Christmas in Hoffman

On Saturday morning we headed out for our Krusemark Christmas in Hoffman. We got eight more inches of snow on top of the already 18 that we received the two days before so this made driving really difficult. The roads were not good driving up to their house. We didn't see any pavement on the roads until we got past Morris which is about an hour away from Montevideo. I drove about 25 miles per hour the whole way there. On our way there Brad noticed that his wedding ring was missing. He thinks it fell off in the Wal-Mart parking lot when he was clearing off all of the snow on my car/windshield. So, now we will be looking for a new ring for him.

We arrived safe at grandma Deb & papa Jerry's house. We waited for Scott & Missy to arrive and then sat down for a turkey dinner. After dinner we opened gifts. Emmy loves her books and dolly/stroller. She walks around with them non stop. All of the grandkids received new jammies...Emmy has a little growing to do though. Her jammies don't quite fit yet.

Shelby, Madi Jo, Ellie & Maya

Ellie, Will, Papa Jerry, Shelby, Emmy, Grandma Deb, Madi Jo, Maya

Scott, Will, Missy & Ellie

Maya, Christy, Madi Jo, Shelby, Tony

Brad, Gina & Emmy

Jammie Time

Christmas With Grandma Linda

We spent Christmas Day with my mom at her house. She had the dining room table all filled up with goodies. It reminded me of all the times we used to go to Grandma Hazel's house and grandma had so much food on the table. Grandma would always say, "Oh it's just a little bit of this and that...not much."

My mom has steered away from a traditional Christmas dinner because my brother is such a picky eater. One year we ate hot dogs...this was a long time ago, but yes, we ate hot dogs and no it was not because we were poor or anything, that's just how picky my brother is. The year before the hot dog dinner my mom went to all the trouble of making a nice corn beef meal and we all wrinkled our nose. So she made a joke and said, "Next year we're eating hot dogs" and by God we ate hot dogs. So this year we ate tacos. However, she had lot of other food too...just like grandma. One can't ever have too much food.

After we ate our food, we all sat down to get ready for our annual scavenger hunt. My mom likes to hide our gifts around her house. She again did not make a master list, so when we're searching it gets a little difficult if we can't find it and she can't remember where she put it. However, we all found our gifts this year and my mom even found all of hers.

We got my mom a new wind chime that she can hang outside and annoy the neighbors with. We also got her a "grandkids" frame so she can put her favorite pictures inside.

Emmy got lots of cute gifts & books. We are excited to read to her...she LOVES books. My mom finds some of the most unique gifts.

One of my favorite gifts this year was so special. My mom found my Christmas stocking that my grandma Gort made. I have been searching for this stocking for almost ten years!!! When I opened it I cried! Now I just need to find someone who will make stockings for Brad, Emmy and the new baby.

Christmas With Grandpa Brad

With the nasty snowstorm that was coming our way, we decided to get a head start and get to Monte a day early. We arrived for our holiday festivities on Wednesday afternoon just as the snow was starting to come down pretty good. The roads were a little slick coming out. I didn't want to chance it so I kept my speed down and let everyone pass us. It took us a little longer, but we arrived safe. We stayed at my brother's house until Saturday morning. Our first Christmas celebration was with my dad on Christmas eve night. The weather was really bad and we received a lot of snow this day so a lot of Christmas Eve church services were cancelled. Salem's 5:00 service was still on so Brad, Emmy and I went to that. The weather was so bad even the pastor wasn't able to attend. However, it was still a nice service as always.
After church we headed back to my brother's house for our annual king crab dinner with my dad. It was so yummy!
After dinner we all sat down and exchanged gifts. We got my dad a new coffee pot that he wanted. Emmy and Tyler gave him a coffee mug and a container of his favorite coffee.
Emmy received so many cute gifts!! Grandpa Brad had trouble putting Emmy's new stroller together...he put it all together and then had two screws leftover and then had to take it apart again just to put the two missing screws where they belonged.
She loves her new table and chairs, tea set, monkey, stroller & baby.

Ear Infection...Again

Brad brought Emmy back in to the clinic yesterday morning to recheck her ears. She still has her ear infection in both ears although it isn't as bad. The doctor told Brad that we should talk to our regular Pediatrician about putting tubes in her ears at Emmy's 18 month check up which is in February. She's on more medication for another 10 days and then I suppose we will go back for another check up on her ears.
Brad said that she also got her H1N1 booster shot yesterday. She's starting to realize what the doctor/nurse is now and starts crying immediately. Brad said she did really well in the beginning of the appointment and even sat like a big girl on her chair. The doctor checked her over and then left the room. The nurse came in to give Emmy her shot and Emmy started crying right away when she saw the needle.

Growing & Itching

My belly is getting bigger and my whole body is itching. I'm currently 26 weeks along. I scratch all the time even though I have lotion on. The other day I was scratching my belly and Emmy said Ooh, Ooh, Ooh and started scratching under her armpits. She thought I was trying to act like a monkey. She's so darn funny!!!!!

I'm feeling fine most days. I tried to cut out my Zofran all together and only lasted a week. I just couldn't take throwing up every day. I figured it was best to stay on it and cut the pill down to a quarter of a pill a day rather than risk getting dehydrated again and lose weight. The doctor that I saw two weeks ago says that this should be fine.

Sunday evening I came down with a 24 hour bug. I woke up at midnight with a terrible stomach ache, but was able to go back to bed. I woke up again at 2:00 and got sick for the rest of the night/day. I'm not sure if it was some kind of food poisoning or just a bug. I was running a slight fever but nothing too high. I was out sick until 9:00 pm last night. I woke up this morning feeling 100% much better.

I'm usually sleeping fine at night. Sometimes I wake up on my back and realize I should turn to my side...other than that, that's the only thing that keeps me up. Unless Emmy wakes up during the middle of the night too...then I'm up. Brad has been really good about getting up with her and letting me sleep.

Our Christmas was very nice with our families and I'm planning on putting up some posts and pictures later this evening.

New Words

Emmy has learned some new words/sounds recently. She has been saying daaaaaaa deeeeee for a while now. It's really cute when she calls for daddy this way...her little voice gets so high when she says the "deeee" part.
She has also learned a couple of new animal sounds. She says "Bah" for sheep and when I ask her what a monkey says, she says "Oooh, Oooh, Oooh" and scratches with both hands under her armpits. This gets mommy & daddy to laugh all the time.
She now says bye bye as well and loves to wave and say Hi to herself in the mirror.

Lately she has been into everything and it seems like the terrible twos are coming a bit early...yikes!!!

We are getting excited to celebrate Christmas with her this year. She is excited about opening gifts - she has already opened one under the tree - it was a present that was not hers. So we've been busy trying to keep all of them away from her. For the most part, she leaves them alone. She's still more fascinated with the bulbs on the tree. She walks up to them and says "Ball."

Little Beauty

Brad had a full day with Emmy as I laid motionless on the couch. I have come down with a terrible cold. It's been about a week now and I thought it was getting better but then it settled in my chest. I had a doctor appointment downtown Mpls yesterday and the doctor said that I have a sinus infection as well. I've had a terrible cough and have been taking Robitussin DM. I would be feeling much better but I somehow have a huge kink in my neck and cannot move around a whole lot.
Brad had a big day with Emmy and as he was in the shower, she was playing and found some of my old eye shadow. Brad said that she grabbed one of my tampons and started to rub it into the eye shadow and then applied it to her face. :)

Triple Espresso - Round 2

Last year for Christmas we gave Brad's parents a gift certificate to see Triple Espresso. Well, we finally all went to see it last Saturday (almost a year later). I had already seen it with my mom, but thought Deb & Jerry would really enjoy seeing it too. I really didn't mind seeing it again. I knew what the skits were about, but I forgot about a few of them. We all had a really great time. Cousin Jen watched Emmy for us while we went to the show.

Emmy & Santa

Last Friday I took Emmy to the Mall of America to see Santa. She kept watching him as he would walk by us. Santa said he would walk around the corner for a bit so I put Emmy down on the little rocking chair that they had for the kids. They gave Emmy a book and then Santa snuck in behind her. She didn't even know he was there.
This place does a wonderful job! Santa does a great job with the kids! And...There are literally no lines!!!

All I Want For Christmas Is...

A vacuum. This is what Emmy put down on her list at daycare. She came home with a drawing which had a sticker of a vacuum on it. At the top it says, "All I want for x-mas is..." I think this is funny because she absolutely hates our vacuum at home. She cries at the top of her lungs when we vacuum the floor. She doesn't even like to walk by it when it's not running. So for her to want a vacuum for x-mas made me laugh.

Santa

Yesterday when I went to pick Emmy up at daycare, she walked over to one of Dar's holiday decorations, pointed at it and said, "Santa!" I was so excited and shocked. She must have picked it up from the night before when we went to Lowe's and saw the life size musical Santa. We brought her over by it but she didn't like it very much. We told her it was Santa, so she must have remembered. I think this is one of the bigger words she has said so far.
I hope she doesn't get scared of him when we go visit Santa tomorrow at the mall.

Time Out

Last night was our first try at "Time Out" with Emmy. She has been pulling the bulbs off of our Christmas tree. We only decorated about 3/4 of our tree. The bottom 1/4 is empty because we knew Emmy would get into them. I'm sure it looks goofy to people when they walk in and see a half decorated tree.

She is a little climber and gets on the couch and reaches for the higher bulbs. She has already broken three bulbs. We tell her no, but she doesn't listen. So, last night we put her in the corner and sat her on a little stool. She didn't take Brad seriously at all. She actually laughed at him...A LOT. I couldn't keep a straight face and had tears rolling down my face from laughing so hard. I know, I shouldn't laugh, but it was so hard not to while hearing her giggle at him. Brad couldn't keep a straight face either.

Emmy kept getting up from her stool. Each time she got up Brad said no to her and then brought her back to the corner. She wouldn't listen to him so I stepped in and became the enforcer. She stayed in the corner on her stool and cried the entire minute. I explained to her why she was in the corner. Brad said, "How do you get her to listen to you?" I told him that he was too much of a softy with her and she knows it. It's not like I am mean, I just use a tone in which she knows mama means no.

When her minute was up (one minute per age), I told her that she was able to get up and she stood up and gave me the biggest hug ever. She cuddled with me the rest of the night.

Most say to only use time out at an age when they understand what's going on. Emmy definitely knows what's going on and understands most things. She has caught on really quickly to everything. She understand what no means, but sometimes pushes our buttons to see how far she can get.

Fold Your Hands & Pray

Emmy has learned how to pray when we sit down to eat dinner.  The last couple of weeks she has been working on it and loves to pray.  She prays all the time now. 

She's also learned how to say "Hi."  She says hi and waves. 

Sick Little Girl

Emmy came down with a bad cough & high fever Thursday night.  We kept and eye on her all night and took her temperature a hundred times.  Well, probably not that much, but we did take it a lot.  She had a fever of 102.8 and a really bad cough.  I gave her some Tylenol every four hours.  She didn't sleep very well Thursday night and her breathing was really rapid.  Her fever kept going up and down all day.  I brought her into the doctor on Friday because I thought she might have symptoms of the H1N1.  She was really coughing hard, had rapid breathing, had diarrhea, was really zombie like and just wasn't herself.  The doctor checked her over and said that her breathing sounded normal.  I'm not sure how he could even hear it over her loud cries in the exam room.  He then checked her ears and made a really disgusted look and said her left ear was really bad and then looked into her right ear and said that one was even worse.  Here we go again.  I'm not sure if I can put her through this again.  Another winter of ear infections??  Great.  He wrote us a prescription for Omnicef which we are to give her once a day for ten days.  After two weeks we are to bring her back in to get her ears rechecked.  I think I'm going to make an appointment with her normal doctor to talk to her about tubes, etc.  I don't want her to get tubes, but I'm not sure what else to do at this point. 

Emmy's been such a cuddle bug lately.  She wants to cuddle with me all the time and I'm not complaining at all.  Now Brad knows how I feel.  She's such a daddy's girl all the time.  I told him to take a picture of her cuddling with me the other night. 

Relaxing Birthday

Brad picked me up from work on Tuesday to take me out for my birthday lunch.  We ate lunch at Pei Wei near my office.  We had a nice quick lunch and then headed back to work.  After work I picked up Emmy at daycare and then we dropped her off at our neighbor's house so that Brad could treat me to a spa pedicure.  He even joined in on the fun.  After our pedicures we went out to eat at TGI Friday's with our neighbors.  Brad gave me a nice card and some new Gucci perfume that I've been wanting for about five years.  I love it!  Oh...and last week he spoiled me so that I could get my hair colored and cut by Colie.  :)  Yeah!  I love my hubby!!

These are some pictures of us putting up our tree the other night. 

Hockel Christmas 2009

Here's a few pictures from our Christmas celebration with Brad's grandparents.  I didn't get many pictures.  These are very random.