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!