Bathroom Re-do

My Christmas present this year was a very expensive shower curtain.  Expensive to the point that I could not justify getting it unless it was a present.  But boy, do I ever love it!  It's beautiful.  Now that I have a beautiful shower curtain, I decided it was time to give my bathroom a new look.  I spent 6 weeks deliberating over what color to paint the walls.  I got new towels and accessories and a fancy new shower curtain rod.

I will say that I was a tad disappointed with how the color came out on the walls but it is growing on me.  It is a lot more grey than I was going for.  I wanted a greyish brown and it turned out to be more grey than I intended.

With the new curtain and towels, it looks really nice.  This picture doesn't even come close to what the color actually looks like.  My bathroom is too small to get a decent picture and with the flash going off the color is off.

Greg's brother Scott came to visit last weekend from Omaha.  Meredith had lots of fun playing with her Uncle Reebok as she calls him.  We went to the mall and went on rides and they went skating together. Anna did her usual and hid from him.  She's kind of scared of all people male except her daddy and other kids.  She ended up warming up a bit by the end of the weekend.

That's Anna purposely hiding behind that book.  Like I said, she's a tad shy around any male except Daddy.  

This was shortly before Scott left.  She warmed up a little.  

 And just for fun, this is how I found Anna napping a couple days ago.  I love her!  

Blah Part of Winter

Meredith is loving playing hockey.  We are signing her up for a 3-on-3 team with some of her Mini-Mite buddies that will start once the season is over next month and goes through May.  Today after practice, she stayed and watched the big girls (next level up) scrimmage.  We haven't had too many outdoor practices as of late because the weather keeps messing things up.  Either it's too cold and windy, or it's too warm and rainy.  I"m thinking Tuesday will be a great day for outdoor practice.

She has Pajama Night on Friday at preschool.  She is SOOOOO excited.  It's all she talks about.  It's so much fun to see them get so excited about things:-)

Anna continues to do new things on a daily basis.  Yesterday she finally started to use a fork.  She had her 18 month doctor appointment on Thursday and she weighed in at a whopping (note my sarcasm) 22 lbs., 5 oz. (10-25%) and was 31.5"(75%).  Tall and skinny I guess.  That's exactly how Meredith is too.
She probably has about 20-25 words she uses which the doctor says is great.  She was only expecting 5-8 words.  Meredith had maybe 1 word at this age.

Oh, and I almost forgot...she started giving kisses this week!!!!!  Finally.  Meredith was giving kisses when she was 9 months.  It's funny how kids are so different.

There isn't much else going on right now in the dead of winter.  I really don't have much to talk about.  I have hardly taken any pictures but here are a couple from this weekend.

She's still teething those molars.  They are taking forever to completely come through.  

Look at her cheeks.  

Her mullet is going strong.  She sported some ponies this weekend.  

And here's Mer getting ready to go to hockey practice.  

Hockey Jamboree

Seeming absolutely appropriate for Hockey Day in MN, Meredith played in her first jamboree with Woodbury.  I can't even begin to tell you how excited she was.  Now a jamboree with a bunch of 5-year-olds isn't really a game but more of a scrimmage.  They send out 5 players at a time with 1 goalie and they each skate for 90 seconds before they send the next 5 players out.  They rotate goalies and at this age, there isn't a real goalie; not one that wears special pads, etc. 

Meredith skated really well!  No goals were scored by her, but I don't think her team even scored a goal?  Maybe they did.  They don't keep score:)

Here are a bunch of pictures from the Jamboree.  Meredith wears #15. 

She is in the middle of the picture here.  

She is second from the right on the bench in this picture.  

Here she is playing goalie.  

Some puck action around the net.  She made a really good block when she was goalie.  

Grandma and Grandpa Schwake came.  Here's Anna wearing her cute, new outfit she got for Christmas.  

Christmas

Well, we made it through the holidays.  I have a love-hate relationship with that time of year.  I do love the holidays.  I love the food, cookies, gifts, time of giving, Christmas lights, etc.  But I hate the crowds at Super Target when all I want to do is get some groceries.  I hate waiting 10 minutes just to park my car.  I actually did most of my shopping online this year and it was most pleasant!  

Anyhow, Christmas was good.  Meredith is back in school and she is having a great time having playdates with some other kids in the neighborhood.  We are in the process of registering her for kindergarten!  She loves playing hockey and we have seen so much improvement since she started back in October.  

Anna is talking up a storm.  She must have 15-20 words.  She even has a 2-word phrase - mo cwacka (more cracker).  Everything that is food is a cracker to her.  She giggles when she burps and farts.  It's fun to see her little personality develop.  She's stubborn.  She screeches all day long - basically whenever Meredith touches her.  She is teething all four of her 1st molars.  The two upper ones have cut through and the two bottom ones are hugely swollen and will probably pop through any day.  I just signed her up for a 2's program starting in the fall where Meredith goes to preschool.  How is she going to be old enough for that already???

Here are a few photos from Christmas.  Most are dark, out of focus,  and do not feature faces.  

Meredith, Anna, and cousin Bowen with Grandma.  

Opening a gift.  

Every year, Meredith passes out all the presents and Grandpa helps her read the tags.  

The three littles.  

The Hello Kitty umbrella was a huge hit.  

This was funny although you can't tell from the picture.  My cousin Mary Jo got a Coach purse and wallet as a gift and Anna came over and just started looking at it and crying.  

Christmas Day's loot from Santa.  After that, we Skyped with Grandma & Grandpa Carlson and Uncle Scott and opened more gifts.  Then Lois stopped in for a visit as well before we headed back to the farm.  

Again, trying to get a nice picture of the girls but this is the best I can get.  

Random Holiday Stuff

Before I post Christmas pictures (most likely in a couple weeks- ha!) I thought I'd share a few pictures leading up to the holidays.  

Here is our Christmas card photo for anyone who didn't get a card.  We actually took this on a warm day in November sometime.  It's extremely hard to get a picture of them both looking, and smiling.  One I had to bribe and the other...well, you get what you get.  

We took the girls to see Santa at the Burnsville Mall.  It was a different Santa than we have seen since Meredith was a little baby.  It makes me wonder where the other one went?  Anyhow, after paying around $30 to get the digital file and a couple prints, this is the result.  Out of focus and dark.  And the proverbial screaming child.  I think next year we'll try the free Santa at Byerly's.  

Here is the rare picture of Greg & I all cleaned up.  We were headed out to Greg's work holiday party.  

Meredith had her Christmas program for pre-school.  It was absolutely adorable.  There were 3-year-old and 4-year-old, and 5-year old classes singing.  That's Mer in the middle in the red dress.  

The following week, adults were invited into her classroom to help make gingerbread houses.  We sampled cookies the class had made as well.  

Florida Part IV

For the rest of our trip, we just kind of hung out.  We played shuffleboard, pickle ball, and bochee ball. The men golfed.  We ate out and bought a did a little Christmas shopping.  

On the way home, our plane changed twice before our trip even started so our seats we had all together kind of got ruined because they gave us new seat assignments each time.  Our seats ended up being about 10 rows apart.  Greg had the pleasure of taking care of the baby beast on the way home while I sat about 10 rows up with Meredith.  Surprisingly, she did quite well again and there was no prolonged crying or fussiness.  Thank goodness!  See, all smiles!