Snow Day!

After a week of being above 30degrees and going on walks and skiing through slush, blizzard/snowstorm number two hit us this past weekend. Some places had 20inches of snow!! Whoa! I thought it was beautiful and was happy to see more snow come down! It is only mid February after all and there is more skiing and sledding to be done!

Linnea and I had a wonderful day together! Most of the snow came Sunday night into Monday which was Presidents Day so I had it off from work anyways. Some of my days off I still bring Linnea to daycare to get some stuff done and take time for me, however with this snow I decided to stay off the roads.

We watched the snow fall...

watched some cartoons, did plenty of crafts including this drum and a little shaker...

took pictures of the snowed in car

and brought some snow in to play with.

we used food coloring just for fun and made a mini frosty the snowman including the tip of a baby carrot for the nose. Linnea does not call carrots carrots however. She calls the frosty's nose :) I think she thought we were going outside to play with snow because when I asked her if she wanted to play with the snow she said, "I'll be back" (which is her newest saying)and ran for her shoes and hat and insisted on leaving them for the whole activity.

She gave herself some rides on Roary and she gave her monkey some rides. And we stayed in our jammies most of the day too!

Above is the side of our house! Very deep!

We did get outside after supper when we helped daddy brush the snow off the car. You can sort of see Linnea's snow angel above and you can really see her smile below.

She takes after her mommy and is one happy camper in the snow!

We brought some measuring cups and spoons out and she dug around for a bit. She cannot walk in it since it is over her head! What a winter we are having! We are off to the Birkie ski race this weekend. My dad is doing the full 53K skate and we hope to cheer him on at the finish line! Go dad/grandpa!

2 Year Appointment!

Linnea finally had her 2 year appointment the beginning of February and Im finally blogging about it!

She got a great report and weighed in at a healthy 27 pounds and her height was 32.25. She was such a good girl for all the routine well child appointment procedures such as listening to the heart, looking in the ears, nose and eyes and even getting her arm "hugged" for the blood pressure check which was new! She has a small murmur in her heart but we were told it was a normal murmur. Then came the shots. She had to get two! Then she had to get blood drawn from one of her little fingers to recheck her lead levels. Both experiences were terrible! Who knew she had such lungs?? good thing is her lead level is still fine, ideally she would have no lead and unfortunately she has some. We celebrated our 2 year old's healthy appointment with some unhealthy burgers, fries and malts from Snuffy's. Everyone felt better after that and as you can see below the toddler felt fine and dandy playing in the bathtub:

Excuse me Buckethead, where is Linnea??
Oh there she is!!! Peek-A-Boo!
Now she may be a little late in the game for realizing she can go on her tummy in the tub or maybe its mommy and daddy's fault for not ever showing her she can do this, but we finally did and she loves it!
Now I am going to take some time to reflect on what Linnea is doing and saying these days because I havent made/taken time to write in her baby book. Some day I will go back and read this and fill in the blanks in her book!

Linnea is also saying more and more words/attempts at sentences and getting more and more determined to figure things out on her own. It sometimes takes her a little while to get the words out but she keeps trying! If we dont understand her she will repeat repeat repeat and look at us like why dont you get what Im saying? Im saying it clear as a bell?? We usually figure it out and if we dont she may have a minor meltdown but will get over it and play somewhere else.

Just two days ago she figured out how to blow bubbles and as of last week she has grown to love to play doctor! We may have the DVD "Elmo Visits the Doctor" to thank for that but we will take it because it sure is cute when she looks in our ears and says she sees puppies or bunnies and that she has Ernie in her tummy! She is also becoming more and more aware of her surroundings...when we turn onto our block she says home, when we turn into her daycare she says Addie or Adeline (her best friend there) and squeals with delight, she does the motions to If Youre Happy and You Know It and Itsy Bitsy Spider, she requests the ABC's on her fav cds. She has known grandma and grandpa's neighborhood for a while, she lifts something somewhat heavy up and says heavy, and her most recent thing is looking out the window and either saying "but I can not see bapa (grandpa)" or " I can not see puppy or baby" (which are two things at our neighbors house).

Thats it for now!

Rock the Cradle

On Sunday morning before the big blizzard hit we made our way to Rock the Cradle which is an awesome event for kids put on by our favorite radio station the Current. It is held in Minneapolis at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and The Children's Theatre Company. The buildings are connected so it works out pretty well!

We started out listening to one of our fav story tellers in one of the reception halls.

Then Linnea made a rainmaker with Creative Kidstuff staff and got a bulb to plant from Bachman's.

We went back to the reception hall to listen to The Bazzillions (one of our new fav kid bands). they played If You're Happy and You Know It and Linnea jumped up and did all the actions! It was very fun!

MacPhail School of Music was there with all sorts of instruments for the kids to try out. They called it "The Petting Zoo". Linnea enjoyed the piano and shakers the most. She wanted nothing to do with the violin even tho they had one just her size that I thought she would be so cute playing. We asked her a couple times and had her watch other kids but she stuck to her firm no. for being two she still doesnt say "no" that often so I believe when she says it she really means it.

We ended our fun day at the kids disco! She busted a few moves but was pretty tired so we had danced, had our snack and headed out into the snow.

I hope we can make it to the every year! It is so fun and she will get more and more into it each year. They offer yoga, puppet shows and more live music but we run out of energy being 2 so we will see how it goes next year!

Happy Valentines Day!

Linnea thought daddy would like her handprint for Valentine's Day!

And he did! And as you can see below on Linnea's bottom lip she enjoyed some chocolate for Valentines Day! We also grilled burgers, made homemade fries, dipped some fruit in dip, went to Caribou to enjoy buy one get one drinks and watched Clifford's Valentine's Day special which we recorded on PBS earlier in the day.

What a fun Valentine's Day!

Along with chocolate and hot cocoa Linnea also got a Dora Valentines Day book. A holiday can't go by without me wanting to give a book to L. I just love kids books and so does she!

Linnea brought pink heart shaped rice krispie treats to her party at daycare and helped me stamp Valentine's Day cards for her little friends.

I also made plenty more for the kids in my classroom. I love working in schools and especially one that still does holiday celebrations.

Chris got a jar of kisses from me and Linnea and concert tickets from me. I got two of my favorite cds (Mumford and Sons and Cee Lo) from Chris and a gift card to The Gap to use for myself and squirt!

We hope everyone enjoyed Valentine's Day as much as we did!

Confirmation

These three lovely girls above were confirmed this past Sunday. My sister in law Allison is in the middle. This lovely little girl below made it through about 40 minutes of the service and then her and I went up and down the steps in the old church in Ellsworth, WI and just took our own lil tour of the place.

She doesn't see her great grandpa Chester too often but went right to him anyways when he put his arms out for her...what a sweetie!

And she sat with grandpa Dave eating cake for a good 15 minutes I'd say!

We had a nice lunch after the service at Sarah's new house in Bay City, WI. They just moved and it was our first time seeing it! LOVELY place! The scenery in Bay City is gorgeous and will be even more beautiful in the fall!

Linnea put some of grandma Sarah's beanie babies down for a nap in the living room and shortly after that they were all napping together with Linnea in her pack and play.

They rose about 2 hours later and were ready to play and eat some more!

What a nice day! We hadn't seen Chris' side in a while so it was great to catch up!

Congratulations Alli! We love you!

Thank You!

This is a special post for Auntie Al and Uncle Gil...

Thank you so much for sending me a Valentine's Day gift!

The candy on the card looked so good I wanted to eat it!

But then I realized there was actual candy in the box! My two favs...M&M's and Reeses PB Cups! Yum!! I also enjoy coloring so thanks for the Princess activity book too. I love you and cannot wait to see you again!

Maybe we can play at a park or you can show me pretty flowers. Mommy says you know a lot about them and I really love smelling them at the conservatory!

See you later alligator!

Lots of love, Linnea

Happy 87th Birthday GG!

Grandma Thomas(aka GG) turned 87 on Wednesday Feb. 9th but we celebrated this past Saturday at her place with family, appetizers and...

jello cake!

GG enjoyed seeing the family and watching her great grandkids play.

She got many nice gifts too.

Dylan and Linnea enjoyed being spun and cuddling in this chair.

Linnea also enjoyed eating heart sugar cookies mommy brought to decorate. However, I think she just ate them. No decorating.

Ian and both Dylans joined in on the decorating fun though!

And no family event is complete without some crafts by big Dylan!

The Blue Door Pub

Last Friday Chris and I celebrated Valentine's Day just the two of and had a date night which we havent had in a while. We had heard great things about the Blue Door Pub which is a new neighborhood bar and grill famous for their Blucy's. A Blucy is a jucy lucy burger that uses bleu cheese in between the burgers and they offer very creative versions of this. I of course had to try one and went with the cajun blucy. Chris is not a cheese fan so he made his own burger. We loved it and will go back! They also offer tator tots, fries and beer battered green beans. We also tried all of these. YUM! Thank goodness we made time to work out before we pigged out!

This picture above was facing the right way when I uploaded and now its sideways...sorry!

After our meal we went to Target and finally made it home to play some rock band and watch Fringe from a few weeks ago.

A very belated post!

The last weekend in January some of my cousins from Colorado came to visit. They were only here for a few days and now that Im a working mama I dont have as much time to play. But we made the most of it as usual and crammed a ton in! They flew in Monday early evening and I was able to take Tuesday off so Linnea and I had pizza with them, my parents, GG, Megan and Brian and their boys at GG's. Linnea and I proceeded to spend the night at my parents house with them so we had some more time together and so we could all be in the same place to start our busy Tuesday together. It worked out great because my mom also has Tuesdays off so she could join in the fun!

We decided to spend the morning with GG and doughnuts and then make our way out to the Mall of America to partake in Toddler Tuesday events (we actually missed what we were going there for but had a great time none the less!) As you can see in the pictures below the kiddoes got to go on some rides which was way fun! They chose the lil ones that were only like 50 cents or something and had smiles the whole time riding and tears when it was over.

Allll Aboooaarrrrd!!!

weeee!!!

All three hanging on!

Here is my cousin's son trying to figure out the sleeping bag :)

and playing with a car ramp.

On Tuesday night we headed back to GG's for a rigatoni dinner. Here is one proud great grandma with some of her grandkids and great grandkids!

Linnea and Kendall hugging. So sweet.

And Parker and Dylan squeezed in the rocking chair!

After the Mall of America we also explored at IKEA and had lunch. I had to go back to work on Wednesday but the cousins made their way to the MN Zoo and then made us a delicious dinner of street tacos at my parents house. It is always so fun when they come to visit. Hopefully we can make it out to Colorado this year and visit them!