Due for a New Post

We are due for a new post, but we haven't taken any pictures of Andrew since Christmas. The month of January has flown by.
Andrew is fully recovered from his surgery. We are meeting with the doctor this week for his post-op appointment. He just has a small mark on his lower belly - he calls it his "ou-wee".
Last weekend we visited the community center's indoor pool/splash pad. We all had a blast. Andrew is ready to go back, so much so, that he's wearing his swimming suit today and saying "water, water".
We had a warm stretch of weather for 2 weeks in mid-January and it felt great! It was actually bearable to live in Minnesota in the winter time. It was well into the 30's for over a week and even hit 40 one day.
We've been off and on sick over the past month, with colds and most recently "pink eye", but all in all everyone is doing great.
Mom and Dad took a big step in their parenting development and found a great babysitter for Andrew. She lives down the block and Andrew has a bit of a toddler-crush on her. He's so excited when Angie comes to babysit. She came two weekends in a row, so Mom and Dad could get out and spend some time together.
Grandma and Grandpa R. came to visit this past weekend. We visited the Mall of America and did some shopping with them. They got to experience Andrew's large vocabulary which now includes "Grandma" and "Grandpa".
We are looking forward to our trip home for Easter. We'll post some new pictures soon.
Have a great week!

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.