Surgery

We found out two weeks ago that Andrew has a hydrocele hernia and it needed to be repaired. The cause of it was most likely a tube that didn't seal before he was born. We went to Children's Hospital of Minneapolis today (the best kids hospital in the state). It was an outpatient surgery. It lasted about 25 minutes and Andrew did amazing. Here's a picture of our little patient. He had to go under General Anesthesia which was harder on Mom and Dad than it was on Andrew. He is back at home this evening and watching "Cars". The doctors and nurses at Children's were great and made the whole process very easy on all of us. Here are some pictures from the past few days. We got about a foot of snow in MN while we were in Green Bay for Christmas. It was a nice surprise to come home to. Thankfully we have a neighbor that shoveled for us, so we didn't have to deal with it when we got home.

Andrew loves the snow. Dad spent last Saturday pulling him around in the sled.
And Andrew spent some time pulling the sled around too (of course he doesn't call it a sled, he calls it a boat - we're not sure why).

He's just like his Dad, he doesn't get cold easily. They were outside for quite a while that day. Mom is such a whimp, she doesn't last more than a minute outside.

Here's a quick picture we took last week. It would have made a great Christmas card, but we didn't have enough time to get it developed, so you'll just have to enjoy it via the website. We were hoping to get New Years Cards out to everyone, but with the surgery this week, that doesn't look like it's going to happen. You all know we wish you a Happy New Year!

Have a great start to 2010!!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!
We spent yesterday afternoon frosting cookies. Andrew even helped a little. Who else was going to lick the beaters clean? Must be yummy frosting! I don't think our dishwasher even gets them that clean.

"Santa" came to our house early this year, since we have to travel for the holidays. He got lots of new books and pajamas. Here is one set of jammies.

A couple weeks back we got Andrew a potty chair. He doesn't have much of an interest in it yet, but he sure is proud of it. He brought the whole roll of toilet paper down stairs so he would have it, just in case. Unfortunately he didn't leave the toilet paper on the roll.

Andrew got a Kidz Jam keyboard from Santa with lots of buttons to make music. Here he is opening the Kidz Jam.

And here he is very proud on his new potty. (don't you love the socks?)

Have a Merry Christmas! Sorry we haven't sent Christmas cards to everyone yet. We've been so busy the last couple weeks, so we're going to try to send a New Years card.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!

We have been super busy over the past month and this upcoming month will keep us even busier. We had the Raisanen's out for a visit a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. It gave Andrew and Nikolas some "Quality Time" together.

Thanksgiving at the Raisanens.
Nikolas and Andrew - hanging out.

Nikolas.

Here is that "Quality Time" I referenced. Nikolas just wanted a hug, but for once Andrew didn't want to receive a hug. There is another picture of Andrew crawling away and Nikolas still hanging on.

While Nikolas was in town we visited the Children's Museum in St. Paul. There was sooooo much there for the boys to do. Amazing. They both enjoyed the ant tunnels the best. An entire room was transformed into tunnels big enough for kids and adults to crawl through (I would know, I did most the chasing the boys through the tunnels - my knees are still hurting - j/k).

Since we are only a couple weeks from Christams, and I usually only post once a month, I might as well say it now.... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Andrew and Mommy dressed up as the scariest thing they could think of..... LIONS!!!! We disagreed on which types of Lions were the scariest though. Here's Andrew's scary lion costume... (he's more cute the scary)....

and here's Mommy's scary costume!!!! Ahhhhhhh... Detriot Lions!!!

(don't ask what Daddy's dressed as... we still aren't sure - He has on a long blond wig, a red Packers hat and big black glasses - he says he's Mommy, but really, does that look like Mommy?)

Pumpkin carving!!! Andrew just enjoyed making a mess all over the kitchen floor.

First Day / ROAR!!!!

(There are 3 new posts tonight - check them out).
Like I said before, the switch to new day is very bittersweet. While we know Andrew is ready to move on and learn new things, meet new people and have new experiences, we miss Linda and the kids terribly. The first few days of new day care were very difficult for mom, dad and Andrew. However we are happy to report that he has been there for 8 days now and he is back in his routine and having a blast. He doesn't want to leave when Mom picks up and he's off to play as soon as Dad drops off. New day care has helped to provide us with beautiful art work to cover up our refrigerator. We have a ghost that resembles Andrew's foot, a spider that looks like Andrew's hands, another ghost made of cotton balls, a glittery leaf and spider web. Here is a picture of Andrew on his first day. Such a big boy! This past weekend we went to "Halloween Live" at the Chaska Community Center. It was a Halloween party for the kids. Here is a sneak peek at Andrew's Halloween costume. Look at that cute tail!

We decided on the Lion costume due to Andrew's love of saying "ROAR". Daddy taught him that. Whenever he sees a lion (Detroit Lions included) he says "ROAR". Mommy isn't so happy about what Daddy taught Andrew to say when he sees a Packer.

So anyways - we had a lot of fun at Halloween Live. We watched some kids play some games, we made a Halloween cookie, chatted with our friends Isabella and Milena (and Dan & Suzie) and then came the dancing! They had a stage set up with lights and a DJ for the kids. Picture this, tons of toddlers, awkward looking parents and really loud children's music. The kids were dancing like crazy and Andrew was right there with them. It was so much fun to watch him watch the other kids and then dance a little bit. One little girl tried to take his hand to dance and Andrew just shook his head no and backed away from her. So cute!!

We are carving pumpkins tomorrow and Trick or Treatin on Saturday. We'll take more picture then!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Pumpkins and Corn?!

The weekend of Andrew's birthday we visited the Severs Corn Maze. One area of the event has a giant "Corn Pit". At first Andrew was scared of it, but after a couple minutes he couldn't get enough of it. Who can blame him, it's a huge pit filled with corn kernals. So much fun, however we found corn is places you shouldn't find corn (if you catch my drift).

Grandma and Grandpa R came to town to celebrate Andrew's birthday. We visited the pumpkin patch while they were here. Within minutes of arriving to the patch, Andrew found his pumpkin. It was about 4 inches big and he carried it around the whole place. So cute!

We ended up finding lots of good ones. Daddy will be busy carving all of those.

Happy Birthday & Graduation!

(Graduation outing - sorry out of order - read below)We celebrated Andrew's 2nd Birthday on Wednesday Oct 14th. Our baby is growing up! Here he is at 7am on his birthday opening his presents from Mom & Dad. He got new Car shoes and a new "Tow-mater" car. Turning 2 is very bittersweet for us. While we get to celebrate Andrew's birthday, it is also time to say goodbye to Linda's daycare and move on to big-kid day care. Here are a couple pictures from Andrew's graduation outing.

(Andrew and Madison)

Here are the new shoes. They are the "light" of Andrew's life. I suppose it helps that they light up and have Cars on them.

See next post for more pictures....

Been Busy - but that's no excuse

Here's some pictures of funny Andrew around the house and our trip to the MN State Fair.
Hanging out with Jacob and Duncan.

Silly Drew! He found some old glasses of Mommy's and wore them aroung the house for a while.

Daddy at the State Fair enjoying bacon on a stick!

We'll post some more pics again soon. Until then! :)

End of Summer.

These first 3 pictures sum up my favorite part of summer.... STRAWBERRIES! Yummy!
Either by luck or Mommy's excellent gardening skills we ended up with two harvests of strawberries this season. One in June, like everyone else, and a extra large batch right now. We have so many I hope I can enjoy them all. I stand next to the garden every day and peek in to see if any more are ready. Sometime I eat the whole strawberry, stem and all. As you can see below, I love them!!!

For 7 days in August our town, Chaska, hosted the 91st Championship PGA. It was quite the big deal. Lots of golfers, volunteers and grandparents came to town. Grandma and Grandpa Raisanen were here for 8 days to enjoy the event. Grandma and Grandpa Wilson came to town for a few days as well. Each day someone was heading over there. I'm still not sure what the big fuss was about, watching old people play golf?? If you want to see a good golf game, you should check out mine. I'm awesome. Course I love pushing my bag around the most. Here's the best picture Daddy took. (That's Tiger's butt in case you don't recognize it).

My rocking horse is finally short enough for me to get on it all by myself. I ride it every day and say "weeeeee" each time. So much fun. The picture below is of my Mommy's horse when she was a kid. I have another horse down stairs that mine. Aren't I spoiled??

As explained in previous posts, I can say the word "shoes". Every day I say, "Momma Shoes", "Da Shoes". I just love trying on everyone's shoes. Please come visit our house, so I can try on your shoes.

Mommy likes this picture. For the longest time Mommy and Daddy couldn't figure out who I looked like most. But this picture clearly shows who I resemble most.

Welp, that's all I've got for now. Enjoy the pictures. I am heading to the State Fair next weekend with my buddy Jake. I'm looking forward to some Deep Fried Oreos and Chocolate Covered Bacon on a Stick. Yum, Yum!

Boy, we have been busy! July just flew by. Last time we posted we had just set up our fish tank. The fish tank has been in full swing for the past 4 weeks. A week ago we added two fish as our "tester" fish. Guinea is blue with a yellow tail and Pig has a blue head and white-ish body and tail. Hopefully you can connect the dots with the name choices. :) We recently added the two clown fish. We have yet to name them and welcome any suggestions. Andrew and Koko love the tank. Much time is spent just staring into it. (sorry about the flash in the photo).

Andrew loves shoes. All kinds. He loves pointing out everyone's shoes. He loves putting on his shoes, cause that means we're going outside. The typically outside routine is... 1) Put on Andrew's shoes, 2) Andrew finds Mommy's shoes and makes her put them on, 3) Andrew finds Daddy's shoes and makes him put them on, 4) go outside and have fun.

Well, now we love to put on Mommy's shoes and walk around the house. It's especially fun to wear the ones with heels. It's a little difficult to walk in those, but it's funny to watch him try.

And here's what we do when we get outside. Go to Andrew's park. We call it Andrew's park because all the equipment and swings are toddler size, so we are typically the only people there. He just loves the swings. At day care Linda has lots of toys in her backyard, but Andrew is content with just swinging all afternoon. If you ask him if he wants to get down, you hear a big "NO"!!!

Swinging with Daddy. He always laughs when someone swings with him. The higher the better!

More fun at the park!

We have another busy month ahead of us. The PGA Championship is coming to Chaska next week and with it both sets of Grandparents. We will have a busy house for a week, but Andrew will love all the attention and Mom and Dad will love all the extra help.