A little update

"Well" (followed by a big sigh) and "I got something to tell you" are just a couple of the sentences that frequent Alivia's conversations. Don't let the cuteness fool you, because she also has a mean side to her! She has started to be aggressive towards playmates and I can't help to think that we are in for it when her new sibling arrives. (It's a boy!)

A lot of redirection and pep talks are in order for this two year old.

I am making a point to keep her as busy and social as I can now that the cooler weather is upon us. I have her signed up for two classes this fall and they will go thru January, when her brother is born. One of the classes is an art and music class. Its meant to help us parents to provide the right tools and creativity for our children. I think Alivia will really enjoy this class! The other one is an age specific class where she will learn how to interact with kids her age including arts and crafts, music, dance, puzzles, and a ton of other creative things. The parents leave the kids with special teachers for part of the time in which we will discuss common complaints and share our advice on how to get through them. I am looking forward to this class.
We also have our weekly play group and I babysit one day a week as well. It should be pretty busy for us, just the way I like it.

Livie is currently into the Land Before Time movies and just got her first dinosaur toy, which she loves! I'm wondering if she will ever turn into a girly girl or if she will just end up like me and be a tom boy. Time will tell.

Summer is coming to an end...

Well, I have not updated this blog all summer! I guess that is because we have been super busy, especially the month of August and its not even over yet. We have anniversaries, birthdays, appointments, and Alan has a boundary waters camping trip planned for next week. Busy, busy, busy!

Today Alan and I celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary. I can truly say that the past 10 years that we have been together have been a major blessing to me and I am truly grateful to have such a loving, caring husband and a beautiful daughter.

This summer has also been filled with play dates and babysitting. Alivia has had a lot of friends to play with, but sometimes I think she would like more, only because she asks me almost everyday to play with a friend. Its a good thing that she will have a little brother or sister to keep her company in a few months!

Speaking of little brother or sister, Alan and I will hopefully find out the baby's gender on August 28th. We are very excited to learn what we are having, no matter the gender. It will be nice to put a gender to our day dreams and be able to start preparing for the new bundle of joy.


We have been trying to get to the pool as much as possible, but this abnormally cool summer has prevented that from happening often. When we do get to go, she enjoys it a lot! She keeps trying to talk me into letting her go down the 200+ foot tall waterslide... I think not! She is such a brave little girl!
We have not been able to make it to the Baertschi's lake house a whole lot with Alan's work schedule, but Alivia loves going on the boat and playing on the beach.
Liv has also learned to peddal on her trike, although she prefers it more when we push her.
Among the many things that she has picked up this summer, she has been able to carry on conversations with adults pretty well these days. She is quite the story teller and has to be the center of attention when in a group of adults. Alivia has been enjoying going on carnival rides now that she is tall enough. She surprised us when she insisted on going on the kiddie coaster. I have no idea what led me to think that it was a good idea to let a little 2 year old on a roller coaster, but I am all about making my spoiled girl happy. She really enjoyed it and has become a carnival ride junky at the ripe age of two.
Liv also got to enjoy the Fourth of July fireworks for the first time! It was way past her bedtime, but after the intial shock of how loud it was, I think she enjoyed herself.

I know I say it all the time, but she gets more and more fun as the days go by. I am so excited to see her interact with her new sibling, she is going to make a great big sister!

Birthdays, Drs appointments, and just plain fun

Alivia's birthday landed on a Monday, so we decided to have a special day just for her on her actual birthday. Alan, Alivia, and I all went to see the Clifford exhibit at the Children's Museum. Alivia got to see a huge Clifford statue and play in Cliffords neighborhood, along with all the other fun things at the museum. I am pretty sure her all time favorite is the water area. She can play in the water tables, make bubbles, and race boats down the ramps.


The following day we both had a Drs appointment. She had her two year check up and is checking in very good! She weighs 32 lbs and is 36 inches tall. Making her real close to the 95 percentile of both categories. The Dr was looking for 2 word sentences, but Alivia surprised her with 5 word sentences. She is definitley a talker!
My appointment was a rather long one, so we left Alivia with Grandma Sally. I had to get briefed on what I am in for as far as having a baby (as if I didn't already know everything they were telling me) and then I had a lot, and I mean A LOT of blood drawn for all the tests that they run when first becoming pregnant. After a long wait, I was also granted an ultrasound. The baby was one week further than what we had thought, which is nice for me! We got to see a little spec on the screen with a rapidly beating heart. Everything looks good, so far! As of today, I am 10 weeks pregnant and VERY happy to say that I have avoided morning sickness completley! I have no idea how I got so lucky! I tire easily, but I will take that anyday. My next appointment is on June 30th where we will get to hear the heartbeat over a doppler.

Later that week we had a party for Alivia's birthday. We invited close family and friends. We had planned on having it outside so we could play some yard games, but rain and 50 degree weather enticed us to stay inside! We ordered pizza and pasta and just hung out. It was a lot of fun!

We joined a play group that our friend has started. We meet every Friday for a couple hours to play with some good friends. We look forward to going every week. We also got a pool pass for the summer, but have yet to find a good day to go. We are hoping to go this Tuesday as long as the weather stays nice.

Other than that we have just been playing outside, seeing Grandparents, and having lots of fun!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a rather uneventful Memorial Day weekend, which is fine with me. We visited with grandparents and went to a bbq at my cousin's house.

We are in the daily countdown to Alivia's second birthday! I have not done much to prepare for it. A complete opposite attitude than last year! This year I just want spoil her. Alan, Alivia and I will be taking a trip to the Children's museum to see the "Clifford, the Big Red Dog" display. I just know she is going to love it! She will be showered with lots of hugs and kisses from mommy and daddy (nothing different there!) and we will let her know over and over that it is her special day. The following weekend we will be holding a medium size birthday party for her, but mainly for Alan and I. We need some adult interaction and with her only turning two, I am thinking this is the last time that we can get away with having it be an adult based gathering. I think the cake and ice cream will make up for it though :)

If you have not heard, Alivia is going to be a big sister! I am due at the end of January. We are really excited, but nervous at the same time!

Git er done

So I posted awhile back that I had plans to accomplish a lot of things in the coming months. So far I have finished painting Alivia's room, prepared my garden, did some much needed landscaping, and the rest is yet to come.

I didnt realize how big of a task most of these things were. Alivia's room took me a whole 8 months to finally finish, mainly because I was unsure of how I wanted to do the stripes. I just decided to wing it! I think it came out pretty great! I get a lot of compliments on it, I can tell Alivia likes it too!

The garden was a big pain in the booty to prepare! Luckily, I had my dad helping me otherwise I think I would have given up on it. The food prices these days has gotten me motivated to grow my own veggies and do it all organically. The only problem is, I dont have the slightest clue as to what I am doing! I may not even end up with a veggie garden this year. I have a feeling it will be trial and error. How else will I learn though? I am preparing to plant the seeds now that (I think) it will stay above freezing from here on out... at least I hope so, it's almost June for goodness sake! I have sugar snap peas, green beans, carrots, onions, broccoli, tomatoes, and my dad is growing red and white radishes. Sweet!

We are trying so desperatley to get rid of the weeds in our yard. Seems like our yard is the only one with a dandelion problem. I cant help to think that its because the previous owners just let it go for way too long. I bet it will take years before we get our lush green grass! At least we have grass this year! Last year it was all dead and you could not even walk in the yard without shoes on. So, we layed some weed and feed, are keeping up with the mowing, and will be plating grass seed in the spots that need it. Now only if I could get rid of that pesky gopher that has taken post in our yard! We have tried poisoning him, but he is still around. Cute lil bugger, but I want him gone. I finally got around to planting some flowers around the mailbox. I like it, it looks so much better than what it was. Next, I have to finish digging a trench around the trees that are along the road so I can lay some plastic, edging, and some mulch. Once I get that done (and my garden) then I think I will be satisfied for now... until fall.

The happy and the sad

The sad: After 8 years of having our ferret, Mo, we decided it was time to let her go. She had a tumor on her front leg that was an open sore and not healing. We decided to not have the surgery to remove it, because it would have cost us hundreds of dollars with no guarantee that the tumor wouldn't come back. Given her age (most ferrets only live 4-6 years) we thought putting her down was the best we could do for her. It will be weird not having her around, but it was time.

The happy: Alan, Alivia, and I will be welcoming a new member to the family (the human kind) at the end of January! It's still pretty early on, but I am too excited to not tell anyone. I am 4 weeks pregnant, only 36 more to go! Please be in prayer for a healthy pregnancy and baby. Thanks!

Happenings

We have been keeping pretty busy, hence me not blogging as often. The weather is finally starting to get nicer and the green grass is very appealing! We have flowers budding on our plum tree and the leaves on the other trees are trying to pop out!


Alivia is now counting to 9 and saying most of her ABC's. Her favorite song to sing is "Twinkle, Twinkle." She is pretty much the most adorable little girl I have ever seen.




Alivia has been diagnosed with asthma, so now she has to be on a nebulizer machine. She seems to be doing well with having to take her "steam" and has yet to fight us on it, which is a different story from two weeks ago.

I will be starting her second birthday party plans soon! Oh where has the time gone?

Denver!

Alivia and I (Kandace) took a one week vacation to good ole Denver, CO. We had the pleasure of staying with our friends, Brian, Kassie and Addie.

They were (and always are) very generous to us and we greatly appreciate it! (Thanks, Mercer's!) It was so much fun watching Liv and Addie play and communicate with one another. It's amazing that they know what they are saying to each other, like they have their own language.


We did a lot of fun things including swimming...


Hanging out with Tara...




















Going to Red Rocks with Anne, Jr, and Anne's friend and son....




Meeting up for some dinner with Kim, Dylan, and Carson...



Watching the annual March blizzard...


Hanging out, because Liv was sick...


The Children's Museum with April, Ethan, and the Mercer's...







We were also able to see "Uncle Sean" for a few minutes before he ran off to a soccer game...


Enjoying the day with Tara and Dylan at the aquarium...





A lovely chat with our old friend, John...



and then a delayed flight that led to a missed flight due to me being taken to the hospital via ambulance. I am ok, just was a little faint and needed an IV to get me back on my feet. We ended up staying an extra night in Denver, because we had missed the last flight out for the night. Bummer.

I was happy to get home to my own bed, without Alivia hogging all of my space!



I also enjoyed catching up with some friends at our former church called Scum of the Earth and our good friend and former pastor, Nate and his family, of Anoka Covenant.

All in all, we had a great time! Alivia and Addie seemed to enjoy their time together.





Livie also loved Polly the pug whom she refered to as "Pollys"

Our weekend

Our weekend started off kind of rocky. (Friday the 13th) We had plans to go to the Water Park of America with our friends, Anne, Jayson and their son Jayson Jr. We packed up the car and headed out. We get to Brooklyn Park (about 20 minutes from home) and Alan's car stalled at a red light.. in rush hour.. on a highway. NOT FUN. After trying to start it and praying that no one hits us, we decided to call AAA. We are in the process of getting a tow truck confirmed when all of a sudden, it started! Praise the Lord! We had our friends on their way to meet us somewhere, so they could follow us just in case. Thankfully, we had no more problems after putting in some fuel injector cleaner. We are on our way to the water park, already an hour late at this time... we miss our exit. Crap. We try to turn around, but end up on a different highway. We turn on the GPS (should have done that in the first place!) and we were then able to find it after taking another wrong turn due to not trusting Eugene (our GPS). We pull into the parking lot to find ZERO parking spots available. No hopes of one opening up anytime either. Alan dropped Alivia and I off at the door and went searching for another place to park. All of which were private property parking only, Alan decided to risk it. We finally get into the water park.. it was amazing! All of our worries and bad feelings disappeared. I was like a kid in a candy store. Anne and I unloaded the kids to the daddies and we went off to explore!

They had tube slides, body slides, a lazy river, a raft ride, surf simulator, wave pool, sports pool, 2 huge hot tubs, and a rather large kiddy play area where Livie had a field day! She loved going down the water slides that were just her size. The night ended without problems. A great way to unwind from our frustrations and I can't wait to go back.

Saturday we just hung out and did some shopping at Target followed by some cheesburgers and potatoes off the grill courtesy of my mom.

Sunday morning we woke up and went to church. It was a beautiful day! I was working in the nursery, so I got to play with Alivia a lot. We had a slient auction in which I bid on some pretty cool things. Well, I think they are cool and it goes to a good cause.. the Anoka Covenant Youth Group. I got a Shark steam mop for $30.00 and 2 passes to Bunker Beach for $10. I am pretty excited! To make the day even better, Livie and I came home and had a wonderful 3 hour nap. The day could not have been any better after that!

Wii Fit

The Wii Fit never fails to make me feel like a horrible person! I don't suppose anyone told it that I don't respond well to criticism, even if it is constructive! "Kandace, it's been 30 days since you have last exercised (you lazy bum)" or how about "Kandace, you should really consider laying off the afternoon snacks" or even "Kandace, you have gained 2 pounds, way to not stick to your goal of losing weight!"

Yep, I fail.

I did however enjoy racing Alan today while running in place and I got to watch my brother do the hula hoop. Something that no sister should ever see. Ever. (I have video! Heehee)

I can see where the Wii Fit is coming from though. Good thing it doesn't have eyes, otherwise it would have seen me run to get a brownie right after working out! See, I fail.

Old Man Winter

I am starting to despise the cold here in Minnesota. It seems like the winters go on and on and on and well, you get the idea.

Alivia and I are getting pretty antsy, we can't wait to get outside of the house to play! Being cooped up since October is no fun for a mommy and a toddler. I dream of warm sun, a slightly cool breeze, the sound of the ice cream truck rounding the corner and watching Alivia splash around in her pool or making some mean mud pies in her sandbox.

It should be illegal to be this cold. I'm serious.

I woke up this morning to my house sounding like it was going to collapse with the next big gust of wind that was slamming us. I also woke up to it only being 64 degrees in the house! Not the best motivation for getting out of a warm bed, but baby was calling. I attempted to turn the heat up, but it was already on and blowing out COLD air! No idea how that works when it's set to be on heat. So, I busted out the space heaters and snuggled with Alivia on the couch with some cozy blankets. The heat eventually kicked on after our hot shower.

Random thought: Do you know what I hate? When I am comfortable on the couch and my phone rings- it's all the way downstairs. Leave a message, I will get back to you when I am done being lazy!

Ok, back to my post. There are a lot of things that I would like to learn how to do around the house. I think I will document my trial and errors so you all can laugh at me and be glad that you are not me.

I am going to start with painting stripes on Alivia's wall. I haven't quite figured out the easiest way to do it, but I am sure it will all work out in the end. I would also like to finally finish decorating her room. It would be nice to have ONE room finished in this house of ours. Pictures to come...