sick and tired

What a week we have had. Linnea has pretty much been a lethargic lump all week. She missed daycare twice because she threw up two nights this week :( Which means mommy or daddy also missed work. She finally seems to be coming around today. But the rest of the week all she could do was watch movies or tv after daycare which is very unusual. Not interested in eating or drinking and just not herself in general. She also has been dealing with some constipation so we have her on a kids laxative. I think once she gets cleared out she will be even more on the mend. We can't wait to have our little girl back!

I was able to get out and do a ski race this morning at Phalen golf course with my dad which was soo sooo fun! Its the first time in like 10 years there has been a ski race involved with the winter carnival and I hope it keeps up. I am definitely not as fast as back in my racing days but still think I did pretty good and had a blast. My dad did awesome. We didn't make it there quite in time so we started 3 minutes behind everyone but didn't finish there! And one of my old coaches from college put the race on so that was very fun to see him, his wife and their twins.

Tomorrow we race again in Stillwater at William O Brien State Park and another race next weekend! I love it.

Sorry for the lack of pics. We still don't have our camera back :(

Camera Less :(

Hello! It is hard to remember to blog when I have no pictures to put up. I sadly forgot our camera at a friends house last weekend in Zumbrota so its not like we can just drive over and get it because its just over an hour away. But we hope to get it Thursday so then we will put some pics up! For now I will just share what we have been up to.

Saturday Linnea and I think we grocery shopped in the morning and then I know in the afternoon I got to go skiing with an old friend from high school and her hubby. Very fun!

Sunday we headed to Zumbrota to watch the Seahawks and Bears football game. Well Chris watched and my girlfriends and I mostly just caught up and played with the kiddoes. She has an almost 15 month old. Linnea opted not to take a nap over there which was odd. She has been so good about napping in other places as long we have the pack n play or a mattress on the floor and her monkey, blanket and lullabies. Well we brought all of those things but she decided it would be more fun to jump around in the pack and play. Oh well. She didnt get crabby and took a lil catnap on the way home.

Sunday night I began to feel a sharp pain in the lower right side of my abdomen. I just thought it was gas or something not serious and would be gone in the morning. Well it wasn't gone, it was actually worse. Linnea also woke up with a fever. This all happened around 8 when Chris was already at work. I had planned to bring Linnea to daycare and go skiing with my dad and some friends in Stillwater at William O Brien. Well instead Chris came home early and brought me to the ER because I thought it was my appendix or at least something serious. My dad came over to watch squirt since if you have a fever you cannot go to daycare. After 4-5 hrs in the ER and many tests it was decided I had had a cyst on my ovary and it ruptured which is quite common I guess and very painful. I had never had this before and hope it doesn't become a routine thing. I was given Tylenol 3 and sent home where Linnea was doing much better. We all just took naps that afternoon and felt better by Tuesday. I am home again this Monday with Linnea who threw up twice in the middle of the night. Hopefully we will be back to normal tomorrow. So far she seems fine and is napping.

Linnea and I made it to two libraries this week after daycare. I love how almost all libraries have play areas for kids and I of course love finding new books, cds, movies and shows for Linnea each week. It was way below zero a few days this week so I didn't ski and instead did Yoga.

This past weekend was pretty low key. I got a ski on on Saturday after going once again to our fav bookshop for a craft this time. My parents came with and we picked up Chipotle for lunch at our place afterwards. Saturday night Chris and I played some Phase 10 and just hung out! It was nice!

Sunday was filled with cleaning and then having the parents over to watch the Packers and Bears game and play Kinect.

And that leads me to today, Monday and I already shared with you how I am spending today. With my sick daughter who is now sleeping which means I should get some stuff done!

Go Gee Go

Linnea is extremely into stepping onto this stepstool and either climbing onto the couch or "jumping" to us. She almost always does a little squat, says "go gee go" which we think is either 1, 2, 3, go or ready set go...and then "launches" into the air. She says this phrase before pushing just about anything around in the house too. I don't think it is that loud or maybe isn't even on this video but you can still see her "jumping." I think she gets her vertical from her mommy.

Our Week

I wish I had some pictures from our weekend last weekend but I don't so you just get to read about what we did! Daddy had lots of football watching time and mommy had skiing time! And Linnea had grandma time...well sort of and I say sort of because she slept for most of it.

Saturday I took Linnea The Red Balloon Bookshop on Grand for one of our fav story tellers. Her name is Sarah Watters and she amazing! I will be sad when Linnea is too old to enjoy her. She just has so much positive energy reading books, singing songs and playing her instruments for the toddlers/babies. We then went to a new to us library in Shoreview to track down the movie Madagascar 2 which we did and we loved watching bits and pieces of it this week. We found plenty of other fun books and DVDs too. I honestly cant remember what we did Saturday night. Probably just lounged around and continued to take down Christmas stuff or played our kinect!

Sunday was the big day of football for daddy and skiing for mommy. I took Linnea to church with my parents and then laid her down for a nap at my parents house. She napped while grandma was putting away Christmas things and my dad, our friend Stan and I headed to Lake Elmo for a great ski! We had delicious potato soup afterwards! yum!

I love the weekends when I can ski for more than a half hour and have more than 2 hours with Linnea. But I am happy to have that time to ski and wind down. The kids I work with are exhausting! Love them, but goodness they make me appreciate my daughter and the weekends!

Below is Linnea having some playtime before bed...she is in her jammies way early and before bath because we along with daycare are working on her drinking without a lid on her cup...

I think that is enough said.

Here is what I found Thursday morning when I went to see if she was up...

Below is what this Friday night consisted of for a special treat:

We made maple syrup snow!

YUM!!!!

Linnea loved it and ate it maybe a little too fast. She was very cold after her bowlful!

It is a very simple, fun, delicious thing to do with freshly clean fallen snow!

And for any of you following MN weather you know we have no shortage of freshly fallen snow! And I love it!

Christmas win Bellechester!

On Jan. 2 we headed to Bellechester to see Chris' extended family. We dont get to see his aunts and uncles and cousins very often but when we do it is always so much fun! Unlike the Henjum side, there are almost all girls for Linnea to play with!

Above is her cousin Ella and below is her twin Peyton!

Linnea saw those girls posing and immediately stopped in her tracks and gave me this face!

The kids gift "exchange"!

Linnea picked the perfect gift for her...an Elmo magnetic writing board!

And here are some the girls taking a break before we leave.

What a fun day and holiday season!

Now it is back to work and daycare for all of us.

New Year's Day/Christmas

On New Year's Day we went to my parents house in Woodbury for another Christmas celebration! It has become tradition that the years Erik and Lisa go up north over actual Christmas we get together with our immediate family and kids and do a New Year's Day brunch/Christmas. It was lots of fun!

The kids loved watching the train go around and around

and emptying out stockings...

and opening more presents!

Jake seemed to love his time snuggling with grandma.

Dylan and Ian enjoyed making words with bananagram pieces (similar to scrabble) with Brian.

The kids also liked playing with their gifts...playdough being one of them!

Linnea enjoyed some rides on daddy's shoulders

and even got to try out the Wii!

Like I said above it was lots of fun and we are looking forward to getting together again!

Children's Museum

Last week I took advantage of my day off with Linnea at the Children's Museum with two of my friends and their toddlers. It was so much fun! The girls are all about 2 months apart so it was a perfect group to go with. We played and played and then had lunch together. Linnea took a 3 hour nap afterwards! I have only been to the Children's Museum with 2nd and 3rd graders so it was much different going with a 2 year old! But just as fun!

We went grocery shopping...

checked out the neighborhood...

sat in a garden...

and put a dance show in the studio (video to follow)

We also discovered the "Habitot". I did not know this amazing place existed within this museum. 2nd and 3rd graders dont go in here. It was the perfect indoor playground for our girls!

above Linnea is checking out the "pond and lily pads"

taking a rest on a comfy chair

hanging out in a cave

and sliding! this was in a different nature area.

and so was this. Linnea is reaching for a fake salamander among the "creek" flowing down the rocks.

There is also a bubble and water room which we loved but I didnt get any good pictures. We didnt even go into about 2 or 3 places because it is so big and was super crowded and we only have about 3-4 hours in us at a time!

I dont know why this is underlining and cant make it stop. there is no particular reason this is underlined. sorry! hahaha.

What a great day! We can't wait to go back with daddy and hopefully cousins!

And another great part about it was that all of us got in for $8 thanks to the St. Paul Public Library Museum Passes. And parking was only $3 each!

Hooray for deals!

New Year's Eve Day!

On New Year's Eve Day Linnea, Grandpa/my dad (Poppy as L sometimes says) and I went to the Como Zoo for a family party! Linnea made a hat which stayed on all of 5 seconds.

We played in their playroom with the animals while waiting for the balloons to drop.

We also went bowling which was Linnea's FAVORITE!

Uncle Brian would be proud.

STRIKE!!!

Then the hundreds of people there crowded into the lobby and we had a countdown to noon and then the balloons dropped! We didn't get one this year but maybe next year!

We had some time to walk around the conservatory afterwards so we did and it was beautiful!

such a big girl walking all alone. and sort of walking like she owns the place.

she climbs with all her might to get on these benches but only stays up for about 2 seconds so its very hard to get a picture but this one is okay!

and here is a very good one! Such a grandpa's girl!

New Year's Eve Night

Happy New Year!

Our New Year's Eve evening was spent with each other at our house.

We had lots of fun!

Chris went to pick up our favorite pizza from our neighborhood pizza joint...John's.

Then we played with Linnea and her new toys...above she is using her bilibo as a turtle shell!

We also played some music and danced to some music. We worked up quite an appetite doing those activities so we treated ourselves to some dippin dots.

We tried watching Charlie Brown's New Year's Eve on abc.com after ice cream and before bed but Charlie is no comparison to Elmo so we headed up to bed and bath before the show was over. I should clarify, Linnea went to bed! Chris and I did make it until midnight. We kept ourselves busy with some Rockband and then watching The Girl Who Played with Fire on Netflix watch instantly.

We hope everyone has a blast in 2011 and that the year brings you much happiness!