Winter has arrived in Minnesota!

We had another whirlwind week up here in St. Paul! I was at home Monday and Tuesday and then had to leave early Wednesday morning for Boston. Olivia had another excellent week of using the potty and is finally getting the hang of going #2 on the potty, too. She had been holding it so on Thursday Duane promised her another trip to see the Holidazzle Parade if she went at school. They said she tried so hard all day and passed the tiniest of poo's during her nap. So, he counted that since she tried and tried during the day. They luckily had a front row seat and Liv loved it!

I returned home Friday morning but then went straight into the office. Late in the afternoon, I picked up Liv from school and we went straight home and put on our pj's! After we had dinner, we opened up a little St. Nick gift from Grandma and Papa Potter. We received some more M&Ms and so Liv ate a few and did not waste any time devouring them. We promised her that if she went to bed like a good girl (which she always does), that St. Nick would come during the night and bring her presents.



Hair bows!

Focusing on biting her M&M

On Saturday morning when Duane opened Liv's door, the first thing out of her mouth was, "St. Nick?!" Yes, Liv, he came! We're pretty sure, though, she must have been thinking, "You made all that hype for this?" Well, considering that she's been getting presents for her recent potty training, I didn't get much. I've started a tradition of getting Christmas pj's for everyone so that's really all there was - and a few Christmas books for Liv, too. She was more interested in taking the stickers off the Cuties sitting around so that ought to tell you her priorities.

Sadie didn't get anything - she wasn't too happy about that....

Saturday was busy - first thing in the morning was the last swimming lesson of the year. After that, we made a trips to the UPS store, post office and Santa bought Liv's big gift. She had no clue; she was asking the store owner about the "puppy" that's usually in their store. We braved Macy's to return dishes that I ordered on Black Friday but decided I didn't like them when we received them in the mail. Thankfully they had the ones I wanted and we exchanged them. We had lunch at Potbelly and then walked through a furniture store looking for a big girl bed. We think we found "the one" but we'll cross that bridge next year. Liv had a little accident while we were there so I threw away her panties and we took off for home! We walked past Santa when we were in the mall thinking that if we eased her into the thought of sitting on Santa's lap, we'd have a better reaction than last year. She was all for it and ALL afternoon kept saying, "Santa. Lap."

Once she woke up from her nap, we prettied her up and headed right back to the same mall. We had dinner and then braved the line for Santa. She first gave a little pet to a reindeer standing next to Santa and then I eased her onto his lap. She didn't crack a smile and you could just see her trying so hard not to scream. Right before she sat on his lap, though, she simply stated, "puppy." I think that came from us prepping her and saying that he was going to ask her what she wanted for Christmas. She's really been saying puppy but she can keep on dreaming! We paid an obscene amount of money for a printed photo and a digital copy and then we came back home.

This morning when we woke up, the world was white! I'm not sure what time it started snowing but it still hasn't stopped and it's after 2:00pm! Duane was going to host a poker party today and I was going to get together with a friend but we cancelled our plans because of the weather. Duane finished his last gulp of coffee and he was out the door to shovel and snow-blow. He pretty much took care of our block and then a neighbor told him some people were going sledding. He ran in the house to tell me to get Liv ready and then he was out the door to go buy a sled. By the time we all bundled up and got to the hill, our neighbors were leaving but we had such a fun time! Liv was initially scared and would not sit on the sled but I went down first and told her it's a big slide and she was in! She LOVED it and by the end, was riding down by herself.

not enjoying her first sled experience; about halfway into our walk, she told us she was all done....

Liv's first trip down the hill alone - she did 4 trips by herself!

I will be in town until Wednesday evening of this week and then I'm off to Cleveland. One of the nice things they've recently implemented at daycare is an app with daily updates. I love the app and obsessively check it all day for pictures and to see how many trips to the potty Liv makes. It's especially nice when I'm traveling because I can keep up with Liv throughout the day. Well, I smell some coffee brewing so I'm going to make myself a little Bailey's and coffee and enjoy the snow falling! Have a great week, blog readers!

Let's see....where did I last end this blog?!

Sorry everyone, I'm a bit behind on the blog! Here's a quick recap of the Thanksgiving weekend....

we woke up to snow on the ground after Thanksgiving Day! It's gone by now, though, so that's nice!

We did a little Black Friday shopping in the morning but it was for "manly things," i.e. snow pants, a cargo carrier that fits in the truck hitch, etc. Later in the afternoon, we put up our Christmas decorations and Liv helped hang some ornaments. Olivia loves the nativity scene and will always leave her baby doll bottles next to Mary and Baby Jesus!



Olivia's clump of ornaments

 The rest of the weekend passed quickly by and before I knew it, I was heading to the airport for a quick trip to Philadelphia.

I was back by Wednesday morning of this week and by that time, Liv had pretty much mastered the potty! She is doing exceptionally well and every day we're shocked by how great she's doing.  Thanksgiving morning was the start of her going on the potty and by the following Thursday, she mastered peeing and was pooping on the potty, too! She went #2 at school and later that night, she went at our house again! She had 1 accident during her nap on Friday but so far, so good!!!

We knew we needed to reward her for learning so quickly and doing so well consistently. We're not sure how it came up but before Duane could ask her what kind of toy she wanted, she told him she wanted a horse!! HA!! After swim lessons this morning, we made a stop at Target. We spent quite some time in the toy aisle and she finally decided on a Disney princess and matching dress for herself!

Liv took a nap and Duane and I took turns running errands. I had been hearing about the Holidazzle Parade which takes place in Minneapolis so we went downtown tonight for some holiday fun. We had a quick dinner at FireLake Grill and then tried our best to find a place to stand for the parade. Thankfully, Duane is tall and strong so Liv had a good view. I saw very little of the parade and tried my best to take a couple pictures. She enjoyed it and was looking for more after it ended. You'll notice she didn't wear a coat and that's because it was 50* tonight when we were downtown!

Cinderella went with us but we didn't have enough hands so she ended up in Duane's pocket

waving to Santa

It's so hard to believe we're into December, isn't it?! I'll be heading to Boston later this week so it'll be Duane and Liv at home to fend for themselves. I better get some laundry done, then, right?



Video to go along with the "thanksgiving" post

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope you all had a very happy holiday with family and friends!

We had quite a day and feel like our little girl has aged a couple years in one day. This morning while Duane and I were going through the Black Friday ads, Olivia watched some Mickey Mouse and had breakfast. Duane noticed Liv grabbing at her crotch so he asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty. It was perfect timing because as soon as she sat down, she went! :) She agreed to wear some Hello Kitty underpants and has been peeing on the potty ALL DAY!!! I would estimate she went about 15 times on the potty with 1 accident. (We haven't conquered #2 yet....)

We had plans to have Thanksgiving dinner with Jaron and Crystal so Duane was busy smoking a turkey and making homemade dressing all day. After weeks of asking Olivia if I could polish her fingernails, she finally agreed - while on the potty of course! So, I polished her fingernails today and she loved it.

Shortly after Liv woke up from her nap, we headed to Hudson, WI. Dinner was fantastic and Olivia had her fair share of turkey. She also dominated the dessert part of the meal with 2 Cuties, fruit salad and bites of Black Forest cake and pumpkin cake - oh and a couple hours after dinner, she asked for another Cutie.

Thanksgiving dinner spread

Catching up with the blog - finally, right?!

Don't worry - we're still alive! Life has been pretty busy since the last post. So, I caught the flu from Olivia and was at home from Tuesday until Thursday. Thankfully I felt close to normal on Friday morning as we flew out for Andrea's wedding weekend back home. This was our first flight having to buy Olivia's seat but it was worth it (almost). While we were getting ourselves situated in the plane aisle, Liv plopped herself down in a window seat and didn't move. "No, my seat." Umm....okay! She's a very good flier and all went well.

this is a lazy man's stroller but such a great idea! Olivia loved this and it was one less piece of junk to cart around (meaning a stroller....not Liv! Haha!)

Humphrey Terminal has a great play area for kids - Liv loved it!

not too long after we hit the road, Liv was out!

We flew into St. Louis, packed into our rental car and we headed east. Duane and I had just enough time to change and then we left for the rehearsal dinner. Olivia was as spoiled as spoiled can be - she spent her whole weekend with Papa and Grandma Potter and Alex and GG! Four adults to 1 toddler - she loved it!

Saturday morning, around 5am, Duane woke up vomiting - how's that for timing. Somehow he pulled through and around 10am he was eating a Fleig's breakfast sandwich and safely delivering the groom to the church! We spent our day with the wedding party and had a great time! We saw Olivia right before the reception and was able to get her in some photos. She enjoyed herself at the reception and loved the dance floor! She left crying because she just wanted to keep on dancing! Here are 2 photos from the photo booth!

Since we're not going back to IN for Thanksgiving, my mom and dad hosted the Kraus family on Sunday for an early Thanksgiving. The food was fantastic and I even got a little afternoon nap in!

Olivia swept the floor while we kept on eating....there's Libby looking for handouts

The weather was great so after all the napping was over, we all headed to the Ferdinand State Forest for a much needed walk. It was so great to get outside and move around - but then we ruined that by ordering Homestead Pizza for dinner!

Our flight back to MSP was uneventful and Olivia did well once more. We are very lucky to have such a well behaved flier!

I was home for a day and then headed to Chicago for a meeting. Lucky for me - I was able to catch up with my friend Kylene in the airport! When I returned on Friday morning, I had to head right back into the office for another meeting. That night I was looking forward to putting on my pj's and just relaxing. Unfortunately, Duane had to work late but there's a great ending to the day - Olivia pee-ed on the potty!!! I couldn't believe it! When I was changing her into her pj's, she saw her training underpants and said she wanted to wear them. I didn't object but told her she wasn't allowed to pee in them, she had to sit on the potty. It took about 7 trips to bathroom and then she did it! She cackled and laughed while she went and it was hilarious! I tried to reward her with a sticker but she wasn't born yesterday - she said, "No. Treat." LOL! I gave her 1 M&M and she LOVED it! Now, if we could keep this up....

Saturday morning was swim lessons for Liv, lunch at home and then it was naptime. We met some friends later that evening at Brasa and we all pigged out. Olivia finished off a chicken thigh all on her own; not to mention peas, macaroni and cheese and guacamole! And when her butterscotch pudding came for dessert - she finished that off, too! I'm pretty sure she's hit a growth spurt because she seems to be very hungry lately. On Tuesday morning, she ate a waffle before getting to school and then ate breakfast there, too.

Wir erhielten einen frühen Weihnachtsgeschenk von meinem deutschen Gastfamilie, so dass wir es geöffnet letzte Nacht! Duane und ich erhielt Pralinen und Olivia erhalten ein T-Shirt und ein "Sandwich" für ihre Küche. Danke, Frankes, für so ein schönes Geschenk! Auch ich danke Ihnen für die Führung mit uns auf dem Blog - das wirklich bedeutet mir sehr viel! (We received an early Christmas gift from my German host family so we opened it last night! Duane and I received chocolates and Olivia received a shirt and a "sandwich" for her kitchen. Thank you, Frankes, for such a nice gift!!! Also, thank you for keeping up with us on the blog - that really means a lot to me!)

She wanted to try and go potty again last night so I snapped an embarrassing photo of her that I can use for years to come! I also caught her crying about her "owwie." While Duane was making waffles yesterday morning, Liv touched the waffle iron and burned her thumb pretty bad; she's got a huge blister. It must have hurt pretty bad last night because there were A LOT of tears and much needed kisses!

This week is short and I am so excited to have 2 full days at home to relax! While we won't be traveling home for the holiday, it will be nice to have some time at home to get caught up on things. Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels to those who are traveling!!!

Stomach flu strikes again!

Friday afternoon I was talking to a coworker about the weekend and how I was hoping to get to the MN Zoo with Olivia before the cold weather came for good. About 30 minutes after that conversation, daycare was calling my work cell - never a good sign. "Olivia just woke from her afternoon nap and threw up everywhere." Awesome. I couldn't get away for a couple more hours so I had to text Duane and he left a meeting to get our little sicky. Once I was able to pack up and head out, I ran to Target for bananas, Gatorade and chicken soup. Here's the photo I received on my phone and a plea for "Mickey Mouse." (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD) Apparently kids are leaving everyday with the same symptom....thankfully she didn't get sick anymore after I got home! Duane and I did rock-paper-scissors to see who was the lucky one to clean out the chunks in her clothes - he won the coveted prize! ;)

very rare moment for these two to sit quietly!

Saturday morning we moped around the house to be on the safe side and not have Liv throw up in Target, swim lessons, etc. After lunch I ran into work for a couple hours and returned home to Duane raking leaves and Liv watching him work. We had Potbelly for dinner and ran to Target - and that was our wild Saturday night!

Duane and I were going stir crazy so we decided to brave the Children's Museum for a couple hours this morning. It was a great time to go and most of the kids that were up at that hour were toddlers. Olivia loved it and had a little toddler moment when it was time to go. She sat down in the middle of the hallway near the door, crossed her arms and stuck out her bottom lip. (It was hilarious!) We promised her we'd come back again soon.

face painting station....first we tried it out on her hand - ok, that wasn't so bad....

...then she painted on my hand....ok.....

....next was my face.....and then...

she painted her own face! she could have stayed there all day but there were kids anxiously trying to get a turn so we had to move on to the next activity.

putting on a beaver costume for the beaver hut/slide

here she comes!

Duane made his delicious Bavarian lentil soup for lunch and then it was time for Liv's nap. I ran some errands and Duane changed my car's oil and rotated the tires, too. (what a guy, huh?!)

Isn't it crazy that it's already November?! Have a fantastic week!