Linnea's New Ride

Here is our big girl....

in her big girl carseat!

Still looking kind of small but...

she weighs enough and seemed cramped enough in the infant carseat that we decided to take the plunge and get her a forward facing carseat that will last until she doesn't need one anymore.

We actually didn't get just one. We got two. Two of the exact same ones! We drive both our cars enough that this will save us the headache and hassle of constantly having to either switch carseats or cars around. And eventually I will be working again so this will help with the drop off/pick up situation of daycare.

She seemed to enjoy sitting forward and being able to see where she was going! However that sun sure got in her eyes at times...so we also bought her some shades. Stay tuned for pictures of those cute things to come...

Babysitting Swap and Weekend Fun!

Last Monday Linnea spent her first day since daycare with a nonfamily member watching her! However, Breanna and Linda are like family to us so we felt completely comfortable leaving Linnea with them. We have been family friends with Linda Potts and her family for almost 20 years and Linda works with babies so we knew she was in good hands! Bre is her niece who also loves and works with kids. I know the three of them had a blast together! And I had a blast with my dad, cousin and Linda's husband skiing at William O Brien State Park in Stillwater. As much as I love skiing at Como Golf Course which is only about 8 minutes away, it was so nice to go somewhere else and be able to ski a bit longer and not do the same loop over and over again!

Even though I did get this long ski in and I did the 33K City of Lakes Loppet I have decided to switch to the shorter of the two races coming up this weekend.

The Birkiebeiner Ski Race Weekend. The big one is 50K which my dad is still doing and the Korteloppet is 23K. That is what I will be doing. I have done the 50K in my life and I hope to be able to do it again I just haven't got enough K's in to do it and to enjoy it. It is much harder to get out and seriously train with a little one!

But I am glad I get out as much as I can and I know I am very fortunate to be able to stay at home and have a husband get home around 3:30pm. We are lucky!

We were lucky enough to get out to another movie this past Friday as well! We haven't been to one in almost a year! We went to see Shutter Island with a few other friends. We also went out to dinner! What a fun night and a great movie! Chris read the book and was ecstatic to see the movie. I am now looking forward to reading the book! Linnea got to spend that night at my parents house since Chris and I both had to work early Saturday morning. From work I went to pick her up and then we headed to River Falls. Or more so, my mom and Linnea headed to River Falls while dad and I skied at Willow River State River on the way to River Falls and then ended up in River Falls for a lil visit with Erik, Lisa and Dylan. The two kids looked like they had fun playing while we were skiing! Erik and Lisa headed out on a date night, I had dinner with the kids and my parents and then headed home.

The picture at the top of this blog is Linnea in my ski hat while were watching Bre's little brother. Hence, part of the blog title, babysitting swap...Bre and Linda watched Linnea for me Monday and then I watched Bre's lil 4 year old bro for them on Wednesday!

It was a fun day and week! We are so happy Linnea felt better this week so we could go to music and storytimes again! Chris and I however, caught quite the cold, but we are doing better now too.

Oh, we also tried to celebrate Mardi Gras on Fat Tuesday but the Hurricanes I bought were pretty gross! So we just had a little but we did enjoy my crockpot jambalaya and American Idol and Lost and of course the Olympics! I can't get enough of them and wish I was there. I have even been able to catch Nordic Skiing since I am home during the day! So happy they are showing it on normal NBC since we do not get cable.

YAY! GO USA!

Happy Valentines Day!

Above and below you see Linnea a year ago.

She has sure changed!

And below is this year celebrating Valentine's Day.

With that glowing face you would think we gave her the milk jug as her Valentine's Day gift...

But really we gave her the book Ten Tiny Kisses with a little stuffed kitty.

And she gave us lots of smiles, hugs and chocolate!

We love you Linnea April!

We hope that everyone enjoyed their Valentine's Day with someone special.

We spent the day together just hanging out after I worked at Caribou 5:15-11am and went skiing.

We were invited to my new parent playgroup but since Linnea isn't 100% better we thought we would stay home since yesterday was a busy day celebrating grandma's 86th bday and Valentine's Day with my family.

Linnea got puzzles and cute Valentine's Day cards and tattoos!

Babysitting

Last Thursday I got to spend the day with two of my nephews and Linnea! Dylan, Ian, Linnea and I had a great time!

We played with balloons...

attacked each other...

made music, sang and danced a bit...

and of course ate!

What a fun day!

sick again :(

Poor Linnea has been battling her first ear infection this week. And it happened to be a double whammy! She also got nailed with croup and a very runny nose. Pretty much a faucet! So we have been going through lots of kleenex, washing out hands a lot, watching Sesame Street, Elmo and our funny cartoon called Pingu we found on Netflix Watch Instantly. But she is certainly a trooper through all of this! We even were well enough for great grandma's 86th bday celebration yesterday! A few more days of amoxicillan and hopefully this crud will be gone and we can get back to going to our storytimes, music class and playdates!

Candlelit Ski and City of Lakes Loppet

Yay Mommy and Grandpa,

Love, Linnea

Last weekend my dad and I successfully finished the City of Lakes Loppet. A 33k race from Theodore Wirth Park in North Minneapolis to Uptown. It is by far my favorite race ever. However this year since I haven't really been training I definitely just skied it to ski it and finish. No racing here, I even took breaks on the uphill! oh well, becoming 30 and a mommy does that to some people I guess!

Chris and Linnea didnt make it to cheer us on so we took this picture in our kitchen afterwards. Do you like our matching hats!?I have always wanted a hat that has a race name on it.

It is a beautiful race through parks, bogs and over lakes. The night before we always do the Luminary Loppet which is a very leisurely ski around Lake of the Isles lit up by luminaries. I didnt have my camera for that event so you will have to check out cityoflakeloppet.com if you want pictures of how pretty that night is!

Another pretty night was a few weekends ago out at Wild River State Park. My mom and I joined my dad and some of his co workers for a soup dinner before our night on the candlelit trails. I love winter!

Linnea being Linnea

Linnea is getting very close to walking. We practice and practice...especially when daddy gets home. We love to have her walk between us and she loves it too! she grins and giggles the whole time! We are trying to get a video to post but for now he is a picture of her gearing up for some steps!

Just being cute with her puffs in a cool cup that doesn't allow them to spill. usually.

Cuddling with daddy! It's so nice that she still lets us walk around holding her her like that every now and then. And she is saying a lot of dada now which is adorable. Sometimes she prefers whispering it. And I am catching some ba's in her vocab now too!

Wheel of Fortune must have caught her attention in this one above. She loves to clap with that show! It's very cute!

And we tried blueberries yesterday. It was pretty messy but pretty good. I think she will like the fresh blueberries this summer more than thawed out frozen ones!

Meyers January Birthday Get Together

Grandma Sarah's Birthday, Naomi's Birthday and Jenny's Birthday are within basically a week of each other so every January we get together to celebrate them all in one blast. We were supposed to go down the day Chris got in his accident for a bowling party but just couldn't make it down after that ordeal so we made up for it this past weekend on Sunday in Ellsworth.

It was fun to see the twins and Linnea start to sort of play together or at least notice each other.

And it is not a Meyers event without some sort of guitar/rockband video game playing. Here is Peyton taking after her big sister Naomi and singing it out! What a cutie!

And Linnea is working hard to reach her water/juice in the above pic and working hard to walk between me and Jenny in the pic below.

Some cuddle time with aunt Jenny with her first pony tail!

It was very fun day of catching up, hanging out and eating Papa Murphy's! YUM! Happy Birthday everyone!

Happy 5th Birthday Current Concert

Chris' New Car!!!!

For those of you who hadn't heard, Chris was in a car accident on his way home from work Friday, January 22nd. No one was majorly injured, Chris was just very sore for about a week and ice and Aleve were his best friends.

His car on the other hand, was pretty much ruined. He was sandwiched between two cars so he had dents in front and a huge dent in back. It was drivable, but not legally and wasn't worth the money it would take to fix it. So he drove a rental Mazda 5 for a week and did some research online, in the paper, on facebook and with Affinity Plus for a new car. He fell in love with the 2007 Toyota RAV 4. 2007 being most important here, the pedal is fine. It is not one of the recalled Toyotas.

So anyways...after a day of car buying and yes a day of it we finally made it home in time to get ready for the Current's 5th Bday Concert. Here is the line up of performers:

And here are Pat and Chris playing Tetris! I loved that Tetris was at First Avenue!

Chris and Amy at the end of the night.

Megs and Amy at the beginning of the night...freezing in line! But it was worth the cold 30-45 minute wait!

No Jury Duty...lets go to the Minnesota Zoo

Well I was supposed to be on Jury Duty last week but got a letter saying I was randomly selected to not have to go! I guess they had too many Jurors! I was relieved. Even though I think it would be a good experience to be a juror, I was so not looking forward to getting up earlier and leaving Linnea with "daycare" all day. Nothing against you guys who were going to watch her, I know she would have been fine and you guys would have taken the best care of her and had a blast, but it would just have been a huge adjustment in so many ways!

So off to the Minnesota Zoo we went! We have been to Como many times but thought we would venture out to Apple Valley and see the big one! It has sooo many inside exhibits it was fantastic.

Linnea could definitely spot the animals this time. Not only would she spot them but she would sort of "squack" at them and point and expect them to give her some sort of acknowledgement. She is the most important you know. Or she seems to think so at times.

Here she is with her buddy Carter. A friend of mine from High School has two boys. Carter is here is the corner and Ashton is in the picture below. We have gotten together one other time and have so much fun!

Ashton and Linnea are doing some serious parallel playing right here! Ashton just turned 1 and Carter I believe is 4 or almost 4! Either way they are wonderful boys and I have a feeling we will be having more playdates!

Vikings vs. Saints. Also January 24, 2010

This post just may not be as uplifting as my usual ones. As you will read in the next post, we had a great day early on, on Sunday January 24th. It looked as though the evening would go well too. We were heading over to our friends Carl and Lori's who have one of Linnea's best friends Sophia. Lori was making some Chicken tortilla soup. We were planning to watch the Vikings make it to the SuperBowl. Lots of things to look forward to. But alas...the Aints won...I guess I can't call them that anymore. They are the Saints. The New Orleans Saints. And they are a very good team. At least we lost to a good team. And we lost to a team that lives in a city that deserves to have something to good happen to them. I think this will be good for my beloved city of Nawlins. So since the Vikes aren't there, GO SAINTS!

And thank you Vikings for a fantastic season!

Here are a few pictures from the night...Linnea and Sophia and the dog Beck had a great time playing...they could've cared less about the game. They sure looked at us yelling and cheering though!

This is a very fun toy! Lots of music and things to open and close!

This tunnel we thought would maybe help Linnea crawl...nope. She insisted on trying to scoot through it. I'm certain she will just go straight to walking. Or maybe running.

This picture was actually from two weeks ago when my parents came over to watch the game after my bday party.

Again the tube. But again, just scooting.

Here we are walking with a shopping cart! Go Linnea go!

Rock the Cradle, Sunday January 24th, 2010

Last Sunday was a big and busy day for us and many other Minnesotans! First I will write about the super super fun part of the day! I worked from 5:15am to 11am and then hurried home to get ready to bring Linnea to Rock the Cradle, one of Chris and I's favorite radio stations puts this great free event on every year, however we have not had a reason to go until this year! Linnea was barely a month old last year so we decided to wait until this year to bring her. At 1 I know she got a lot out of it! She gets a lot out everything we do together. She is just so observant, good and happy! Anyways...many local singers were there making many of their songs kid friendly, the djs did storytimes, there were musical instruments to be played, family yoga, a disco ball with dance music for the older kids and a babylap time for the younger ones. My parents, Brian, Megan, Dylan and Ian were able to join Linnea and I. Chris sadly stayed home because he was in a car accident on Friday on his way home from work and was still VERY sore Sunday. Other than being sore, Chris and the other drivers are fine. No major injuries. However, his car will be totalled so we bought a new/used car this weekend...more to come in a later blog on that! Back to the concert...

Jeremy Messersmith is above singing some fun tunes! He is the only one we got to see but he was who I really wanted to see anyways. He always relaxes our lil peanut.

Dylan looks quite relaxed as well.

And here are the lovebirds.

3 Generations.

Grandpa and granddaughter!

And a little bit of our dancing queen.