Brought to you by Annika (and her new camera)

Here is Annika giving you the scoop:

Annika's Picture, Sofie's Attitude

How do you like that look? I'll bet she was saying her new thing: "No look at me!" Grumpy Sofie is kind of funny, but just not as sweet as goofy Sofie. This image was brought to you by Annika (and her new camera).

Broken Link!

For whatever reason, my photography link hasn't been working. I changed it and it should be working again (just in case you were interested!). :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

For the first time since we've lived in Grand Rapids, we have visited both of our parents' homes over Thanksgiving.  We have spent time with them over Thanksgiving before, but never in both Mora and Cambridge on the same day.  We started Thursday off with a trip down to Greg & Deb's to have a feast (no exaggeration) with Dave's brothers and sisters-in-law.  I should have taken a picture of the spread of food and everyone around the table, but I was too worried about Sofie puking (she was acting weird and with all of the puking done by our family in the last month, it isn't as random or as irrational as it seems).  It turned out she was fine--I think she just had a sore throat and a severe case of shyness.  :)  But here is a picture of the whole fam after eating:

Then we traveled down to Cambridge to spend the night at my parents' house.  I don't have any pictures on my camera documenting that, but Annika might.  My nephew, Chris, gave her one of his cameras....she was SO excited and has been snap-happy ever since.  We may need to start her own blog soon.  (Thank you so much, Chris!)

On Friday we headed back home, but stopped back at the Yankowiak's to get our Christmas tree!  It is terribly obvious to me in all of these pictures that Sofie had napped a total of about 40 minutes between Thursday and Friday combined at this point.  She was in a bit of a daze, to say the least. 

Yeah, we give our four-year-old saws all the time...we figure she's good with scissors, so.... (just kidding, Dad!):

 

One of Annika's many driving lessons from a Boppa on the farm (what a lucky girl to have both sets of grandparents on "farms"!):

The memory on Annika's new camera was already full, so she had to borrow my camera to take a picture of Boppa and Nana.  Boppa and Nana, you might be glad to see that I took my version of the same picture.  :)

Annika's:

     Mine:

And then we spent Saturday decorating our tree, which proved to be a bit, um, fuller than it looked in the field!  Ha, ha!

And a weekend of holidays and travel would not be complete without a good virus of some sort.  "Hacky Hackmeister" is back (the name I give Annika when she has a cold and coughs like a maniac) and the rest of us are feeling a bit congested, as well.  Oh, well, we'll count it all as worth it and just hope that we only spread cheer, not germs, to our families.

The ones you'd guess were sisters, perhaps

Only time will tell any resemblance, but at Cora's dedication last weekend, a few people mentioned that Cora looks a lot like Annika did as a baby.  Considering that Annika and Oran look pretty similar, it would make sense.  Although I would hardly get pictures of these two little gals confused, I do see some resemblance.  Certainly more than I see between Annika and Sofie!!! 

Annika at 6 months

Isn't she ADORABLE?  She is not quite 6 months yet. 

Sofie at 6 months.  Who do you think look more like sisters?

Well, maybe we'll just need to take Cora and keep her since she fits in so nicely.  :)

Could it be?

The last two nights we've had a really rough time getting Annika to go to sleep. We put her to bed early (7pm last night!) because we can tell she's tired, and yet she just keeps herself awake. Last night it was about 10pm before she finally zonked out (and she had gone without a nap yesterday!). Tonight she is still awake at 11:30 even though she has been in bed (and has had consequences) since 8:30pm. We're starting to wonder if it is due to....of all ridiculous things....excitement.

Last night I had told her and Sofie that their friends were coming this morning. It was hard for her to fall asleep and both girls were up at a fairly early hour asking for their friends. Today we mentioned that we'll be traveling to stay with Nana and Boppa and going to Cora's dedication over the weekend. Perhaps causing another late night?

Any thoughts? It does seem like she battles sleep more when we have overnight company (and is then a wreck for it) and also when we travel (again, a wreck). Obviously there are times that I can just resist telling her "exciting" news, but any ideas on how to manage this when we have guests or when we travel? We have done enough of both since she was a wee babe that you'd think she'd get used to it, but she still tends to be a wreck. I'd love some ideas and feedback or advice if you have any! Because did I mention that battling with my kid to get sleep gets me all worked up and then unable to sleep? Ha!

This is for my parents

That is a green sheet (aka my “green screen”) and yes, that is a thumbtack holding it to my wall. Mom and Dad, I’m still doing the same things I did 20 years ago. This time it’s for real. lol

A chat with Sofie

See, she does talk!

On the Twelfth Day of Illness

We went to the Lorie Line concert last night (delightful!) and enjoyed lots of Christmas music, including The Twelve Days of Christmas.

The merry feeling didn't last long as today began with a puker and officially marked day 12 of one of us being quite sick. TWELVE DAYS! Straight!

My mental stability is not as questionable as one might imagine and I have not succumbed to tears yet (well, except during my own 24 hour stomach virus, I did briefly shed some tears...). So, overall, we're doing well and hoping to a healthy twelve days of Christmas at least!

(A brief panic attack ensued today when I realized I only had about a month plus some days to do all of my Christmas shopping. Yep. Haven't even started. The panic subsided when I chose denial over reality. I have plenty of time until Christmas, right? Right?!)