9! Months! Old!

The delicate Russian princess wears her rabbit trimmed hat to keep out the bitter winter wind.

This post is so neglected. I have reasons, but they aren't very exciting. It is a combination of disappointment of the pictures we took (or didn't manage to take) of her on her 9 month birthday. None of the pictures seem to capture the sweet, joyful, stubborn little girl that is growing up so quickly. There has also been a scheduling problem. Like, when my kids don't sleep, I don't have time to blog. Also, a few of my New Year's resolutions (more on that later) are interfering. Anyhow, here is what I have!

My second favorite picture - my favorite picture is at the top of this post.

Baby in the snowbank
Her smile just lights up my heart. No, really.Laughing at Daddy.

Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy's hat

Watching William play in the snow with Grandpa Heidt

And here is some updates on Amelia:
-so social: hello, hi, waving, peek a boo, so big, clapping, mimic
-standing unassisted for brief periods of time
-champion crawler
-determined to eat power cords, pull plugs and tip over Christmas trees
-cannot keep socks/shoes on the girl
-chew, chew chew
-up to six teeth and counting
- loves anything with a face
-dances to music (bounces)
-eating all kinds of things. Still do baby oatmeal, purees on the road. loves solid green beans, peaches, tried potatoes, corn, bread, pizza crust, cheerios, puffs. Does a GREAT job getting food (and everything else) to her mouth by herself.
-Communicating: WOW! In the week we were at home, Amelia became fascinated by the telephone! Every time she sees one or hears on (or something that sounds like one), she puts her hand on the side of her head and says "Ehh?" as if to say "HELLO?" Totally adorable. Unless you are trying to have a phone conversation with her in your arms. Then it is totally annoying.

I thought we might get a cute picture with the trees and snow in the back yard. Right after this was taken, she launched herself in crawl position resulting in a snow face plant, snow in her shoes, up her sleeves and up her pant leg.
Amelia was done trying to get cute pictures - look at that sad, sad tear on her right cheek. Poor, cold baby! I had to take her inside to warm up.

Amelia bundled up a second time again the cold. Her snowsuit was COVERED in snow, so I took it off her. She insisted her shoes and socks come off as well.

On top of fun picture taking, we got in a good bit of playing with Grandpa Heidt today!

We played a little bit in the back yard. I was hoping we would find a little hill to do some sliding on, but no such luck!

We also tried (again) to teach William how to shovel. Here is Grandpa Heidt's attempt.

It appears to not be any more successful than the rest of us. William is determined to shovel the now ONTO the sidewalk from the snowbank.
We broke out the sled. Grandpa Heidt pulled William up and down the sidewalk with fresh powder on it.
And then, I added Amelia to the sled!
I know it looks like Amelia is crying, but she is laughing!
They both loved it, as you can see
Quit taking pictures mom! We want to go FAST!
William wanted a turn to pull his sister
But, we had to quit due to her daredevil tendencies - she would roll over onto her belly, pull herself to her hands and knees, and then attempt to launch herself out of the sled while it was traveling at top speeds.William then requested to pull Grandpa Heidt.

After warming Amelia up, I decided I needed a turn with my kids in the sled.
I can't remember here if William was trying to get himself into the sled or wanted to pull the sled.William even talked me into letting him pull Amelia for a minute in her carseat. It didn't last long because I think she is about 85% of his body weight with the carseat.

Another treat was spending some time with the Gaedke's. They truly are some awesome friends. We don't see them often enough, but when we do, we are able to just pick right up where we left off last time. It was wonderful (this isn't even close to the right word) to watch our kids play together. Cana is starting to take some steps and...and...it was AWESOME.

Also, they brought presents for the kids! Amelia LOVED the tissue paper her beautiful dress and tights were wrapped up in.William just outright LOVES presents by this point. Every day he wakes up and asks: "Will there be more presents today?" I think he doesn't even care if he birthday ever comes because he is loving Christmas so much at this point (and who wouldn't when you get great presents roughly every other day for two weeks solid and people feed you cookies whenever you want. What else is there? Birthday-shmithday!)
William got a dump truck that comes apart! It has a little drill to take off the wheels, cab, and dumper part. We have taken it apart and put it back together again exactly 5216846846464616846846161651 times as of today (1/20). He is very good about knowing which way the drill needs to work for the screws to come out/go in - something I thought would potentially frustrate him.

PS We did get Cana presents (doll quilt, Christmas tree ornament, fudge for her parents), we just didn't take any pictures of it.

Happy 8

Years! John and I have been married for 8 years today! We'll be going out to dinner and then spending the night sleeping away in a hotel after we put the kids to bed. Where we intend to sleep all night and wake up when we're not tired anymore. No alarms, no crying children. Just sleep. Delicious. A big THANK YOU to grandma and grandpa for watching the kids and letting us play hooky for the night!

Back to Rochester

Although it was a little rough going, the highways were finally opened up this morning and we made the trek back to Rochester. What might be the most astonishing fact is that we made the 7 hour trip with only one stop. A miracle with two kiddos. One of which prefers to nurse than drink for a cup and one whom is technically potty training (Potty training suffered enormous setbacks when on the way to GF, William was sitting on an automatic flush toilet when it flushed. Loudly.).

Anyhow, one of the big motivators to leave the fun of a Grand Forks Christmas is the promise of a Rochester Christmas. Our car is always so full of people, luggage, cold weather gear, and other necessary items it doesn't make a lot of sense to haul all the Rochester gifts with to ND. We just wait and open them when we get home. So, we rolled into Rochester around 4pm in time to start a third Christmas dinner acookin' (Christmas Calzones, yum!). While we were waiting for the dough to rise, we found that Santa had visited us in Rochester also!

Amelia finding a special kitty in her stocking (also note: candy cane pants!)

William: SOCKS! I LOVE SOCKS!

Daddy: SOCKS! I LOVE SOCKS!

Santa also brought Amelia some Puffs and a pink sippy cup (also note: candy cane pants!)

Then we all moved to the kitchen to create our calzones. William ate his entire calzone. A whole HUGE (1/4 sized) calzone. Amazing!

After dinner, Kaye and Scott joined us to open gifts. They weren't excited about having their picture taken because they had been snowmobiling most of the afternoon/evening and were concerned about their appearance.

Mike loves CDs.

Mike also loves toilet paper.

William checking out my new kitchen tongs. (notice my music playing Santa socks. Next year I will entertain you with the twelve days of my Christmas sock collection)

Amelia crashed right after dinner. It had been a long day. I'm never sure what to do in these situations. My family was together to celebrate Christmas, a special occasion. Clearly, Amelia needed to go to bed. I was torn. Keep her up? Put her to bed? To bed she went and then the question: Open her gifts while everyone is together? Or open them later when she is awake? Gah. There is no winning in this situation. We opted for later, right or wrong.

All Snowed in

Well, the plan was for us to get up in the morning and check the road conditions and with the intention of leaving the frozen North Dakota today. But....the weather was not cooperating at all. All the interstates in North Dakota are closed today and the plows have been pulled (as they were yesterday as well. It didn't matter to us yesterday though because we weren't trying to get anywhere). It is really saying something when they close the interstates in North Dakota. And by closed, I mean closed from Canada to SD borders and MN to Montana. I've been trying to find a news link to this story, but I haven't been able to find anything worth linking to. Grandma Kim and Grandpa Kevin spent the better part of today snowed it at Nona and Budd's house. Grandpa Kevin has made several attempts to get their van out of the unplowed area with no success - a situation that does not sit well with him. Their subdivision still hasn't been plowed and there is a lot of snow out there. And still snowing (although lightly). The main problem today is the strong winds creating white out conditions with near zero visibility. The powdery snow doesn't stay anywhere. We've shoveled a lot and I think the novelty might be wearing off. And thank goodness we packed boots and mittens for everyone.

While we got to spend some quality family time today we weren't able to see the rest of the family staying just a few blocks away. The roads just aren't allowing for it today at this point. We were joking about trying to get in a bonus run to Paradiso today, but when we called, they were closed.

Here is Uncle Mike attempting to shovel the front walk. He is sure wishing he packed winter boots instead only bringing dress shoes. Dress shoes don't do much to keep your feet dry! Please note: John was shoveling the front sidewalk or something. Rest assured he is working as well.

While this isn't close to the most snow I've ever seen at my Grandparent's house, it is the most I've ever seen fall at one time.

William in front of an impressive drift.
Brr!Amelia is safe and warm inside with Auntie Megan (through the window)

John and William were very excited about the snow removal in Grand Forks. These people do not play around! (I'll admit, I was excited too.) Here is a big machine plowing the alley ways.

A better view of the alley plowing machine.

This is no ordinary snow plow! It does the whole street in one pass! Amazing!

Wow! Everytime one would drive by, one of us would run for the camera.

Inside, it was a little hard to not get cabin fever. Amelia was very entertained by this bell ornament from the tree. She would shake it and then hold it to the side of her head saying "Ehhh?!"

William and Uncle Mike played a lot of cars and had some serious discussions about sharing (note: all the cars are on the couch in the right hand corner of this picture).

Megan was inspired to make a fort/barn/house/garage with William in the basement. After some time, it became clear the fort was lacking in decor and they came upstairs to make some art for the walls.

Uncle Mike made an outstanding duck. Isn't he talented?

Late afternoon, the roads cleared up and the snow quit (almost). We were able to make our way back to Grandma Nona and Grandpa Budd's house to visit. William helped Great Grandma Nona decorate some cookies. Grandma reported he ate more than he decorated.

The drift in the parking lot

The door to get in the house when we first arrived. We couldn't get anywhere near enough to even ring a doorbell. We had to call from the driveway so they could open their garage and let us in.

Shoveled out, for now

We enjoyed a yummy pizza party with all the grandmas and grandpas that evening. I love it when all the families are able to be together in one place - even though they aren't all related it makes for a very cozy evening.

A WHITE Christmas!

Not surprisingly, William was the first person up on Christmas Day (Amelia had been up several times through the night, but I'm not counting that). John and William went into the living room and had the following conversation (roughly):

J: Do you know what today is? It is a very special day!
W: .....It is my BIRTHDAY!
J: ???? No! It is Christmas today! Today is going to be a fun day with everyone here.
W: No. It is not Christmas anymore - Christmas is all done. It my BIRTHDAY! Mama says first it Grandpa Tom's Birthday, then Christmas, then it is MY BIRTHDAY! We will have cake.
J: Sorry, buddy. It is still Christmas. Not your birthday.
Quick subject change occurs.

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Wellllll, overnight it kept snowing and snowing and snowing. Luckily, we were stationed at the McGarry's house - which is where all the fun was happening.

We went out early to get a handle on the shoveling. Being it was a holiday, we weren't sure if the shoveling service was going to clear the driveway for us today. (PS A HUGE thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for allowing us to park in the garage. We did not have to dig out the car - that would have been a LOT of work!)

A little work gets a big reward! GranGerry makes yummy carmel rolls (one of my FAVORITE foods. Ever.) for breakfast on Christmas morning. No wonder my pants don't fit. Shortly after we were finishing with our feeding frenzy, Grandpa Kevin and Grandma Kim rolled in to the freshly shoveled driveway.

While people were getting ready, William and Grandma read a book to the waiting crowd. A book about trucks, of course.

Amelia and daddy opening her warm, fuzzy jammies! So cute!

William opening his warm, fuzzy jammies - WAIT THERE IS A CAR ON THESE JAMMIES. It was a lot of work to keep him dressed and out of the jammies. Have I mentioned we like cars?

William got some BIG kid pencils! He was so excited to have his own pencils!

I'm not sure he is even breathing in this picture. He just sat and looked and looked. He finally looked up at me to whisper "cars!!!".

Sticking to the plan, Amelia was with John and William was supposed to sit with me. However, that didn't work out so well because he 1)wasn't interested in sitting with me 2) Wanted to show John each and every item he opened 3) wanted to help everyone else open their presents 4) Didn't want to sit still. Period. So, there was no enjoyment of the holiday with a kid upon my lap. Suddenly it became clear that I needed my baby girl on my lap and John happily turned her over.

SOCKS! We love getting socks! Daddy is being a great example (no, really!) about how to be excited about socks!

Amelia got a gloworm. She was fascinated!

And happy!

My goodness she loves this gloworm. She hugs it, kisses it, tries to crawl around with and and wipes her nose on it. Definitely a hit!
After some more eating and a little napping by a few of us, we went over to see if Santa had come to town (during this time it is still snowing, snowing, snowing) at the Wennersten house. On the way over, we got VERY stuck in the entrance to the subdivision my grandparents live it and required both pushing and shovels.*

Amelia got a stocking that matches the rest of our family from my Great Aunt Bonnie. It is BEAUTIFUL and we are so thankful for her hard work!

Amelia got a new bib!

William was thrilled to be opening MORE presents!

HURRAY! SOCKS! We knew there was a strong possibility of him getting socks and so we were working hard to play up the excitement of receiving socks. Although we really do get excited about receiving socks. Really.**Amelia showing her new trick!** Anything that shakes, rings, jingles or beeps is considered a phone in her book and she holds it to her ear. Like it is a phone. And the she says "Eeeeh?" and looks at you expectantly. Even if she hears beeping or ringing, she'll put the palm of her hand on the side of her face and loudly "Eeeeh?".***

*I like to point out that I pushed a baby out of my body in just about the amount of time it took to get the van unstuck. John likes to point out this comparison isn't very Christmas-sy and is borderline appropriate.

**Please note totally adorable/cute/amazing Christmas outfits! I have zero pictures of them together on Christmas Day.

***Also note: Amelia started running a fever on 12/24 and was still not right on 12/25. Amelia also had not slept through the night since we left Missouri. I thought this was related to the teething situation, but in hindsight it appears it may have been a stomach virus in conjunction with the teething. Poor kid, poor mama. If either one of us looks "off" in any of the pictures, you will clearly see why.