Happy Birthday Carly!

OK so we're a little late getting this post done but we've been busy! Carly had a great birthday, although I'm not sure she realized it was any different from any other day. She did however thoroughly enjoy singing Happy Day to You most of the weekend.

After trying to put these candles out with her fingers (ouch) she was able to blow them out.



She didn't really see the point cutting the cake or getting a fork dirty.



Mmmmm frosting!


Earlier in the day we had to run some errands. Carly really likes shopping, especially with these cool carts.


It was a very hot morning but we got some quality park time in at the big playground in Rochester.


She loves being able to climb and run without much help from mom or dad.


After a hot morning at the park it was time to fill the pool so it would be nice and warm after nap time.


Unfortunately after nap time it was chilly and rainy. Not really good pool weather, but a great excuse to stay inside and open presents!






A new lawn mower, how cool!


Hey Daddy, I thought you said this thing makes bubbles


Guess we better review the directions.....


Thanks Daddy, works like a dream


Monday was a holiday so everybody was home and the weather was much nicer. We spent a large part of the day pool side.






Eventually poolside wasn't quite good enough. Nice legs Daddy!


Tuesday it was back to Christine's while Mom and Dad went back to work, but the partying wasn't over yet. Mom made dirt dessert and we had a little birthday party with all the fun kids at daycare.

More presents!




It seems impossible to believe that our baby is 2 years old! Although we do occasionally see a glimpse of those "terrible twos" that people talk about, in general she is a happy and polite (she must get this from her daddy) little girl who keeps us laughing. Here are just a few things our big girl can do.

• She can count to 10 if you don't mind leaving out number 6.
  
• She has definitely got 1-5 down and she knows that she prefers two animal crackers to one and will tell you so
  
• She loves to sing and dance. She's gotten pretty good at twinkle twinkle little star and loves to sing the alphabet. It's a work in progress but she's got most of it.
• She can spot a school bus, a cycle (motorcycle), or an airplane from miles away
• She is getting very close to making that tricycle go forward (thanks Gram and Bak)

Well I guess that's all for now. Y'all come back now ya hear

The merry month of May

Well, as usual, it's been a while again. We've been quite busy up here getting ready for the new addition. The end of April and so far in May have had quite a few events.
We'll start out with the May 1st weekend in the Dells for Gram's big birthday party. As you may have already read about on other family blogs, it was definitely a memorable one! We began with a trip to a familiar hangout for a big family dinner. The Moosejaw Pizza place. You may remember this from Baka's birthday party last year. In case you are fuzzy... here's an image to freshen your mental picture.

Now then we'll move on to the current picture. Yes folks, this is one measly year later. Can you all believe how big she's gotten?!?!

The cabin we stayed at had it's own little built in movie theater. The kids enjoyed several videos there. Carly was a little more enthusiastic than cousin Isaac.

There was also a great indoor pool. Carly is becoming quite the little swimmer. Well... maybe not yet, but she's not afraid of the water, and is even beginning to learn to kick and paddle.

Here she was taking a break from all that 'swimming' to try out cousin Cassidy's new little raft. She enjoyed this momentarily, then decided that rafts are evil and were to be avoided at all costs.

Gram thought the three girls needed some new shades. Here's Cassidy, Carly and Emily checking themselves out.

So this will be the last and only picture our child(ren) will likely have with this famous statue. This was unfortunately the most memorable part of the trip. Some of you know Paul Bunyan, pictured here in the background. Paul poisoned the family.

After recovering from the above mentioned event, we move on to Mother's Day weekend. The weather had again switched to the chilly side, so we went and checked out the sites at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley. (I think it's Apple Valley... who knows where those stupid suburbs' city limit lines are?) Anyway... here's Kim and Carly about to be swallowed by Jonah's weird cousin made of wood and paper mache'.

Hrmmm... how'd this get in here again?

Ok...back to the zoo.... They had this nice little playground to relax in. Notice the rather tight bend in the slide? Well, lets just say it's not meant for 6' tall adults.

Carly was absolutely fascinated by the leopard. The leopard was also fascinated by Carly, and paced back and forth for several minutes.

Just a pic of Carly and her dad.

During these last few weeks we've also been getting Carly ready to transition to her new big girl room. We've got her toddler bed set up, a dresser refinished and ready for her, and even moved her big letters from upstairs to down. She was a little apprehensive about the move. We had several attempts at making friends with the bed before we gave it the first night.

Didn't take too long to adapt.

In addition to all the moving things around in the house, several things moved out of the house...and into the driveway for participation in the Kasson town-wide garage sale weekend. Carly was a big help.

Here's our little marketing director working with some advertising materials.

She really get's into her work.

Ok... well that's all for now, I suppose.

I guess we could do a quick Rocky update. 36 weeks along, and all is well. Kim's been to the Dr. for checkups a few times in the past weeks, and they say everything is measuring as it should be and seems to be just fine.

Ok... that's really all now. -bye!

The month of April

So it's been a while since we did a Carly catch-up. So here goes....
We had our first year of coloring easter eggs. Everyone got in on the fun. Carly had a pretty good time, and we managed to not make too big of a mess.



The Fri/Sat before Easter, Grandpa Schahl, Grammy J and Uncle Steven ran up from Illinois to say hello. We haven't seen them since Christmas, and well, Carly's grown up quite a bit since then. It was a pretty whirlwind weekend, we didn't get many pictures while they were here.

Carly however did get a visit by the Easter bunny, who brought her a stroller for her babies. I understand the realism factor but really... why are they putting safety straps in the little kid's baby stroller??

Carly really enjoys going to the park. She's really getting brave, and climbs up and goes down the slide all by herself now.

Taking advantage of some nice weather to help Mommy plant some herbs.



We stopped by one of those used kids toy stores and found this little four wheeled bike for her to ride around on. It was definitely a couple bucks well spent.


Carly had a play-date with Phillip. Phillip belongs to one of Kim's co-workers who just moved away from Rochester. They'll be missed.



Finally just this past weekend, Baka made a trip up with some friends and Uncle Andrew. They brought along some goodies for Carly that included this really cool giraffe coat tree that Baka had made for Kim and Jenni when they were kids. It will go great with the hippo hamper and Carly's new bedding when she moves into her new big girl room soon. (more on that in a future post.)

Ok... gotta run. It's kinda late, and it's been a long couple days.

The many faces of "Rocky"

We managed to get in and get a quick 3D ultrasound, but Rocky was a little camera shy. We did manage to get a few shots though. We were 31 weeks yesterday by the calendar... and Rocky was measuring at 32 weeks. So everything appears to be moving along well.



This is a hand... sorry the scanner can't pick up the lines very well, but you can just make out the curled fingers.

In these pictures, to top of Rocky's head is on the right.