Welcome Annabelle!

Annabelle Marie arrived on Monday December 13th at 5:31 am. She weighed 7 lbs even and is 20.5 inches long.

Andrew, Mommy & Annabelle getting ready to go home soon.
(not a random picture, but part of the story)...

So in case you're living in a cave, we got a record snow fall on Saturday. This picture was taken Saturday. Ironically, we traded in the Saturn Vue on Saturday (yes, the vehicle with 4 wheel drive) and I got a new Chevy Malibu. I prayed all day Saturday that I wouldn't go into labor since the major of the city streets couldn't get plowed until Sunday. Chaska's snow fall was 21 inches. Ugh! I went into labor on Sunday afternoon, we checked into the hospital at 11pm on Sunday and Annabelle was here at 5:31 Monday morning.
Andrew is completely in love with his new little sister. All of our lives center around her. He can't wait to get home from preschool everyday and see her. He always wants to know what she's doing and what all of her noises mean. He stood up in front of his class yesterday and told everyone all about her. We were even invited to bring her in for show and tell.
Here's Daddy and Annabelle just moments after her arrival.

Snow-nami!!!

Winter has officially kicked off in Minnesota. We enjoyed temps in the 70's last week and yesterday we got dumped with almost a foot of snow. Andrew loves the snow so he is happy to see it here. Of course it speeds along the whole "the baby is coming" timeframe for him. Maybe we didn't think this through enough. In April when we told him a baby was coming we thought by telling him he had to wait until Christmas and wintertime would make sense for him, but now the snow is here and there are Christmas trees in every store, but no baby yet. Andrew will have to be patient for 6 more weeks. The doctor put the timeframe back on track with the due date of December 28th. Of course, we think the baby has other plans, considering the daily contractions. It probably just doesn't want to miss out on Christmas!

Wish we could share some of our snow with you! Enjoy the picture!

Happy Halloween

As usual we had a blast at Halloween. We did our annual trip to the Chaska Community Center for their Halloween Festival. Andrew's favorite part of the trip is getting up on stage with the other kids and dancing the night away.
This year Mommy had to skip trick or treating, but Daddy got really into it and dressed up as a bunch of grapes. All of the neighborhood kids loved it. Here's the grapes and Buzz Lightyear (aka Andrew). Andrew was very excited to dress up as Buzz. It was pretty funny when we picked it out cause Andrew had never seen the Toy Story movie, but definately wanted to be Buzz. We later got the movie so he would know who he was dressing up as.

Here's the gang - Dan, Bella, Dave, Andrew and Melina. The trick or treatin' crew. They definately cleaned house. Andrew came home with a bucket filled with treats. We'll be eating candy until Christmas, at least!

Andrew is eagarly awaiting baby's arrival. At my last doctor's appointment, baby was measuring 3 weeks ahead of schedule. We'll find out more at next week's appointment. We'll fill you in then! Have a good one!!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Andrew's birthday was more than just a day of celebration, it was closer to a week! Grandma and Grandpa R. came into town on Wednesday and we had a mini-party on Thursday, with cup cakes and family presents. We took the day off work and preschool on Friday and went to the pumpkin patch. Andrew picks out his pumpkins similar to how a person would test the air in a tire. A good kick or two and you know it's good.
Last weekend we went to the open house at the Chaska Fire Station. Andrew had a blast! We all got to go for a ride on a fire truck. They even honked the horn at Andrew's request. Later in the afternoon a helicopter landed in the nearby field. I think the parents were more entertained by that than the kids.

Back to birthday week... On Saturday we had a birthday party for Mr. Andrew. Lots of friends and family came.

The theme of the party was "Dora" at Andrew's request. Thankfully they make an orange and green Dora cake.

Here's Melina, Andrew and Tyler enjoying the cake.

We had so much fun and Andrew was completely exhausted by the end of the day. He even told me "Mommy, my birthday is over" (and I sensed a little relief in his voice).

Andrew is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his new baby brother or sister. We are coming up on the 30 week mark of my pregnancy. Not too long now. Andrew's story is now "we have to get a Christmas tree and then the baby will come." He associates the baby with Christmas. I think he thinks the baby is going to come out of Mommy walking and talking and ready to play with him.

We are all looking forward to spending the holidays in Minnesota and having a quiet couple of months before baby. As always we welcome visitors!!!

State Fair

We went to the State Fair over Labor Day weekend. We were fortunate that the day we picked to go had highs in the 70's, so the weather was absolutely perfect. Unfortunately about 300,000 other people decided to go that day, so it was pretty crowded. One of the biggest draws is the Birthing Center with all the baby animals. Andrew got to pet a baby pig and a baby lamb. So cute. Mommy got scared out of the Birthing Center when they announced a pig was ready to deliver and the word "placenta" was thrown out. It's a little to early to hear words like that. ahhh! Daddy's favorite fair food was "Big Fat Bacon on a stick". Mommy loves the mini-donuts. And Andrew loves the "Potato Chip Mountain" (not sure if that's the official name, but that's definately what it looks like). It's in the bottom left corner of this picture.
We stopped to say Hi to a friend that was working at the fair and Andrew and Jacob got to run around and play on the trucks. They loved the snow plow the most. We spent a good 1/2 hour watching them run underneath it.

Silly boys!

Here's a picture from our trip to "Touch a Truck". Our city puts on an event every year where they bring out all the city vehicles and let the kids play on them. I couldn't tell you which one was Andrew's favorite. He seemed to love them all. Here he is in the police car, feet up on the wheel.

Enjoy!!