Smorgus Board of Our Life

We have a tree…and a pirate!

Thomas’ first neighborhood birthday party for his buddy Jimmy

Elin’s current favorite experiment…DUMPING things out…ahhh the clean up is endless!

On a Mike travel night after I had Elin out and when I was grabbing Thomas’ pajamas I heard “Mom, Emergency Elin is in the tub.”  Seriously, I was gone a minute….

 

Tucker in her favorite morning spot

Elin’s current favorites in no particular order 1) her soft hoodie-with hood up 2) any Santa/snowman 3) frog boots 4) necklaces

Lunch date with the Littles

Elin nursing Baby Jesus

Stella and Griffin Puppy hanging at Grandma and Grandpa’s house

E looks so beautiful, sweet and innocent in this picture her Daddy took. 

Brrrr….MN was pretty cold while we were there!

Stella’s face is too funny in this picture…

Elin is 20 Months Old

Little miss is 20  months old and has quickly losting her title of “baby E.”  She now is a feisty independent toddler who has an opinion about everything, and we wonder where she gets that from! 

She has quite the personality and Mike and I often find ourselves giggling at what she is doing.  Thomas is her favorite side kick and every so often you will hear her call him “Tommy” otherwise it is “Thom-ma.”  They have started to play more together, which also means more refereeing for Mike and I.  Elin is stinker and holds her own if she gets mad, she will do whatever it takes to make her wants/needs know weather it is sugar or spice.  We are also keeping a close eye on her when she is playing because she isn’t always so gentle with her hands.  

Elin continues to be a climber and her ability to get herself in and around play structures and play grounds continues to amaze us.  She will follow Thomas anywhere he goes and fear does not seem to be in her vocabulary.  She has also started to “run fast” with Thomas and loves wearing a pair of his old green “fast runnin’ shoes.” 

Elin is a little chatter box and she has many 2 and 3 word sentences that she will use to tell us about what is happening, what she wants and needs.  She can also repeat everything we ask her to.  She is talking so much that most people can understand her and will comment on how well she is talking for her age, which really makes her mama proud (can’t take the SLP out of me!)  Some of her favorite things to say right now are: “my do it,” “Elin by self,” “one more time,”  “wait me,” “pretty please,” “mama fik it,” “hi (dada, mama, bampa, nana, stella, ect).  She also has some great one liners and one of our favorites is hearing her yell “emergency” and seeing what is happening.  She also is learning about her senses and if she hears something and either wants to know what it is, or does not like it she will point to her ears and say “ear, ear,”  she also does this with seeing something, but she says “see” to that.  Elin also likes to read along in some of her favorite books and is singing some songs.  Mike and I both love hearing her voice and listening to her thoughts. 

A major accomplishment in the last few months is Elin is in big girl undies.  She has an accident here and there but she is diaper less, even on our 15 hour road trip to Minnesota (what a pain).  She will also wake up dry from naps and will wake up at night to use the potty, which means many mornings her diaper is dry.  It is very convenient for us, except for the night waking!  In the last week she has been very into doing it all by her “self.”  She can get her pants off/on, get herself on the potty and will even wipe and get down.

Elin is still napping in the afternoon for a few hours and has a solid bedtime routine.  Along with the potty breaks she wakes up 1-2 times to eat.  She has many favorite foods right now including apples and peanut butter, string cheese, grapes, avocados, chicken, yogurt and oatmeal.  She is also starting to be a little bit cleaner when she eats and it seems as though we might have moved passed the throw and dump all food phase, one could hope right?!   

Elin is very interested in her babies, animals (favorites are puppies, kitties and horses), swimming and keeping away from the bad guys and coyotes.   She is quite a good mama in training and loves to nurse her babies, rock them, taking them for walks in her stroller, or carrying them around in her clothes (like baby wearing).  She is getting better about interactive play and really enjoys trying to keep up with Thomas.  That has started this crazy “bad guy/coyote thing.”  Both kids are terrified of both and that is the things they try to get rid of in their pretend battles. 

Elin had a doctor appointment at the beginning of December with her new pediatrician here in Texas.  They were pleased with all her milestones and after talking to them about some rashes she has been getting we decided to go ahead and get her tested for allergies.   After we have that done we will see what direction we head.   She was 28 inches tall and weighed 22 lbs.

Time in Cloquet

On Thursday after we unpacked the cars and had dinner we then settled in for the McConachie/Laschen Christmas present opening. On Friday morning, Mike, Elin, and I headed over to the pool to get some exercise.  Then the guys were off to try their hand at pheasant hunting with Griffin Puppy.  When they came home, Thomas was all in for helping Grandpa get the pheasant ready for dinner and learning about hunting.  All I could think was and so it begins, it wasn’t until Grandpa promised him he could shoot a real gun that then he was totally hooked.  He got to shoot a BB gun with Grandpa’s help.  I had to see if I could still aim and I will just say don’t mess with me or my family because I still have a good shot!  Only kidding slightly.  On Saturday morning it was time for Troy, Molly and Griffin to head back home.  After breakfast and some pictures they took off.  We had a great couple of days and I can’t wait for our upcoming get togethers when their little girl arrives sometime in April!   We spent the next few days trying to sneak outside when it wasn’t so awfully cold and trying to occupy our time when we were inside.  We had some 4 wheeling/sledding fun, Mike and I snuck over to Pine Valley for some cross county skiing. Then we had a couple more swimming days and that sure was a life saver!   Our friends Katie and Charlie came over for a quick play date and Thomas and Charlie were too cute for words in their matching super hero outfits! These are just a couple of random pictures from hanging around the house.  Grandma and Elin practicing tongue clicks during and after bath time and the kiddos doctoring a very good sport with band aids.  The kids were giggling so hard as they continued to put more and more band aids on him and “fix him up. ‘ It was a great time Up North we got a lot of chilliaxin’ in. 

Christmas Crafts/Ornaments

 

One of my favorite things ever Christmas is the crafts/ornaments and putting hand prints on our Christmas tree skirt.  This year I painted the middle feet snowmen for all the grandparents.  The bottom left picture was Thomas’ present to Mike and I from his school.  The ornaments were Nana Kathy’s present for us.  She needle points them every year and this year she picked a bike for Thomas as he learned how to ride his bike and birds for Elin because she loves birds. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve after lunch we headed to Cloquet.  Once we got there the kiddos played and ran around with Stella.  I don’t know if Stella was more excited to see us or if we were more excited to see her.  After we got our wiggles out we had dinner and then had to go outside to see if we could hear Santa's sleigh.  Mike has really fond memories of his uncle’s tricking the kids every Christmas and using jingle bells to start the Christmas Eve excitement.  Lets just say that the kiddos were still a bit too young to really understand what this meant.  It was a nice comical relief for us adults though, as we tried to get them excited.  They were more excited about all the snow and playing in it.  Once we got inside we decorated cookies for Santa.  It ended up being a few quick treats for the kiddos too as they kept sneaking frosting, cookies, and sprinkles.  We also remembered to leave carrots outside for the reindeer.  Somehow Mitch beat us to Cloquet and brought the kiddos some special Christmas jammies.  I then took my turn trying to get the perfect shot, while the peanut gallery commented on.  After I was convinced that one of the 20 pictures I took would “work out” the kiddos were released for bedtime.While Stella slept, Santa snuck in and left the presents and stuffed the stockings.  He was very thankful for Amazon Prime’s free shipping and Elf Nancy’s help in wrapping.  It made Christmas away from home much easier!Christmas morning the kiddos woke up and the first work out of Elin’s mouth was “Santa?”  We all got upstairs and the kiddos dove right into their task of opening presents.  They then played, we had breakfast and Grandpa and Thomas plowed the driveway.  Then it was time to head to Fargo for the Shoman Christmas at my Grandma’s house. 

Christmas Festivities with the Laschen Side

We started off our Christmas celebration by visiting Mike’s Nana Banana.  The kiddos helped her open her Christmas presents and we had a good visit with her. On the drive from Nana’s house to Auntie Katie and Uncle Don’s house the kiddos fell asleep.  They were both completely exhausted.  We brought them in laid them down and then Mike and I got some much needed down time with his siblings.When they woke up we packed everything up and headed over to the bowling alley to meet the rest of the family.  I can’t remember who won on the girls or guys sides, but it wasn’t Mike or I.  Let’s just say the two of us have things we are much better at than bowling!  The kiddos had their own lane with bumpers and they had a blast sending balls down the lanes.  After we finished bowling it was time to head back to Katie and Don’s house for dinner, gift opening and a round of family trivia.  The kiddos made out like bandits again getting many thoughtful gifts.  Thomas’ favorite was his ninja turtle book and mask and Elin didn’t really have a favorite.   A great day/night and a perfect start to our Christmas celebrations!

Sledding In Woodbury

Grandpa Jeff, Mike and I took the kiddos sledding on a cold, but bearable, morning in Woodbury.  The kiddos loved it, and I think Grandpa and Daddy did too!

When we started to get cold it was back to Grandpa and Grandma’s house for some hot chocolates and snuggles!

Sibling Dinner

Sunday Night Mike and I had a “date night” with his siblings while Thomas and Elin stayed with Nana and Bampa.  We met everyone at Bar La Grassa in Minneapolis and had a great time.  We ended up ordering a bunch of different things off the menu and sharing them, which was nice as we were able to try a lot of different things. 

Road Trippin’ from Texas to Minnesota

*this is a boring post-for our family’s record books-feel free to skip it!

We took off on our 1st long road trip with 2 littles on Friday afternoon about noon.  We originally planned to leave about 2, but we had back checking on the weather and rain/freezing rain was heading into Texas and Oklahoma a little sooner than we expected so we thought it best to try to get ahead of it. 

We ended up starting out the drive and Elin took a nap while Thomas watched a movie.  When Elin woke up she quickly told us she had to go potty and so started a 15 hour road trip with a little girl who refused to go potty in a diaper.  She must have thought we were nuts because we were pulling out all the stops trying to convince her it was a good idea, no luck.  So we made our first pit stop, got gas, and froze as it was cold and raining. 

We then continued to drive along at this point it was close to 4 p.m., and Thomas still hadn’t napped.  So we thought if we could make it to dinner about 5, he could eat and then end up going to sleep sometime after that.  We ended up being able to drive until 5:45 before the littlest one wanted to go potty again and we stopped for dinner.  After getting some wiggles out and grabbing dinner we were back in the car. 

We were still battling rain but the roads at this point were not icy so that was great.  We drove a little further and needed to stop for another potty break and then the best thing happened, both of the kiddos went to sleep!  It was now 7:30 and we were just about to Joplin, Kansas.  After doing some talking with our parents, our impromptu meteorologists, and consulting my radar app on my phone, we realized that the freezing rain was going to keep following us until Kansas City, our original stopping point for the night.   We decided it would be best if we kept pushing on and stopped in Des Moines, Iowa. 

In the middle of our drive as he was sleeping Thomas’ nose started to bleed, Elin woke up one more time to go potty, and we considered stopping until we saw cars coming up behind us covered in ice.  We also got a text message from one of Mike’s co workers that was making the same drive but got out of town a bit later and they were driving through freezing rain about 2 hours behind us.  That was all we needed to push on.  We arrived at the hotel about 1 a.m. (I think) got everyone inside and we were all quickly asleep.  It was a long 12 hours in the car, but it totally could have been worse!

Once we woke up we had breakfast and then got ready to get the kids into the pool.  That is when the key situation happened.  Somehow between breakfast and Mike running out to the car, the keys were misplaced, and we thought Elin may have flushed them in the toilet.  After we both calmly frantically searched it wasn’t until I was on the phone with my parents and Mike was calling the dealership; that I thought to check by our breakfast area.  Low and behold, they were in the coffee machine!  Elin, seriously?  So then we regrouped, cancelled the tow truck and got the kiddos in their swimming suits.  While Mike took them swimming, I took Stella outside for some exercise.  We then loaded up and were on the road for our last 3.5 hours in the car to Woodbury, MN.

We had one potty break and filled up on gas and then the kiddos, both exhausted from swimming, took naps until we pulled into Nana and Papa’s house.  We had safely made it to Minnesota and the first 16 hour road trip wasn’t that bad, in fact I would say it was pretty easy, but it made me nervous our trip back to Texas would be more difficult.  Anyway onto MN freezing cold, snow, and family adventures!