Tis the Season

It's hard to believe that it will be Dec 1st soon and we have NO snow in MN!! Darren is hoping that we get some soon, but I am loving the late winter weather.

We spent Thanksgiving at Kevin and Ann Wittinger's house. It was a great day with good food, family and relaxation!

Minneapolis has a Holidazzle Parade every Christmas season that goes down Nicollet Rd. It's a parade where everyone wears lights and all of the floats are decorated with Christmas lights. We decided to brave the crowds and bring Nadia to her first Holidazzle parade. Great Great Aunt Kathy went along as well.

We all woke up Sunday morning to a light dusting of snow. We hopped in the car and drove to the tree farm and found the perfect Christmas tree. I have all bulb ornaments which might be a mistake...Nadia is obsessed with balls and she thinks that it is a tree filled with balls that she can play with!

We also had Nadia's One year and family pics taken on Saturday. If you'd like to look, go to http://www.studiohphotography.com/ and select On Line Proofing. You will see my name in the list. You will need to enter your email address to see the photos.

Birthday Girl!

I can't believe it's been a year already!! We celebrated Nadia's 1st Birthday last week with family and friends. Nadia loved being the center of attention and LOVED all of the toys that she got from everyone. She does NOT like missing out on anything and refused to go to bed so we let her stay up with everyone until 11 p.m.! She wasn't even crabby and just sat downstairs and played.

Nadia got a newborn cabbage patch doll that came with a bottle...needless to say, Nadia likes to feed herself instead of her baby! She also can say baby now. I was folding clothes the other night and heard Nadia say "baby, baby, baby." When I came out to the family room, she was trying to pull her doll out of the toy box!

Nadia has also FINALLY learned to crawl normally...she has the army crawl down, but is finally getting the hang of being up on her hands and knees.

Most of you have seen Nadia snort like a madwoman, but for those who haven't...I finally got something on camera. She loves to snort. We were in church on Sunday and she chose the most quiet point in the service to turn, look behind her and start snorting LOUDLY at the woman sitting behind us. Good timing!

Happy Halloween!

Nadia was Tinkerbell for Halloween and had fun watching kids come to our door for candy. She gets so excited to see other kids and will start screaming when she sees them. She got a package in the mail from Grandma Kuhn with her favorite treat from our ND vacation.

We had our good friends, Jon and Jennifer here last weekend from Michigan. Darren worked with Jon when he was in Michigan and has kept in touch through the years. We had a great time hanging out, walking around Minneapolis and eating! They brought Nadia the cutest pumpkin hat!

We are getting ready to celebrate Nadia's 1st birthday in 2 weeks...holy cow where does the time go??? She is such a fun baby and makes Darren and I laugh every day. She now has 6 teeth, is an army crawling machine, likes to stand up and says 'bye bye' and 'puppy.'

Wedding Weekend

We had a great time in ND for Dustin and Amanda's wedding. It was an action packed week of hunting, decorating and celebrating.

Of course I had to have an outfit for Nadia for the hunting festivities. She may not have gone out at all, but she sure looked the part!!

The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun! My favorite part was when Darren was giving his toast to Dustin and Amanda...Nadia was sitting with me and saw her Dad and just started screaming to get his attention. I had to take her out of the reception hall so that he could get through the whole thing without losing his concentration! It was price less!

Here are the pics from the week...

Let it Snow!

This is what you have to do when you want to go swimming in MN! Or possibly when your Mom buys you a new hat and gloves that she wants you to model...

It is only Oct 12 and it is snowing...it begins.

My friends Lisa, Hana and I got a hotel on Saturday to have a much needed girls night. We decided to let the babies and spouses join us for a bit to go swimming. Nadia and Nora both LOVED the pool! Nora was so relaxed while Nadia splashed and screamed the whole time.
This early winter weather that we are getting motivated us to book a trip to Mexico in February...I accidentally booked it over Super Bowl Sunday. Oops! We are going with Erick and Heather and Lisa and Megan. My parents are going to be busy with both Nadia and Nora while we're away. Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

We leave tomorrow for Dustin and Amanda's wedding in ND. It came up so fast and all of us are so excited to be away for a little while. Darren missed out on all hunting last year because of my hospital stay so he is pumped to actually get to shoot something this year. :)

War Wounds

Why do we wait so long to cut Nadia's fingernails? We'll see if this will teach me a lesson...I doubt it, but we'll see! It's been a while since my last blog...so I guess we can look at this as my confession. :)

We've been really busy with work, play dates and hanging out at home. Nadia and I met with our Special Care Nursery friends again over the weekend. All the babies are so cute and my little one is the monster who lunges for other's toys.

It is finally fall in Minneapolis! I'm most excited to dress Nadia in a new wardrobe. :)I've included a video of our little ball player. She likes to play catch and actually has a pretty good arm!

Summer Fun

It's the last day of August and I woke up to frost on my car!! I know that we live in MN, but come on Mother Nature!! Summer has gone by way too fast, but I have to admit that I am looking forward to Fall.

Nadia is growing like a weed and gets more and more of a personality everyday. She has started to show some attitude over the past few weeks, which Darren loves of course!!

Nadia was sick all last week and it was NOT fun! She had a viral infection with a temp of about 102 for a few days. She was miserable which of course made Darren and I miserable just at the sight of her!

Darren went to Devils Lake last weekend for a double Bachelor party for Dustin and Dion. It sounds like they had quite the 'Man' weekend with flag football, gambling, eating meat and a tiny bit of drinking. We can't believe that Dustin and Amanda's wedding is in a little over a month!!

My Mom came to stay with me for a weekend and we did what we do best...shopped! I also had some girls over to the house that were either on bedrest at Abbot with me, or their babies were in Special Care the same time as Nadia. All 5 babies were due on either X-Mas Eve or X-Mas Day. It was fun to see all of them and see how they are all changing!

We had the Johnson-Radke Palooza over the weekend out at Lee and Shelly Johnson's. It's alwasy a fun day of games, food and good company! Nadia loved all of the kids and attention.

Nadia and her new friends

Kendall
Nora

Lisa and I having our first glass of wine together in almost 2 years!

Darren is heading home for Labor Day weekend to help combine...of course the minute he told me his tentative plans, I was on the Internet looking for flights to CO to spend some time with Erick and Heather. Nadia and I are leaving on a 6:30 a.m. flight Friday. Ugh! We are looking forward to spending some time with my family!

I've included a video of Nadia being very entertained by Megan singing Sweet Child O Mine. I wish that I could have gotten both Megan and Nadia on this video...Meg's dancing was probably what got her giggling so much! :)