RSV

Paeton's been with RSV (respiratory virus) for a few days now so we've been laying low at home. For the most part, her energy level has been normal except for last night when she became quite lethargic and gave us a little bit of a scare. She's had pretty high temps getting up to 104 at times. She seems to be doing better today after we made it through the night. This morning we did LOTS of coloring. I covered a portion of our island in Christmas paper turned over on it's backside. She had a lot of fun.

We've been working on making straight lines, circles and 'x's. She completely shocked me when I drew a circle, a square and a triangle and she could name all 3. I was impressed.

Hopefully she will back to normal soon. Jodi left for Tampa today and won't be back till Friday night so it's just us girls around here. Wish us luck!

Bucks Game

Saturday night, Jodi and I joined nearly 600 of our fellow church members at the Bucks game to watch our Worship Pastor, Dan Forness sing the national anthem. What a treat this was! We not only got to have a date night but we got to enjoy the evening with so many of our friends. We're so glad we didn't miss this!

There's Dan in the middle of the floor singing his heart out. It was beautiful.

Our Diva

Jodi and Paeton were playing upstairs Saturday afternoon and Paeton came down looking like this. Apparently she wanted to try on a pair of mommy's dress boots and Jodi added my fur shrug to complete the look. I feel as though the picture doesn't do her justice - she looked so adorable when she came downstairs. She was so proud of her outfit!

The Big Backyard

A few weeks we went to The Big Backyard for a Saturday morning playdate with just the 3 of us. We had never been to this place before and just went off of pictures we saw on their website. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived and saw how much fun there was to be had!

By far, these are the fastest slides all 3 of us have ever been on. Jodi did most of the climbing and sliding with Paeton.

Paeton also enjoyed riding around on the bikes they had and playing basketball with daddy.

Their infant and toddler area had lots of fun toys as well including this house that Paeton just loved. She played peek a boo with a little boy she met there.

Here's Jodi running after Paeton. This was a common theme this morning. It was REALLY hard to get her to leave :( We will definitely go back to this place!

Christmas: John & Brooke 2009

And now for our final Christmas...January 2, 2010 with John and Brooke. We spent a really fun day catching up with them, hanging out at our house and eating lots of food! Paeton loved seeing them, opening gifts and playing with her toys.

Brooke helping Paeton open her cupcake baking set. It's so cute!

I think Paeton's wondering if she will continue to open gifts year round since she's been celebrating Christmas for an entire month!

Getting help from Brooke - Paeton also received a really cute outfit. Thanks so much Brooke and John!

Christmas: Oshkosh, WI 2009

After not blogging for almost a month, I figure I should finish Christmas up and give you some January updates. These pictures were from January 1, 2010 when we celebrated Christmas with Jodi's family in Oshkosh. I tried to capture pictures of all 4 children opening presents and enjoying the morning. Here's Irie, my oldest niece actually riding around on one of Fern's toys. Irie is 5 1/2 years old and in kindergarten.

Here's Paeton taking a break from the festivities with Grandpa Ulrich.

Paeton seeming a bit confused with everything going on.

Opening her first Cabbage Patch doll from her great grandmother. His name is Clifton.

Organized chaos.

My nephew Leo, 3 1/2 years old.

My niece Fern 1 1/2 years old.

Paeton admist all the action.

Christmas: Ringoes, NJ 2009

We arrived in NJ, after 2 days of trying to leave Milwaukee, happy and safe. The east coast was hit with a terrible storm the day we were leaving. I think Paeton and I spent over 12 hours in an airport between Saturday and Sunday - for a 1 hour and 58 minute flight. Unreal! This is the morning after we arrived - lots of snow on the ground but my dad cleared the driveway perfectly, the sun was shining and Paeton ran around crazy in the yard.

My dad also cleared a snow tubing path down the front of their yard for Paeton to go sledding. This was her first time in this snowsuit, in a tube flying down the hill.

She loved playing in the snow!

And she loved getting tube rides from Grandpa!

I think she may be eating a little snow in this picture!

She also loved swinging in her swing - Grandma always pushes her SO HIGH!

Here's Paeton and Jodi opening a few gifts on Christmas Eve. Paeton's hair is still wet from taking her bath earlier - she had to get all shined up for Santa!

My sister and Paeton have really formed a good Aunt/Niece bond. Paeton so fondly calls her 'shell' after her name Michelle. Michelle gave Paeton this doll stroller on Christmas eve and we learned quickly that Paeton was satisfied with that one gift.

Christmas Morning: I had a very rough evening. I was sick all night long and barely slept. I made it to the couch with the little energy I had left. I just wanted to see Paeton open her gifts. Here she is waiting patiently to open gifts with her ponies and baby doll bottle on the couch.

That's me on the left barely alive on the couch. As you can see, Santa really outdid himself this year.

Paeton has been obsessed with the potty for a few months now. She received a potty for her baby dolls but felt that she should try it out first. She opened many of her gifts sitting on the potty.

My sister did such a good job of helping Paeton explore her gifts and put stuff together. Paeton's hair is a little wild this day - mommy had no energy to fix it. But...it's pretty classic Christmas morning hair right?

Giving her fish a kiss.

Playing with Aunt Michelle - still sitting on the potty.

Getting a new hat!

We had a wonderful Christmas with my family and were so happy to have made the trip despite the airport delays, illness and the black eye I got. Oh...I forgot about that. Paeton jumped in the bed with Jodi and I one night and had a little too much sugar that day. She threw herself backwards and her head hit my left cheekbone just right. I've been purple since. Tis' the season to be jolly!!!!

Visiting Santa & Good Friends

Dec. 12 we went to Third Lake, IL to visit our good friends, The Perzs. We took the kiddos to a local park where Santa was making a visit in his sleigh. We stood in line for quite some time and waited our turn. Paeton was a little antsy in her stroller, so we let her wander for a bit in the snow. Also to note - Paeton is wearing the Santa pin that my mom made her. It's absolutely adorable. Thanks mom!

Paeton wandered up by Santa's sleigh and checked him out for quite some time. Then it was our turn to finally see Santa!

Total, utter nightmare....

Santa then invited me into the sleigh to sit on his lap and tell him what I wanted for Christmas. He thought that might calm Paeton down. I had to laugh through the experience just so I didn't cry too. You can see how Paeton is clutching my coat. Maybe next year?

After the santa disaster, we came back to the Perzs for some yummy lunch and playtime for the kiddos.

Here's Owen flying high with daddy.

Paeton riding around on the truck.

We had a great time visiting with the Perzs and definitely want to make that trip more often in 2010. Thanks for having us over!

Christmas: Menomonee Falls, WI 2009

We (Jodi, Paeton & I) celebrated our family Christmas on Saturday, December 12. Paeton and I were leaving the following Saturday for NJ so we had to celebrate early this year. We set the date early in the season so everyone was ready. Paeton will never know right? Here we are Christmas morning - we didn't wrap Paeton's new princess chair so she ran right over to this as soon as she came downstairs.

Jodi also put together her new basketball hoop that Santa brought :) Here she is making her first basket. Jodi is so proud!

Opening gifts like a champ - she's come so far from last year!

Checking out her new snow boots.

We're not sure where this face came from. I wasn't trying to touch her gift but she gave me these crazy eyes. It was so funny.

Paeton received an art desk, princess chair, sled and basketball hoop. Jodi received his new baby that's hanging on the wall - her name is Samsung. I received a new Vera Bradley backpack (Love it!!!), additional cubes for my scrapbooking nook, some new Cricut cartridges, and oh...matching pj's with P!

We had a great Christmas morning with just the 3 of us. We feel very blessed for all that has been provided to us in 2009.

Elmo, Horses & Monkeys?

Hi Everyone! After not blogging for several weeks, I figured I'd do a collaborative entry with a few 'Non-Christmas' events we did before the holidays came. So...here we go!

The weekend of Thanksgiving, we took Paeton downtown to see Sesame Street Live - featuring her current idol, Elmo. A friend of mine at work had her a lady she knows who's a stellar seamstress make Paeton an Elmo dress for the show. It turned out so adorable. This picture shows Paeton getting excited for her breakfast before the show - we're at Big Apple Bagels.

Here we all are before the show started.

Here's Paeton standing on Jodi's lap intently watching the show. We had a ton of fun.

Paeton recently got into playing with horses. And she's determined she's too old for her high chair and has to sit on one of the big stools at the island. She's lined her horses up 'just so' in front of her cup - that's the way she likes them.

So happy to be at the big girl table.

My little girl is now big.

Friday Dec. 11 I planned a family night for the 3 of us. It really was just a ploy to keep Jodi out of the house while I had his christmas gift hung on the wall - more about that later. We went to dinner at Chilis and then over to Monkey Joe's. This was our first time and we had so much fun! This slide was super steep!

Paeton had a smile on her face the entire time.

So much fun with our little girl!

Now onto the holidays....