Christmas: I Love You & I'm Lying to You

First of all, let me say that at the last ultrasound (last week) we finally got the okay that Baby's kidneys were within normal limits! Yay! What a stinker. Baby's head also measured ridiculously large:) and I'm hoping that we caught sight of Baby right after a big growth spurt and all will even out in the end:) That will happen. Right? .....:) I also had an appointment: belly was measuring right on, heart rate was between 135-145, all is well, I need to up my iron for my anemia. Dave should get to come to my appointment next week, the first one he'll be able to make this whole pregnancy! I'll be 35 weeks:) But of course, he has an app on his phone and we were able to hear Babes' heart beat one time at night, so he has heard the heartbeat once already:)  

34 weeks

Last weekend we celebrated our first of many Christmases this year by heading to Burr Oak for the Brown Christmas (Dad's side) and it so happened to also fall on our Rosendahl annual Lefse Day! Our arrival to Iowa on Friday night was an adventure:) We took the suburban and Collin just got a new car seat that faces forward and though he did like that, he was not too happy after a couple hours in the car (in the dark). We were boarding Abby at Canoe Ridge Kennels and while the kids and I waited in the car, it all kind of hit the fan. All of a sudden, Kate had to go to the bathroom SUPER bad and Collin was crying. Dave came walking out and I motioned for him to run and said we need a potty break. Not sure if the kennel had adult facilities (and they were closing) we hit the road and tried to encourage her to hold it but nope. For the second time in her short life, my daughter peed on the side of a gravel road. Props to Daddy Dave for doing the honors:) Again, so many milestones not mentioned in the baby books...

We then had to head into Decorah to get some ingredients and try and find a replacement Elf on the Shelf as that was the one thing we forgot and "Buddy" has managed to travel with us up until this point. I assumed Walmart would have one. Man, I'm wrong a lot. After running through drive-thru to grab food for hungry passengers, I elected to just jump out and get the Walmart stuff. After trying to find the bathroom - closed!- waddle/shuffling to the back of the store for a restroom break, then realizing I didn't have a cart/basket and going back to the front and then back to find our items....I was done. Totally worn out from the day and the past 20 minutes. No rest for the weary, off to find something in a Walmart. No worries, they are all laid out the same to make it easy....or wait. Yeah, right. Wandered around Christmas, Seasonal and Toys and couldn't find an Elf. Asked someone and waited ages for them to figure it out ("yeah, we advertised it but we can't find it") Thank you. Went over and got lost in the food aisles. As I was waving the white flag and heading toward checking out, got a text from Dave to get egg nog and honey. Okay. Back into the fray. As I grabbed the last item (phone also on 1% battery:) I ran right into my beautiful, melting down children and their frazzled father. After my extended visit to the superstore, they were done with the car (it was way past bedtime - this was all really of no surprise to us). Collin spotted something in the cart he wanted and lost it. I checked out while Dave disappeared in the store with them. We reconvened to head out to Mom and Dads place. Parenting ain't for the faint of heart! And God bless parents/grandparents. Did we drive 80 mph from Decorah to Burr Oak??!

Kate is very interested in Buddy, our elf, looks for him each morning at our house (Collin goes up to him and says, "Hi!" and waves:). Our new plan was that Dave would go to Hallmark in the morning and pick up another one and we would just say he had found a really, really good hiding place that day. The guys had to pick up some things in town anyway, so at least it wasn't a trip just for an elf. Dave hid him up in the loft when they got back and later, Kate noticed him. "Look where your elf is Grandpa!" She didn't even think it was ours! She thinks each house has one. She said the hair on this elf was different than ours. And she was pretty certain about that. We kept saying that Buddy flies back to wherever we are but she was not convinced. The same overall concept of him watching and reporting back to Santa was still in place. But turns out, I probably didn't need to stress about forgetting him or even buy a replacement! Great.

"Original Buddy"

Saturday we rocked and rolled our lefse with the girls on my Mom's side. Super fun. It has become quite the day for wine and treats, can't wait to join them in that way next year! I didn't want to sit "in the gallery" with Grandma and Kathy (on injured reserve:) the whole time and I rolled a few and stood way too much. My back did not thank me later, but oh well. Good times. The guys hung around and even tried their hand at rolling (probably won't happen next year:) and as everyone left, we got ready for the Brown Christmas.

Just getting started with lefse...

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

The crew!

Uncle Bob had come the night before (Shelley unfortunately was home sick) and my Dad's sister Marie and her family arrived in the afternoon. Sam (13) and Charlie (9) are pretty fun to watch with our kiddos. It was a typical Christmas get-together, lots of conversation, catching up, puzzling, asking when they could open presents, movies, flying helicopters, eating, etc. The gift exchange was just for the "younger" generation this time (Dave and I still included:) Really great gifts and homemade ones from the talented Mr. Sam is something I look forward to each year! 

Kiddos playing

Collin was in awe of the smaller legos, sat so patiently and was so gentle:)

Charlie and Kate were pretty inseparable, they had many, many projects throughout the weekend

All of us!

We were missing a number of people over the weekend, but I talked to Shelley and Grandma O. on the phone and Face Timed with the fam in Okinawa, so at least we touched base with everyone! 

When we got home, Dave was smart and had Kate go to the mailbox with him while I quickly took Original Buddy from his hiding spot and moved him again. I tell you what, this is kind of a lot of work:) Sure enough, she found him at our place and his hat is glued on much further down on his head. you can't see the hair like on Replacement Buddy.  

Wow, the amount of deception we do as parents is exhausting! I am not a good liar. And I am not good at remembering to do one simple task each night and re-hide our elf (or bring him along each time we travel). Buddy has forgotten to move, just here at home, twice since Thanksgiving. Oops! Here's hoping we remember tonight...