Bringing Back Memories....

The other morning Annika had peanut butter toast for breakfast. I think she rather enjoyed it...what do you think?!?


Then as I continued to watch her eat....


It brought back memories...


From this I learned: There is NO wrong way to eat a peanut butter sandwich!!!

Snowmobile Fun!

Our neighbor's grandparents got them what is called a "Kitty Cat" an Arctic Cat snowmobile for little kids. George (our neighbor) was in the parking lot at the church with all the neighbor kids playing around with the snowmobile (he hooked a sled up to it). We saw and asked if Annika could come out and have a ride.

She absolutely LOVED it! She wasn't to happy about coming in but her cheeks were pretty red so it was time. :)

Here's a few pictures:

Getting ready for her first ride!

Away we go!

Waiting for another ride...it's cold.
Another ride before it was time to come in.

Loves to Read

Annika has been very into reading books lately. Not just having someone read them to her, but for her to read them to someone. Her favorite book is "Wocket in my Pocket" by Dr. Suess. David and I pretty much have the whole book memorized.

Here's a picture of her reading to her baby doll.

This morning when she woke up she decided she was going to read to Lincoln.

Helping Around the House

We have slowly given Annika more responsibility around the house. Two of her jobs is to empty the silverware from the dishwasher (after we take out the sharp knives of course) and feed the dog. She loves to help around the house (which I like also b/c it's less for me to do). :)

Pardon the missing shirt: She just helped me mix a cake and was very excited to lick the spatula and instead of having chocolate all over her shirt we let her get it all over her belly!



Feeding the puppy


And Just because:


I have to add this in as an after thought. As I sit here writing how helpful she is around the house...she is now sitting in the hallway messing around (i.e. counting the shoes in her shoe "rack") so she will not have to pick up her legos (that she dumped all over the hallway)....hmmm....of course she got the job done with a little help and supervision from daddy.

Found: Camera!

Well not really found I knew where it was the whole time. But I am glad to say I got it back. So now I can share a few Christmas pictures! :)



This is a picture of Annika in a dress that a lady from my home church made her. We have had this dress since Annika was born (almost) I have been waiting and trying it on her probably twice a month to see if it fits. I was sooo excited that it fit for Sunday! I absolutely love it and had many compliments on the dress! She was soo happy to wear the "preppy".
Of course I got her to smile tons, but not looking at the camera! But you can see the dress very well in this picture! :)

Adventures in Potty Learning

Yep you read it correctly and boy is it the truth (potty learning is an adventure). We've been working on it for a couple of days and Annika's been doing not so bad (my goal is to have her trained by the time the new baby comes). David went and got her a new potty chair (which she has learned to LOVE). She would sit on it all day long if we let her.

I have to say it's a little easier than I thought it would be to get excited about going in the potty! Probably because I want her to go more than she wants too (not sure if that makes sense or not)! :)
She's loving the "potty candy" (which are smarties) but if she keeps going as much we are going to have to move to something with less candy (especially since she has been going more in the evening and I'm not sure I want her that full of sugar). :)

I can't leave you with any pictures, because I left our camera in Hudson over Christmas. We are hoping to get it back soon so then I'll be able to post some.

Have a great evening (or day) whenever you read this! :)

The Fam

This year for Christmas we had it at our house. The only downer was that we found out after everyone came that our downstairs bathroom (just a toilet and shower that's connected to the laundry room) didn't work. How often have you seen tree roots break through PVC pipes....well I saw it for the first time and didn't even know it could happen (but found out it was a little more common than I thought)! :) But besides being down to one bathroom with 12 people (including Annika) it was fun....a little crammed...but fun!

On Saturday, December 20th David's cousin Joelle got married so we all headed down toward the cities for the wedding (it was beautiful). Here is a picture of all of us (mom and dad-in-law and all the kids and their spouses).

Note: You can click on the picture to make it larger (it might be a bit blurry I stole it from Kathryn's facebook)...Thanks Kat! :)

Geoff - Kathryn - Bryan - Dad (in-law) - Justin - Annika - David
Jenny - Benjamin - Mom (in-law) - Elizabeth - Me (Casey)

In case you are wondering...Jenny is married to Geoff (David's bro), Justin is married to Elizabeth (David's sister) the rest are siblings.

~(oh and no new pictures...I left my camera in Hudson...sorry)~