January 13, 2013

Happy New Year! I have a pretty good excuse for the lag time in our post - our Mac crashed! We used our Mac to upload photos from our camera and to upload the blog, so we've been out of commission for a while. The saddest part of losing our Mac is that we lost all of our photos from April - September 2012. Before that they were backed up on an external hard drive, luckily. Lessons learned: 1. Back up photos on the external hard drive more regularly and 2. Upload photos to an online program - Patrick created a SmugMug account for us, so hopefully we'll be all set (at least for a couple of years until technology changes).

This post coming to you from our snazzy new computer with Windows 8, which will take some getting used to. We had a lovely, wonderful Christmas and couldn't have asked for better. Here is how we celebrated...

Charlotte loves Sunday School and church. She definitely makes sure Patrick and I get there if at all possible. The 3-year-olds were angels in the Christmas Pageant, and all of Charlotte's grandparents, Aunt Kelly, Uncle Tim Molly, and even our neighbors came to watch her. Here she is after her Christmas Pageant looking just a little excited:

 

The week before Christmas we stole a few extra days to celebrate the holidays by taking a little mid-week trip. Our first stop was to Duluth, and while Patrick attended a meeting online (super-dedicated U of M employee!) Charlotte and I enjoyed a peaceful lunch at Va Bene, an Italian Cafe, with a fantastic view of Lake Superior. That evening we visited Bentleyville with Grandma and Grandpa Russell. Charlotte slept during our first walk through the lights display, but conveniently woke up as we were leaving...so we walked through again.

  

We spent the night at the Edgewater Inn and Waterpark - Charlotte loved it! Our room was just around the corner from the water park, and there were hardly any other families there. I've heard it is much busier on the weekends, and we loved having the run of the place!

 

But wait, there is more! After a night in Duluth we drove south to Eau Claire to have dinner with Santa (and the whole Russell family - including Great Grandma and Grandpa!). Charlotte was not the least bit shy, dominating Frosty and Rudolph's time, giving Santa big hugs and high fives, and ringing bells with the carolers. Here she is with her favorite holiday friends:

 
 

After a couple days at work it was time for more vacation! We spent Christmas Eve in Eau Clare with the Russell's. Charlotte wore the jingle bell antlers as we opened gifts:

 

And even posted for a Santa Hat picture with Molly.

 

Charlotte woke up at home on Christmas morning and couldn't wait to try out the scooter from Grandpa Russell while wearing her snazzy Hello Kitty outfit from Grandma Russell.



Santa delivered on her wish for Baby Jaguar and Diego Rescue Pack. She was very excited.



So excited that she couldn't contain herself. Here she is jumping up and down with joy.



After opening gifts at home we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Distad's house. Charlotte demonstrated her now well-mastered gift opening skills, but was caught off guard when Grandpa and Grandma escorted her to the basement to pull a sheet off of her last gift. With Daddy's help she uncovered her very own Gator. She climbed on eagerly and jumped off just as eagerly after driving it into the wall. Come Summer 2013 Charlotte will be traveling around Grandma and Grandpa's yard at 2.5 mph. Little does she know there is the potential for work here - I have memories of picking up sticks in spring time...



Charlotte and I had restful Christmas week at my parent's house while Patrick returned to work. We enjoyed watching Brave, which Charlotte received for Christmas, approximately 5 times and playing games with Grandma and Grandpa.

We wrapped up our holiday celebrations with extended families and began 2013 feeling very blessed. As Charlotte opened her gifts I couldn't help but think of kids who do not receive any at all, an important reminder to teach Charlotte gratitude and compassion - in addition to the joy and love she felt a lot of this year.

We haven't taken any photos since Christmas Day! Patrick did upload a video recently of Charlotte's dance skills. She loves dancing, and does it whenever possible. Despite what Grandma and Grandpa Russell may comment (see previous blog post), Charlotte has excellent moves. Just last night she was break dancing during a dance contest at our neighbor girl's birthday party - so sad to have missed getting video of that!

Happy New Year!

January 2, 2012

Christmas Dance

November 25, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving! We have had a wonderful weekend and before I fully accept that tomorrow is Monday I'm going to post some pictures of what we've been up to lately.

On November 14 we got to babysit Patrick's niece, Molly, while Molly's mom and grandma attended an afternoon tea at the Arboretum. We were pleasantly surprised at how easy it can be to feed a baby. This Thanksgiving was Charlotte's first since she began eating and we are very thankful for this. Her favorite dishes this year? Pumpkin pie and cranberries.

The incredibly mild November weather has allowed us more time outside this fall than we had expected. Last weekend it was even warm enough that Charlotte rode her trike down our street. Patrick commented that this past spring her feet barely reached he pedals and now she rides with ease.

She has taught (trained) us that when she rings her bell it means we need to run. Whether she wants to chase us, thinks we're too slow, or just enjoys having some power we're not sure.

And now to the present - Thanksgiving Weekend! If you picked up the Star Tribune for the Black Friday ads (as I did) you may have noticed the cover story, Family Homecoming for Twins after 98 Days in 'Preemie Land'. Much of the article resonated with us, in particular the dad's statement, "People who don't have preemies probably never think about prematurity...and people who do never STOP." Even now that Charlotte is a happy, healthy 3-year old and the trips to the doctor are much fewer it is still something we think about frequently. Differently now though, as we are so grateful to have a 4-day weekend home with our active, happy toddler who breathes, eats, and poops on her own.

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family. Charlotte played hard all day, here she is dancing with some of her cousins (second, third?) to a dance video game. You may notice that the other three kids are following along to the game movements while Charlotte is rocking out in her own style. She fell asleep in the car on our way home at 5:15 p.m. and slept straight through until 8:20 a.m. Whew! What an exhausting day! Luckily we followed it by a relaxing morning at home before heading out to Aunt Kelly's house for a late lunch. It was great to see so much family this weekend.

Friday night we decided to brave the burst of cold weather by taking in the Holidazzle Parade with Grandma and Grandpa Russell. Grandpa Russell surprised Charlotte with a special Holidazzle wand, and it turned out to be quite helpful in keeping Charlotte entertained while we waited for the parade to start. Below are a couple of pre-parade family photo ops.

And with that, the Christmas holiday season has begun. Saturday we picked out our tree and went with a slightly shorter tree than last year. Last year we learned that trees look smaller on the tree lot than they do in our house. Our tree this year is still larger than what we were anticipating at 7.5 feet, but this time around we had no concerns about whether or not the star would fit on top.

Here is what happens when I tell Charlotte I want to take a picture of her with her Santa hat - she quickly pulls it off to hold it up to the camera for me. I was so, so close to getting a picture with it on her head.

And what a great evening decorating the tree. Charlotte put on one ornament before it was time for her to head to bed and Patrick made a special trip to Menards after I broke our tree topper. Charlotte has needed a couple reminders today that we can look at the ornaments but that they need to stay on the tree. Thank goodness we have many stuffed musical creatures from Grandma Russell that she can play with. Happy Holidays!

November 1, 2012

Fall is certainly here and we have been embracing the traditional fall activities.

We carved pumpkins with our friends, the Behlings. Pictured above are Charlotte and Brodan in front of the window clings they hung and beside the pumpkins carved by the adults. Patrick and I carved the pumpkins to the right.

Charlotte has been regularly asking to be held like a baby. Here she is snuggling with Patrick - too cute not to share!

Our Halloween festivities began at the Children's Museum Halloween Party. Charlotte went as a bumble bee and had a great time. She enjoyed all the usual museum activities made even more fun by being in costume plus fun treats and prizes throughout the museum.

Bumblebee or turtle? Who's to say?

This past weekend Charlotte and mom went to Aunt Kelly's for some halloween baking - spider webs and popcorn balls - and Charlotte got to help Aunt Kelly carve her pumpkin. "Help" is a generous description of Charlotte's contribution to this process - she lasted about the length of time it took to take this photo. She was a champ with the baking though - she diligently placed m&ms at the center of the spider webs.

Charlotte played with baby Molly for a bit! 

And then danced the Chicken Dance with Grandma Russell!

Once we got home Charlotte was anxious to try one of the spider webs. She definitely prefers salty to sweet - she ate all the pretzel and then left the middle part made of chocolate.

Charlotte is now old enough to enjoy dressing up in costume and understand kind of what is going on. Here are a few photos from Halloween.

Charlotte donned her bumble bee costume once again for school. Here she is before we left home.

And here is our tiger trudging up to the playground for our neighborhood costume parade followed by trick or treating.

Cutest tiger I know!

ROAR!

This was our first year trick-or-treating and Charlotte loved it. She was pretty excited to follow some of the older kids in our neighborhood around up to home doors and say "trick or treat" - luckily she tuckered out before filling up her bucket with candy. She was relieved when we finally left the group to head home and put on her PJs. Tonight she is cuddling with her tiger costume in bed. 

October 15, 2012!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

It seems like just yesterday we were at the Minnesota Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Distad, but no, that is only in blog land. The lack of blog posts has not been because we've been sitting around doing nothing. Rather, we have been go-go-go busy. Generally we post to our blog after Charlotte is in bed, but since the semester started that time has been used for work-related activities and trying to prevent our home from becoming a complete disaster area. During Charlotte's awake hours we have been having a blast!

Of course, in late August we took our annual trip to the Great Minnesota Get Together (the Minnesota State Fair).

This year was special because Charlotte was able to join in on the eating. She ate most of my favorite fair treat, the corn dog. I will admit, I was a little bummed to share. :)

We were also excited because the day we attended the fair was also the all of Charlotte's Grandparents were there! We saw Grandma and Grandpa Distad for a short while and spent much of the day with Grandma and Grandpa Russell. Above is a photo of Charlotte and Grandma Russell riding the carousel.

Charlotte's favorite part of the fair is the animals. Here she is up close and personal with a sheep. I wish I could remember the sheep's name...it may have been Dolly but more likely I'm confusing her with her famously cloned distant relative.

We spent about 9-10 hours at the fair and we were all exhausted by the end of the day. Biking seemed like a great idea in the morning, but the trip home was a rough one.

The next weekend we went to Como Town with our friends, the Behlings!

Charlotte and I were both very excited about the great weather and a fun day of riding rides!

Charlotte and Broden rode many rides, but this is my favorite photo. They each fit in one of the fire fighter boot molds.

And fall has arrived. We had to break out the warm PJs. We laughed when we realized that all of her footie PJs have holes in the legs where last winter we needed to thread her feeding tube. Oh well, they are still warm.

In September we went to the Renaissance Festival for Grandpa Russell's birthday. It was fun to spend the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Russell and Kelly and Tim. Kelly was 9 months pregnant and it may have been slightly less fun for her...

Charlotte rode and elephant! She wasn't interested until we walked away from the elephants and then the tears started flowing. Luckily Grandma and Grandpa Russell were willing to take her back and ride with her.

Welcome Baby Molly! We were very excited to meet Charlotte's first cousin, Molly Morrell on September 30th. Congrats to Kelly and Tim who seem to be loving being parents to this adorable baby girl.

Charlotte was excited to see her, but she was soon ready to go for a walk. In a few months Molly might be more fun to play with, but for now she is very fun to hold and snuggle.

Grandma and Grandpa Russell with baby Molly. They were up all night at the hospital while Kelly was in labor. Pretty dedicated grandparents!

And now we're caught up to October. Last weekend Charlotte once again ran the Toddler Trot at the Twin Cities Marathon Weekend Family Events. It was a windy, chilly day, and Charlotte tried to stay warm by bundling up and staying close to mom and dad. The two photos below are pre-race photos while we waited at the starting line.

And she's off...

She ran all by herself! I followed a few feet behind to make sure she didn't get scared, but she was very confident and ran the entire way by herself.

Here she is running by her fans: Dad, Grandmas and Grandpas Russell and Distad, and Kelly, Tim, and Molly Morrell. She may be destined for distance running - she paced herself rather than sprinted.

Sporting her new medal.

Check it out, Dad!

Here are a few random shots from the past week or so:

Our wonderful neighbors and landlords gave Charlotte some hand-me-downs this week. I love this coat and hat.

Charlotte now likes to brush her own hair. Soon she won't need our help getting ready in the morning at all! That is a little sad, but it is fun seeing her grow into such a self-sufficient little girl.

This past Saturday we spent at Grandma and Grandpa Distad's house. Charlotte loves being around dogs and here she is with Kira Bear.

We picked pumpkins out of Grandma and Grandpa Distad's gardent! Unfortunately it was rainy on Saturday, but Charlotte stayed clean and dry and enjoyed the pumpkins from the back of the truck.

Awwww...Lucy Lou and Charlotte watching the rain fall outside. I know Charlotte was wishing she could be outside playing with Lucy Lou and Kira Bear.

The rain let up in the afternoon and Charlotte finally agreed to take a 4-wheeler ride. She enjoyed the ride, but was ready to get off. Grandpa went very slow with Charlotte, thank goodness, and then drove away recklessly on his own. Someone needs to get that guy a helmet.