20 Week Ultrasound!

Last Thursday April 26 was a special day for us!

The three of us had a quick, fun dinner of homemade pizzas (we are trying to not eat anymore frozen pizzas for a variety of reasons which I am sure most of you can figure out) and then headed to St. John's Hospital to see how our second baby is doing. He/she is doing very well! We saw the lil babe moving around quite a bit and it even had hiccups! He or she is about 11 oz which is right on track for 19 weeks and also has a very healthy heartbeat.

Linnea was excited to see the baby on tv and she did so well! She was very curious about the gel on my tummy and kept reassuring me it won't hurt. When she looked at the "tv" she thought the baby looked like a monster! I have to kind of agree...

The ultrasound tech asked if we wanted to know the sex...we explained that we had a bit of a dilemma...I want to be surprised and Chris wants to know. Her idea of how to handle this was great...she wrote the gender down on a sheet of paper and closed it in an envelope and gave it to us after the ultrasound and said we could decide what to do. Well Chris opened it, so he knows. I do not and don't plan on finding out until the big day in September. I don't know why I don't want to know this time, I just don't. I have heard the feeling of finding out right after birth is just amazing so I want to try it. Hope my hubby doesn't spill the beans to too many people who then spill the beans to me! I knew I wanted to know with Linnea and was happy we found out but this is a whole different pregnancy in so many ways and being surprised is the way I want to go. 

I am thinking it is a boy...
There will be a picture of my belly very soon! Because it has arrived!

Weekend Fun!

Linnea and I found a community center that was showing the movie Hop this past Friday night. Chris was working some OT again so Linnea and I had a mommy/daughter night. I picked her up from preschool and we headed straight to the community center which is also a library and we looked at books until it closed and then played at the playground until the movie started. She thought it was funny that we were watching an Easter movie when she knew Easter was over but oh well. We enjoyed it! We bought some popcorn and I had packed a small picnic dinner of PB sandwiches, apples and grapes for us to munch on with the popcorn. 

Saturday we had a family date to the MN Zoo. I really wanted to go see the baby farm animals before they weren't there anymore and this was the last weekend to do it. The weather was terrible but we braved the rain and wind anyways and I'd say it was worth it. It is hard sometimes to find time to do things just three of us but we always enjoy ourselves when we do. Yes we get to the park on weeknights and eat dinner together and watch some shows or play at home but it ends up being only for like 2 hours at a time if that. So when we have a whole day of no major plans we try to take advantage and do something fun, even if it means leaving the house a mess and the laundry piled high.

The otters were so cute and swimming all around!

checking out a worm!

 the most active we have EVER seen the grizzly bears! They loved the rainy weather more than us!

 Brrrrr! Frozen on our "wagon" ride out to the farm.

ducklings!

 a one week old piglet! sooo cute! Linnea liked the piglets but the HUGE pigs because they snorted at her and she thought they sounded like a monster.

Fun on the tractor!

A not so rainy ride back but still cold!

We have never seen the moose this close!

Linnea loves to "follow" the penguins!

Sunday I sadly didn't take a single picture. Chris worked some more OT in the morning so Linnea and my mom and I went to a kids consignment sale where I got Linnea some summer clothes, new puzzles and books. Linnea had fun looking around for herself and did so well! My mom found some clothes to keep at her house for her grandkids. We then headed to my parents church, played at the church playground afterwards and then had lunch at my parents. Linnea went down for a nap and I tried to get some stuff done around the house and went for a walk...there is still plenty to do but we made a dent.
The month of May is pretty busy most weekends so it was nice to not fill up every minute of this weekend.

Earth Day and a Play!

Earth Day weekend was full of fun for us! We headed to the Harriet Alexander Nature Center on Saturday morning for a small event they were having. We got a few free renewable bags, put our names in some drawing, got some recycling tips and looked at the animals. We bought some popcorn on our way out and then headed to a park before it started raining. 

Sunday our family of three celebrated my dad's birthday on the evening of his actual birthday. After a busy day of visiting GG with donuts for breakfast and going to church with her then going to Sam's Club, we brought my dad to the play Giggle Giggle Quack at Stages Theater in Hopkins. 

We enjoyed the play but not quite as much as the Christmas one we went to.

We went to Baja Sol for his bday dinner followed by dessert at our house.

 We will be celebrating more on Sunday May 6th with the whole family and some friends.

What a week!

Well another almost two weeks has passed and I havent updated the blog! I don't know where the time goes and I don't think I took any pictures this week! Boo! I hate it when I do that. Chris worked a bit of overtime last week and I had a few bus routes to sub on so our evenings were even more rushed than usual but we managed to either get to the choo choo park or do something else fun in between home and preschool. I think we made it to our Monday night storytime too. Something else fun and new one day was playing at a train store and then having an ice cream treat with mommy all before dinner. Don't judge, it was rainy, there were plenty of challenging behaviors at work and I am almost 20 weeks pregnant so naturally ice cream before dinner was just fine :) Last Friday was beautiful and Chris didn't work OT and I didn't ride a bus so after stopping at a new park on the way home we had a picnic of grilled hot dogs, mac n cheese and then watched some L's fav new show, Caillou before calling it a day and hitting the hay.

First Letterbox of the Year!

We had so much fun this past Saturday visiting Chris' family. We had planned on going the Saturday before Easter to celebrate Easter with them but Chris came down with a massive migraine so we postponed it for this weekend (April 14 and 15). It was a beautiful day so we thought we would show his mom what letterboxing was. The box was in a little town called Maiden Rock which we knew she loved anyways and had been wanting to show to us. So it was perfect! And what was even better was we found it! It was right along a little creek with a small waterfall. Linnea decided to throw a stick in and had a fun time watching it float the same direction we were going. Afterwards we headed to Red Wing to have some pizza for lunch and then got back to his mom's house with some time to get Linnea down for a nap. She slept for nearly 2 hours and we needed to wake her up! I think it helped that auntie Alli and Papa Dave came home so we could bribe her with their presence to get her moving. She just loves them! We also were going to get ice cream at a cute little ice cream shop a few blocks from their house. It is called Flat Pennies and I know I will be wanting to go there everytime we visit! There is an old caboose used as a Bay City visitor center and "dining car" for the restaurant. When we were done with our ice cream we said our goodbyes and headed home. We can't wait to go visit again and do another letterbox, have more ice cream and catch up with the family! Chris and Linnea had an evening at home (well a short one, since we didnt get home til 7:30!) while I went and played some games with friends. All in all a great way to spend our Saturday!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter this year. We decorated eggs on Saturday I think and made some rice krispie treat "nests".

 Easter day started out with Linnea's first Easter egg hunt in our house. We hadn't done it the past couple years either because she was too young or too sick! But this year she was healthy, happy and excited for the the bunny to visit! A video will be at the end of this post of her finding her basket and here is a picture of her finding 1 of her 11 eggs which is what she requested the night before. 

  After the hunt we quick got ready for church with my parents and Brian and his family. After church Erik and his family met us all at my parents house for a delicious brunch! I love love love Easter food...muffins, breads, rolls, eggs, candy! yum!

 After the feast some of stayed back to help clean up and help the bunny hide eggs in the yard while the rest of us took the kids to the park to play. It was a beautiful day!

   After the hunt and more playing and eating candy we headed to visit GG. The Dwights were still there so we visited with them and ate an adorable bunny shaped bread my mom made.

 This was one of the better shots with gma and gpa and three of the grandkids. What a squirrely bunch we have!

We made our way home after that and rested for a bit with Linnea's new Dora's Easter dvd and then I believe we went to the choo choo park and tried to get down for bed somewhat early since there were no naps this Easter!

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!

We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday last Saturday March 30th!

It was a wonderful day...a little cooler than we were hoping for but we had a great time regardless. We started out at the Como Zoo with the whole family and walked around the conservatory and jungle area before heading out to see the animals.

I think the polar bear was the biggest hit of all! Linnea and I have been to the zoo plenty of times and never have we seen the bear playing so much! The kids all had a front row view of the bear splashing away, playing with a huge plastic pickle and white garbage pail. The kids all flinched everytime he did anything causing a splash.

When all the animals had been seen and we worked up an appetite we headed back to my parents house where we had hot turkey sandwiches, chips, salad, beans and fruit. When lunch was finished the kids played a bit before grandma opened her presents. She got a special grandma charm necklace from all her grandkids and many other special nice gifts! Lisa and Dylan made some cake pops and I made a poppyseed cake for dessert.

We of course brought the kids to the park for a little while and then we thought it would be fun to try to my moms new game Quiddler while the two remaining kiddoes watched Toy Story with their supper. It actually sort of worked!

Hopefully mom enjoyed her special day! We sure did!