The graduation party Saturday afternoon was very nice but boy, was it warm! It was originally supposed to be outside at Grandpa's house but with temperatures reaching 3 digits, it was just too warm. By the time we got there (we waited until Annika woke up from her nap before heading over) everyone had moved inside. Even with the air conditioner going full blast and every fan in the house on, it was still too warm in there. It didn't help that there as probably over 50 people in the house too. Everyone was in great spirits anyway. Really, what could you do? Annika had a great time playing with her cousin Jack. Jack is Jason and Jennie's boy and is about 4 months older than Annika. They were having fun playing with a small, soft football and other toys that Jack had brought along. They also had a great time together on the trampoline in the backyard. My cousin Amanda was on there with them and there were a bunch of people standing around the trampoline. To say they were well supervised is an understatement. Annika loves jumping on everything (the couch, the bed, etc.) so having a trampoline is heaven to her. The trampoline is under some trees, thank goodness. She was still a sweaty little monkey though by the end of the afternoon. And she didn't want to eat any food either, well, except for cake. She kept taking people by the hand and bringing them to the kitchen and asking for cake. I'm sure she had more than one cupcake that afternoon. When Kris and I left at 7pm to go to his reunion, the party was still in full swing. Annika had lots of babysitters that night. And she was not upset in the least that we were leaving.

The reunion Saturday night was also fun. I think it helps that Kris and I went to high school together (dating since his sophomore year!) because I knew most everybody that was there. I may not have been friends with them or talked with them much in high school, but I still recognized them and could carry on basic chit chat (where do you live, oh, you're kids are so cute!, etc.) There were a couple people that I was friends with back then and it was nice to catch up with them again. (Hi Alesha and Jon!) Kris was quite the social butterfly. I think he talked to just about everyone there that night, some more than others of course. We even got a couple goofy pictures too. I finally had to ask him at midnight if we could go. He was such a gentleman though. He kept asking me through the night if I was okay, how was I feeling, did I want to go, etc. I kept telling him that I was fine (I was!) And that I could get some water or appetizers if I needed them (yummy fresh pineapple!). I kept telling him that this was his party and that we could leave whenever he was ready. However, by midnight it was 2 hours past my usual bedtime and my back and feet were hurting from standing most of the night and the reunion was starting to thin out so I asked if we could head out too. I felt bad but by the time we picked up Annika (and said goodbye to Dave and Dar - boo!) and got home and into bed, it was 1:15am! I was sleepy! Thankfully Annika slept until 8am Sunday morning. Whew!

Yesterday was the baby shower for my cousin Melissa and her new son. It was nice to see her again (Hi Melissa!) since she lives in Florida. I even got to hold the baby for a few minutes and I'm happy to report that Annika was not jealous in the slightest! I was a little worried since she's such a Momma's girl. She was just very interested in him and pet his arms and legs. I'm sure it will be different when our baby is home 24/7 and taking up a lot of Mommy's time but at least she wasn't jealous right off the bat. She was very interested in the baby's swing though. She even tried to climb in it twice! Silly girl.

Friday night I uploaded a bunch of pictures. I finished the Annika #11 album and started an Annika #12 album. Have fun browsing. There are even a couple of pictures of Kris and I in there (from the surprise 50th birthday party a week ago - we were goofing around).

I'm having some anxiety issues today. I can't stop fidgeting and my stomach is in constant turmoil. I think my morning sickness would be a lot better if I could get some extra monitoring by the doctors. An extra appointment here and there to make sure all is well. I do this to myself all the time - get anxious and nervous and then have an upset stomach.

When I was newly pregnant I wanted to shout it from the rooftops and tell everyone. I was so excited. Now that people are starting to find out though, they are starting to say some really annoying things. I was just told to watch out for this baby because since Annika is so good, this one is going to be a hellion. Thanks. That's just a great thing to say to a pregnant woman. Oh, that baby you're carrying? It's going to be a brat. It's the odds you know. If the first one is good then the second is automatically going to be a bad little kid. Nice. Think before you speak people.

Maybe I just need to calm down.

Last night Annika and I had a great time at Uncle Dale and Aunt Shelly's house. Dinner was very good (yummy grilled marinated pork chops!) And Annika had a great time playing with all the new people. She was cracking everyone up and they kept commenting on her endless energy. Outside on the patio she was jumping off the chaise lounge chair over and over again. Then she was throwing a ball in the air repeatedly. Then she started spinning and spinning and spinning in circles. Then she was kicking a basketball all over the lawn. Then she started taking everyone for "walks" around the house, first Aunt Shelly, then Uncle Dale, then Grandpa again and again. She would have kept going too if I hadn't said at 9:15 that it was time to go home. She didn't put up any fuss at that though so she must have been getting tired.

Tomorrow is cousin Evan's graduation party at Granpda's house. And tomorrow night is Kris's 10 year high school class reunion. Is it strange that I'm stressing more over his reunion (what should I wear, is my hair okay, maybe I should wear maternity clothes so people will think I'm pregnant and not just fat, etc., etc.) than I did my own a year and a half ago? I think it's weird. Either way, I'm going in tomorrow morning for a pedicure (which I do really need) and a haircut (which I haven't had since April). Sometimes I am so vain.

Blogger is having some issues lately. It's not allowing me to log in or see some people's sites hosted by blogspot. Mine seems to be okay, probably because it's hosted on yahoo and not blogspot. Anyway, I'm writing this in WordPad and hope I can get this pasted into blogger yet today. Not that there's much going on, just because my last update was from Monday.

We'll be transitioning Annika to a twin bed in the next few months. I'd like to transition her at least a few months before the baby comes and starts sleeping in *her* crib so she doesn't feel any resentment. Kris doesn't want to re-paint her room when we redecorate it and put the new furniture in so I've been looking for bedding that will go with green and yellow striped walls. And I found some. The Emily bedding at Pottery Barn Kids is perfect! I'm so excited to have found it. Now I just need to order it and then we need to finish the basement so the office furniture can be moved down there so the 3rd bedroom is empty so the crib and dressers can be moved from Annika's room into the new nursery so the twin bed and dresser from Grandpa's house can be moved into Annika's room and the room re-decorated. You know - no biggie! It's going to be a busy next 6 months!

The past few nights Annika has resisted going to bed. Last night she fussed and cried a little bit. I picked her up and carried her upstairs and she was fine once we got to her room. And she didn't balk when I changed her into her pajamas and put her in bed. And I didn't hear a peep from her all night. It was definitely bed time but she was having too much fun with Mommy I guess. The night before she did the same thing. I'm hoping this is not a new trend. In the past I've told her that it was bedtime and we walked upstairs together with no resistance and went to bed. I was spoiled by how good she was! She won't have a chance to protest tonight though since we'll probably be out past her bedtime. We're heading over to Uncle Dale and Aunt Shelly's house tonight for dinner with them and Dave, Dar, the boys, Grandpa, Uncle Mathias, and some other aunts and uncles. Annika will be having such a good time that we may not want to come home but she's usually pretty good with that too. Of course she'll probably fall asleep on the way home and then I'll carry her upstairs and change her and put her in her crib with her half asleep.

Annika is back into her ice cube phase. She loves eating ice cubes. I think yesterday she had 6 or 7 and the day before she had a bunch too. She grabs an ice cube out of the freezer (we have a freezer on the bottom refrigerator) and runs into the living room to sit and eat it. Her little hands get so cold and red but it doesn't seem to phase her at all. She just keeps slurping them up and then asking for more. And if you deny her more (because my goodness littler girl - you're going to get freezerburn!) she will have a small tantrum. She is so weird! :)

OK, I'm back to being scared, nervous, anxious, etc about baby #2. I found a bunch of blogs (like 6 or 7) of people having babies around the same time I'm due with #2. And today I found out that one of them miscarried. They saw on ultrasound the baby and heartbeat at 8 weeks and now at 12 weeks when they went back for another ultrasound, the baby was gone. No heartbeat and not much growth since the 8 week scan. I heard our baby's heartbeat at 9 weeks, 2 days. Bad things could still happen. Of course I know that they can always happen but man, I just want to know that baby #2 (I really need a nickname for this little one) is okay in there. My all-day sickness is getting better. Is that because I'm nearing the end of the first trimester or because something terrible has happened? I did lose my dinner on Monday night after an almost two week streak. And I'm still feeling low level yuckiness every day. I don't have a doppler at home to try and find and listen to the heartbeat so I'm just going on faith here that everything is okay. Please, please let everything be okay. My next doctor appointment isn't until August 23rd. That is a long time to wait! Four more weeks! Ugh!

Happy Monday! We had a nice weekend. Friday evening Annika and I spent with Dave, Darleen, Evan, Grant, Granpda, Marcia, Krystle, Pierce and Mathias at Grandpa's house. We had a nice dinner and spent all our time out on the deck. It was a great evening.

Saturday morning I wasn't feeling too well so we kept it pretty low key at our house. We watched the last competitive stage of the Tour de France, cheering Floyd Landis on the whole way. And we watched our recorded episode of Project Runway. Then Annika and I took a long nap while Kris worked on getting his new chain on his motorcycle. Just as he was finishing, we woke up and then we all got ready for the party. Saturday afternoon was Uncle Dale's surprise 50th birthday party! Surprise! We got him! It was a really fun afternoon. Annika had a blast with all the other little kids there. Plus, there was a small playground with a slide and a couple swings. And there was lots of balls to play with since there was also a baseball field and a sand volleyball court. And of course there was lots of yummy, bad foods to eat too! She was an excellent little girl, charming everyone who saw her. When we first arrived she wanted no one but Grandpa and spent a long time sitting on his lap watching cousin Dusty race his remote control truck around.

Saturday night when I was putting Annika to bed I told her I loved her as I laid her down (as I always do). She responded "I love you." Made my heart swoon, she did. Then as I was covering her up she said "I love you Daddy. I love you puppy. I love you kitty." I told her I loved her again and that I would see her tomorrow and then I turned on her music and left. Uh. She is such a sweetheart!

Yesterday Annika and I ran some errands (my first trip to Target in over 5 weeks!) while Daddy worked around the house. Then we came home and ate lunch and took a long (3.5 hours!) nap together. Kris was working on the deck and patio again until his cousin Seth came over. Then Kris and Seth headed out for a motorcycle ride together. They arrived home just as Annika was waking up. Soon enough though they were heading out for another ride. Annika and I changed and headed up to Dusty and Kim's house to have dinner with them and Nana and Papa. Kris and Seth met us there. It was a nice evening with lots of good food. Annika loved the halibut steak and the corn on the cob. And she had lots and lots of watermelon and berries too. And of course she had to help Papa eat his ice cream cone for dessert.

Last night Annika asked to get out of the bathtub so she could go potty. I took her dripping wet out and set her on the big potty and sure enough - she went! I was so proud. We're still not officially training her but she's got the concepts down, I think.


As for baby #2, everything is going well. I'm not throwing up anymore (knock on wood) but I'm still feeling sick a lot of the time. I can definitely tell that I'm slowly getting better though. And my belly is definitely bigger. I'm feeling some stretching and pulling every once in a while. I'm thanking God for another textbook pregnancy (so far). I found out on Saturday that two of my cousin's wives are pregnant and are both due in January. Congratulations Jason and Jennie and Pat and Tina! Below is a pregnancy ticker for this baby.

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary Sweetie! It's been a wonderful four years. We don't have any plans for today. I'll get home and Kris will leave just like a normal weekday. Maybe we can get out this weekend for a date. We'll have to see.

Annika has been so cute lately! Last night she was reading her "Where's Molly" book. On each page Molly, a doll, is "hidden" from Loonetka, the little girl. On each page Annika would say "Where is she?" and then she would point to each person on the page and say "No, that's not her" until the only person left was Molly and then she would exclaim "There she is!"

Last night during Annika's bath, I sang the itsy bitsy spider song for her, complete with motions. She thought that was just about the greatest thing ever and made me repeat it about 5 more times. Then we started a tickling war and I had to tickle her over and over again. She was giggling so hard I thought she was going to fall over.

Child #2 though is still trying to kill me. :) I haven't thrown up since last week Wednesday (a whole week! Knock on wood!) but I'm still queasy every day all day. Both Sunday night and Tuesday night I wished I would throw up so I would feel better. Ugh. I just must keep eating all the time. I'm 10 weeks along now (almost 11) so I'm really hoping to feel better soon. And I've started wearing some maternity clothing once in a while since my stomach is, um, bigger than it was a few weeks ago. Oh fun! Michelle was nice enough to loan me a bunch of her clothing. I should be able to get through this summer without having to buy anything. This fall I'll have to spend some money though. All my big maternity clothing is summer wear since that's when Annika was born. Oh happy joy! Ha!

Sarah's comment from my last post was dead on. The reason I haven't been posting much is because I've been siiicck (that's whiny in blog speak for you). Although I think I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I haven't vomited since last Wednesday although last night I was pretty darn close. I have to keep eating pretty often to keep the nausea at bay. Of course I'm having food aversions to just about everything so that eating all the time thing is hard! This pregnancy is starting to feel more real each and every day. Hearing that heartbeat was so, so wonderful. I actually started tearing up a little during the appointment. And I think I'm starting to show just a little bit. I'm in that "is she fat or pregnant" stage right now. I'm rapidly growing out of my pants and some of my shirts are starting to pull across my tummy too. (I may need to go shopping this week - anyone want to go with??) I asked Kris yesterday if I looked fat or pregnant and he said I looked more pregnant than fat because my tummy was looking pretty round. Good answer Sweetie! I have an absolute ton of pictures to upload and have been getting plenty of heat from Gramme to get that done. This week! I promise!

Friday was Great Grandpa Stuart's funeral. The service was very nice and the church, although un-air-conditioned felt pretty comfortable to me. There were lots of funny and touching stories and good food and fellowship. And there was a lot of people! Clearly that is a testament to the man Great Grandpa Stuart was.

Saturday Kris, along with Grandpa Dan, Uncle Dusty, Jon and Chris, started on the deck. They were able to get the whole thing framed up on Saturday and Kris was so pleased. That was the part he really needed help with. It looks great already! It was only (Ha!) 99 degrees out that day but the guys were pretty diligent with the taking breaks and drinking lots of water. They were wiped out at the end of the day but otherwise still in good spirits and good shape. This week I'm going to go get some gift cards for them all as a token of our appreciation. Because seriously, 100 degree weather, no shade and the goodness of their hearts? That is some serious friendship and love right there.

Yesterday we spent most of the day with Uncle Dusty, Aunt Kim and Aunt Carrie before Aunt Carrie had to fly home to NC. We had breakfast and then did some shopping at Ikea. And yesterday evening Kris went to dinner with Papa and Steve. And guess what? Steve offered Kris a coaching job for this fall! He wants Kris to be his defensive coordinator for the sophomore football team at the high school. Kris wasn't expecting to coach this year but I think we'll definitely try to make this work. We'll need to find child care for Annika (2:30-4:30) each day for about 6-8 weeks this fall. And I'm not sure if the team will have any practices before school starts. Does anyone have any ideas where I can find child care for that time period? Last year we relied on friends and family but two of those people will be unable to help this year and I'm not sure Gramme will sign up for 4 days a week (I'm home on Wednesdays so we really only need child care M-T and Th-F). I was wondering if any of the local day cares (KinderCare and the like) have any "after school" programs we could enroll her in. We don't really know any high school girls in town to ask. Yikes! Help!

And in between all of his social calls yesterday, Kris still got about half the decking screwed on. He is a machine, I tell you!

And an Annika highlight for the day: Annika still remembers the fireworks from the 4th of July. She often goes to the window, looks out and says "Sireworks gone." Yesterday she heard a loud noise from outside and looked up excitedly saying "Sireworks!" Then she scampered to the window to look. Nope, no fireworks baby girl. And Saturday night she was up later than usual due to having a late nap. Someone must have found one last firework because we heard one go off. Annika rushed up on the couch and looked out the window. She looked for a good 5-10 minutes, hoping there would be more. Then she sat back down and said "Sireworks gone" in a sad little voice. It is just too cute.

I've been keeping something from you. Something big. Something wonderful. Something super, super exciting. And now I'm ready to share. Because I had the best kind of confirmation for this something good today. I'm having a baby. Kris and I are having a baby. Annika is going to be a big sister. I went to my first doctor appointment today (at 9 weeks, 2 days according to the doctor) and I was able to hear the heartbeat! It was beating away at 156 bpm. It's there! It's real! It's alive! Whew! That was a huge relief. My official due date? February 14, 2007. Valentine's Day. Kris and I are pretty excited although we're still in a bit of shock too. It all happened so fast (which I know is a huge blessing but still - it really did happen really, really, really fast!). We're still adjusting to the idea of two. I'm still adjusting to the idea that Annika won't be my baby anymore. That she's going to be a big sister. And I admit that I'm a bit worried about how she's going to adjust, if we'll still have our super close bond, if she'll bond to her new sibling, etc. I'm just a worried ball of nerves basically. And a sick ball of nerves too. I've been sick for 4 weeks now. I was getting sick almost daily (and sometimes more - lucky me!) for a couple weeks there. It has started spacing out, the amount of sickness but I still feel terrible most of the time. I'm hoping this tapers off now that I'm getting closer to the end of the first trimester. It did with Annika at least and I'm hoping this pregnancy follows that lead. Wow. Pregnancy. I'm pregnant! I've been keeping a small journal locally and I'll upload those entries at some point so I have them all in one spot.

And now for some Annika-isms to round out the day. Whenever Annika asks for something we always make her ask again nicely, meaning she has to say please. Lately she says "Please? Okay." Kris and I usually say okay after she asks for something so she's just finishing our conversation for us. She does the same thing when we enter a room or come home. She sees us and says "Hi! How are you? Good." It is just too cute.

Annika can now sing the entire ABC's by herself. I'm so proud! And she also loves the Barney Song. (I love you, you love me, we're a happy family, with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won't you say you love me too?) The cutest part is where she has to hug and kiss you when the song says to. Who doesn't want Annika hugs and kisses. I surely do!

As you may have gathered from my last post, we lost Great Grandpa Stuart on Saturday. Great Grandpa Stuart was Kris's maternal grandfather. We received a phone call Friday night that he was headed down hill rapidly. We called again Saturday morning to check on him and things didn't sound very good at all so we headed down to see him. We were able to spend about 3 1/2 hours with him before he passed. It was very sad (of course) but also peaceful in a way. He had his family gathered around him, holding him and each other, as he took his last breaths. He was a great man and he will be missed by so many. The funeral is this Friday and although it is very sad circumstances, it will be nice to have the whole family gathered together again. There are cousins that I'm not sure have ever even met Annika, it's been that long. OK, and now before I start crying again, we need to move on to another subject.

Even though I was on vacation all last week from work, we did very little. Our 4th of July was very low key. We spent the day at home and Grandpa Dan, Marcia and Uncle Mathias came over for a quick, impromptu barbeque. Kris used the week to help his Dad with some trim work and some other odd jobs around our house. We also applied for a permit to build our deck. Kris is working yesterday and today on getting the footings holes dug so they can be inspected tomorrow. All the wood and other materials are being delivered today and he'd like to start (if not finish) building it this weekend. Of course last night the weatherman said this weekend is going to be the hottest of the summer yet (95+ degrees). That just figures, doesn't it? But if Kris doesn't work on it this weekend he will have to wait until August as the next two weekends are booked up with family commitments. And he's pretty anxious to get the deck done.

Sunday Annika attended her first baseball game. Auntie Krystle, Grandpa Dan, Marcia and us went to the St. Paul Saints game. It was a very warm day (85 degrees) and we were in the direct sunlight the whole time and Annika still behaved perfectly. Of course at a Saints game there are enough distractions to keep just about anyone entertained. And she was lubed up enough with sunscreen that she didn't even get tan lines, much less sunburned. Go parents! The Saints ended up losing 4-3 but it was still a fun afternoon.

Sorry - long time, no post. Things have been busy, ok? Let's see, where was I? Oh yes, grass. We have grass! And it is lovely. We haven't played on it too much yet because it's still rooting and we don't want to break it. Heh. The grass came last Wednesday when I was working from home. All I can say is thank goodness we were home because it was chaos! Picture this, I'm sitting at my desk in the office on a telecon with work when all of a sudden my phone goes dead and I lose my internet connection. This happens, of course, when there is a worker outside grading the lawn in prepartion for the grass. Great, I think, he's cut the phone line. I walk out into the hallway to tell Kris and he says, "No, he's cut the power." Oh, really great. We head outside to talk to worker-guy and he swears he didn't touch a thing. And by looking around, it appears he hasn't. Weird. Kris calls the electric company who come out and sure enough, we do have power to the house. Hmph. It seems our main circuit breaker won't stay closed. Hmph again. So, we call our builder to place a warranty call. They send out an electrician who opens the box and immediately sees the problem. Turns out it was worker-guy after all. When he was grading near the house he snagged our ground wire and yanked it a good 3-4 inches, grounding our main circuit breaker. The fix was quick and easy and again we have power. Of course, shortly after this fiasco, Kris notices a blue irrigation tube in the front yard. A tube for the sprinkler system that should be buried. The grass is already here and being laid so Kris decides he'll bury it himself so it's not so close to the surface. That could only spell trouble in the future, right? Of course, as Kris is doing this he notices that the blue tube is actually leaking. When worker-guy was grading, he must have knicked it. Of course, it shouldn't have been so close to the surface in the first place, but it's too late now. So, once again we're on the phone with our builder because of course the sod company is not the same as the irrigation company. The builder leaves a message with the irrigation company and the sod people lay grass all around the leak, even leaving a small piece of sod to fill in the hole after the irrigation guy shows up to fix the leak. Irrigation guy shows up, 5 minutes later the leak is fixed and the grass is laid and Wow! We have grass! Like I said, it was a good thing someone was home because otherwise neither of these issues would have been addressed.

Other than that, not much has been happening at our house. We have no plans for the 4th. We may get together with Grandpa Dan, Marcia and maybe Uncle Mathias if they have time tomorrow. Annika has been asking for Uncle Mathias a lot lately so it would be nice if she could see him. She certainly is smitten with him. And every time she talks about him she says "Uncle Mathias cute!" Really! It is just too adorable for words. Other than that, we've just been playing, dancing and singing around our house. Annika loves it when Daddy and I get up to dance with her (which is just mostly her taking our hands and us spinning). She also loves singing and so we sing a lot of Twinkle, Twinkle and ABC's lately. Those are by far her favorite. Oh and kisses. She's constantly kissing things (owies, moles, her toys, the air) and then saying "All better!" And if she falls or trips or otherwise ever so slightly injures her self it's immediately "Owie! Kiss it! All Better!" We are constantly kissing things over here. We were watching America's Funniest Vidoes tonight (Annika loves this show!) and when somebody fell during the show she ran over to kiss the TV and then yelledd "All better!" She is just too cute.