enjoying playing with all her fun toys today!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christmas Song






Yesterday, Anya's Little Knights group sang at the end of our Christmas Liturgy. Last year she was only 1 and pretty much yawned and picked her nose the entire time. This year, she gave a good performance! Everytime she see's our choir director she bursts out singing this song. The other day Veronica(one of the daycare providers) took Anya with to the cafeteria and teacher's lounge. When Anya saw Nancy (choir director) she started singing and put on a show for a handful of teachers that were in there. Veronica said the teachers got up and started dancing around Anya while she sang. So funny. She has music and dance in her soul! Oh and she also is a big fan of singing while playing this little piano at daycare. If you are friends with me on Facebook, I put up a video of the performance and you can look for "Little Knights" and see videos of her there too. I think this weekend they are going to update a few videos of Anya. For whatever reason, I can't get the video to upload here on the blog. I'll work on that.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Snow and Christmas Party

Over the past weekend we got close to 18 inches of snow! This one gives you a good idea of how much we got if you think about the snow being up to the arms of the chairs!


This is across the street from us. You can barely see the door!


down the block a parked car is almost buried!

Last Sunday Anya had her children's Christmas party at my school. There are fun activities like decorating ornaments, face painting, prizes, and presents from Santa. Last year, Anya didn't want to sit on Santa's lap- she was kind of afraid of him. This year, she waited patiently...
and she wanted to talk to him, but was still not quite ready to sit on his lap.I'm not sure how much Finn weighs these days but I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to 20 lbs. He is wearing 9 month clothing and we have to supplement his bottles with rice cereal already (he isn't even 4 months yet!). 8 oz at a feeding wasn't doing the trick anymore, he would be hungry after 2 hours so, now with a few scoops of rice cereal mixed in, he is doing much better! Anya is still doing great at being a big sister. She loves to talk to Finn, tickle him, sing to him, and help me with little chores. Finn smiles so big when she is around. He likes to watch her dance and he listens to her talk non-stop!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

December




Nothing really new, just wanted to put up some new pictures and a cute video of Finn laughing.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

November update

I don't have many pictures of me with the kids because it's usually me behind the camera, so these are nice to have.

Dan must have very dominant genes, because we have yet another child that looks strikingly similar to him. I should have taken this picture a few day's later when Dan shaved his head again.

Anya and her cousin Gabriel talking to Finn and making him smile.

Anya is at such a fun age right now. She is over all of that terrible two stuff. She is in general a very happy little girl. She loves to sing and dance. She must be going through a growth spurt because she is hungry all day long and eats every single thing I pack for her at school. Just so I remember, her favorite foods right now are oatmeal squares, strawberries, rice, broccoli, and green beans. Her favorite movies are anything Bella Dancerella, Dora Dance, and her DVD bible (she calls it "Jesus loves me movie"). She can take out the dvd she wants, open the dvd player, put the movie in, and press the button to get it to start playing! She is wearing 3t clothes and size 8 shoes! She loves playing in her room and will clean up and organize her toys in the right bins. She is just so much fun and has so much spunk and personality.

Finn is still doing great, he is still sleeping through the night. He is eating 8oz pretty consistently (I'm going to have to start rice cereal sooner than I thought I would). He's wearing 6 month clothes. He loves his bouncy seat and is starting to be able to hold and shake toys. He is also getting better at playing with his hands and gumming them. He is so smiley and talkative and just a happy laid back guy.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

3 months

Since I've been back at work, Finn has been pretty consistently sleeping through the night. We usually feed him his last bottle at 8:30 or 9:00 and put him down and he sleeps until 6:00. This morning he slept until 7:30 which was nice! He is just such a happy boy. Last night for probably 45 minutes, I just laughed and talked with him and he laughed and talked back. He makes sounds that sound like "oh yeah" and "hi".. I know they are not, but they kind of sound like it. It's also funny because he already does what we tell him to do...I will be trying to burp him for 5 minutes and finally I'll say "Finn, can you please burp for mommy" and then he does! The other day I was frustrated and said to Dan "Dan, he won't burp, and it's taking him forever to eat, and if he doesn't eat then he won't sleep through the night!" (said in a very whiny voice) and all Dan did was point to Finn and say "BOY!" and just then Finn burped and finished his bottle, went to bed, and slept through the night!Today I took Finn to a craft fair with my mom, my friends Trisha and Megan, their mom Jean, and Megan's son Nate. Nate is 9 months old and was a perfect angel the whole day. Finn slept the entire time so it was a very enjoyable day! I think Finn and Nate will be good friends!Anya has been doing good except for a nasty cough. We are going to have her tested for allergies this next week. Hopefully the cough can be traced to that and we can get a medication figured out that will help her. It's the same cough she has had at this time of the year for 3 years. It pretty much started when we turned on the furnace...so we will see.As I've said million times before, she LOVES anything bella dancerella related and now it's the cheerleading version of the movie. Luckily she just so happens to have a cheerleading outfit-boy was she excited when I showed her that! - as you can see in the picture, she can now get the refrigerator door open and get the milk out! yikes.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Sunday best

I just had to post some pictures of Finn in his church outfit today. He was a very good boy in church today!

Last night Anya wanted to sing "Rock a bye baby" to Finn. She is such a good big sister!

Volley ball game


I took Anya and Finn to the Apple Valley Girls Volleyball game this past Friday to watch both the girls play and daddy coach. I did not attempt this alone- I knew Josh and Hannah and Dave and Mary Jo would be there. I was fully expecting to have to leave Finn with those guys while I walked around with Anya keeping her off the court and from running to daddy. But she was great! She stayed in the bleachers with us cheering, clapping, dancing, stomping her feet, eating popcorn, playing with stickers. She didn't try to run away-she was actually schmoozing with all the people around us. She was talking to one of the dad's in front of us and he gave her a sucker..then she was taking to a woman behind us who had one of those foam fingers and the lady gave her that to play with (Anya gave it back to her a little later all on her own!). Finn did great too. He was awake almost the whole time and was content being held by Hannah and Grandma and Grandpa. To top it all off, the team won! Anya got to give all the girls a high 5 afterward. It was a very fun time.

oh. side note.. Finn has slept through the night this whole past week starting last Sunday night! It's been awesome timing since I'm back to work now!

I think that's it for now.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

MN Gopher fan

Here is a little treat from Anya to all of you.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Saturday, October 23, 2010

2 year and 2 month check up

Anya and Finn went in Friday for their 2 year and 2 month check ups. They were great the whole time and we were there from about 1:30 until 3:00. They both had to get shots-they cried, but calmed down relatively fast. Anya had to get a finger poke and didn't even make a peep! Here are the stats:

Anya: Height 35.5 in (75%)
Weight 29 lb (75%)
Head circumference 47 cm (25-50%) she has always had a small head. :)

Finn: Height 24 in (75-90%)
Weight 14.5 lb (over 95%)
Head circumference 40 cm (50%)

Anya continues to do well with no nuk. Now she doesn't even ask for it! Finn's not really interested in one, so hopefully he just won't need it. Finn is definitely cooing and smiling more and more each day. Anya makes Dan and I laugh every day. Just the other day she found my bra in the laundry basket and held it up to herself and said "mommy look at me!". I laughed so hard!

Here are a few pictures of Anya playing in the leaves.
This is the maple tree we planted in memory of my dad, Roger.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

No more nuk

Anya "lost" her nuk Saturday night and even though I found it the next morning we decided this was the perfect opportunity to just be done with it. Recently it was becoming an issue with her waking us up in the middle of the night to help her find it...She was actually waking up more than Finn and that was not good. So...we told her that we couldn't find it and that she really didn't need it anyway since she is a big girl now. Surprisingly, she fell back to sleep that night and since then she hasn't had it at night and even at daycare she is not using it for naps. She still asks about it, but when I tell her that she doesn't need it anymore, she leaves it at that and doesn't seem to care! I was so nervous about getting rid of it and all for nothing cause it's been no big deal! She was the same way with the big girl bed. We were nervous that it would be hard for her and again, she didn't seem to care that she didn't get to sleep in her crib anymore. I think she is just so ready to grow up. Now we will have to try potty training....

oh, I found this picture of me when I was about Anya's age- looks like we have something in common after all!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Zoo Boo

This past Saturday, I took Anya and Finn to Zoo Boo at Como Zoo with my mom, my brother Jeff, and his 3 kids, Conlin, Sagel, and Clara Jane. Anya was, as you can probably guess, a....wait for it....BALLERINA. Surprise Surprise. It was packed, but a fun time for the kids. They got to walk through and get treats and prizes from people dressed as zoo animals, and various characters. Anya was happy to walk up to anyone and give them a high five for a treat. She also saw a little boy in a dragon costume and was mesmerized and wanted to follow him and touch his costume. She had a great time and was very good through it all.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Another resemblance

I was looking through recent photos of Finn and thought "that looks a lot like one of Anya's pictures". Sure enough when I found it and put them side by side here's what I saw...

Friday, October 15, 2010

2 months old!









Finn turned 2 months old yesterday. He also had a trial day at his new daycare. It's an in home daycare right on the way to work. The woman's name is Barbara and seems to be very nice. He did really good and he starts full time next Monday when I go back to work. I bring him and Anya in for their 2 month and 2 year appointments next Friday so I'll update with heights and weights and all that then. I've been waiting and waiting for him to wear this outfit and now he finally fits in it! I love that it's a hoodie.
Things he does now: He smiles more and more. Today I kissed him and he smiled. He bats at toys that hang above him, and is starting to coo and make cute little sounds. Still eating good, but we haven't had any more all nighters...