Daddy-Love

 

This past weekend Justin and I spent a night in Stillwater, kid-free....well, kinda- as kid-free as possible. I suppose technically, little man was still with us. :) We shopped, dined, and stayed at the historic Lowell Inn. The best part for me was talking to Justin. Like actually sitting face-to-face with no interruptions talking to him.

Every anniversary we each make a goal for the next year. My goal for our relationship this past year was to pay more attention to Justin. (Although Hannah never "replaced" Justin, there were times over her birth year when the poor man was feeling neglected. Oops.) But I created a goal, worked on it and fixed that little problem! This year Justin and I created a goal together:

 

Make sure (that with two kids) to still make time for US.

 

It may be a little harder (and more stress on the grandparents!) but it is so important to us to get away, even if it is just dinner.

 

So back to why I posted the photo above for this blog post.

Well because, in all of our talking Justin informed me that he wants to start a new tradition with the kids. Just him and each child- no mama. He said that starting next summer with Hannah (when the kids are three years old) he wants each child to have a special "Daddy-Day" on the calendar. Their own day just to have their daddy all to themselves. A day where he takes off of work in the summer and spends his time doing all sorts of special things with just one child.

 

I know that Hannah and her brother are going to feel so special on their "Daddy-Day" and they should, because they have one pretty rad dad.

 

 

 

 

What If....

...Hannah was raised by Justin and his best friend Jeff?

I would hope that for her well-being (and safety) some of my female friends would step in!!

Jeff came up to see the new house the other night and along with him he promised to bring some dinner. Dinner being a huge plate of straight up meat. Nothing else. Just meat. I love meat, don't get me wrong. But watching these two grown men eat meat is like watching a wild animal destroy and devour their prey. (And that statement was probably a compliment to these two guys.) They sucked, tore, grunted and sighed with pure pleasure as they ate. They discussed how great it is to feel like a "wild carnivore." ....is this normal?

Notice the lack in use of their utensils?!?! Just when I think things cannot get any worse, they teach Hannah how to suck meat off the bone.

This all only became full-circle when Hannah farted two times at the dinner table (while the boys hoot and hollered her on) and then completely unprompted, lifted up her shirt to expose her bare belly to Jeff and patted it with satisfaction of a delicious full meal.

When you think things cannot get any worse...think again.

Then it was play time- and at least Hannah had one thing right....

She tried to shut Jeff up by shoving one of Cookie Monster's cookies in his mouth.

:)

I put Hannah down for the night and walked down the stairs to hear Justin and Jeff giggling like little school-girls. (This should have been my first hint to turn and run back up the stairs) But against my better judgement I walked into the living room to see them giggling over HUGE bowls of ice cream. (Because apparently they didn't get enough meat) Their FOUR whopping scoops of ice cream were covered with chocolate, caramel, Reese's peanut butter cups and M & Ms.

So in conclusion...Hannah would basically be raised by two children.

God, please keep me safe.

Sunday Stroll

Yesterday we went for a short family walk...it was short because we really couldn't get very far with Hannah picking up every snow-chunk that she could pry off the frozen ground. Her snow-chunks got bigger and bigger...she was so proud.

...but she couldn't win the snow-ball challenge...her Daddy had to show her up!...he was also so proud. (sheesh. how many children do I have?!)
...we stopped to look at the birds...
...and chased after Riley.

It was a nice family walk! Sounds like it will be our last for a little while...next time we could lose Hannah (or Riley) in the snow!

-

In other news- we hit a milestone last Friday when Hannah said her first 4 and 5 word sentence!

"Monkeys eat bananans, Daddy."

"Mommy, Daddys at home sleeping."

and

"Where Daddy's car go?!"

Watch out people- she's a real human being!

-

With the sentences and advanced talking, comes this stubborn little girl. Her other favorite sentences?

"NO MOMMY!" and "NO DADDY!"

Those are not fun.

Justin's Breakfast

Came across this little breakfast-concoction on Pinterest....I think that it was created just for Justin....Needless to say, he feasted this morning...

Bacon covered in pancake complete with warm syrup for dipping.

(Barfaroni for me, pure love for Justin.)

Happy Birthday (again, and again, and again...)

Meet Santa Bear...

Meet Justin-Bear..

(Yes, that is marker on her face...don't judge.)

Want to know how to keep a kid busy for hours on end? (literally) Hannah is obsessed with the gel window clings. Poor snowman didn't know what hit him.

This was quite the eventful 5 days. Thanksgiving mixed with some birthdays and add on some Christmas cheer and we are tuckered out. Justin turned a whopping 29 today. Another fun fact?...Justin is kinda a birthday-snot. :) Maybe it's because he has to share his birthday every year with his twin brother...but man, if I hear the phrase, "But it's my birthday" one more time...or the phrase, "It's my birthday, dinner, birthday lunch, birthday month...yadda-yadda." barf. But we still celebrated this old man turning 29 over the past 5 days.

He was treated like a king. Blueberry pancakes in the morning, awesome gifts...and a dinner that he feasted on. An appetizer of sauteed shrimp in homemade Benihana shrimp sauce and a main course of cajun chicken and shrimp pasta. The best part?...we found out Hannah likes shrimp! Yes, another food group!! Hooray. All of this was topped off with homemade cheesecake and a night out with his friends. Man, if I do say so myself, I'm a pretty awesome wife. :)

You deserve a special day Justin- we love you and Happy Birthday.

(That is the LAST time I am saying it.)

-

In other news, we chopped down our Christmas tree! Yep, headed out in the rain to chop down the ole' tree.

...and after all the hard and cold and wet work...we almost lost our tree on the drive home! Not to point fingers or anything...but Justin tied it to the car.

Hope you all had a fabulous long weekend! Let the Christmas music ring for the next month! It's my favorite holiday!

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Oh, and if you were wondering what I am thankful for this year...it's that I am going to be an auntie in May! Congrats to my big brother and his wife Andrea!

Cookies 'n Milk

Hannah the Viking

(....these were some proud moments for Justin....except that she's carrying a baseball.)

WeEkeNd ReVieW

This past weekend was busy- but a ton of fun. Justin and I acted like we did pre-child. Beers around a campfire, late nights, and good ole friends. It started with a BBQ in Belle Plaine and ended with a fun filled wedding night in Minneapolis. (Somewhere in the middle we ditched Hannah at her Grandparents.)

The wedding was on the 55th floor of the IDS Center in Minneapolis. Justin and I splurged and got a corner king sweet at the Marquette...(okay, we didn't mean to. Justin forgot to book the reservation and a corner sweet was all that was left.) :) But hey, Justin's procrastination actually worked for me this time, because I love fancy hotels. The wedding was for his co-worker, Mark- a fellow engineer. Fortunately we did not just sit around comparing Ti-89 calculators, and splitting jokes about mathematics and phsysics.... his engineer buddies actually know how to party.

Congratulations Mark and Jo!

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This morning was our Monday morning playgroup date and 15 minutes in Hannah puked. She's never puked before...but man, she p.u.k.e.d. So I did what every good mother would do- we left, came home, got cleaned up and she went absolutely nuts. Like...crawling around-screaming-giggling-chasing-the-dog-NUTS. I was bummed. Playgroup is the single thing that I look forward to each week. It's a large chunk of time where I do not have to plan on an activity to entertain Hannah. And the best part?....She comes home and takes the longest nap of the week. Stinker. Here are some photos of her post-puke.

...obviously, completely fine.

Romantic Valentine Weekend & The ER

Justin and I had a really great mini-weekend getaway-just in time for Valentine's day! We had tickets to the awesomely crazy MN Wild game on Saturday night. The game was packed with fans, the Wild pulled off a win and there were about 5 too many fights for this girl. But we met up with our friends Kyle and Erin for dinner and drinks before the game and had a really great time laughing the night away with them....litterally. Then to top off this Valentine weekend, we stayed the night downtown Saint Paul at the same hotel that we did the night of our wedding. (Do not "Ohhh" and "Ahhh" about this, because we had no clue until we got there and looked around and wondered why it looked so dang familiar!) Strangely enough- we actually stayed on the same floor as the night of our wedding! Crazy.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Kahler, Justin and I enjoyed sleeping in until 10:30am.

W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L.

We were anxious to get back to Roseville and pick our little lady up. Unfortunately when we saw her she seemed HOT. Not warm, but HOT. We just shrugged it off to being overly dressed on this gorgeous day and she had just woke up from a nap- so we headed back to Elk River. Once we got back to Elk River, she was steaming and starting to act a little lethargic so we took her temperature: 103.2

Off to urgent care we went- unfortunately urgent care had a three hour wait and by this point Justin and I were worried about Hannah as she snuggled in tightly to her Daddy sucking her thumb, she just looked so sad. So we made the decision to head to the emergency room where we could be seen a lot quicker. We were "seen" by every nurse, doctor and admitting person at the Monticello Hospital. Hannah caused quite a stir with all the ladies as they poked and oodled over how cute she was. I think her good looks got her bumped to the front of the line, because it did not take long at all for her to be diagnosed with an ear infection and strep throat.

My poor poor baby. Will she ever be healthy?! Our doctor told us that within the first year, a baby will be ill anywhere around 8-10 times, and those times always seem to come in the winter.

So it is a Daddy and Hannah day tomorrow!

We hope your week is off to a better start than ours!