Happy Birthday Charlotte

On Saturday we attended Lucy's friend Charlotte's 2nd birthday party! We had so much fun. :) It is hard to believe that our little girls are growing up so fast. The kids played, we ate lunch including slices of this awesome bunny cake.

  

Check out these sweet cupcakes!

 

Charlotte opened her gifts from all of her friends. I was a little bit worried because Lucy picked out a stuffed purple monkey for Charlotte earlier that Saturday morning and she l-o-v-e-d it. Lucy cuddled it all through Target, she wanted to continue to hold it even after we wrapped it up. We talked about how the monkey was  a present and how it would live at Charlotte's house but I thought that she might go crazy and want to keep it after Charlotte opened it.

Good thing that we had a good distraction -- something even more awesome than a stuffed purple monkey -- Tissue Paper!!

 

 

 

No worries, Lucy quickly forgot about the monkey and enjoyed the rest of the party.

Happy Birthday Charlotte! We hope that you have a great year! :)

 

 

Shocked!

Ever since Lucy could make faces, she has had an excited/shocked look that she will display when she is super excited. When she was ~7 months old she would make the face for yogurt, her favorite food. When she was ~ a year old, she would make it for toys that she loved or people that she was very excited to see. Now the shocked face will make an appearance for playgrounds, bubble time, certain snacks, seeing people/toys she loves, and general showing off. It is so funny and adorable that I hope that she doesn't outgrow it anytime soon!! It is hard to capture on camera because it usually happens for just a second. Luckily Dad was able to catch the classic shocked face at the playground on Friday night. Lucy ate some frozen custard with us at Michael's and she was able to play in the tunnel at the playground - thus the excited face. :)

 

Pure joy!

An Update on Baby Storm

We are already at 36 weeks which means that Baby Storm's arrival is just around the corner! This pregnancy has flown by -- probably because I am chasing after a toddler while working full time, getting ready to move, house hunting, etc. Things have been busy! :) When I was pregnant with Lucy I kept a journal, I had her room decorated and ready to go weeks in advance, I took all kinds of classes and read lots of books. With this child, I don't have a baby room ready to go and full disclosure - I don't really journal or read any books anymore (sigh!). That being said, I have continued with my yoga regime, I no longer frantically google any crazy symptom or possible pregnancy issue (much better for my mental health) and I remember to take my prenatal vitamins almost every day. :) 

 

In case you were wondering what I look like these days - here is a belly shot! This kid has generally been more active than Lucy in Mama's belly, he/she throws a lot more kicks/punches, and they consistently have a lower heart rate each time we go to see the doctor. According to the Chinese Gender Chart, I am having a boy - we'll see! Side note: This chart accurately predicted that Lucy would be a girl.

 

I had my 36 week appointment recently and here is the latest:

 

I am measuring at 35 weeks

I weigh around 5 pounds less than I did with Lucy at 36 weeks

The baby is officially head down and ready to go

The baby's resting heart rate is between 120 and 130

 

 

We are excited to meet you baby Storm! We just hope that you stay inside my belly until we are finished moving! :)

 

 

Up North

We recently spent some time up North! We had a great time visiting with friends and we even looked at a few houses. Dad had work meetings all day on Saturday so Lucy and Mama hung out at our Bed & Breakfast and visited a Children's Museum.

 

We stayed at a sweet Bed and Breakfast in Rhinelander. One downside is that there was no central air in the house! Friday night was hot but it had cooled down quite a bit by Saturday evening. Thank goodness! I have a super low heat tolerance to begin with and, being ~9 months pregnant, I am hot pretty much all of the time. Who has a baby at the end of August anyway?? Crazy.

 

 

Lucy's favorites at the B&B included:

 

A giant stuffed puppy...

And a big bath tub! :)

On Saturday morning we headed to Eagle River to visit the Northwoods Children's Museum. It was awesome! Lucy had a great time playing with the interactive exhibits.

They had a little cabin with babies and a tiny kitchen. Lucy is a huge fan of babies. Hopefully that will continue after baby Storm arrives!

 

 

She pretended to have coffee with Mama.

She checked out all of the Northwoods animals. 

 

What is a visit to a Children's Museum without some crafting?  If you look closely you can see that Lucy is coloring with a Smelly Marker!! Awesome. I used to love those markers when I was a kid. I kind of thought that they might be outlawed since they are sort of a gateway drug for huffing but I was glad to see that they are still around! :)

 

 

The museum had a sweet dress up area. Lucy was very excited about trying on the firefighting boots and hat. This picture reminds me of a classic photo from my childhood when I was playing dress up with my cousins Gavin and Jaye. Gavin was sporting some nice fireman getup complete with a red vacuum hose to put out fires. :)

 We cruised around

 

and visited a sweet general store where Lucy filled her cart and checked out at a cash register complete with a bar code scanner and fake credit cards.

Finally, the museum had a nice medical exhibit where the kids could look at xrays, try out wheelchairs and crutches and drive an ambulance complete with working lights. If you look closely, you can see a tiny little driver named Lucy in this ambulance! Watch out! :)

She yelled 'Beep! Beep!' as she was driving. It was really cute.

 

We had a great time Up North! Thanks to the MacFarland and Bronson families for hanging out with us! :)

 

We'll keep you all posted on the house hunt and next steps for our family. Just so everyone knows, we recently signed a lease for a dog-friendly rental house in our current neighborhood in Madison. It is a place that is ~3 blocks from our house on Powers. The family we are renting from is very sweet, they are moving to Malaysia for the school year. Their Dad has a teaching position there and Mom/kids will be joining him in August. We have the property until May and hopefully we will have figured out where we will be going by then! Get ready for moving madness/pictures shortly.

Happy Birthday Chief!

Blast from the past - check out these sweet pictures of a ~15 month old Lucy crawling all over her dog Chief. So cute!

 

 Our big boy Chief turns 6 years old this week! Hard to believe since he still acts like a puppy most days - haha! We love our pup so much, we are so thankful that he is healthy and full of life. We miss having him around the house these days but we know that he is loving his time living with Nola, Ken and Hayley in North Dakota. Happy Birthday Chiefy!

 

Weekend in Roseville

We spent last weekend in Roseville visiting Grandma Nola, Grandpa Ken, Uncle Brad, Auntie Amelia, and Uncle Brian! Amelia and Brian recently bought a cute new house in the area so we had to check it out. :) 

 

 

While the boys worked on fencing in the yard...

 

 

..., the ladies had some play time! :)

Lucy was so happy to spend some time with the pups! Chief and Scout were kenneled in Fargo for the weekend but Hayley came to visit. Lucy thought that she needed to put Hayley down for a nap so she covered her up with a dish towel and said Good night! It was so sweet!

 

 

On Saturday morning we went to Wild Rumpus bookstore in Minneapolis. It is an awesome children's book store that has lots of pets! Lucy loved it.

 

She saw Spike the lizard.

 

Lucy really wanted to pet the chicken that was roaming around the store!

 

She checked out the birds with Auntie Amelia.  What a fun place!

 

After Lucy woke up from her nap we went to Como Zoo! We saw flamingos and ducks!

 

 

 The zoo has a great primate habitat.

 

Lucy was both nervous and excited to see the monkeys. Can you see her holding tight to Grandma Nola's arm? :)

 

 

Having fun at the zoo with Grandma!

 

 

And Auntie Amelia!

 

 On Sunday, the boys finished up their fence making - Roy was thrilled to be able to run through the entire yard!

 

 

We headed home on Sunday afternoon. Since Lucy has not been a fan of time in the car lately, we decided to turn her car seat to face forward. We thought that it would be a whole new world for her and cut down on some of the crying/protests but no such luck! That being said, It is a lot easier to get her in and out of the car now, I can also hand her things likes toys and snacks without crazy twisting and maneuvering. Small victories!

 

Thanks for the great weekend, Storm family!

Lucy is 20 months old

Lucy turned 20 months old recently! She is growing like crazy and her hair has really started to come in over the past couple of months. It is a cute strawberry blonde color, she loves to wash it and occasionally comb it. :) Lucy's vocabulary has really started to explode recently - she will say 3 word sentences like "Daddy mow outside" or "Bunny hop grass". It is so fun to listen to her talk and sing to herself while playing with toys or just hanging out in her crib before she falls asleep. Things that she loves to do these days include: playing with her baby dolls, petting/kissing my belly and talking to her little brother or sister, blowing bubbles, being outside, pretty much anything that has to do with Elmo, FaceTime (when she runs into the office and sees the computer she starts yelling for Grandma or Paul and Abby), taking baths/splashing in water, looking out the windows for the rabbits that have started taking over our yard since we no longer have dogs to scare them, and picking/smelling flowers.

In addition to all of the great new words Lucy is using, she is quickly becoming an expert with the word No (Mama and Dad are not fans of this)! Also, she has become a difficult little traveler during longer car trips. We officially flipped her car seat so that she can face forward and she still is not a fan of being in the car. Ugh! Hopefully this stage will pass before we have baby #2 and need to drive to North Dakota for Amelia and Brian's wedding this fall!

We love you Lucy Bear!

Melissa and Brian's Wedding

We went to Decorah, Iowa to attend Melissa and Brian's wedding! Our pre-wedding activities included going to an Iowa Fish Hatchery and spending time downtown.

 

Lucy love, love, loved feeding the trout little food nuggets. She would get so excited and yell 'Yummy!' as the fish were gobbling up the food.

 

Here is our little peanut at the Fish Hatchery.

 

 

Feeding the fish!

 

Next to the hatchery we found a cute park and waterfall.

Lucy wanted to splash in the water and was pretty sad when we told her that she couldn't jump in!

 

Dad and Lucy enjoying the waterfall.

On Saturday afternoon we went to the wedding! It was a beautiful day and the scenery was lovely.

Here we are at the wedding!

 

We won't have too many more pictures as a family of 3!

 

Our dear friends Laura and Dimitris came all the way from California to attend the wedding. It was so good to see them and catch up! Here I am with Laura.

 

Lucy was also excited to see Laura!

College friends! :) Laura, Melissa, and I have been good friends for over a decade - it is hard to believe how quickly time flies!! These ladies are the best!

One of the coolest things about Brian and Melissa's wedding was that they had a live blue grass band at their reception. The music was awesome!

 

 First dance!

 

 

 Lucy had a great time at the reception! They had toys for the kids, she was a big fan of the hula hoops. :)

 

Lucy also made a BFF at the wedding - a little girl named Isabelle! They had an awesome time playing with each other....

 

And dancing that evening!

 

What a fun wedding! We wish you many happy and healthy years together, Brian and Melissa!