Kiddo Update

Time for an update! 

Collin
There is so much to report on this guy! At Thanksgiving, we started seeing some real determination in his crawling attempts and Mom, Dad, Andrew and Kylie kept telling us that he was going to start crawling in Missouri. I actually didn't believe them:) He had been so close for so long without actually doing it. But, I was proven wrong as he most definitely did start crawling while down in Missouri! It started as an army crawl and was definitely a motivation to have presents under the tree - he always went toward them! He has since gotten up on his knees and done some regular crawling, but he usually needs to be on carpet. He just slides around on our wood floors!

Getting ready to crawl

He has started eating solids! Yay! He very much prefers to eat what we are eating. Since he has six teeth and I'm sure more soon, we are giving him whatever is appropriate from our plates. We try to sneak in some purees as well. Last night, he ate some venison roast and then an apple/cinnamon/oatmeal puree. I was so happy! Even though our pediatrician wasn't really worried - I was. Time keeps ticking away, how am I supposed to wean him in a couple months if he isn't eating solids?!! I have hope now:)

He loved these Magna-tiles!

Loves bath time!

As soon as he could crawl, he went over to the couches and pulled up to standing. He has been wanting to do this forever and in a matter of days, he is now cruising around all the furniture. It is a whole new world for him. And me. My days are drastically different than when I could set him down on a blanket with some appropriate toys and not worry! I think we may spend Christmas putting new childproof locks on our cabinets:) 

Cruisin'...

He finally is over his ear infections, thank goodness. He was weighed at his last ear check and I swear she said he was 21 lbs. 14 oz. That cannot be right, at the appointment just about two weeks prior he was just under 20 lbs. Same scale. When he wakes up, I'll have to jump on our scale with him and check it out. He is basically still very long and average weight. His hair continues to grow, the color changes with the light, not sure on the color yet. 

He seems to be a mommy's boy (not in the sissy sense, I hate the way that sounds!) Obviously, I have a slight advantage over Dave at this point:) but he seems to prefer me when upset and for awhile (too long!) he only wants me at bedtime. By the way, I am loving the fact that he seems so attached to me:) I hope it continues, especially since Kate seems totally content to be with Daddy.

He is babbling/talking and I think he has his first word (not sure if it counts?) He says, "Uh oh!" I say that every time I hear a toy hit the floor (which is pretty constant) and he has definitely picked up on it. He will say it on his own or mimic us when we say it. Other things he mimics are coughing (so funny) and singing. I LOVE hearing his little voice, it was one of my favs with Kate too, and as we all know, she hasn't stopped talking yet:) I am so curious to see how Collin fits into the mix. 

Kate
Speaking of our verbose little Katiebug....right now we are starting to get the extremes - "Mom, this is the best day of my entire life."  "I've wanted to do this my entire life." "I have wanted to do this for years." (referring to using her ink stamp on the log walls. Yeah.) She knows and sings a ton of Christmas songs, super cute. 

She was not too thrilled about Collin pulling up on the furniture, she would rush over and sit behind him, trying to bring him back down, "He might fall!" So we are working on her being helpful and around to monitor him, but not preventing him from learning/doing what he wants. He is starting to go after what he wants, so we will see how this plays out initially - she doesn't love that he tries to get her things, but does very well with swapping it out for something he can have. 

She got this cool Goldie Blox for Christmas - engineering toy for girls!

She loves school, is already talking about best friends...oh boy. She has a nice, boy friend named Gabe. Whom she refers to as "Gave. Gavriel Wolf." So funny. He is a little cutey:) 

She is so sweet and will compliment Dave and I, give lots of hugs and kisses. She will do it randomly, when she can tell we need it (if we hurt ourselves or seem sad:) or if she knows she is about to be in trouble:) 

She is a daddy's girl all the way and when I am done nursing Collin, I am hoping to reclaim some special Mommy/Daughter time. She wants to be like Dave when she grows up (can already say "anesthetist" better than most people:) she wants to wear camouflage and go hunting with Daddy (quite obsessed with hunting right now, not sure how much I love this) and usually prefers to cuddle with him in the evenings. She often wants me to read her books and do bedtime, mostly I think because I am committed to Collin right about then. But as Dave was gone so much last week and missed out entirely on some of their days, she was asking/crying for him a lot. She knows he helps people at the hospital and always wants to know who he is helping, "Did a mommy have a baby? Was it a boy or a girl?" The other day, Dave went it for a bone fracture and I said someone hurt their leg, "Was it bloody?" Umm, I'm not sure, probably not sweetie. "I think it was. I think they hurt their leg. And their arm. And it was bloody." Oh boy.

She is very good at writing her name and likes to write other letter now too - a lot of"C"s for Collin. She will "write" which means scribbling a line across the page, almost like cursive and say out loud what she is writing - so precious. She likes to play/pretend school and being a teacher, being a mommy obviously (was nursing her "daughter" this morning with a little receiving blanket she found as a cover-up), and is getting pretty good being the "big kid" to our friends with younger ones. 

Melting my heart...

We say it all the time, we can't believe how blessed we are, how we got such wonderful kids!  

A Busy Week!

After our tour of the Midwest, we were exhausted but so happy to be home. I did do a little unpacking that evening (always vow not too, but always do). But we were motivated because we were planning on getting our Christmas tree the next day (Sunday). I of course thought we would get up early and get going, but we went the slow and easy route:) 

We were excited to go back to Hilliker's Tree Farm in Tomah and by the time we left, it had started snowing. Of course, this adds to the beauty and magic of it all, right? It did! It was the frigid cold that was horrendous. I brought all I could think of for the kids to be warm. Last year, we were able to drive down and pick the tree, and one of the guys hauled it back up to the shaker thing. That is what I was assuming we would get to do again. I could always pop back in the car with Collin to warm up. 

Nope. You have to ride the wagon thing down there, so we followed and got on. As soon as we got on the road, I should have made him let me and Collin get off. It was SO cold. I couldn't force him to put his head or face on my chest. He kept wanting to look around, always in the wind. He started getting really red and I started to freak out. The wagon leaves you there! Down in these steep ravines filled with gorgeous trees. You cut your tree and wait for the next wagon. I told Dave I trusted him and said I was walking back to the hut thing. Well, then Kate freaked out and didn't want me to go. So she came with me too. Luckily, I caught a wagon - yeah! Not so luckily, a million other people wanted rides too. We stopped so many times, loaded so many people and took forever to get back. And oh yeah, Collin started to cry halfway through. It was kind of a nightmare. 

Very beautiful and I love their trees. Tall and skinny!

I started the Suburban, climbed into the way back (more room) and I nursed Collin while Kate had a snack (they don't have much of a building or hut at the farm and it was a very busy weekend day for them). After screaming for awhile, Collin fell asleep nursing. Finally, Dave returned with a tree, apparently, the one that Kate wanted before we abandoned Daddy:) We went and saw Santa (pretty good one!) Kate was shy at first, but then after getting the tree, was his best friend! We carefully drove home and started decorating! Not the easiest with a mobile Collin and 'want to help so bad' 4 year old:) But we did pretty good for a half day's work!

Well, I guess this is the year we are not too shy!

She was so excited to decorate

This guy helped from the sidelines:) 

As most of you know, it is almost physically impossible for her to look at the camera right now

It is quite cozy here now. Especially with a fire burning!

The week was quite busy with Dave's work schedule out of control and Kate having two dance performances right at supper time. I had to carefully plan out my days to make sure I had everything I needed, wouldn't be late and could literally handle it all by myself - my new best friend is a hiking backpack I got to be used as a diaper bag. That way, while all bundled up, I can hold Collin's car seat and Kate's hand when we are out and about. I was so glad that one of the days I decided to pack heavy snacks and all her clothes and we just killed time at the library before her performance (after picking her up from school). I knew we would be late if we went home:) We have so much fun at the library and I just seem to relax while I am there. 

Collin at the library, army crawling around!

It was the first time I allowed Kate to play the computer games,
she liked it for awhile, but then wanted to read books.

They do little Christmas dances and then start a new routine in January for the big recital in May. This year, Kate's song was Santa Claus is Coming to Town (she has been singing it ALL the time:) and her class got to wear winter/Xmas pajamas - perfect! This dance year is so different than last year. We went to the first performance last year and she wouldn't get changed into her outfit or line up, we ended up abandoning ship and leaving. So, we are pretty proud with how far she has come this year:) I'm so glad I recorded some video as Dave missed both performances this year because of work:(

They performed at the high school one day...

And at the "nursery" home in New Lisbon another day:)

How cute are these little gals?! 

Buddy

We jumped into the tradition that so many do this time of year and started the Elf on the Shelf! Dave and I were kind of excited. We read the book to her about a week before Thanksgiving and she immediately said, "He's not coming here." Awesome. Good start. 

We read it a few more times and I think she somehow thought a real elf, like life-size elf was going to come:) I decided we would start the Friday after Thanksgiving and packed him along. We then promptly forgot to put him out at night for the first three nights. Awesome. Why is it so hard to remember to do this?! 

Finally, once we were in Missouri, we decided to start and we had him appear on/near the Christmas tree. 

First night - can you spot him?

 

Meet Buddy!

She wasn't really looking for him and he was hidden pretty well, so Dave had to be rather obvious in getting her to look that direction. She immediately touched him (not supposed to do) and said he wasn't her elf, he wasn't going to Santa. She said that Gma put him there in one of the presents. Oops, okay, that is actually a plausible idea, but...no. Well, this is going great! The book says that you have to name the elf and we had quite the debate on that... I can't remember the silly names she came up with, but we landed on Buddy (she had watched the movie Elf not long before).

Dave trying to get Kate to see Buddy:)

After all of us going on and on about the elf and making a big show, she finally started to test the waters. She told him what she wanted.

Progress - telling Buddy what she wants for Christmas

The following day when he appeared in a new place, she started thinking it might be legit. I also told her that Waylon had an elf come to his house too and that seemed to carry some weight:) 

So, each night, we would mostly forget to move Buddy. I would think of it while up with Collin in the middle of the night. And it seems that Buddy likes to be up high so far. What with a 9 month old and two dogs around, it just seems smart:) 

I meant to grab pics of him in each place, but failed on that already. Here are a few from our place...

The best "reveal" of all was the morning after Buddy decided to hang upside down from underneath the top bunk of her bed...Dave came up with this one. I thought it might freak her out and the next morning, I heard a scream/squeal and was afraid that she was scared. But then I heard giggling and she was yelling, "Mom, Mom! Come and see Buddy!" 

We haven't done any of the crazy situations that I have seen on Pinterest and so on...I figure there may be many, many nights/years in our future of doing this and there is no need to go crazy so soon. Kate is just as thrilled to see him showing up in different rooms each morning. Speaking of, I need to go move him!

Christmas in Missouri

So....I was honestly expecting a pretty awful experience driving down to Missouri. Our trip back from Missouri to Wisconsin last time was not fun and I was definitely not looking forward to this day. I tried to think ahead and be super prepared and though I'm sure it didn't really make the difference....the trip down was good! The kids both immediately fell asleep and we cruised on to Iowa City, such a fun drive that we used to make all the time:) The rest of the trip went well, Collin didn't cry until about Jefferson City, which is less than an hour out. I climbed in the back and was able to keep him entertained, he was clearly just bored, no wonder!

We just unpacked and ate and relaxed that night, Ron was on call and Laurie was arriving the next morning. Monday was busy with everyone arriving! We don't get to see Laurie often and it had been since March! Kate was super excited too and we spent about 15 minutes waiting by the windows for them to arrive:)

Collin exploring Gma and Gpa's:)

Having fun!

Waiting for Aunt Laurie...

After some playing, we got ready for the neighborhood cocktail hour hosted at Ron and Bobbi's. There was lots of great food, catching up and a puzzle:) Kate has been to enough of these that she is no longer shy but trying to pull the women away to play! Possibly, the highlight of Monday was listening to Laurie, Dave and Kate lobby to open gifts that night:) I obviously like to open as well, but I like to watch them squirm more:) As it should be, Kate was allowed to open one (that she could sleep with that night) and the rest of us had to wait. 

Tuesday was Christmas! We opened our stockings while Collin slept - funny, Kate was able to help with that:) We debated when to shower, actually that debate happened every day - don't you love vacations?! After properly showering and making some cookies, we convened by the tree - new location. It was fun to have it downstairs this year, near the fireplace. Kate was supposed to be the elf but was kind of distracted at times:) So I tried to help out. I still love handing out gifts, honestly - I really, really love it. It is so fun to give gifts! I love the moment right before someone opens and I hope they are going to love it...what a geek, I know. My children will be begging Gma to let them hand out gifts and I'll be elbowing them out of the way, so I can do it...okay, I'll work on that.

Kate slept in a tent upstairs so Laurie could have her room back:)
She loved it!

Another sweet Kate & Gpa moment while opening stockings:)

Making spritz cookies before we open gifts - I only ate 3/4 of what they made.
Seriously.

I love Christmas, always have appreciated it and all the traditions that go along with it. I treasure my childhood memories. Everything from frosting cookies at Gma Rosendahl's when we had a snow day and had to stay home from school, to bundling up to go sledding (anyone else have their parents and grandparents put bread sacks over their socks? No? Just us?) shopping in Decorah, switching parents and trying to hide all the gifts from one another in the same car, running around and playing like crazy with all my cousins in the basement at Gma and Gpa's, I could go on and on. 

However. It truly rivals those memories to be able to give them to your own children. Dave and I are an enthusiastic kind of couple:) As a younger couple (ugh, that is fun to write:), we loved getting together at Christmas, but oh my goodness...to watch your kids open gifts, play with the toys together, light up when talking about Santa...yup. I think this might be better. 

Well, who knew we just needed to put some presents in front of Collin to get him to crawl!

This little guy had fun cruising around

Aww, love this. They were so good.

Giant Chew Toy Elmo!! JK - but that is everything these days for Collin

The gift giving was wonderful and we still had much of the day to play with everything:) Bobbi was super smart and had made ahead a bunch of meals, so we had some yummy white chicken chili, played some bags and the gals (Bobbi, Laurie and I) worked on one of the two puzzles we completed during the week.

It was in the 60s at the beginning of the week!

Grandma and Kate playing with a new toy

Wednesday brought some shopping (Dave and I were able to go without the kids - hallelujah! what a treat:) we did some damage at Marshall's with Laurie and then hit Target, but needed to get back to go to church. We got the kiddos dressed up (oh my gosh...precious) and went to Ron and Bobbi's church's Wednesday Advent service. The kids behaved, the songs were good, the sermon was awesome - what a joy. Dave and I really try to keep Kate aware of what we are celebrating and why we have Christmas and all the other traditions (Santa, stockings, etc) She's pretty intelligent and on top of us talking about it, she goes to a parochial preschool....so,she is keeping Jesus as the reason for the season:) I had...kind of made a big deal about dressing up because I wanted to get some amazing photos of everyone, so I'll chalk it up to sleep deprivation brain that as soon as we returned home, I jumped into pajamas and Dave and I got Collin into pjs and ready for bed. He hadn't slept yet and we were so focused on getting him down. I came out to the living room and saw everyone still dressed up. Crap! Collin had refused to go down, and we didn't put him back into his sweater:( But I threw my sweater over my pajama pants and took some pics. We never got a whole family pic during the week! Good grief!

Thursday brought more shopping for Dave and I and then we took Kate to her very first movie in the movie theater! We had thought about it in Decorah after Thanksgiving, but the day was just too full and it got bumped. But we made it to the 4 p.m. show of Frozen with Aunt Laurie as well. So much fun for all of us! We were, literally, the only ones that went to that showing and we got all the snacks and enjoyed the movie. (I had no idea how nordic it was!! And the message was good. Love it.) Bonus? It was just starting to snow as we made our way to the van in the parking lot. Yeah.

Friday, Dave and I snuck out to shop (once again) very specifically for a new watch for him. It had snowed and the roads were just terrible by Missouri standards:) Not Wisconsin standards. We braved the trace of snow (kidding, a little more than a trace) and got him a new watch. Then, when back home, we all enjoyed watching Dave and Laurie playing Just Dance and some sports game on Ron's playstation...priceless and I have videos for bribery at a future date.....Kate also did a kids dance version which was cute and I foresee a LOT of this in the coming years - awesome! (Ahem - I also did a little bit....archery and bowling, just barely besting my hubby:) 

Friday night, we were invited down to Rich and Robin's house (friends that are like Dave's aunt and uncle) for a neighborhood shindig..these people are so generous, fun and make really good food; a second family for the Lenninger's, they are a big part of everyone's lives. They deep-fried a turkey, Bobbi brought ham rolls and potatoes, that was just the beginning of the food. We had signature cocktails, food, Kate did some little puzzles, we ate and then to everyone's delight, Robin sat down to play piano while we all sang Christmas songs!! Kate sat right next to her and just soaked it all up. Collin cried at first (Dave singing was too loud?) he enjoyed the rest of it and tried to join in at times:) It was very sweet, felt nostalgic and was a wonderful way to really get in the Christmas spirit. 

This time, she didn't touch the piano. Just listened and sang!

We left the next morning and due to good packing ahead of time, we hit the road at a decent hour, 10:30-11 a.m.? The kids did well again, I think Kate fell asleep before we turned off their street:) We grabbed some lunch in Jefferson City (first city) and we got Kate some food, though she was sleeping. When she kind of stirred, I gave her some food. She was excited for it, but fell back asleep while holding it! Our children never do this, it was so cute. We had some challenging diaper changes, some fussing but we made it back just fine! Much earlier than I had prepared for, so that was spectacular. What a trip!

I don't have all our pictures sorted and uploaded yet, check out our December album soon for everything...

Thanksgiving

Hey there, well - how do I even begin? We are just back from a ten day road trip, holiday hopping through the Midwest. Honestly, honestly...I'm going to try and be brief.

Dave was on call the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so we didn't get to leave until Thursday morning. I tried to get us all packed up and ready to leave at 7 a.m. when he was officially "off" but of course, you can't get everything packed because you need it to get ready in the morning (or kids need to sleep at night). Dave had to run to the hospital in the morning and despite all the loose ends, we were on the road at 8:30 a.m! And yes, we were impressed with ourselves:)

The kids did great and after dropping Abby off at a kennel near Decorah, we showed up to Mom and Dad's on a bright and beautiful Thanksgiving morning. Mom had it all under control and we were the first to arrive, so we just relaxed and tried not to scare them with how much we were hauling from the van into the house. 

Trying to get a family picture - thank you Mom:)
ps - I'm ready to throw my glasses in the lake, stupid glare - argh!

There were 25 people at the meal and it was wonderful to see everyone, I am pretty distracted with the kiddos and don't get to really sit and visit as much as I'd like, but that is just part of the deal right now! The food was traditional, good and I had two big plates - the most I've eaten at Thanksgiving in years;) 

Dave totally took this picture, he is famous for cutting heads off!

On Friday, we had a busy day planned. We got up early to go and get a tree, whoops - three trees (two for Mom and Dad and one for Andrew)!  - from Johnson's near Decorah. It was sunny and cold, Mom made sure we all had roughly seven layers on and we headed out, prepared to spend hours searching for the perfect trees. 

Heading out...

At least we know who is in charge

It was pretty gorgeous down there...

Kate was in-it to win-it from the start. She was running ahead and telling us to check out certain trees...so cute:) She had endless energy, which was good. We bundled Collin up and took turns carrying him which worked just fine. It didn't take too long and we found some lovely trees - what a joy (for the guys) to carry the smaller trees this year! 

Conference

Hey! A family pic!

Kate wouldn't leave Gpa's side at the end, she has also requested some camouflage
 so she and Gpa can hide and we won't see them:)

Okay, it was a little cold - what a trooper

Kate insisted on carrying some boughs that Gma wanted, so cute!

Collin helping the guys ascertain the trunk of the tree...

Time to go!

Dave and I and the kids peeled off to Decorah on the way home, we grabbed some things at the Oneota Coop and picked up some Mabe's pizza for lunch - a pretty perfect morning if you ask me! We ate pizza, watched the Hawkeyes win and decorated for Christmas at Mom and Dads - a pretty perfect afternoon:) Then we had to clean ourselves up a bit:) and head over to Kylie's house for a big get-together with the Huinker/Kruse clan! We made a fashionably late (I hope:) appearance and of course, Kate starting running and playing hard the second we arrived. Mom and I bided our time to hold new, little baby Grady. We ate, we talked, it was awesome. Kate was a sweaty mess when people started to leave. We had just a few tears as Mom and Dad took the kids to go home and go to bed, I hadn't really explained the plan to her, but with a little distraction she was fine. Dave and I were SO looking forward to a night out with adults and especially with this bunch (Amanda, Brian, Beth, Chris, Andrew & Kylie)  but I was very nervous about the kids not behaving or getting down for bed. Our children are notorious for not taking a bottle and not sleeping - great combo, huh? 

Decorating the loft tree

Mom decorating the porch tree:)

We met up at Brian and Amanda's house and played some games and chatted, it was wonderful with the exception of missing Tony and Tara. I know they are happy that we got together, but obviously it would be complete if they were there. Definitely going to be some epic fun in the future...:) 

When we arrived back at Mom and Dads - at a total reasonable hour, I might add, 11:30 p.m.? (we are old) the word on the street was the kids did great! Yeah!! I was thrilled. Collin was a peach, Kate got some cuddle time and watched part of Elf, sounds like a great night with the Gma and Gpa. 

Saturday brought some rest and relaxation, finished decorating, some time outside, started (and finished!) a 1,000 piece puzzle, and then at the end of the night, Mom and Dave flexed their music muscles and we had some piano/trumpet songs with singing. Ummm..Christmas tunes. Mostly. Kate contributed by playing a little piano with Gma and singing. Her own songs..usually something to do with Cinderella or Santa, her own tune, own lyrics and definitely her own volume. It is a tribute to Mom that she could play with that 4 year old distraction! It was awesome and I look forward to more family music in the future! 

Sunday, we packed up and tried to head out at a decent time. There wasn't much that we left at Mom and Dads, so the van was once again...quite full. We timed it perfectly, Collin was sleepy but not TOO sleepy and the day was bright and sunny. What a truly great Thanksgiving!! And now....Lake Ozark, Missouri or bust!