Obviously, I’m slacking in the blogging department. It has been a whirlwind few months. Ready? Here we go!

A couple days after I wrote the last entry, Brian looked at me and said, “We should move to Eden Prairie!”

Me: Huh? Ok….

So the rest of my maternity leave was spent house hunting. In a nut shell, it was very frustrating! We put in a total of 5 offers before we had a successful purchase! Offer #4 was accepted (we were way outbid on offers 1-3, and we offered over asking!), but it was a round house and too ‘odd’ so no bank would finance the mortgage.

We are thrilled with the house we have! It is on a great cul-de-sac, close to Adam’s school, and there is also a lake with frisbee golf and trails just down the street. I love that everything is 5 minutes away! Target, the mall, restaurants, Caribou…Fantastic! Commutes for both of us are now way shorter and that was the main reason we decided to move. A fun little bonus is we bought the house from former Vikings player Percy Harvin!

Our new home!

We have found a new fun activity: disc golfing! There is a course right by our house. During the summer and fall we were there almost every day. The boys play, and I would carry Allison in the carrier. It’s a great way to be outside and try a new activity!

Adam and Brian disc golfing

Allison and I disc golfing

Adam started playing soccer during the Summer as well. He played outdoor during the Summer, and now he is doing and indoor session. He is also in another session of swimming lessons and doing great!

Adam playing soccer this Summer. He loves it and is pretty good at it!

Adam started Kindergarten in the Fall and he absolutely loves it! His teacher, Ms. Paul, is so wonderful too. He gets to ride the bus every day to and from school and he comes home every day with stories of his day. He is making friends and learning a lot!

Adam's first day of Kindergarten!

Adam's Kindergarten School photo

A couple weeks into the school year, Ms. Paul began selecting a “Student of the Week” each week for being a good listener, leader, and/or friend. Adam was the first student she chose from his class! I am so proud of him! Principal Knorr came to the classroom and presented Adam with a certificate, prize, and shook his hand. I was able to sneak out of work a little early and go to the ceremony to surprise Adam!

Adam was chosen by his teacher as the classroom's first "Student of the Week!" I am one proud Mama!

Halloween was a fun time once again. We weren’t quite sure what to expect in our new neighborhood as far as number of trick-or-treaters. We decided to just leave a bowl of candy on the front step and take the kids out trick-or-treating. We put on about 2.5 miles. I carried Allison in the carrier and Adam walked. He made quite the haul! the kids were just adorable!

Adam as Jake from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and Allison as a lamb.

Allison is just a couple days shy of being 9 months old. She is a wonderful baby! She moves across the floor with the army crawl. Table food is her new favorite thing and she has graduated from baby food. She loves her brother so much! I love to see her face light up when he enters the room! He feels the same about her. It’s so awesome!

Adam and Allison love each other so much! I love watching them together

She has one tooth. One of her favorite places is in the carrier. She’s pretty much happy doing anything being in there and being out and about. She’s very curious and loves watching whatever action is going on.

Allison is also a great sleeper! She’s been sleeping through the night for several months. She usually takes a morning snooze. If we are out and about, she’ll snooze in her car seat. Then she takes an awesome afternoon nap..usually about 3 hours. She goes to bed between 7:30 & 8, and sleeps for about 12 hours. Sometimes more. She rocks!

Adam turns 6 on November 25th, and Allison will be 9 months on the same day. We are having photos taken tomorrow (the 24th) and we are also having Adam’s first ‘friend’ birthday party. I have every intention of posting a blog about all that, but let’s be honest. It could easily be another 9 months before I write another blog!

Thanks for sticking it out and reading through all of this! Have a great weekend!

I had worked all weekend AND there was a full moon. I should have known…..

I woke up to go to the bathroom at about 2:45 Monday morning the 25th and noticed a trickle. I was officially one of those ladies that didn’t know if I was leaking amniotic fluid or if I was just peeing myself. And I felt like an idiot. I was up and down over the next couple hours and finally was starting to think my water might really have broken. Luckily, at my last doctor appointment, she gave me her cell phone number and told me to text her anytime if anything started happening. I knew I would at least have to go in to get checked, so I decided to jump in the shower first. By this time, it’s now about 5:15. Brian heard me so he got up to shower and I filled him in on what was happening. He, of course, laughed at me.  🙂

I sent a text to my doctor and yup, she wanted me to go to the hospital. By this time, it’s now about 6. We woke Adam up and dropped him off at daycare for the day, but didn’t tell him what was going on. We just told him we were both going to work. Brian and I drove separate cars. He told me, “If you’re just peeing yourself, I’m going to work!” I thought that was fair.

We got to the triage area just after 7. As soon as my nurse pulled back the covers and tipped my bed back, she could tell it was in fact amniotic fluid and we would be meeting our baby girl! I was 5-6 cm.

I was excited and nervous at the same time. I was only 36+5 weeks and I REALLY wanted to be at least 37. I was insanely happy that we had made it to the hospital, Adam was taken care of, and my doctor was also on her way to the hospital for another delivery. The stars aligned! These were my biggest fears about giving birth this time around.

I got into my labor room about 8 and decided to walk the halls for a while. I was having contractions but they weren’t super painful. My doctor checked me again about 8:30 and offered some pitocin, but instead I wanted to walk some more and see what would happen. The contractions really started coming a lot faster and stronger. I walked until about 9, then got checked again. 8 cm. Time for the IV to get started. At 9:30 I got an intrathecal which is similar to an epidural, except it’s very short acting and it’s not a continuous infusion. I loved it!

The room was so calm and relaxed. I had my doctor, nurse, and Brian in there. We were just hanging out waiting for me to be completely dilated. After a few more minutes, I was and it was time to push. I pushed through 3 contractions over about 4 minutes and she was here at 10:14 AM! She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz (huge for her age we all thought!) and was 20.5 inches long.

Allison checked out great, had her first meal, then was awake and checking out her new surroundings. We called family to let them know of our new, early addition. Sadly, my parents are on vacation in South Carolina. That was the only thing about Allison’s birth that was a bummer.

We chose the name Allison Tracy Aanderud. Allison…we just really like the name. It would have been Adam’s name if he would have been a girl. And Tracy is my maiden name, so that was an easy choice for us!

Allison is now 4 days old. We are settled in at home and enjoying our sweet baby girl. She is a great eater (she has gained 4 ounces in 2 days!) and loves being swaddled and napping in her bouncy seat or someone’s arms.

Adam is loving being a big brother. He loves to help out however he can. He’ll ask to hold Allison and sit and snuggle her on the couch for a few minutes. He strokes her little cheek and talks to her. It is so sweet! Our first night home, I was holding Allison, Adam was sitting next to me and Brian was on the other side of Adam. Adam read his sister a whole Dr. Seuss book and it was such a wonderful family moment. I am truly in new mommy bliss.

I have some great pics to share, but both kiddos are napping, so I am going to take advantage and grab a snooze as well! I’ll get around to the pics at some point…

Thank you all so much for the calls, texts, cards, gifts, and Facebook messages of congratulations! We feel so lucky and blessed to have a healthy, happy, baby girl and family.

Halloween was a blast! Adam decided he wanted to be the Cat in the Hat. And boy, was he cute! The costume was perfect and he even let me paint a nose and whiskers on his face! Pretty much every house he went to for trick-or-treating complimented him on his costume. He was pretty proud of himself. He also did a great job trick-or-treating. It was a beautiful night, so he lasted quite a while and filled up his bucket!

Cat in the Hat!

We took a new approach with pumpkin carving this year. I have always wanted to try the ‘fancy’ template carvings, but was too chicken/impatient to do so. Well, this was the year. We chose a couple templates and here is what we came up with:

Our jack-o-lanterns. The one on the left was made by drilling holes with a power drill!

Halloween also marked the 20 week point of my pregnancy. Officially half way there!

20 week baby bump. 🙂

On Friday, the 2nd we had our 20 week ultrasound. All of the anatomy and everything looks perfect! Such a relief! We were also able to find out the gender. I was so sure it was another boy because this pregnancy has been pretty similar to the one with Adam. Although, over the last couple weeks I’ve realized I’ve been a bit more emotional and more of a crier, so I was starting to wonder if maybe it was a girl.

The baby gave us a great shot of the goods and here is what we saw:

It's a GIRL!!!!

Yup, a girl! We’re so excited! After the doctor appointment I had to swing by Target for a couple things and figured I’d mosey on over to the baby girl clothes. Oy. I’m gonna be in trouble! SO many cute things!! I bought a few little things of the clearance rack, but restrained myself from going overboard.

That night, we had the grandparents over for dinner. I made a pink cake with pink frosting on the inside and white frosting on the outside. We had Adam cut into it and reveal if the baby was a boy or a girl (I had kept it a secret from him all day and he was NOT happy about that!) His reaction was: “Oh, it’s a GIRL baby!!”

The pink cake!

Thank you for all of the wonderful emails, calls, texts, and facebook messages! This little girl is already so loved!

September 14th, 2012. 13 weeks & 2 days along in my pregnancy. I was at work. I had been running around taking care of my patients and I sat down to do some charting. And I felt it. Knock knock! I felt the baby saying hello!! I looked down and smiled, said hello, and continued on….

I had almost forgotten how wonderful those taps are! I had been suspicious for the last few days if I was feeling the little one move, but wasn’t sure. This was for sure. I’m so excited to start feeling the baby move around more regularly! I know the movements start out really sporadic.

13 week baby bump!

And to top off the great day, Brian was able to come home from his long work trip a day early! He flew home over night and surprised Adam by picking him up from daycare while I was at work. Adam so happy and shocked to see his dad a day early!

While Brian was away, Adam had some thoughts on the baby:

Adam: It’ll be so nice to have a baby. Then there will be someone else to play with me!

Me: Yes, it will be so much fun! But the baby won’t be able to play right away. It’ll be too little.

Adam: Yeah, the baby has to start out little so it will fit through your throat!

He is sure the doctor is going to reach down my throat and pull out the baby. He has thought this for a while and I’ve tried explaining how it is actually going to go, but he just looked at me like I was completely crazy. He is sticking to the throat theory!

Love my boys! 🙂

So here it is, Labor Day. The unofficial end of Summer. Since I’m such a slacker, we’ll just do a Summer recap. Ready? Go!

In June, Adam played tball twice a week. He started out shy and nervous, but Brian helped out with herding the kids on the field, so Adam ended up having a great time! A couple of his buddies were on his team as well. I watched the games and thought it was just a hoot!

Adam up to bat

Run, Adam!!

Most of the team. So cute!

He’ll play again next Summer and he’s pretty excited about it!

We went to the Minnesota Air Show in Mankato. I had never been to one and it was pretty cool! We saw a few air teams, including the Blue Angels.

Blue Angels. So cool to see!

Adam had a session of swimming lessons. He was to repeat Preschool level 1 since he didn’t pass the last time. We went to the first lesson of the session and he immediately got bumped up to Preschool level 2 because he was “too advanced.” He didn’t pass level 1 because of his shenanigans and not always wanting to do what the instructor asked. He made his way through level 2. The first couple times he wouldn’t always do everything, then finally he did the best he had ever done! After that lesson I was really talking him up. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: I am SO proud of you for doing such a good job and doing everything your teacher asked you to do! Isn’t is so much more fun to just do everything?!

Adam: Yeah, it’s more fun. Plus then you guys don’t have to whine about it!

After that lesson, he did great for the rest of the session and passed with flying colors! Next up: Preschool level 3!

We enjoyed many outings on the boat and Adam got REALLY good at jumping off. He even gave tubing a try a couple times!

Brian THROWING Adam in! He loved it!

Adam trying tubing.

We had a fun 4th of July at my parents’ house on the lake!

Brian on the knee board

Me on the tube

Me getting flipped off the tube!

We got new carpet on our main floor and upstairs in all the bedrooms. It is so. much. nicer! Every now and then we roll on it!  🙂

Oh, and one last thing we did this Summer is this:

Ultrasound pic at almost 11 weeks!

Yup, we’re having another baby! Due around March 20, 2013! We are so excited! Even Adam is on board with the plan. Here is the picture I put on Facebook to announce it.

A Bun in the Oven!

So, that’s our Summer in a nutshell. Tomorrow morning, Brian is heading out on a 12 day business trip. Bring on the Fall!!

We are home from Cancun and it was BEAUTIFUL, of course!

We got up at 3AM last Wednesday to catch our plane outta here. After a quick 4 hour flight,  a record speed trip through customs, baggage claim, and immigration at the airport and we were on the beach by about 11:30.  We ordered up some lunch and beers and we were officially on vacation!

On vacation!

Days 1 & 2 involved laying around on the beach, by the pool, having beers, and just relaxing. We had a great suite that was spacious and comfortable for the 3 of us. Oh yeah, and it had an incredible view. I cannot begin to guess how many times I looked out the window, shook my head, and said, “Geez, I love this! I could stare at that for hours!” Here’s what I’m talking about:

Stunning view!

Friday, we took a trip to Chichen Itza ruins. Over our many trips to Cancun, we keep saying we should get off our lounge chairs and go, but we were just too lazy! I pre-booked this tour before we left home, so there was no turning back. I found us a small, private tour (9 adults instead of a bus load). It was nice to have such a small group. They had a cooler in the van with drinks that included chocolate milk for Adam. They also provided lots of snacks for the long trip there and back.

I knew it was going to be super hot at the ruins, and boy was I right! SO HOT! Adam rode around on Brian’s shoulders for a lot of the tour and I carried an umbrella to shade us while we were in the direct sun. We found shade under trees whenever we could. Our tour leader, Flavio, would always show up at just the right time with more bottles of water for everyone! The tour was interesting, but not something we would need to do again. I believe Brian’s thought was, “What a waste of a day!”

Temple at Chichen Itza

After spending a few hours at the ruins, we went to a cenote to swim. It was beautiful!! And it felt so nice!

Wide angle view of the cenote, or a cave filled in with water. Gorgeous!

Our family swimming in the cenote.

After swimming, we enjoyed a “lunch.” It was about 4 PM though, so it was more like an early dinner! (We had had a snack at the ruins of fruit.) Then we started making our way back to Cancun. We made another stop in the ancient city of Valladolid. It was a cool town, but it was getting to be a very long, hot day and we were ready to get back to the hotel.

We spent the rest of our vacation doing this:

Lots of swimming and playing at the beach

and this:

Swimming at the pool

We enjoyed some yummy dinners, yummy drinks, and time hanging out. We were sad to come home, but also a little happy to get back to our routine, bed, food.

Plus, Adam had a case of the pukes at the grocery store today, so I’d much rather deal with that at home than in a different country!

I have uploaded a zillion more photos to our website, so click here to check em out:

http://www.aanderud.net/gallery/v/album_017/

Adam picked up a little bit of Spanish while we were there. He was pretty consistent at saying “Gracias!” and “Hola!” By the third day, someone asked him, “como se llamas?” (what is your name?) and he knew to respond with “Adam!”

Another couple gems that came out of his mouth:

While on a sailboat ride, he leaned over to the captain and said, “So Captain, how fast are we going?!”

As we were being dropped off at our hotel after our long Chichen Itza day, Adam asked Marcos, our driver, “So Marcos, are your arms tired from all that driving!?”

I heart that boy.   🙂

It would appear I haven’t written since before Christmas?! Hmmm…..that’s not a very good record.

I think winter is over. Unbelievable. It is now March 18th and I have the AC on in the house! It has been about 80 degrees for the last few days. We had supper outside in shorts and flip flops on St. Patrick’s Day! What?! If it snows again this year, I will cry.

It’s been awesome to be able to get outside and play and go to the park. Adam has been sleeping in like a crazy man (I WOKE him up at 9 this morning!) cuz he’s so exhausted.

It was a pretty wimpy winter. Brian got to do lots of ice fishing, but the ice was never thick enough for him to drive the truck on. Crazy! He also bought a snowmobile at the beginning of the season and only got to use it a few times for fishing. There was never enough snow to just head out for a ride.

Adam also discovered how much he loves ice fishing with his dad! He’s amazingly patient and so good at it!

Adam is also 2 lessons in to his next round of swimming lessons. It’s going better than the last time, but he’s still shy for the first 5 minutes or so. After he warms up, he participates very well! We (mostly Brian) have been taking him swimming at the community center almost every week and he absolutely loves the water and loves swimming. I swear he is part fish!

Brian was expecting to have a busy March/April at work. It has begun. He left for Cedar Rapids on Wednesday and should be home sometime next weekend. Luckily it’s been so nice outside so Adam and I are able to play a lot since I have a bunch of days off from work!

We are also counting down to our next Cancun family vacation! We are going in early May and we will be staying at El Presidente Intercontinental Cancun. It is right next door to the place we’ve stayed at several times so it will have the same fantastic beach we love. We were able to use Brian’s reward points from all his travels, so that helped us decide to try a new hotel! Adam has a ‘countdown’ calendar on the fridge so we cross off a day each day and watch as we get closer to departure day. He’s pretty excited!

I’m almost scared to click “Post” on this entry. I’m sure as soon as I do, it will snow and be 30 degrees again! I apologize in advance if it happens!  😉

The other night, Adam and I were sitting in the dark looking at our beautiful Christmas tree. He was on my lap. He gave me a huge hug, then looked at me with a grin on his face from ear to ear. He said, “I’m so happy!!!” I asked, “Why are you so happy?” And he responded, “Because I love you so much!! See this big smile on my face???” Such a sweetheart and I love him to pieces.

And here’s a picture of our fat, gorgeous tree!

Brian and I took a super quick, last minute trip to Cancun! I found a good deal online to our favorite hotel and I couldn’t resist it! I booked it 10 days before we left and we were gone for 3 nights. Adam stayed with Grandma Dora and Fred and he has no idea we went without him! Shhhhh…don’t tell. He’d be crushed!

Our first evening....after many Coronas and out for nachos!

One of my favorite pics from this trip

Great view out over the water

Brian reading his Kindle....Ziploc bags work great for those on the beach!

LOVE this beach!

Dinner and 'ritas our last night

Thanksgiving was great! We went to Dora & Fred’s for a delicious feast!! (Of course, I forgot my camera!) Thanks for having us all over! It was a tasty meal, as always!

Friday (the 25th) was Adam’s 4th birthday!! His party was planned for the 26th, so we took him to Chuck E. Cheese’s for some pizza and games! He had a blast!

Adam and Chuck!

Adam & Brian playing basketball

We had Adam’s family party on Saturday. I decided to do a brunch. We had egg bake, most of the baked goods from the Costco bakery, fruit, cheesy potatoes in the crock pot, and of course, cupcakes!  Adam wanted a Mickey Mouse theme, so that’s what we did!

Adam checking out his huge Mickey balloon

Some of the food

Cupcakes!

Adam blowing out his candles.

Happy birthday my sweet boy!! I love you so much!!