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!