Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

My friend and coworker, Kristy volunteered to watch the girls a few weeks ago so Jeff and I could enjoy a nice dinner out (and use a Groupon before it expired!)  We had a great time enjoying delicious Italian food we have never tried, a bottle of wine and some straight up adult conversation!  

Back at home, it was just the girls having some fun of their own...  Kristy got this video of Olivia and her singing little lady bug that I saw for the first time today.  Emilia was busy transforming herself into Cinderella as a "surprise" for Kristy, so Olivia got to have the stage all to herself for this little hug and dance fest :)

Bobbin'

Here's a cute video clip of Olivia's new trick to get us to laugh :)  I love this girl.

Rolly Polly

9/1/10...so close to rolling over.

For the past month, Olivia has been SOOOO close to rolling over.  She would swing her leg over and get on her side, but her little arm would stay pinned under her, keeping her from completely flipping to her belly.  We kept thinking we were going to miss it if we left her with Grandma and Grandpa for a night or even went out to dinner.  But tonight, we were ALL in the living room to witness her first, complete ROLL :)  Now, she may have been doing this for weeks at daycare...but if that's the case, no one told me and I actually prefer to think I really did witness the first time she accomplished this milestone. 

Here's the video I took of her 3rd roll.  The first two, before the camera was on her, were almost effortless.  This one took a little more encouragement.  Next up...sitting on her own :)

Ultrasound!

We got to get a peak of the Little Livvy Love today during an ultrasound! I signed up to get a free ultrasound at a college nearby (Argosy) that trains ultrasound techs. We did the same thing when I was pregnant with Emilia with hopes that they could tell us if she was a boy or girl. This time, we just went for fun - to see what this little one is up to in there (and to verify that this little one is indeed a girl!). It was a great experience, just like last time. The unique part of this experience was having Emilia along OUTSIDE of my belly :) It was so fun to walk in with her and tell the students that 3 years ago in this same room, we were told that Emilia was the little bun cooking in the oven. Now, she was sitting on Daddy's lap getting to peak at her sissy for the first time!

Emilia seemed a little scared when they started the exam by squeezing the jelly all over my belly. Despite all the efforts of the ultrasound techs to engage her and get her to talk, she remained pretty shy throughout the exam, just taking it all in. I KNEW that once we got out of there, she, she would be re-living everything she was storing away in her little mind. As predicted, she couldn't WAIT to try out what she had "learned" from the "doctors". In the car, she was giving her baby an ultrasound...and then again at home...baby needed an ultrasound and so did Emilia and Mommy :)

We asked them to tell us what the baby was measuring. According to her femur bone measurement, she was measuring a week ahead (30 weeks vs. 29 weeks) - with a due date estimated a week earlier on April 23 - MY birthday! I'm not getting my hopes up though, considering Emilia's 10 day late arrival. They also estimated her weight at about 3 lbs, 7 oz (52 percentile). They asked me if I had a lot of heartburn as they said they could see that she had some hair growing on her pretty little head. Her position throughout the exam was breech, which had me worried, but everyone I've talked to reassures me that she has LOTS of time to flip into the head down position. I think she settled into a sideways position a day or two after the exam which has made my belly feel SO stretched! It's hard to believe she is going to be here in just a little over 2 months...but I have to admit, some days I wish it was sooner because I feel SO huge! I am trying to remember to slow down and just enjoy it as this will most likely be my last time pregnant. The miracle never becomes less amazing to experience...

Beautiful Face

Rubbing her eye...

BIG yawn...

Sledding Fun!

All day today, Emilia begged to go outside. It has been so cold this winter that there haven't been too many opportunities to get out and play. Well, today it was a nice, warm 23 degrees so we got Emilia all bundled up and put Daddy to work as the "sled runner!" As you can hear in the video, Emilia had the time of her life out there and we had just as much seeing her so thrilled!

Big Girl Room!

This weekend, with the help of my mom and dad, of course, we took on the task of setting up Emilia's new BIG GIRL ROOM! I searched long and hard for all the pieces to make it a room she would love. We had everything we needed...the bedding, a new rug, a new lamp, new furniture, new curtains and the paint. It was finally time for the FUN part - putting it all together :) It was a GREAT weekend full of work and cleaning and playing and, in the end, the accomplished and satisfied feeling I LOVE and a little girl who just LOVES her NEW ROOM :)

Here are pictures of the room before, a few in the middle and the (nearly) finished BIG GIRL ROOM. We still need to complete the curtains, put up her name on the wall, hang the chandelier and find a mirror for above her dresser.

The guest room (before)

Emilia's last night in her old room.

The painting crew with the princess :)

Emilia's name on the wall!

Emilia and Grandma having a little fun in the room before we brought everything in :)

Purple walls and a little sass from Emilia!

Emilia's NEW BIG GIRL ROOM!!

A toy shelf and room to PLAY!

A special little area to take care of her babies :)

Next up...Olivia's room :)

Bathroom Story...

Emilia's bathroom success has continued. A couple accidents at daycare attributed to "waiting to long" to head to the bathroom, but overall, amazing success and no accidents while up and about at home! She still has a pretty good enthusiasm for the whole process, often following me into the bathroom and cheering me on or asking me if I want her to read me a book :) She has really enjoyed her "Potty Book" from her Nana about a little girl named Molly who learns to use the potty. We refer to Molly quite often around our house :)



Here she is enjoying a little bathroom story...

Stop, Drop and Roll!

I walked in to pick up Emilia from daycare today to find the kids practicing what they had learned about fire safety. They would run around the couch when the music was playing and when it stopped they would stop, drop and roll!

Emilia has been telling me about "drop and roll" for several weeks so it was fun to walk into her daycare world and see them in action! I'm happy to know she is learning things like this and also praying she never has to actually use them!!

Thanksgiving

We love Thanksgiving...it's a time to come together with family, have good food and laughs, enjoy the last bit of mild weather fall has to offer and not worry about the chaos that comes with preparing and hauling presents all over. This year, like every year, have a LOT to be thankful for... Each other, our health and our family's health, warm homes to visit, jobs and a new baby on the way. So many blessings!!!

It was a big year for Emilia at my Nonno and Nonna's house... She found the chick egg filled with M&M's that lives in the closet :) This little chick has been around through the whole childhood of me and my cousins. It's fun too watch Emilia light up at the site of it.

Jeff was REALLY full after our feast...and his vision needed a little help...

On Saturday morning, we headed to Alexandria for a Pearson family gathering. It was going to be our first meeting of Mike and Karen's beautiful new baby girl, Ella Grace. To say that Emilia LOVED Ella would be a HUGE understatement. She couldn't get enough of her and barely wanted to let anyone else hold her. She shushed her when she fussed, patted her back and gave her lots of baby talk. It was SO fun to see the "sister-in-training"!

Emilia was pretty smitten with Ella's big brother too..."her cousin Ben":) Jeff and I caught the two of them playing quietly by themselves in the bedroom. Ben was playing with some shark teeth, holding them up to his face and acting scary while Emilia watched, wide eyed.

Here's a video of them being their cute little toddler selves :)

It was hard to slow down the all the kids for a picture, but somehow, we made it happen! Here they all are, rounded up on steps.

First some smiles and funny faces...

Then a big group hug :)

On Sunday, we headed into town to visit Grandma Beth. She is doing just great recovering from a broken leg and knee surgery (again...SO THANKFUL!). Emilia found fun in it all as well...getting rides up and down the hallway on Grandma's walker from Papa.

Our holiday's always involve lots of traveling, which can be pretty tiring, but we're always happy to arrive at our destinations. Family is what makes the holiday special :) Plus, we always manage to get some fun videos of the miss in the car :) Here she is talking about being "sassy."

I do have to admit that we're quickly breaking down and feeling like a portable DVD player to occupy Emilia may be a MUST! Especially since it gets dark at 5pm and reading books or coloring are no longer options... Maybe Santa will come through...

Happy Halloween!

The official Halloween festivities started out with Halloween party day at Cathy's on Friday. We got the kids treat bags together on Thursday night...pretzels, airheads, a toothbrush and toothpaste!

I woke Emilia up on Friday morning wearing my witch hat and asking her if she was excited for party day at daycare. She, of course, was excited :) We turned on some Barney music and she "marched" while still laying down in bed and then got up so we could transform her into the most beautiful little Dorothy. All of the kids went to daycare in costume for a morning of fun :) We took some pics of our little Dorothy in her costume for the first of three times over the weekend.

We have this same picture of her from last year! You can see it here.

My beautiful little Dorothy :)

There's no place like home...

Group shot at Cathy's! For some reason...Emilia is always crying in these group shots! When I asked why she was crying in the picture, she told me, "I didn't want to get my picture taken...I went, 'Boo hoo...' like that..."

Our Halloween day started out with a fun party at Tommy's house with all the kids in costume and all kinds of fun activities to keep them busy...decorating cookies and a scrapbook page, painting pumpkins and snacking on yummy treats were among the favorites :)

That night, it was officially Halloween and time for Trick or Treating! We had plans to pull Emilia and her neighborhood friend Emma in the wagon for trick or treating, but Emma came down with a fever and a runny nose, so we took on the neighborhood as just the 3 of us :)

Dorothy on the little brick road!

Halloween night! All dressed up and ready to go!

Bundled up and ready for some treats!

A quick stop at Emma's for some giggles and a cute pic of the girls :)

Trick or treating with Daddy. She wasn't quite brave enough to approach the houses on her own...and she insisted on being picked up after we knocked on the doors.

Emilia did great! A little hesitant, but that's okay. Knocking on doors for candy isn't something she does everyday! She was exceptionally brave seeing the "scary guys" in costumes like Darth Vader and the Scream mask. Here's a video of her reflecting on the "scary guys" and helping Daddy answer the door for Trick of Treaters :)

After trick or treating, we headed home to eat some dinner and watch a little Gopher football before heading over to the Bickett's new house. When we got there, they filled her basket with LOTS of Skittles, much to her delight...and of course what better treat than some fun with Farley to finish off the night!?!

Almost Famous!

This afternoon, I received a message from Kate (Tommy's Mom) asking, "Would you be OK with one or more of the Halloween pics of Emilia and Thomas to be on our Fox 9 news at 5 sometime this week? Our Executive Producer was looking for some and I thought I could share some from last weekend. Let me know!"

I, of course, replied, "YES! It would be so fun to see them on tv!"

She followed up with, "They are going to put them on TV tonight on the 5pm news. She has 3 so I don't know which one they will use. I even included the smoochy one :-)"

So from there, I emailed Jeff and told him about the big tv debut that Emilia and Thomas were going to have that night. I asked him to set the Tivo so we would be sure to catch it!

We got home and got dinner started before settling in to watch the feature presentation...

How cute is this?!?!? Jeff's a little worried about, "the paparazzi that will be following us around from now on since she's so famous." Ha ha! For 15 seconds of fame, we'll take them on!

Daycare BBQ

We spent our evening at Cathy's house for the Annual Daycare BBQ. It's always a fun night as it gives the parents who only see each other in passing a chance to actually get to know each other...although...for the most part, I still know most of the parents as "Benji's Dad" and "Isabella's Mom". I've never been that good with names...

Emilia and Molly

We had a blast watching the kids interact and I, of course, snapped tons of pictures. It's so interesting to see how Emilia acts around the friends she sees everyday versus the friends she only sees on play dates. She is so much more brave and animated and silly with her daycare friends. There is no "warm up" time needed at Cathy's - she is completely in her element there!

Cheese!

Emilia sat at the kids picnic table with her friends while Jeff and I sat with some of the other parents at a big table. She ate all the food on her plate and then reached over and ate Tommy's cantaloupe :) Cathy reiterated how lucky we are to have such a good eater...and then we all discussed how lucky Emilia is to have such a great metabolism!

Benji, Chiara, Isabella, Angelina, Emilia, Thomas

Emilia and Tommy

After the meal, Cathy presented Molly with her Memory Book - a photo book full of pictures capturing the 5 years she spent growing up at daycare. Cathy always gets chocked up when she presents these books and talks about the memories she has with the child that is "graduating" to kindergarten. It's a happy and sad time...I can't imagine all the little lives she has seen come and go through her daycare in 25 years...wow. Thankfully, Emilia has another 3 years at Cathy's before she is off to school...somehow, though...3 years doesn't seem so far off. Yikes.

Molly's Memory Book

Baby's Birthday

As promised, we had a special little birthday party this weekend for "Baby." It was a quaint gathering...just Baby, Emilia and Mommy. We sang Happy Birthday, first to Grandpa (even though he wasn't there) and then to Baby. Baby opened some little presents and then Emilia and I ate our pretend cake.

Jeff missed out on the party at home because he was at the first Gopher home game. Emilia and I enjoyed the game too - sitting on the couch cheering for every touchdown! Emilia kept saying, "He got knocked down!" I would say, "Yes he did!" and laugh. She was just as enthusiastic as I was, clapping and laughing and shouting, "GO Gophers!!" Next up...teaching her the rouser!!

Peace, Love and S'mores :)

This weekend, we packed up all of our camping gear, which has not seen any use over the past 3 years, and headed to Lake Carlos State Park for a Pearson family camping trip. This was our first camping adventure since before Emilia was born so we were excited to see how our weekend would be with a two year old along :)

The weekend was forecasted to be HOT, HOT, HOT but it turned out that it was NOT. It was drizzly and cool when we got to the campground to set up camp on Friday night, so we put our sweatshirts on and got to work putting up our tents and making up our beds. We got Emilia her very own twin size air bed so should could sleep comfortably in "style." Plus, we got to put her cute little sleeping bag from Christmas to use! And who says camping isn't fun!?!?

After our camp was set up, we headed to the upper campground to meet up with the rest of the family and have dinner. Time flies when you're having fun...after burning off some energy, running and racing and giggling, it was time to head back down to camp and get ready for bed. Emilia did pretty well with the new sleeping arrangement...until 2am when her and her sleeping bag somehow managed to slide off the bed. It was kind of chilly that night anyways, so we pulled her into our bed and snuggled up until morning.

Being silly before bed :)

The next 2 days consisted of more camping food and fun times just hanging out, watching the kids play. Sunday turned out to be sunny and warm, so we headed to the lake to play in the sand, collect rocks, fill our sand buckets with water and take a pontoon ride. We finished off the weekend with burgers on the grill at Nana and Papa's before heading home. The weekend was a success and our sites are already reserved for next years camping trip :)

Ben giving Jeremiah a little ride!

Jeremiah, Juliana and Jacob slowing down for a quick picture.

Oh, one last thing I didn't mention... On our drive out of Alexandria...we had a little run in with a deer...well actually...the deer had a little run in with us. Thank the LORD we are all safe...especially considering the dumb deer ran directly into the side of the Jeep that Emilia was sitting. The quote to fix the Jeep came in at $2141...good thing we have car insurance. Here's Emilia's recollection of the incident shortly after it happened.