January Birthdays

Benihana has a GREAT birthday deal where if you sign up online for their Chef's Table they send you a coupon for up to $30 off your b-day dinner. A bunch of our friends have January birthdays, so we took advantage of the coupon: 5 of the 8 of us at the table were birthday discounted. Thanks to my mother-in-law for passing that website on back in the fall sometime. It was a great deal and especially since this group of friends is already a huge fan of Benihana! The only downside is that the tables only seat 8 people, so we had to exclude the non-January birthdays:( But I think the shrimp sauce made me feel a little better...

TIGF

I almost forgot to post this one today, but I'm glad I waited. I need to say a huge thank you to my hubby for doing the grocery shopping with Riley tonight. I've had a day of contractions and just being really uncomfortable and he has been great giving me time to rest, and if you know how much he really hates grocery shopping you'd understand how big this favor was for me. LOVE YOU Josh!

So any bets with the full moon this weekend? I'm not due until the 18th officially...How early do you think I'll go??? I'm shooting for maybe Super Bowl Sunday...Groundhogs day might be interesting...

Blog Lacking

I know that I have been posting fewer updates recently and even fewer with pictures. I should update where I am with my pregnancy by way of a lame excuse. Similar to when I was pregnant with Riley, I am having early contractions, which makes me wonder how soon this little guy is coming. On Monday I spent the whole day counting how close the contractions were, only to have none on Tuesday and just a few yesterday. We're at 37 weeks today so anytime he comes should be fine, but that means I'm staying close to home and leaving my camera near all the packed bags so I don't forget it. Not much to blog about, I guess. We have had a few play dates (or they have come to our place mostly), don't get me wrong, but we're not going on any grand adventures for a while.

Hospital Update: Many of you know we are hoping to deliver at the new Maple Grove Hospital. Originally there was some concern that the hospital was very understaffed and there was a chance we would have to go to North in Robbinsdale again. We had a great experience there with Riley so that would be ok, but I REALLY wanted to go to the new place. No paid parking for guests, and everything is so nice, not to mention if my delivery goes as fast as my sisters' second deliveries did, I want to go to the closest hospital possible and this one is 20 minutes closer than North if you hit the lights wrong...I won't go into all the other perks to this hospital (there's a lot!), but it is now sounding like they have hired more staff and things are looking better that we can deliver there. Stay tuned for updates on when and where we're headed!

TIGF

I'm thankful that were are starting the very last week of January:) I'm not a fan. Once we hit February, winter seems to be winding down, even if we get more snow, you can feel that it's close to over. Baby Boy will be here then, and I'll be too distracted anyway to notice a little slush and mush:)

Play Date Fun...

We had a lot of play dates this weekend. Friday we played with my college roomies Maureen and Sarah and their boys, Saturday my roomie, Jess and her little boy (Riley's boyfriend), and Sunday we went to my friend Jenny's place for the Vikes game and a little playtime with her liitle guy...Riley was the only girl in all this play date fun! I didn't bring my camera for all of them, but I did bring it to the indoor play park on Saturday with Jess and Noah. Being almost 9 months pregnant, and totally afraid of heights anyway, I don't do much climbing, but Jess, being just 7 or so months pregnant and a former gymnastics coach, she's way more flexible and braver too...she did a little climbing with the kids. THANKS Jeca! Sorry I'm a fat chicken! Riley even took a nap that day!

Happy birthday Auntie Meg!

Ok, so if it's Auntie Meg's birthday that must mean it's someone else's birthday too...oh yeah, my friend Allison's birthday! Ok, FINE it's mine too:) Happy Birthday Auntie Meg! (I don't think Allison reads this!) I've already gotten a call from my in-laws in Arizona to wish me a happy day and we're off to my parents house to celebrate with mom's chicken noodle soup for lunch!!!! Tonight, Riley still has skating so that's the plan for the day! I got to sleep in though cuz Josh has MLK day off...Thanks Martin Luther King Jr.! Josh even promised to put my socks on for me;) It's the little things sometimes...Sounds like a great day!

TIGF

I am grateful for the weekends when Josh drinks a pot of coffee, lets me sleep in and cleans the downstairs. Sleep is a hot comodity in this house before this baby comes.

I would also be remiss this weekend if I didn't thank my parents for creating me as Monday marks 33 years since my mom suffered through "real" labor, with Meg and I (by that, I mean no epidural, she's tougher than I am!). Of course we were perfect children as payback ;) Thanks, Mom, for my belly button:)

Toy Story with Friends

Since Riley asked for "lightyear and woody" for Christmas, I decided on one very cold day last week to let her watch Toy Story. She watched the whole thing like this!

Christmas with the Kantors

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas one last time with my good friend, Katherine (really she's Katie, but since my sister is Katie, she's always been Katherine to me!) whom I've known since preschool, and who's youngest daughter, Abby-girl, is my first Godchild.

The kids had a little dress-up tea party with Nana Debbie (Katherine's mom and my girl scout leader when I was little). Then Katherine, her hubby Jason, and daughters Kenzie and Abby and Josh, Roo and I went to open skate and then dinner at Applebee's. I asked Riley what the best part of the night was after dinner. She said "Skating...Applebee's...and Skating!" She also really loves her puppy that she got from the girls. I think she named him something like "snoodaley?" That's my goofy girl!

Thanks Kantor's and Lhotka's for a fun afternoon! Riley barely made it through bedtime stories before she fell asleep.

Hmmm, side note: Why is it that I only take pictures of the kids? I didn't get any of Katherine and I...and the only reason I got Jason and Josh was cuz they were with the kids. Yes, I'm a dork!

Oh, and the picture of the mittens hanging over the side of the boards is Kenzie. She and Abby posed for the picture and then Kenzie decided to hide...or maybe she slipped? But I'm pretty sure she was just hiding:) Abby loves to smile for the camera! I would have taken more pics, but every time they smiled for the camera, they would lose their balance and fall...seemed mean to keep taking pictures!

TIGF

This week has been a very strong reminder about why I love my hubby and why I'm thankful to be married to someone I love, trust, and admire. He takes care of me, puts up with my whining and even cooks and cleans. Yes, he has his faults, but EVERY human being does and really he is as close to perfect for me as he could possibly be. And then of course there's the fact that he's a great daddy (even if he does tell monster stories at bedtime). I don't mean to gush, but it has been an interesting week and one that has made me appreciate everything our marriage has been for almost 10 years!

Don't Crash!

Snow Plow Sam - Level 2

I will try not to bore you with more pictures of Riley's skating class (same clothes, different day, etc.) but I will probably post Day 1 of her class and the last day just to show any progress she makes (video to come in the next post). Last night's class they started with skating backwards! Riley has been trying this move with Josh for a few weeks so she was excited to do it in class. And there's a lot less using the walker thing too. Big progress from Level 1!

Also, we thought she might get a new teacher for Level 2, but she got Miss Megan again so she's pretty happy about that! She had a few other helpers with last night's class, not sure if they will be regular helpers or just for the first night. Another change: She is in with a whole different group of kids this time. Not sure where everyone went from her first session, but I think she might be the youngest in this group so we'll see how it goes!

The BEST Wedding:)

Yesterday night we went to the wedding of a friend of mine from High School. Part of the group of us who gets together a bunch, we were all super excited to celebrate with Emily and Jeremy. Pictured are all the TG people at the wedding reception: Meg and I on the left, Jackie in the front middle, Fred (Meg) next to her and in the back is Vieve in the red, and Josh next to Emily, the bride. Are you all turned around yet? I kinda did that in a circle. Oops. Anyway, it was a beautiful wedding and we are happy for the newlyweds! Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Best!

The wait staff at the reception was awesome! When it came time to serve wine for dinner, I declined obviously, and the waitress...I think her name was Barb...asked me if I wanted milk instead. And not only did she go the extra mile to offer me something besides water, she brought it to me in a beer glass! Also, each table got their own cake and there were a bunch of different flavors...We got Chocolate Raspberry, but Meg's table had Carrot Cake...there was one with amaretto (SP?), one with baileys, one lemon and I can't remember the rest...there was a lot of table swapping for dessert which made for some good laughs! Fun stuff:) And I have to say, the milk in a beer glass goes way better with chocolate cake in my book!

A Little More Brynn

These are a bit old by now, but the picture of Josh holding Brynn was at the hospital on the second day after she was born. And the pics of Riley and Adrienne with Baby Brynn are of the day they brough her home from the hospital. This was the first day Adrienne got to meet her sister because of the visitation restrictions. She seems to be pretty excited about this baby sister thing, at least for now:) She even shared her ki-kee (blankie) with her!

Bringing in the New Year

Yesterday was spent bringing in the new year in fun-tastic fashion. We spent the whole day with our friends Jim and Erica and their daughter Ashley, and Jim's mom, Vicky who was like a second mom to Josh growing up...and we were joined later by our good friend Tommy B and little Christopher, who is Jim and Erica's nephew.

We started with lunch at Applebee's and went from there to the indoor water park at Maple Grove's community center. When the kids were worn out and the dad's were freezing, we packed it up and headed to Vicky's new apartment for dinner and play time and a lot of "Remember When" conversation. Riley was so tired her cheeks were rosy before dinner...but we stayed until 8ish and she crashed hard in the car on the way home.

Today, we will spend time with more friends as my friend Emily from high school is getting married and my TG girls bunch will be there to celebrate! What a great way to start the new year! Thanks, Mom and Dad for cutting your getaway short for baby sitting duty this weekend. We really appreciate it!!

Christmas #2 at the Schusters

While we celebrated Christmas at the Schusters in early December, that was to celebrate with Auntie Jessie and Great Aunt Pammy who weren't sure if they would be able to make it on Christmas because of work conflicts. We celebrated again with Schusters on Christmas Day with Great-Grandma Mary and Great Uncle Don. Jessie and Cory were able to make it up late, but Pam and Pat were stranded in South Dakota and couldn't get there, so it's a good thing we did both celebrations...although, we did miss Pammy's cookies:) But I'm told she will be delivering some sugar this week:)

If you want to see the rest of our earlier celebration, I posted sometime after December 6th if you want to look back at them. And in keeping with family traditions, the hat Josh is wearing (not the pelican, but the hat) belonged to his great uncle, Pete.

Blue Moooooooon....

I thought it was really cool that the year 2009 ended with a blue moon. At it looked pretty darn cool coming up over my neighbors' roof, so I tried to get a picture. Sorry, it was too cold to go outside to take it so it's through my living room window. But how often does a year end and a decade end "once in a Blue Moon" ?

TIGF - 2010

Welcome to 2010! I am thankful for an ok year in 2009, but hopefully for a better 2010, especially for Josh. Let's just say his work situation has gotten a bit stale and he is not as happy as he has been for many years. We are lucky, I know, that he even has a job so we will focus on that for now:) 2010 Promises to have LOTS of big changes for us, starting with our new baby boy in just a few short weeks. I am both looking forward to this big year and starting to freak about all the changes we may see coming:) Wish us luck...and HEEEEEEERRRRRREEEE we go!

Christmas Morning

We didn't stay long on Christmas morning, just long enough to eat YUMMY caramel rolls that my mom made for breakfast and for the boys to help Dad shovel/plow out. We headed home to do the same to our driveway before we went to Schusters for the afternoon. Riley and Adrienne played with the tutu's that Santa brought for Riley while we packed up everything in the car again.

The picture of my dad in the crazy bathrobe was another family tradition. This robe ONLY comes out on Christmas, and before I went to bed on Christmas Eve I told Dad it was mandatory that he dig it out for the morning:) Thanks, Dad!

P.S. Sorry, I couldn't fit it all in to last year...one more Christmas post and we'll move on...