Sesame Street Live

Lydia had a date with Oma & Opa on Saturday, while Phil & I had a date with Henry for Sesame Street Live at the Target Center!  We got to have lunch and take pictures with Cookie Monster and Elmo at a meet & greet event, then enjoyed the show afterwards.  Henry was so excited, gee, can ya tell?!  He had a good question after this photo - "Why didn't they talk to me?"  Um, um, I said they were saving their voices for all the singing they had to do at the show!   

He had to stop and play some D-fence against the T-Wolves before we left the Target Center :)

Pinky

Henry's preschool class has a special friend named Pinky - he's a pink flamingo.  Every weekend (or in our case, 2 weeks because of all the school cancellations we've been having), somebody gets to take Pinky home, and then he goes back to school the following week with a scrapbook page full of his adventures while at our house.  Henry's been talking about Pinky for months now - and the time has finally come.  Wow, Henry was PUMPED when I picked him up from school and he was carrying Pinky's suitcase.

First things first, he wanted to play Duplos.  Henry has been crazy about spelling lately.  He wants to know how to spell everything, so naturally he wanted to spell Pinky's name right away!  

Phil and Henry (and Pinky) got to get out on the lake to do some skating when we were actually having a warmer day out there (in between these frigid-bitter-freezing-cold days we've been having).  

Pinky joined us for Henry's Snowflake Dance at his preschool.  Didn't I have such a handsome date for the dance?!  Henry was kind of in awe at the dance, checking out what everybody else was doing, not really knowing what to expect, I guess?  I went up to dance with him at one point and he pushed me away and said, "Mommy, I don't need any help dancing.  I know how!"  Am I already embarrassing him in front of his buddies?  

Pinky couldn't miss out on our first trip to the new Buffalo Wild Wings that recently went up here in Blaine.  They even have "iPads" (as Henry called them) to play games while you wait for your wings, fabulous!

Pinky watched us make Valentine's Day cookies one day.  Henry does love a good baking project, especially one that involves frosting and sprinkles :)

For Pinky's final adventure, he got to come to Sesame Street Live with us this past weekend.

Well, Pinky, it's been real.  Time for a bath and time to move on to the next house :)

Baptism

Lydia was baptized this past Sunday by Deacon Tom Konkel at our church, St. Joseph of the Lakes Catholic Church, in Lino Lakes.  It was held after mass with 5 other families also getting their children baptized.  She was quiet and content as the holy water was being poured over her head.  As soon as the Deacon finished his "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.....Amen" she let out a big smile - very cute!

She wore my baptismal gown from 32 years ago, complete with some pink slippers that used to be mine (and/or my sisters?) as well.  I had to jazz up the gown somehow, right?!

Here is her Godmother, auntie Sarah, lighting her candle for her.  Her Godfather, uncle Matthias, was with us in spirit all the way over in Switzerland :) 

Grandma & Grandpa Olin

Oma & Opa with their 4 grandchildren - Henry (3 1/2 years), Lydia (3 months), Gabriel (5 months), Greta (3 1/2 years)

After church, we had our families over to our house for lunch.  Sonja gave me the idea of ordering the cupcakes from Nadia's Cakes, and they didn't disappoint!

Of course, these two crazy kids had a blast playing with each other :)

It was a beautiful day outside, sunny and 35*.  I'm so happy I'll have nice memories of this special day! 

3 months

Here are a few things I want to remember some day.....
That sweet, big brother Henry asked me one night when I was giving her a bath, "Mommy, why are her eyes blue?"  I told him that God wanted her to have blue eyes so that's what he gave her.  Then he told me, "God did a really nice job painting them for her - they're so pretty!"

I just heard her first laugh a few days ago - too stinkin cute!  I was over-exaggerating my laugh and she was trying to copy me. 

She can roll over from front to back.  Sleeping anywhere from 6-11 hours at a stretch at night.  Eating 5-7 times/day.  I've pretty much put away most of her size 3 month clothing, now onto 3-6 month and 6 month clothing.   

She has found her hand/fist/fingers and they're in her mouth a lot.  Let the drooling begin!  Henry says, "Mommy, she's dripping again."  Ha!

Hailey

That's what he named her!  When he asked me for a scarf and hat, that's all I could find on such short notice.  It was a beautiful couple of days this past weekend, nice enough for everybody to get outside and play!  Unfortunately, it's so windy out there today that our hat blew away.  Henry was not happy and said that Hailey would be too cold without her hat.  I told him another lucky snowman/woman will be nice and warm tonight with his/her new hat - and he was ok with that.

Not sure if she fell asleep or if the sun was just too bright out there for her to open her eyes.  Either way, she got to get outside for a sled ride too!

preschool

No school today!  Henry was truly sad when I told him that school was cancelled today because of the cold weather.  The boy loves school!  It really is fun to see his excitement in the morning when I tell him, "it's a school day today!"  "I wonder what the letter of the day is going to be today - I wonder what we're going to have for snack - I'm so excited!"  Here's his school picture for the year.  Oh, I love that little face :)

Happy New Year

We had one crazy New Year's Eve (note the sarcasm here) again this year!  It was perfect - we got together with great friends, the kiddos ran around and played hard, we had dinner, everybody toasted the new year at about 7:30pm, and we were home in bed by 10:00pm!  Not sure when the last time was that we actually stayed up to see the clock strike midnight, and that's just fine with me :)

The Budija's invited us over to their house, along with the Eicher's for the evening.  Here's the crazy bunch - Joe, Jack, Will, Natalie, Henry, and Lydia.  

Cheers!  

And here's Miss Lydia, sleeping the night away, pink party hat and all!