Week of birthdays

Hello everyone! Katie wanted to sing Happy Birthday to a few recent and upcoming birthdays in the family. Jeff Mezera's birthday was January 6th....Denise Wullner's birthday is Monday, January 21st...Jim Pladsen's birthday is Thursday, January 24th. I won't mention any ages (unless bribed). Have a great Sunday and try to stay WARM! (Glad we aren't moving this weekend...)

Sesame Street Live

Katie and I went to see "When Elmo Grows Up" this morning at the Target Center in Minneapolis. It was very exciting and we had fourth row seats. Katie and I saw the Sesame Street show last year too, so Katie knew more of what to expect. We sat by a nice woman from Apple Valley and her 2 year old daughter. About an hour in there is a 15 minute intermission. The woman next to me stood up to go get her daughter something to drink. She came back and said that the usher told her that if we wanted to move into the front row we could, it was totally empty. So....for the second half of the show, Katie and I had front row seats. :) It was a great show and Katie loved it. She even got a high-five from Elmo. Hopefully the people sitting behind us weren't too peeved. :)

Cookie Monster

Elmo and Oscar

Bert and Ernie...(and the very nice usher who let us move!)

Grand finale

Growing kids

Will had his 6 month check up on Monday and we learned that he weighs 20 pounds, 15 ounces, and is 28 1/4 inches long. He is no longer in the 98th % for weight and length...he has dropped down to 95%. :)
Katie was back at school yesterday, and she surprises me all the time. Her shyness has gotten so much better since the beginning of the year, she chases after her friends, wants to hold their hands, and carries on actual conversations with them. Of course she has taken it upon herself to invite them over to our new house...so that will be the motivating factor in getting settled in fast.
Katie wanted to make a video for today's post and so we recorded one of her new favorite songs.

6 month mark

Yesterday, Will hit the 6 month mark. We celebrated by watching home movies of his first few weeks at home. Katie celebrated by, well, you'll see in the following pictures. :)

Will has started to eat some baby food - he likes the cereal, as does Katie. He seems to be ok with sweet potatoes and bananas (No, you can't have any Denise.) But now because of the new food, I think he is developing his first diaper rash. It isn't bad, but we have been SOO lucky til now.

Katie and John are planning to take in their first movie in a theater tomorrow morning. They plan to see "The Pirates That Don't Do Anything", it's the new Veggietales movie. Katie is pretty excited, and so is John, although the prospect of popcorn at 10 am might not be what he had in mind.






This is what Katie did while we were watching home movies. Please note - this is a permanent marker. It actually came off easier than I expected though. :)

Ooops...

In the last post remember how I said that this week Katie went back to school and we were getting back on track? Well turns out Katie actually started back to school LAST Thursday - we just didn't go. :) I took her to school on Tuesday and her teacher said "Oh we missed Katie on Thursday. Was she sick?" I gave her a strange look and said "No, I think the other Kate was sick." There are 2 Kate(s) in her class and the other one was sick the Thursday before Christmas. She gave me a strange look back and that was that. Well, Tuesday afternoon I was filling in the calendar with all the school and house dates coming up when I see that classes resumed Jan 3 for Katie. WHAT!??! Oh well, good thing this is preschool - it gives Katie AND I a chance to practice before we get to the real thing. :)

Getting back to the routine

Hi everyone - it's been a hectic couple of weeks, but we are now back into our routine and hopefully that means more posts to the blog. :) We are busily getting ready to move - trying to do as much as we can to organize things. I am also actively sorting Katie's old baby clothes and selling them on ebay and locally. So in the midst of all this I get a call last night from our townhome owners that they would like to show our townhouse to a family that is looking to rent! The woman that called said she told them we were in the process of moving so they understand that it will be a little cramped. Um, yeah, that's great, but did you tell them we have kids? So last night as soon as supper was over everyone pitched in and made the place sparkle. Katie was great with a dust rag and Will kept himself happy sitting by himself. I'm sure that's the last thing John wanted to do on a Monday night, but we got everything put away, vacuumed, dusted and cleaned in under 2 hours.

Katie was back to school today and very happy to get there. Because we are moving she will be attending a new preschool next fall. We went there on Monday to visit the classroom and speak with some of the teachers. She had a great time and the teachers even let her do some activities with the kids while we were there. She didn't want to leave so I'll take that as a good sign.

Will is a pro at sitting on his own now. He is really into playing with Katie and toys. I've got some pictures of him sitting, but have yet to get a good one of him and the toys. Also, because it was so warm this weekend the snow was in prime condition for making a snowman. So on Sunday Katie and John headed outside for sledding and snowman making. Will saw them through the window and got upset until I took him outside as well.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all have a calm and happy year to come.

Since we got back from Iowa we have actually been pretty busy. Will was waking up quite a bit at night so we bit the bullet and put up his big crib. Actually John put up SARAH'S crib all by himself. :) Hopefully she doesn't mind that it's being used by a BOY! Now we have even less space in our bedroom, but that will just make the move to the new house even better. Last night Will slept a little better, only woke up twice, and I was able to get him to sleep longer in his crib, than in our bed. I think we kept waking each other up, and the other little mini-crib was getting way to small for him.

We have also started Will on a little rice cereal everyday. I think this is the 3rd day so far and he is crazy about it. He opens his mouth very well, swallows, and has his mouth open again before I get another spoonful. :) Next week we'll try some green beans. And so it begins...

These last few days Will has really sat up very well by himself too. This is a bit sooner than Katie, but he has a bigger bottom for stabilization. :) This morning we were even able to leave him and walk away while he sat by himself. Got some pictures of him sitting.

Happy Holidays!

Slick Willy

No, this is not a reference to our little Will, but rather another more popular one. Yesterday Mary, John's mom got to get up close and personal with former president, Bill Clinton. He was in Decorah speaking on behalf of his wife. Ok, so she wasn't really up close and personal with him, but she did manage a photo op that I thought I would share. (Note to other family members...see, I can put pictures of YOU on here too!)

A visit from Santa

Santa came to our house last night, and we got to open presents at home this morning. Katie and Will were very good kids cuz they got lots of toys. As you can see, Katie got a tent to play in and her and Will got a table and chairs from Santa. Katie also got lots of stocking stuffers and some Little People sets. She loved the card games from Baby Noah too. Daddy got the Lord of the Rings trilogy set (which he is watching at the moment), and Mommy got new pajamas (which she is wearing right now) and a spa gift certificate. All in all it was a great morning! Marry Christmas!

Katie helped make cut out cookies yesterday. They turned out so great that we are making more today!

Katie found her gifts from Santa right away - kind of hard to miss them. Please note the darkness outside. :) Katie woke us up at 6:45 am to get out of bed. Luckily Will had already beat her to it by waking up at 6. :)

Katie found candy canes, pez, markers, and lots of things in her stocking. Will got jipped in his.

Katie begins the task of opening her gifts.

Will couldn't open anything, but he sure loved shaking the paper, making noise with it and trying to eat it.

Bath time fun

Katie and Will are having more fun in the bathtub now that Will sits up in his seat. He likes putting his hand in the water and grabbing any toy Katie lets him have. Here are the first pics of the two of them together in the tub. Please don't pay any attention to the dirty bathtub walls....

New house

Well we finally have the house hunting behind us, and assuming nothing strange comes up at the inspection tomorrow we will be home owners again. We are looking to move around the first week or two of February...kinda depends on how warm it gets. :) We will be moving to Chanhassen, MN. Katie will be able to finish out her year of pre-school in Eden Prairie, and continue there next year if we want. It will be nice to have a 2 car garage and some extra space for the kids. I am posting some pictures of the house for you to see. Overall there is not a lot to do before we move in. I think we'll paint Katie's bedroom whatever color she chooses - to an extent, and maybe the master bedroom. Any decorating tips would be welcome. :)

Front view of home

Backyard - the swing set stays.

Kitchen - obviously...

Sun porch

Downstairs family room

Santa Time

Katie and Will visited Santa today. Both took it very well. I was able to get a pretty good picture of them. Seems Will didn't really care too much.

We are all decorated for Christmas - well, as decorated as we are gonna get. We have the tree up, and some other decorations too. We have a small nativity scene that we got from Grandma Mary last year. Katie has decided that she likes to play house with it. She hides the daddy and the baby, then the mommy has to find them. Today she said "Baby Jesus has a dirty diaper," and she continued to change him. :) We are in for more snow this weekend...hopefully the weather decides to take a break for awhile!

Star of the week

This week Katie is "Star of the Week" at preschool. That means she gets to bring snacks for everyone, we have to make play dough to bring to school, and she gets to bring 2 things that are special to her to show to the class. Basically, it's just a lot more work for me. :) We did get to make play dough for the first time Monday night. That was a first for me. I'm glad we did it while John was home though because you really need some arm muscle.

We also worked on getting our Christmas picture done. I try to do it myself every year, and so far so good. With two kids it's a bit more complicated, but I think I did it. I have a few good ones that I am not using, so I thought I would post one of them. It appears that we took this while we were peaking from a sugar rush. :)

Winter Wonderland

We got our first measurable snowfall today - as most of the upper Midwest did. After lunch, we bundled up the kids and went out to play for a while. Will and I lasted about 90 seconds, while John and Katie lasted about 10 minutes. :) Here are some pictures of the kids in the snow.







John also took on both of the kids last night while I split for the evening. I met my friend Shelley in Rochester and saw my brothers band, County Road. It was a fun night without the kids. I was greeted this morning by Katie. When I asked her if she had fun with Dad, she said "I wasn't very nice to Dad." This usually means that she didn't listen and basically tried to do whatever she felt like. :)

The Lord's Prayer

Even though we haven't officially joined a church up here yet, Katie has been working on saying the Lord's prayer. I thought it would take a few months for her to get it down, but it only took about 10 days. We would say it at bedtime every night and before I knew it she had it down pat. So here is Katie reciting her prayer.

Good to be home again

Well we are finally home again after a long holiday weekend. It's great to visit family, but always nice to get to your own bed again. Katie is slowly but surely getting back to her old routine. Only a couple meltdowns today. For some reason she HATES getting dressed to go outside. Maybe that will change when the snow starts to fly, (which will be this week from sound of it) but it sure makes for a long winter. Perhaps I need to be more positive about the temperature change too - I must say I don't set a very good example...I despise the cold, and would rather have 75 degree days everyday.

Anyway, we got a chance to visit with our friend Scot, his wife Deb (great name) and their new baby Madison. Maddy was born about 4 weeks after Will so she is just a bit younger. I think they liked each other - liked to lay by each other, as long as Will behaved himself and didn't squash her. As you can see from the pictures, Will has a SLIGHT weight advantage. :) She is a very pretty little girl. Katie liked being able to play with a "girl baby."

Getting ready to head south

Turkey day is approaching and that means a trip down south to Iowa. (Referring to it as 'down south' makes me feel like we're going someplace nice and warm!) Sounds like we will be heading down Thursday morning which would put us into Waukon sometime in the early afternoon. Friday, the kids and I will drive over to Prairie du Chein to visit Janet and the boys (and the cats). Saturday Katie wants to play Bingo with Carol up at Northgate. She has been practicing and is pretty excited to yell "BINGO!" We are also going to try to squeeze in time Saturday to visit Scot Sorum and his new wife and baby. That's just a rough template of how our days look while we are in town.

Now for some nice brother/sister pictures. Will is VERY into Katie now. He has a really great belly laugh whenever she dances and sings for him. He always wants know where she is at, and is really frustrated sometimes when he can't get down to play with her. Here are a couple pictures from this morning while they were both in good moods. Tonight we have our first parent/teacher conference with Katie's preschool teacher, Ms. Laurie. Yes, they even have these meetings for preschoolers. :)

The shot heard round the world

Today was flu shot day for the Pladsen girls. Katie and I got our shot this afternoon. First, I picked Katie up at school and had packed a lunch for us to have a picnic at school. I didn't think we would have time to go home and eat lunch. Katie was pretty excited about that, but then I explained what we were going to be doing and it wasn't too fun. We got to the dr. and she was fine. I went first - she watched, and no big deal. Then she got her shot in her leg so it wouldn't hurt as much, and boy did she scream! Of course she got a sticker and we hung around the waiting room til the crying had stopped and to make sure there wasn't going to be a reaction since this is my first flu shot.
Then I had to deal with the drama of a 3 year old girl. Anyone that knows Katie knows that she can be a little dramatic. So now her leg is broken just like dad's. (By the way, John's knee is dong much better!) She has to limp and says that we have to put ice on her leg. (Even though the leg that she wants ice on isn't the leg she got the shot in!) So I'm sure in a couple hours all will be well again....that is if the mail comes. I promised her I would have a surprise movie for her and Netflix is supposed to deliver a new Care Bears movie today. Let's hope they come through.

4 month check up

We had Will's 4 month checkup today. Here are the stats:

He weighed in at 18 pounds, 11 ounces and was 27 inches long. Both of those put him in the 97th percentile for a boy his age. :) So we must be doing something right.

He got some shots today which upset him for about 30 seconds, then forgot why he was crying. Everything seems to be right on track developmentally, which we knew. His Dr. was very nice and spent about 30 minutes discussing our options about certain shots in the future, and how we can delay them for a bit if we wish.

Katie and I will get our flu shots on Thursday. (Lord help me) I'm not sure whether it's better to talk about it and let her know it's coming or just surprise her that day. Our little drama queen will put on a show either way I'm afraid.

Will is all ready for winter! We found out these mittens from Old Navy are too small (they left marks on his wrists) - so we upgraded him to Katie's mittens and bought her a new pair instead. Then I realized 'holy cow - he is wearing a 3 year old's mittens..."

Will gets to borrow our friend Noah's Bumbo seat for a while. I think Katie likes it even more because Will can sit and have picnics with her. She serves him all kinds of pretend food that she whips up in her kitchen. Will is excited because Katie is actually giving him stuff to play with.

Minnesota Sushi

It was a day of eating out, which it SHOULD be because then I don't have to do the dishes. Tonight for supper the four of us went to Little Sushi and had sushi. I hadn't had any since our trip down to Key Largo with our friend Scot about 4 years ago. I really enjoyed it then, but I can't remember if it was actually good food, or if I was just jacked up on Japanese beer and Saki. Anyway this little place was really pretty good for Minnesota. And the funniest part? Katie barely ate anything at the Olive Garden earlier today. No chicken, no noodles, no salad, just bread. At the sushi place she chowed down cucumber rolls one bite right after another. We didn't really give her any of our fish...figure it best not to push it too far yet. But she enjoyed the cucumbers, rice, and seaweed wraps. :)