The girls

My girls love to cuddle up together in the mornings.

Waiting for Daddy to get out of the bathroom. Poor Daddy doesn't get a minute to himself when he's at home!!

Still waiting.

My little soap box

This is a great article. I get SO FRUSTRATED with people thinking we're uptight for limiting Danica's sugar intake. It's called good parenting!!! This actually is a really interesting article that explains a lot that I don't think most people know. And a lot of people don't have an understanding of all the foods sugar and it's evil counterparts are in. Most of the food we eat is actually not food at all and our bodies have no idea what to do with it. Scary for those who have and are growing up with this... not as much for those who grew up before this was an issue (25 or so years ago).

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/26/Sugar-May-Be-Bad-But-This-Sweetener-Is-Far-More-Deadly-Part-2.aspx

Baby news

Saturday marked the second trimester for little baby Klabunde. He or she will have completely formed finger prints this week! They'll get formed from him or her swimming around in the amniotic fluid. Who knew??
If you're curious about other growth facts, you can check them out at babycenter.com or at parentsconnect.com.

Snow fun!

Making a snow angel!

A picture of her first snow angel of the year!

We had a great time playing out in the snow... loving this warm weather! However, a few short hours later, Mommy got VERY sick! I think we'll be staying in for a while!

Some of Danica's very first artwork from school! The top one is a painting... I'm considering framing and hanging it up, I love it so much. Then there's the tree from "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and then there's the letter A that Dani traced. She's having SO much fun in school and wishes it were every day (Mom secretly wishes the same).

Winter fun!

Dani and Grammy sledding to Grandma Doris' house. The whole time Dani yells, "Faster Grammy!!"

Danica got to stay at Grammy and Papa's house on Saturday night so we could go to an ugly Christmas sweater party (hopefully pics to come on that). As we were driving there we went past the air base and Dani said, "Look, it's New York City!!" ??? We can't figure out where she got that!

Dani had lots of fun. She got to go to a hockey game and help Grammy sell tickets. It sounds like she had a great time playing with the money and cheering for the hockey players. She has such a great time there - of course it's because she has 150% of Grammy's attention 150% of the time!! But that's what Grammys are for!!

Her first movie

The future filmmaker shot her first movie the other day (without our knowledge). We thought she was just taking pictures of Daddy, but I got a nice surprise when I checked the camera!

School daze

Danica's first day of school!

I did take the camera to school too, but decided against a picture with the teacher. Being a former teacher, I know how annoying that is!!!

Dani had an ok time on her first day. Her teacher Shawn said that she tried pretty hard not to have a good time, but he thinks she still did. He said he'd ask her if she wanted to come color (or whatever they were doing) with the kids, and she'd get her best pouty face on and shake her head yes. Our little drama queen was pretty darn tired that day from not sleeping well the night before, so we'll use that as her excuse. Hopefully today will go a lot better. She seems pretty excited for school today, so that's a great sign!

Her hamburger/hotdog playdoh set has been a favorite the past few days.

Christmas in Garrison

Trying on Ali's old dance costumes.

Is that a big sparkly ring on your hand?? I THINK SO!!! Congrats Ali and Jared!!!

Brenna enjoying her new Zebra!

Always ready for a close-up!

Dani got her doctor kit! She's been performing small miracles on us ever since.

LOVING her new princess stuff! She got a new dress, 4 pair of princess shoes, a new tiara, and two pair of gloves and purses! She's in princess heaven!

Enjoying all her presents at one... her new vanity, her doctor glasses and her tiara!

2 seconds before Hannah dropped Brenna on her face. :)

Christmas in Bottineau

Cowboy Tate enjoying his gifts from us!

Paige, Averie, Tate, and Dani (Drew laying down) at Grandma Doris' on Christmas day.

At Amma's on Christmas Eve. We weren't too good at getting pictures because we had the video camera going instead. Hopefully Auntie Jill got some pics we can swipe! (hint hint!!!) :)

Oh the horror!

Today was Danica's first ever concert. One that we were completely unaware of and unprepared for. We hadn't been to church in a few weeks - mainly due to my feeling sick. So we went today and found out she'd be up and singing in front of the church. Oops!
It was very cute as all the 3-4 year olds filed in. Danica was in the first row nearly dead center, and looked confused and terrified as could be. But thankfully she didn't burst out crying like we envisioned she would. Instead she did something much worse... oh yes. As the music started and all the other kids started singing "Twinkle Twinkle," Danica's finger migrated up to her nose. It stayed in there for quite some time, then decided to head a bit south... to her mouth! Yup, we had THEE kid who picked her nose and ate it during the church Christmas concert.... IN THE FRONT ROW!!!
Kinda glad we weren't prepared and didn't bring our video camera. There'll definitely be some prepping before her next concert!

Called in "cold"

Our morning playdate cancelled because of a nasty tummy flu. SOOOOOO, there were very good intentions of going out to run errands all morning. Weather check... 20 below... change of plans. We decided to have a wonderful day of playing house instead (with a little laundry on the side). Dani was the Mommy and I was "the kid" (HAHA, sweet revenge!!). Then on to Campbells tomato soup and grilled cheese. Aaahhh, perfection.

A perfect day

What a great day! Duane took the day off today so we could get our Christmas shopping done. We all slept in and then spent some time all snuggling in our bed. A LOVELY way to start the day! We got ALL our Christmas shopping done... a terrific feeling!!! Now if only those Christmas elves would get over here and wrap everything, life would be perfect! Dani and I were waiting in the car this afternoon while Duane took a quick trip into Target. The Chipmunks came on the radio with "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause." Here's what came next:
Dani: Mommy, what's dat song?
Me: It's I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause.
Dani: (Head snapped to me with very strange look on her face) What's THAT supposed to mean??!! Mooooom, did you kiss Santa?!?!

Goodbye song

Duane caught a little singing a couple weeks ago.

Thanksgiving pics

Dani and Brenna on their first duet!

This was during Thanksgiving... long overdue for the blog!!!

"Congratulations on the baby" flowers from my friend Alysha. Very sweet.

Lately

Sorry for no updates. I've been feeling VERY icky and it only seems to be getting worse. The past 2 days all I can get down is peanut butter. Luckily I like peanut butter. Thankfully I got a lot of helpful advice from some mommy friends on facebook, so I just got back from the store and am drinking lemonade, wearing seaband bracelets, and sucking on a peppermint... lets hope something works!!
If you're curious about my little baby and his/her development, go to www.3dpregnancy.parentsconnect.com and click on week 8. It's very interesting to see what's happening in there! It makes me remember why I'm so darn tired! And by the way, I'll need to change the name of the blog in a few months... any ideas? I'm open to suggestions!

No kids here!!!

(Amber, me, Uncle Kim, Mel, Kirsten, Karli)

All of us at the UND game with Karli's uncle. He has 4 season tickets on the ice in the corner. Can't get any better than that!!! The guy next to him let him borrow his 2 seats for the game so all 6 of us could go.

How close we were. We made the mistake of putting our phones, drinks, and food up on the ledge. Then after they checked into the boards and it all came falling down on our purses, we wised up!!

All of us at the library... this is the most time I've ever spent there!

All of us in front of our dorm.

All of us in back of the dorm!

(Melonie, Amber, Karli, Kirsten, me)

At the now martini bar, used to be a horribly dirty yucky bar that we used to go to many nights a week!!!

At the bar. Kirsten and I had our water and apple cider.

At Sanders having our yummy 7 course meal!

Past couple weeks

I know, long time no blog. We've been quite busy!
Last week we ended up in the emergency room for Danica both Friday and Saturday nights. She had a horrible rash on her bottom that was only getting worse (and very painful for her), plus she got a fever of nearly 105!! I was fairly certain it was strep - I'd heard of toddlers getting it on their bums instead of in their throat. The ER doctors wouldn't listen and wouldn't listen. Finally Monday I took her to her pediatrician. She took one look at her bum and said it's a strep rash, so at least we finally got her the proper medication. I was very irritated with those ER doctors.

Thursday I took off to have my yearly girls reunion. We had such a great time, and luckily I wasn't the only pregnant one there (yes, I'm pregnant for anyone who doesn't already know)!!! It was nice to have another sober one! We got to spend a lot of time on our old campus. We even saw our old dorm room! It made us all feel very young, but very old at the same time. We also went to a Sioux hockey game and had GREAT seats! It couldn't have been a better trip.

Meanwhile Dani and Daddy had a great time without me. Danica's become quite a Daddy's girl lately, so I think she really enjoyed the weekend. They got to go to a surprise birthday party for Auntie Carissa and play with some other kids. Hopefully she didn't get those other kids sick, because it turns out she now has Fifth Disease! UGH!! We have medicine again and hopefully all will be well. My poor girl just catch a break. Luckily it seems that our pediatrician is having Thanksgiving dinner with us next week (she's distant family), so at least we'll get a bit of a checkup!! :)

2nd week of gymnastics

Dani's in the pink long sleeves, if you can't tell.

When I had first told her about starting gymnastics, she was most excited about climbing the rope "just like Averie." Today she got a shot at it. She got on it and started crying immediately. The coach was very nice and tried to explain that she was there to help and Dani wouldn't get hurt, but nope, she wouldn't try it again. Maybe next week!

Doing the monkey walk. For her, it's just hanging there for a second then dropping. For the other girls, it's walking across with their hands.

Doing the strong arms on the bar!

her first somersault

backward somersault

She got it much better later on, but I didn't get video of it.