Ready to be a big sister.

Well it has been a long, snowy and cold winter so far. Its only mid february and it is hard to imagine that we have 2 months left before we get to actual spring. Two years ago it was 80 degrees on St Patricks day so there is always hope. We will be having Baby #2 tomorrow morning. I imagine having a newborn around will take our focus off of the weather and will hopefully get us to spring a little faster. In between ridiculously cold days Isabelle and I did get out ice fishing with Uncle Kyle and Blayne. We fished in a kids ice fishing contest in Monticello. This was Isabelle's first time fishing on the ice and not in a fancy house. She liked it but would have prefered the comforts of a nice warm house.

We chose one freezing cold Saturday to go to the mall of america. Isabelle was excited to build a bear for her baby brother. I hope he likes it. We rode a couple rides at the Nick Universe but the lines were really long and very slow moving. I did ride the rollercoster with Isabelle and she loved it. She is a big fan of arcade games (me too) so we didnt stand in lines too long before we found the skee ball machine. Isabelle has really fallen in love with legos so a visit to lego land was on the agenda. She picked out a brand new lego set. She got her picture taken with Sponge Bob and Patrick and wore some sweet Vikings gear!

The school hoste a movie night. Isabelle sat with a bunch of her friends from school and had a blast eating popcorn and watching Monsters Unviersity.

This week was Valentines day. Isabelle's class had a Vday program and parents got to come to their classroom before the program. Mom was met by isabelle at her locker with a homemade flower. I missed the program but Gina said it was adorable. 



Christmas, New Years and Ice Fishing

We had a fantastic Christmas this year. We hosted some family gatherings and spent a lot of time with family and friends. Isabelle got a boat load of fun stuff for christmas. This was the first year that we had more projects, crafts and activities instead of piles of plastic toys. She gots, books, puzzles, legos, an easel with painting supplies, an easy bake oven, scienece experiment kits (shes been dying for some "science"), a telescope and more fun stuff. What a haul. Baby brother Ethan even got a bunch of gifts, Isabelle was happy to open the additional presents.

While off from school we went to see Walking with Dinosaurs with Isabelle's friend Olivia. It was a fun movie that the girls really enjoyed. After the movie we had lunch at Davani's and conducted an experment using baloons, hair and static electricity.

Isabelle, Mom and I spent an afternoon at Color Me Mine in Maple Grove. Isabelle has a good time painting the ceramic figurines. We made an angel for her room, Mom made a piggy bank for Ethan and Isabelle made a smiley bank piggy bank...fun.

Twice in the last three weeks Isabelle and I rented a fishhouse on Lake Waconia. Isabelle still loves to fish and ice fishing in a nice comfortable warm house is a fun way to spend a day. One trip we went with Papa and the other trip we took our friends Olivia and Eric. We had a blast both times. Isabelle was able to catch a big enough fish each trip to qualify for the resorts fishing contest and won a prize each time! On our last trip we had an very large (10 lbs or so) northern on for a while and had him up the hole and partially in the house before the line broke and we lost him back down the hole. The girls were pretty excited about the intense fight, I was pretty disappointed that it literally slipped through my hands.



Our first born Sophie turned 7 years old in December. She is an amazing and loving little creature who is an important part of our family. I was really impressed that she paused long enough to take this picture, she was pretty excited to eat the ice cream on the table, her favorite treat!

On New Years Eve we attended a fondue party with friends. All of the kids really like the idea of dipping various delicious treats into chocolate. It was a really fun night and Isabelle rang in the new year sleeping like a baby.

Pumpkins and Christmas Trees

It is pretty disappointing that I havent found time to post as much as I used to. There is so much going on, things are busy but at the same time there is fun stuff to write about. This probably isnt going to get any easier when #2 gets here in February. Oh well, we will do the best we can.

I was able to go to Isabelle's school and have lunch her and her classmates. What a fun group of little kids. It was fun to watch them hang out and interact with one another, they really arent little kids anymore. I had a lot of fun and the food wasnt that bad either.



We found at that baby #2 is going to be a boy. his arrival is scheduled for February 18th...he has a name now but you have to keep to reading to get that info.

We visited our favorite local pumpkin patch, farm and corn maze to pick our own pumpkins again this year. Isabelle has a blast feeding the cows, goats and other critters. Unfortunately a few kids got sick at this place last year. Apparently they didnt wash their hands very well after touching the cows. Hopefully the cows will still be there next year.

Halloween was exciting as usual. We attended the big neighborhood party and had a blast. Trick or treating with Isabelle has gotten a little more fun every year. This year was no exception a big group of parents and kids made our way through the neighborhood and the kids had a blast. One house went all out and some really scary decorations to go along with creepy music and a smoke machine. Isabelle made it half way up and thend decided that it really wasnt worth it...

Isabelle and I helped our friends the Ohme's make Lefse



This year we cut our own christmas tree at Hansen's Tree Farm in Ramsey. What a fun place to go. They had a bonfire, hot chocolate, sleigh rides and of course, christmas trees. I think we ended up with a really nice looking tree. It was probably more expensive than buying a pre cut tree but I think making an outing of it was fun. 

We made our first (and last) trip to the Holidazzle Parade. Isabelle and her friend Olivia had a blast.

Our house is all decorated for Christamas and baby boys stalking arrived last week. As you can see his first name will be Ethan. Isabelle is very excited to be a big sister and I think she is going to be great at it.

Isabelle had a fun time at my office Kids Christmas party she got to make a craft, decorate a cookie, get temporary tattoos and most importantly sit with Santa. She has a long list of wants this year but most are pretty reasonable. She is really interested in science and experiments so she wants "science stuff" for christmas and off course anything artsy or crafty. I think Santa heard her loud and clear. She should have a very merry christmas. 

Isabelle played basketball for the first time this winter. I think she enjoyed it and we will probably try it again.  

Yesterday we went downtown and saw the Christmas Carole at the Guthrie Theatre. It was a fantastic show. Isabelle was a little scared by a few of the ghosts but mostly she loved it.



catching up again

Summer is quickly coming to an end but I think we made the most of this summer. We hit the state fair and Isabelle had a blast on the rides and playing some carnival games. We spent a lot of time going through the "little farm hands" exhibit.  

Whenever we go to noodles Isabelle likes to try and eat with chopsticks. We recently went to PF Changs and they had learning chopsticks. Isabelle thought it was pretty neat that she could actually use them, and they let her take them home. 

Below is a picture of Isabelle gettgin on the school bus for the very first time. Her first bus ride to school was uneventful but her bus got into a minor accident on the way home from school and she ended up being about an hour late. We were pretty frustrated with the school for not getting us more information during the incident but the kids seem unaffected. We are a month or so into the school year and Isabelle really loves school.

Isabelle started gymnastics again this fall. So far this has been her favorite activity, I think we are going to try basketball and some swimming lessons later this winter.

Isabelle has shown a little interest in golf.  We got her a couple golf clubs and she has ridden on the cart with me a few times. She proved to be my good luck charm almost bringing a hole in one, missed it by that much.

My work hosted a family fun run and activity day in September. They had kids races and isabelle was pretty excited about the race and of course the bouncy house and bouncy slide.

Isabelle's favorite desert is a chocolate tower made of one reese's peanut butter cup, one rolo and one hershey' kiss. Why pick one candy when you can have all three....?

We had a good crop of plums, pears and apples this year. We canned pears, made plum jelly and will freeze some of the apples. We also made some strawberry jam with storebought berries.

We attended the downs syndrome walk at como park to support our friend Brynlee. Isabelle walked almost the whole 2 miles and had a fun time with the face painting and off course bouncy houses. She stuck a balloon under her shirt and was pregnant like her mom...