See Ya 2011... 2012 Here We Come!

A few days ago I realized how close I was to 100 blog posts for the year of 2011, hence the recent push of posts. 

The year 2011 has been good to us overall.  John and I were able to take a Caribbean cruise in January, take a family vacation to Ohio in August, play softball and have lots of picnics this summer.  We bought a new car this spring and I just celebrated my 30th birthday.  Both of us are still fortunate enough to be employed and see our families often.  It's been a joy to watch Megan journey into toddlerhood and we feel blessed to be given another opportunity to be parents in the next few months.

As we enter into 2012 I anticipate this to be a great year as well.  I am so excited to continue watching Megan's development and see how she reacts to becoming a big sister.  I am longing to see our baby boy's beautiful face and watch his personality develop at an oh-so-early age.  Along with that I also know that day will come when I can touch my toes again!  Oh the homefront, I a want to continue to improve upon my photography as my subjects allow while keeping up the blog - I love having the photos along with the posts as something for my children to look back upon some day.  Hopefully John and I will still be able to make time for ourselves and not be driven crazy in our little house!  Maybe my nesting will result in a cleaner and more organized house? 

Finally, I sincerely want to thank each and every one of my faithful readers.  It's been a joy sharing our lives with all of you this year.  Keep reading to see what journeys we take in 2012.  Love you!

Mama's Big Girl Helper

I wanted to take a few minutes and praise my little girl Megan.  She'd been becoming a good helper over the past few months and now especially good just this last week.  I think she just came out of a growth spurt and is now understanding and communicating sooo much better. 

Megan and I needed to run some errands on Thursday night and it was the best trip I've ever had with her.  Some time ago I learned the best way to shop Kwik Trip with her.  I get a basket and she gets a basket.  The bread and bananas go in hers her and I get the milk, eggs, and butter since they're heavier and breakable.  She followed me through the store and then handed the cashier her items when it was time to pay.  As I carried the bags out of the store she even turned to the lady to wave and say "bye".

Next, we had to go to Mackenthun's to get groceries.  She held my hand as we walked through the parking lot into the store where she then could pick out her car to sit in.  She sat in the car the entire time I shopped.  She spun the wheel and jabbered and had the best time.  She only got out once when I stopped to get bacon - she thought we needed more hot dogs and ring bologna. 

Around the house she continues to love "washing" dishes.  But lately I have also had her help me wipe up spills from the floor and help wipe off the counters as well as helping to set the table.  I think I will start her on dusting soon :) along with helping us pick up her toys.

It's also been a big help having lots of new toys around since there are so many more options of things to play with.  It nice that she is finally able to entertain herself.  Our little girl is growing up.  We've also found that we need to remember to communicate to her like an adult and tell her where we're going and what we're doing all the time.  Sometimes she gets concerned when Mama doesn't go out to the car right away when we're leaving the house or if Daddy has to go to the bathroom. 

Here is a picture of Megan dressed up in her princess clothes.  She feels so pretty!

The Results Are In!!

Our immediate family found out the gender of our expected baby on Christmas and when we returned from the holiday, but I know there are still a few people out there waiting anxiously to hear our results.  So here goes!

It's a......

Yes, I know the picture makes it pretty obvious and our little guy was very proud of himself during the ultrasound.  There was no doubt in any of our minds that we were expecting a baby boy.

My last doctor's appointment was just a few days before the ultrasound and at that appointment the heart beat was 125-131 (good range is 120-160), so on the low end.  Old wive's tale says if it's low it's a boy so our hunch was correct.  Another reason I thought it was a boy before we saw the results was I had a co-worker who did the "pencil test" on me.  Dangling a pencil above your wrist is supposed to predict the gender of your children and how many you will have.  It first swung perpendicular to my arm showing Megan and then swung the length of my arm showing this baby.  Too cool!

We tried to have a little fun with the gender reveal.  John baked up a couple batches of cupcakes with filling in the middle.  In two cupcakes, he colored the filling blue so only one person at each party got to see the results.  At the Gennrich Christmas it was my sister Rachel who picked the special cupcake and John's dad got it at the Lewis Christmas.  Witnesses say he got a little teary when he discovered that he would have a grandson!

We also let my dad's side of the family know the gender on Christmas.  Every year we give my grandparents a Grandma & Grandpa day calendar and write our special days in it.  On May 1st I wrote "Great Grandson's Due Date" and had my Grandma read it.  She also was excited by the news although she figured it was a boy from the previous ultrasound pics I had posted.  I really don't think that was a little boy part but it doesn't really matter any more.

John and I are both so excited to have a son on the way and can't wait to meet him around the beginning of May!

Christmas Photos - Part 2

On to the Lewis family Christmas event!  I didn't get many pictures of Megan in her dress here as it was all about play and getting comfy for chasing after the cats! 

Megan took a 2 1/2 hour nap so missed the entire gift opening.  Don't worry, we held on to her presents until she woke up!  The youngest kids, Alexa and Kody helped distribute the gifts.

Lots of big presents this year!

This isn't Coco the cat but I love how you can see their reflections in the tabletop.  This cat is TC and Megan is learning how to say his name now too!

Christmas Photos - Part 1

Christmas pictures are finally here!  For Christmas this year we pretty much followed the same route as past years.  Church service at our church and the Gennrich immediate family on Christmas Eve.  Then Christmas morning church at my parents' church where John and I played brass, on to John's parents' place for lunch and presents.  We finished up at my parents' place where my dad's side of the family had gathered. 

I don't want to write much details, but here are some of my favorite photos from Christmas Eve.

Sibling picture including Kevin's girlfriend, Catherine.  She is a very nice young woman and we're so happy for Kevin!

Megan's new baby!

Too precious!

Love these Christmas jammies!

This was my doll cradle when I was young but Megan loves lying in it herself! 

Merry Christmas 2011

 Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

I want to wish everyone a very special Christmas this year.  We have been enjoying the Holiday season, especially with the wonderful weather we've been having so far! 

So, what has Megan enjoyed the most this year?  It certainly was not seeing Santa at The Home Depot last weekend.  Once she laid one eye on him, she clung on to me harder than she ever has before in her life!  Needless-to-say, I did not get a cute picture of her and Santa to put up on my blog.  I only came home with a picture taken by HD of John on Santa's right knee, me on his left with Megan on my lap!  Even the candy cane that Mrs. Claus gave her was not enough to convince her that Santa was OK.

To Megan the Christmas decorations are alright and for the most part she has left them alone.  When her and I decorated our tree I gave her some older balls to put on the tree.  Well, they were more fun to smash on the hardwood floor than hang on the branches.  She kind of turned decorating the tree into a Greek party - you know, the ones you see in movies where they are all throwing plates on the floor!  Her favorite decoration are the nutcrackers.  We take them off the shelf and then smash our fingers in their mouths!

But, Megan's absolute favorite thing about this season are all the Christmas lights.  We instantly hear "Oh, Wow!" coming from the backseat whenever we drive somewhere at night.  There are several houses in our neighborhood that are decorated nicely so we try to drive by them whenever we come home but she always wants more!  Last Tuesday night we took her to the house in Waconia that looks like it's out of the Griswold's Christmas movie.  You tune your radio to a certain station and the lights go along with the music.  Very cool!  We brought Megan up to the front seat for that show and we probably watched for a good 10-15 minutes.  Very cheap entertainment and worth it to know she is enjoying it so much.

Pictures of Christmas Eve and Christmas soon to come!

December/Pre-Christmas Wrap Up

Before we get into telling about the Christmas activities I wanted to give a very brief outline of what we have been up to from Thanksgiving on.  Of course there was the expected Christmas shopping but we also had lots of fun this past month too (minus this last week week when I was super sick with a cold).

A couple days after Thanksgiving, my aunt Janet invited her nieces and nephews over to her new apartment for a Christmas decorating/lasagna party.  John, Megan and I had never been there before and it was nice to help her get her place looking very festive.  Megan really warmed up to the atmosphere rather quickly - once she found the stepstools, that is.

Also right after Thanksgiving was John's parents birthdays.  We celebrated at Famous Dave's and Megan's curiosity earned her a quick tour of the kitchen grill area and a sticker!  We still can't get her to eat much at restaurants because there is so much other stuff going on that's more exciting than food.

I couldn't resist throwing this picture in of Megan and my parents horsing around on their bed!  One of Megan's favorite things to do over there.  All she has to do is make snoring noise and they know where she wants to play.

What is the Christmas season without cookies.  The Lewis/Kauffman ladies once again gathered at John's aunt Kathy's house for the annual cookie exchange.  Megan occupied herself with playing with Kathy's dog, Teddy.  For some reason she didn't call Teddy a dog, but rather "pet" or "bow" (like bow-wow).

Here's the cookie crew!  We all came home with plenty of goodies for the holidays!

Next was a birthday dinner celebration for John's sister Dawn.  We sure have had lots of opportunities to gather together with family this holiday season which is great!  So fun to also see Alexa and Megan play together and for Megan to get more used to seeing and interacting with her aunts and uncles.

John's mother is auditioning to join the show choir Sweet Adelines.  They joined forces with the Commodores to put on a fabulous Christmas concert for a fairly good audience.  They had some nice arrangements of traditional Christmas songs in barbershop harmonies.  A very fun concert and I hope to see them again soon! 

Lastly, John once again returned to his home church for another bells performance.  He played in the church's Lessons and Carols church service last Sunday.  Basically, a church service with readings followed by a hymn or song by one of the choirs. 

Megan at 21 Months

21 months already? Megan actually turned 21 months last week so I am behind again but need to get this post in before Christmas! Just three short months until our little girl turns 2!

Megan’s bedtime routine seems to be back to normal – as long as Daddy is there to put her jammies on and give her a hug and kiss she will usually then be very cooperative of what I ask. We still read 2-3 stores that she picks out and then she will snuggle in to bed for prayers. She is very particular about which books we read and has ways to communicate her favorites. For example, “Hot” is “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and wiggling her index finger is “Waddle”, the animated book where you have to move the pages to get the animals to move. Other favorites are “Duck” for a lift the flap book with baby animals, “Barn” for “The Big Red Barn” and “Fish” for “Friendly Floppy Fishy”. Bedtime most nights also includes saying a special prayer for Coco the cat by Megan’s special requests. I think she must dream about her “pets”.

Megan’s big news this week is that she got two new molars! She got her bottom 2-year molars so I’m sure the top two are not too far behind. This brings her total tooth count to 18!

Megan seemed to be battling a runny nose all month which makes considering she had teeth coming in. Just the last few days her cold got worse and she hadn’t been sleeping very well. Megan has hardly ever gotten sick so it’s taken some trial and error to see what will get her better. However, Megan always surprises me because even though she may have a bad runny nose and cold she is always spunky as ever. She just doesn’t seem to know how to slow down.

Megan’s getting so much better at putting words together along with her ever increasing vocabulary. I have kind of lost track of which words are new as we are always picking up new things. However, this past month she started saying her own versions of Alexa and Rachel – kind of like Yay-Yay and Day-Doh. Mickey Mouse was also added to the list.

Speaking of Mickey Mouse, it continues to still be Megan’s favorite show, however, she is getting much better at doing other things while it is one and is not quite so glued to it. I love that she points out characters while the opening song is playing and we always “sing” the last note when they turn on the light bulb. “Doo”! She literally asks us for the show when I come home. She will say “Where Daisy?, Where Minnie?, Where Pete?”

Megan’s taste buds still aren’t taking any adventurous risks no matter how hard we try. And with all the constant distractions in the house, plus Mama not having much energy, we have given her a little freedom over where she eats. We set up a “little kids table” in the living room and she will often eat her meals there. This works especially well for breakfast so she can play and eat at the same time and then run up to Daddy when I leave for work. With eating more freely comes some messier hands so we make sure we always give her a napkin to wipe her messes. She seems to really love her napkins lately since she feels in control of cleaning herself. She’s also very good about throwing them away when she’s done.

Step stools and anything that can be used as one (upside down laundry basket) have been huge this month. They help her get up onto beds and reach light switches. A lot of things like chairs and couches she can get onto by herself. We have a little stepper in her bedroom right underneath the light switch so she can control the light in her room. I think she really appreciates this “power”. Although, last night I had a nightlight/vapor scent thing plugged into an outlet and she tried for the longest time to get that thing to go out by means of the light switch. I ended up just unplugging it because we needed to get her to bed!

The last notable thing this month is that Megan has really started to like us singing in the car to her. I started it one night on the way home from my parents and she hasn’t let up since. We do a variation of “Wheels on the Bus” only using animals and animal noises. Megan is in charge of picking out the animals that are used and often calls out the next ones before the current verse is over. If anyone knows how to make a good elephant noise please let me know because that is the #1 requested sound right now.

20 Week Baby Update

Today marks the beginning of week 20 of this pregnancy!  I'm half-way there but still a loooong road ahead of me.  Today I caught myself wishing that I was at the end and could just have this baby right away.  That was mostly because most days I still am not feeling the best.  I still dread eating most meals as nothing seems appealing or appetizing.  At least the throwing up seems to have slowed up a bit - only twice since Thanksgiving.  I also have regained a lot more energy and am thinking more clearly. 

My last doctor's appointments have gone very well.  I am purposely not keeping track of how much weight I have gained because that would only depress me - I started out a lot heavier than I did when I became pregnant with Megan and will probably gain more weight this time around too.  The heart beat has been in the range of 120-160 which is what is to be expected and my blood pressure is also excellent.  I still am not feeling anything that I would consider baby moving in me but I do feel twinges which is probably just things stretching out.

John and I got to see our little one tonight at our ultrasound appointment.  I ate an orange right before the appointment hoping it would give the little one some energy to put on a show for us.  It sure worked!  It started out with essentially no movement but halfway through it was somersault after somersault in my belly!  We also saw quite a few yawns and it was nice to see such a lively baby.  It was definitely very reassuring to see that all body parts are developing as needed and, based on the measurements taken tonight, the due date was once again reconfirmed as May 1st.  We were also told that baby weighs about 12 ounces right now.

Here are my two favorite pictures of the night.  And yes, we did find out if this one is a girl or boy, but that will have to wait until Christmas!