mullet-be-gone

I have been on the fence about cutting Annika's 'mullet' for some time. I mean, the poor girl hardly has any hair as it is, but I decided it was time for the mullet to go. I hope that the old wives tale holds true and Annika's hair will grow back nice and thick. . . and now the only question is just how long it will take to grow?

a week full of thanksgiving

We spent pre-Thanksgiving weekend in Duluth and even though it was a very quick trip we packed a lot in! We we were able to visit with Aunt Marilyn, Gamma D, Aunt Maren, Uncle Charlie, and Great Grandma and Grandpa Birk. Bergen got to visit with Max and Simon at Aunt Marilyn's house and it wouldn't be a visit to Duluth without a trip to the duck pond - his favorite!! It was a fast and furious 30 hours, but full of fun!!

This year we spent Thanksgiving weekend with the extended Leafblad clan. We all gathered on Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving and then reconvened on Saturday for an early Christmas celebration. We were also able to hold a bridal shower for cousin Diana Gillaspie (soon to be Diana Pratt!) to honor her and celebrate her upcoming wedding to Nate in a few weeks! Many of us got to meet the newest family member Baby Mariana for the first time after being born very premature at 28 weeks on Sepember 2nd. . . our little family, however, wasn't able to get too close to her as they are watching her closely for RSV and our germy little kid household didn't want to risk getting too close to her. I hope next time we see her I can get to hold her - she is adorable!! For our Christmas celebration we did the second annual present swap - which always creates some fun excitement and good laughs. And of course, no Leafblad gathering at Tim and Pam's could be complete without a game of ping pong round robin or two!

After seeing so many family and friends over the past week our hearts and minds are full of thankfulness. We feel extremely blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful and amazing people who strengthen, inspire, and support us. Words cannot describe how thankful we are for our beautiful children, Bergen and Annika. Their energy, creativity and pure joy for life continue to leave us in awe every day. And our hearts are full with love and anticipation as we wait for our new arrival come April.

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Also in this season of Thanksgiving we would like to give thanks for our loved ones who have also blessed with new life. . . . Cousins Ryan and Megan are expecting triplet girls in April!! Their due date is only 5 days before ours on April 22nd, but I am guessing, as they are, that their girls will come into the world at least a few weeks before our little one (just not too soon!)! Megan and I were able to compare belly's when we were together this past weekend. . . I *think* she is winning!

We would also like to give thanks for Evelyn and Sophie. . . beautiful twin girls born to our near and dear friends Carrie and Rob!! They were born November 8 - perfect in every way!!

resident artists

It was time to put some art on the walls in the basement, so I commissioned our two resident artists to create some beautiful art work we could display. Bergen is an old pro at painting, but this was a new experience for Annika. She would only wear the paint apron for about 30 seconds (long enough to get in one picture) and wouldn't hold the paint brush for about the first 3 minutes, but after she got over the newness of it all she fell in love with painting. It was fun to see them work together. . . and I have to say the end result is Walker worthy.

twas the night before thanksgiving

When all through the house,
All eyes stopped on Annika as she picked up her cup
and lo and behold she drank milk; wassup?

This is a HUGE accomplishment for us! We have been trying to get her to drink milk for MONTHS, but she has always refused. If she even saw white in her sippy cup, she would throw it on the floor. To compensate I tried to push a lot of cheese and yogurt - but as many of you know, my efforts to get her to eat dairy fail because she is such a picky eater. I am always concerned that she isn't getting the right vitamins and nutrients that her growing body needs.

I had pretty much given up on the idea of her drinking milk (even though Grandparents claimed they got her to drink milk, I NEVER could), but the other night at dinner she took Bergen's cup and drank it up. I was SHOCKED. I think I sat there staring at her the whole time worried if I drew any attention to the fact she was drinking milk - she would stop. But she has had a cup of milk a day since!

And while I don't subscribe to the thought that kids need to drink copious amounts of milk in order to be healthy, I think if she is able to drink one nice glass a day it will help her immensely. Being only 7% in weight at her last DR visit (down from 15% the visit before), she needs to put on extra body fat. And of course, it would help me worry less about her calcium intake. . . and if that is one less thing I have to worry about, all the better!!

I realize it has only been 3 days that she has been willing to drink milk, but I am very hopeful that we can at least get one glass in her a day!

Cheers, Annika!!

some random video

Here are a few videos I have captured within the past couple of weeks. . . nothing very exciting, but gives a little glimpse of the activity in our pad. Annika's new favorite thing is to chase Bergen around the house (which is hard to capture on camera!). I love hearing her squeal with excitement as she tries to catch him. . . which he never lets her do, of course!

coldplay!

After four long months of waiting we finally got to go to the COLDPLAY concert! They postponed their tour so what was supposed to be a July 8th concert turned into a November 14th. And well worth the wait. . .

We had GREAT seats - right on the aisle off the corner of the stage and 13 rows up. But one of the fun parts of the night was that Lars' little brothers ended up scoring FRONT ROW seats to the concert. We had fun watching them down next to the stage but we enjoyed the band from a little birds eye view.

All in all a GREAT show. I highly suggest going to see them if you ever get the chance. Here are some pictures - the up close ones came from Nels.