Christmas Tree 2011

This past Sunday we went to the St. Croix Tree Farm to get a tree for Jason's sister's house! This year it snowed the night before we went - just like last year!

We brought a sled with this year for Amelia to ride around on and she loved it!


She also figured this year that throwing snow is fun!


While the tree was being trimmed our family snuck off to get a picture of the four of us for our Christmas card! All three of them turned out ok but this one was our favorite:


Thanks Auntie Liz for being our photographer!

The group shot this year wasn't as good as last years...


...the spot we chose had the sun right behind us! We'll have to plan better next year :)

This was the second year that I went to cut down a real tree and I am starting to think that once we are living in our own home I might want to give a real tree a try! We never had one growing up because cats got sick from eating the tree and needed medicine etc. For now, we will use our artificial tree which we hope to have up this weekend!

Online Again!

I haven't been online in nearly two weeks. Wow! We don't have Internet at Grandpa's and I just haven't been able to get on at my parent's house except for banking and bill pay.

We haven't been up to much. We celebrated my dad's 60th birthday with dinner out and cake at home. I tried to get a picture of his cake with all the candles but he blew it out before I got a chance:


That's what it looks like after sixty candles are blown out.

Amelia wore a wild outfit for grandpa's birthday:


Look at those pigtails!

We've been playing around the house a lot. Amelia uses this little stool as a goofy chair all the time:


We have been having a bit of a heat wave (thirties and even forties!) so I took Amelia outside to play yesterday. She thought it was the best!


I haven't taken her out much this winter with the weather we have had the past few months. It was just too cold for her!

Wrap-Up

Now that I am on a computer again, with Internet access, I figured I should wrap up our trip to Indiana! Wednesday morning we had breakfast with dad's side of the family. Amelia took this lovely picture of her grandpa and cousin P.


She had her little finger over the flash!

Amelia must like P because she shared her yogis (Gerber yogurt melts) with her:


Breakfast turned into over two hours and we were eventually on our way back to MN by eleven. Amelia slept in the car a lot:


Much like cousin A slept through breakfast earlier in the day:


We are back now. Back to the frigid temperatures. It was -20 on Thursday before windchill was factored in - which made it -30. I have been working on un-packing and doing laundry as well as staying warm!


This little one doesn't seem to mind the cold. The brief periods she is outside (heading to and from the car) she manages to dig around in the snow and whines when I pull her to her carseat! She is definately a lover of the outdoors!

Tonight I am having dinner with my family and leaving Amelia with them. I wish I could say I had some great plans for my night of freedom but I am merely going to get groceries - sans Amelia. What a wild night!

Another Blizzard

Today we had our third sever winter storm in WI. This was projected 15-18" and I'd say they were right on this time. It is crazy here! I went to work at 3:30 AM today and the roads were already less than ideal. When I left just after 8 they were only worse. In fact, I got stuck at the end of grandpa's driveway coming home:


I was really stuck. No amount of backing up and gunning it forward made any difference at all. Jason had to get the snowblower going because it was just the only way we were going to get it out.


I felt bad. Grandpa has a long driveway. Really long. We eventually got it out. He dug out grandpa's Jeep so he could drive it to work. He made it out and Amelia and I spent the night snowed-in. She enjoyed the view onto the back patio:


There is so much snow back there right now! I am relieved that grandpa took the dog with him this weekend so we don't have to worry about letting her out in all that!

I have been worried about being snowed-in in the morning because I have to work but then I heard a "beep, beep, beep"...


Someone in a Bobcat came to plow us out! Thank goodness!

Let it SNOW!

Today the first snow arrived in northern Wisconsin. I woke up to go into work (on my day off I might add) and there was a fresh blanket of snow with more falling! I left work and it was still coming down. In fact, this evening it is still coming down!


We lost power this afternoon (it is now back on) and a tree fell on our street from the weight of this thick, heavy, wet snow we are getting (perfect snowman-making snow!)

Naturally, Amelia is afraid of the snow:



We'll have to work on that.

Snow Day

Snow has returned to SE Wisconsin! It all started just past midnight and will continue into tomorrow night. Finally, it is looking like February around here again. Small group was cancelled this morning only...I had no clue and went anyways! I got there and no one was there and I was informed it had been cancelled and didn't I get the note? Well, no, I missed that one because I hadn't checked my e-mail!

Oh well, the roads really weren't that terrible. I mean, they weren't ideal but we made it there and back safely. It is just white here in Milwaukee. You can't even see the lake:


(for those of you who have been here, this was taken from the bluff where the old water tower is on the East Side - near the hospital Amelia was born at)

Amelia refused her lunch-time nap today so instead we shoveled! I got Amelia all bundled up and she explored while I shoveled the walkway.

She was very interested in the snow and crawled all over the place:


She also got her exercise in and did laps around her sled:


See the circle she made around the sled?

Mostly she just looked around:


A hot, late lunch is in order for us now. I also haven't given up on her taking an afternoon nap...so I better try and tire her out!

Snowy Day

It's snowing here! It has been snowing since we woke up :) Since I haven't had anywhere to go the past two days, the less than great weather hasn't really phased me. Apparently we should be getting around a foot by the end of today. Not having been outside, I have no idea if that is accurate or not! In fact, I haven't gotten out of my pajamas in TWO days. It has been great.

Late last night, before bed, we put beef stew ingredients into the crock pot for lunch today. Well, our first crock pot adventure was semi-successful. I liked it. It was a bit soupier than I had imagined but it tasted fine to me! Jason didn't like it too much. I am not sure why. It tasted like beef stew...what more could we have asked for? Maybe it is just the chef in him...

We all napped this afternoon. We had hoped to get up in time to take a walk in the snow, the three of us, but that didn't happen. We were lucky that we roused with just enough time for Jason to make it to work!

Amelia and I spent the afternoon playing with some of her new Christmas toys:


I am excited that she has been more interested in her toys than our things lately! I love it when she is digging in her toy bin and throwing her toys all over because it means she isn't throwing our books or movies around :)

Take this moment, for example:


The other day she crawled into her room, stood up and started throwing diapers over her shoulder. I said, "Amelia, NO" and I saw her startle (shake) but she never lost a beat, never turned around to look at me and just kept throwing her diapers on the floor. So, I took a picture. Then I grabbed her and we put the diapers back, together. Kind of.

I am started to freak out a little...Amelia is very comfortable cruising from one piece of furniture to another:


I am NOT ready for her to be a walker!!! I hope she holds off. Kind of like she has been holding off from eating table foods. That child will not eat anything but purees. I try feeding her "chunkier" purees and she gags on them until she either throws up or I manage to fish out the "chunk". Like yesterday, she had green bean puree with rice. She gagged on one tiny grain of rice. Over and over. I am ready to give up! One encouraging moment took place this morning though...she ate a few puffs! Jason was putting them in her mouth, she'd spit them out, he'd put them back in and she would swallow them! Now, I just need to get her to feed herself!

On a related note, the sippy cup issues are still, well, issues. She doesn't like sippy cups. This week I have been using Nuby sippy cups because all she has to do is bite on the nipple and liquid comes out, which is similar to bottles. She loves her bottles. She has been getting more receptive to the Nuby cups too. Today she actually drank a little from one while playing. I have been leaving a cup of water out, on the floor, while she plays. She eventually notices it and fiddles with it. I'd rather see her take an interest in it on her own vs. me trapping her in her high chair and making her try the cup. We'll see if it works!

Tonight I have an exciting evening of cleaning up the kitchen ahead of me. After that I need to start looking over budgeting stuff and see what sense I can make of it. Tomorrow is our first payday of the new year, so I want to try and see what I can do in the way of making sense of how budgeting works. I am sure it will take a few paydays to get the hang of it!

Day 2 - Christmas Eve

Today we spent the day with my family. We got up early to check on the weather and this "blizzard" that is upon us. Around 8" fell in our area but the roads were in pretty good condition so we headed to Minneapolis to go to Macy's for their annual 8th floor holiday display. Our family has been going to the display every year since my sister was born. This year's theme was the same as last year's theme, 'A Day in the Life of an Elf'.

I was excited to go with Amelia for her first Christmas!


She was very interested in everything there was to look at:


She and I liked all the trees the best:


I think Amelia had a good time:


Amelia saw Santa at Macy's Santaland! She did so well! She was so curious about who he was and she just stared at him. This is her first official Santa photo:


(our scanner wasn't behaving at all, so this is a picture of a picture...that is why it looks funny!)

We walked around Macy's for a bit and then headed home. We stopped at Target on our way home and got Amelia a sled, so she could enjoy the "blizzard". Before she got into her snow gear, I tried to take a nice picture of her in her Christmas jumper:


Her first snow adventure confused her more than anything, I think. She just sat there, looking around:


She didn't seem to think sitting in the snow was much better:


We went inside for a bit and Kim, Amelia and I hung out by the Christmas tree:


That cat toy that she has in her hand is her favorite. We have one in Milwaukee as well. It had to be in the picture because whenever I took it from her she freaked out. Her two favorite toys ever happen to be cat toys. Is that strange?

Here she is playing in Shadow's "ball pit":


What can I say, she is just attracted to cat toys, cat toys of all types.

When it was time to feed the birds, Amelia joined the fun:


She also made her first snow angel, with some help:


See it?


Amelia reminded us of Ralphie's little brother when she was all bundled up:


We let Amelia open her presents this afternoon because she hadn't really napped and was getting upset. She had a lot to open:




See the cat toy? She always has it with her.

She didn't like opening presents very much. The noise of the wrapping paper crinkling scared her for some reason. She crawled to her daddy repeatedly:


After Amelia went to bed I tried to get a picture with Jason. It proved harder than I thought:


After dinner and presents Jason and I shoveled the driveway. After that we walked to the gas station to get some snacks for a movie. It was a fun walk in the snow:


We are watching Home Alone as I am writing this. Actually, it just ended and Kim is popping in Night at the Museum 2. I haven't seen the first, but I don't think it will matter!

I think Christmas is even better with a little one around! Today was great. I hope tomorrow is just as good.