Lambeau Field

Last week my Uncle Bill and youngest cousin, Griffin, took a road trip to Wisconsin over Griffin's spring break to see his big sister, Kylie, play softball for Ripon, and most importantly to travel to Green Bay for the Lambeau Field experience. He is a big Packers fan even though he is born and raised in Atlanta - his parents are Wisconsinites. So I met them at Lambeau Field and took the Lambeau Tour, saw the Hall of Fame and ate at Curly's Pub. Living in Green Bay and having been to Packer games I never saw the need to take a tour but really it is a great experience. You have the chance to see parts you never would going to a game plus you learn a lot of neat facts and information about the history of the Packers and current day. So if you are in town I highly recommend a Lambeau Tour, the Hall of Fame, and eats at Curly's Pub. Here are some photos from the day. Near the end of the tour you get to walk through the tunnel which the players go through on game day. As you see "Brett Favre" was there on the day we went. :-) I have been through the tunnel before - running - if you take part in the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon events (5K, half, or full) you run through the tunnel in the last 1/4 mile of your event. It is a great motivator!




Uncle Bill and Griffin posing in front of the greats - Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau.

Gymnast

Emma took gymnastics the past 7 weeks at the YMCA. On the last day of class parents are invited to watch and take photos, of course! So here are some photos of Emma and what she is learning. The next 7 weeks she is doing swimming, again, and dance. She took dance back in the fall but has had a break from it. Wants to try again. She really seems to like gymnastics even though she comes from 2 uncoordinated parents and you can kind of see the lack of coordination in her but as I told Ethan perhaps if she keeps trying she will improve. :-)


Our Monkey! She did get her feet up and stayed there by herself.

After this the teacher helped her do a forward flip - she went around fast and my heart jumped at the end but she was fine.





It was so fun to watch her. She was having a great time! At the end all the children gave a bow. She did sommersaults too - finally figured out how to do on her own. Plus, at home she likes to do table tops and practices her bridge over head. There may be more gymnastics in the future. Whatever she likes, I just want her to be active. But she is registered for the first race of the year - Kids Run on May 16, part of the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon weekend. Ethan is running the half marathon the next day. Don't worry she asked to run. :-) As for me and my running, I have the okay but have yet to find the time when I can go and someone is here to watch Katherine. Although today we did purchase our Chariot double running, walking, biking stroller. I can't wait to use it but need to wait for the infant sling (on order) to come in before taking Katherine in it. I am registered to walk Crazylegs this year and Ethan will run. I wish I could run but he didn't think trying to do 5 miles would be wise after nothing for the past 5 months. I think the last time I ran was Thanksgiving day.

Happy Easter Monday!

I hope everyone had a very blessed Easter. Rejoice, the Lord is Risen.

Our weekend was filled with Egg hunts and candy. Saturday morning we took Emma to an Easter Egg Candy Hunt at a local park. It was basically a free for all for candy and some eggs. Different areas of the park were sectioned off for different ages of kids. If they found an egg, then they would receive a prize. Emma found 2 eggs thus 2 more little trinkets to have in the house until she forgets about them.

We had a nice Easter Sunday with an egg hunt at our house for Emma after church and then went to Ethan's Dad's house for dinner and another egg hunt. Thanks to our wonderful neighbors, they played Easter Bunny, and hid 30 eggs between our yard and their yard for Emma to find after church. She had a fun time and her reaction to finding the eggs was great. The morning started with her awake at 6am and shortly there after saying she cannot find her basket. When she did find it she came back up to Ethan in bed and said in a very sad voice "The Easter Bunny didn't give me any jelly beans in my eggs." I had asked Ethan the night before if he thought I should put jelly beans in -he said no because the 30 eggs in the yard will have jelly beans and M&M's. So I didn't. She recovered okay and luckily the Nana & Papa Easter Bunny which came to our house - had jelly beans. Thanks Nana!

So, it is 9pm and both girls are in bed. Katherine has been in bed since 6:45 and not a peep out of her. Tired girl tonight. She and I both have colds. She was in good spirits today despite the sneezing and coughing. But both seem to have lessened as today went on. Yesterday is when it really hit her. I have been taking Tylenol Sinus for a few days now. I am feeling less tired than last night. Ethan is working nights, and I would have to say the first night has been a success. I never know how things are going to go when he starts a night shift for 3 or 4 in a row.

I have photos of Ethan and Emma after decorating eggs Saturday night, us at church on Easter Sunday, and some of Katherine from today, smiling, - she is 8 weeks old today. We go to the doctor on Friday for her 2 month check. 2 months already. Wow! Also, a photo of her wearing her Miss Marvelous onesie - I thought it was too cute. Thank you Camille & Theo!


Emma decided it was okay to sit with the Easter Bunny this year! Perhaps Santa won't be so bad this Christmas. :-)

Photos of Emma & Katherine

I promised some photos in the last post. Here are some from March. In no particular order. I have a hard time getting the right caption under each photo but will do my best. The first ones are of Emma - wearing a coat, dress & hat which I found at a rummage sale last year and realized she is now big enough to wear. Snow White playing horsey on her Daddy. The next one is her holding an umbrella which is part of a Bitty Baby Beach Set - I found it at a rummage sale this past Saturday - she loves it. And I found a doll car seat cover for her dolls - she loves this as well because it is just like Katherine's. The next one - is just a great smile of hers that I caught at the Baby Shower in MN. Then a family photo of the MN clan at the Como Zoo when we were in MN.


Father-to-be holding Katherine.

The mother-to-be, Hadley, holding Katherine.

Aunt Vera holding Katherine.

My cousin Naomi holding Katherine

Aunt Linda with Emma and Katherine



Smiles of Katherine



all bundled up and ready for a walk

Being held by Patty, her Godmother

Katherine talking to Daddy just the other day.

What have we been up to?

Hello. I guess it has been almost a month since my last post. Our most exciting adventure since the last time I wrote is we traveled to Minnesota about 3 weeks ago for my cousin's wife's baby shower. Yeah, Emma and Katherine will have a new cousin and their first cousin on my Dad's side of the family in about a month or so. Katherine traveled very well. Emma became a little bored here and there but we made it without any real problems or meltdowns.

Can't say the same for today. :-) Emma has really been testing Ethan and I with her non-listening ears, attitude, and talking back today. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

We had a great time in MN. We saw all the family on my Dad's side. We enjoyed the Como Zoo with the family, dinner and ice cream at Grand Ole Creamery on Saturday after the baby shower brunch. If you are ever in the Twin Cities and you like ice cream - you have to go to the Grand Ole' Creamery on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. I go there just about every time we are in MN, if I don't make it - its very disappointing. Black hills gold is one of their signature flavors. Great ice cream! While the girls were at the baby shower - Ethan enjoyed a nice run around the lakes in Minneapolis. It was a beautiful day for a run. And for the zoo!

Friday night after dinner with my Aunt we went to Target so Emma could run because she had so much energy after being in the car all day. Target - great for shopping and good for little kids needing to run! :-)

Sunday we enjoyed brunch with my Aunt and cousins at Perkins before heading home. Although we did stop at a couple stores before we actually left MN so I could try to find a red shirt to wear for photos we were having taken the next day.

We had photos taken that Monday of all of us, Emma & Katherine, and mainly Katherine by herself. I had photos of Emma taken at 6 weeks so I wanted something similar with Katherine. They turned out well and we were given all the prints and a cd, plus a release so I will post some of them soon.

Last weekend I scrapbooked on Friday night which was very relaxing. Ethan was working nights so Saturday the girls and I traveled to Nana and Papa's in Sheboygan for a sleepover. It was a nice visit - gave me some adult time with my parents and time for Emma to visit with Papa and Nana which she always enjoys.
Katherine is doing well. Today she slept a lot and did not have to eat as much - so perhaps her growth spurts are catching up with her. She has not been as regular with eating as I remember Emma being. Sometimes she can make it 3 hours and other times she can barely make it 2 hours. Nights have been going fairly better since we started putting her to bed earlier. We figured out we may have been putting her to bed too late even though it was only 8pm. We remembered having to do the same with Emma. We still have to go in a few times because she likes to have her nuk to help fall asleep. I have been able to get 5 to 6 hours of continuous sleep lately, although occasionally she will still wake at 2 or 3 in the morning. I can't complain. For the most part I feel rested.

Thursday and Friday of this past week were a little crazy at points - I had Emma crying, coughing, and gagging while Katherine is screaming to eat. Then because Emma was coughing so hard from a bad cold - she had 2 accidents in 2 days, along with 2 bouts of vomit from coughing so hard, but I thought I handled them both well - I did not panic and just took it all in stride.

Emma went to a birthday party at a local hair salon for kids for a friend from preschool. She had fun even though the cold had her feeling not herself. They did the girls hair, nails, dressed up and danced, and ate pizza & specially decorated cookies.

Katherine highlights - I almost forgot. When we were in MN on Friday night she started to coo while Aunt Linda was holding her. And then on Monday when we returned from MN she started to smile. :-) She is a happy baby unless its time to eat but lately I have been beating her to the punch with meals and she has not had to get too mad. She did very well at the baby shower, and was of course passed to different individuals to hold - especially the 2 new grandma's to be had to take a chance to hold her to "practice". The father-to-be took a shot at holding her - he did well - we just had to remind him to relax. :-)

This week should be exciting because on Wednesday we will see my Uncle Bill and youngest cousin Griffin from Atlanta, GA who are in the state to see my cousin, Kylie, who goes to Ripon. She plays softball and will be playing St. Norbert's on Wednesday. Otherwise - Easter is Sunday and we will celebrate Saturday night and Sunday with different families on Ethan's side.

I think this covers the rest of March in a nutshell. I am not going to post photos tonight but will soon. In case I don't come back to my blog this week.
Happy Easter! Enjoy the blessings of Easter.