Christmas 2009

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Aaron and I had a great Christmas weekend. On Christmas Eve we went to church with my mom and dad and then out to dinner, and when we got home we opened our gifts from each other. Christmas day we headed up to Michigan. I think it was the longest trip to Michigan ever! I typically sleep at least a few hours of the trip, and I didn't this time...it was LONG!

We spent Christmas evening with Aaron's dad, sisters and family. Friday we hung out most of the day and then spent the evening with Aaron's friends/wives. I'm not very good at taking pictures lately. I didn't get one picture on that night...I also didn't get a picture all weekend of our nephew & niece Brandon and Alesha. Saturday we went to our nephew Jeffrey's hockey game and then had the Anderson Christmas. Sunday we went to Brandon's hockey game and then headed out back to Minnesota. We stopped in Eau Claire and got to have supper with Aaron's mom Jean and step-dad Paul. It is always nice to stop there, it definitely breaks up the long drive a bit. We got home about 8/8:30 on Sunday night, and now we are back to work. NO FUN!

We really had a great time - now we are looking forward to all that 2009 will bring to us...lots of changes in store for us, and we can't wait!

Here are some pics of our trip to Michigan:

Our niece Holly and nephew Anthony...smiley kids!

Anthony and I - he was pretty excited about his new coat he got!

Jeffrey is #7 - his team is 27-0. Pretty good. Go #7!!

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Jeffrey after his game

Brandon playing his game - #27. His team didn't win the game we were at, maybe next time :)

Aaron's cousin Brooke and I and our "tummies" - due on the same day!

The 'girls' @ the Anderson Christmas

All of the cousins & their significant others...

missing Ed, Joel, Derek, Amy, Dave, Rachel, & Travis - we missed you guys!

**wINteR WonDeRlaND!!**

We may not be in the U.P. - but we sure do have a lot of snow for December in southern MN. 2nd snowiest December on record so far - and we are supposed to get 3-5" tonight, and maybe some more on Christmas Eve!! LOOOVE IT! Typically in MN we have snow fall here and there, but it's too dang cold for a ton of snow until it gets a little milder. We usually have a lot of snow in March, just when you think spring is coming!

DANG IS IT COLD TOO! The temp after work today was -6 degrees...windchill brought it down to -20/-30 today and yesterday.

Here's an idea of the snow piled on the side of the driveway as Aaron cleared it yesterday...

THANK YOU Tammy & Ed for the snow blower!!!

A pic of our house (oh yeah, and the wreaths that we added to our outdoor decorations)

Our deck full of snow!

And I suppose we should show off our Christmas Tree :)

We don't have a themed tree - but, when we finish our basement and I get to have TWO trees, one will be themed. We have lots of ornaments from growing up, so we use those for the time being!

Just a little update...

Merry Christmas Everyone!! Rochester got tons of snow this weekend!! I LOVE IT! I wish I could go snowmobiling, sledding, skating, OR skiing like we would typically do...but not this year! So sad. We have the perfect weather for it! It definitely puts me in the Christmas spirit.

Not much new around here - we don't have another appointment until January 6, which still seems FOREVER away for me...but I'll try and wait patiently! I've been feeling pretty good. Nothing to complain about. I wish I could see our little baby every day like we get to when we have ultra sounds! I get so excited :) I haven't felt Lil Poppy move or anything, although it seems that some people can feel that this early in the pregnancy.

We had our first Christmas last Saturday. We are very lucky because our families all do Christmas at different times so we don't have to switch off each year or anything, we get to be with everyone! My parents started doing Christmas in mid-December. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures from the day. Usually I take a ton, but I only took 3 this year :) Our poor nephew Drew was sick with the flu, so we didn't get a group picture of my family like we were planning to do. We'll head up to Michigan over Christmas itself, and spend the weekend with Aaron's family up there. We're both pretty excited to be up there. Aaron's mom always does Christmas in January, so we'll have that to look forward to still.

Usually we would already be in Michigan for Christmas Eve and go to mass with Lowell, but this year we both have to work so we aren't heading up 'til Christmas day. We decided instead of driving all night on Christmas Eve and missing mass, we'll have our own Christmas and get up early in the morning :)

Well, it has just been a while since I posted anything, so I thought I should write a hello! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
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Here is one of many pics we took out by my parent's house for our Christmas card. My mom was our photographer (thanks mom!!) I was actually surprised that Aaron was willing to put on the same colored shirt as me for the pictures. He's so easy-going sometimes! I told him next year if we have a boy I'm finding a matching sweater for them both to wear for our card, and he didn't seem to mind. Ha ha, we'll have to see about that one :)

****Happy Holidays!****

Meet Little Poppy!

Hi Everyone! Meet our Baby :) I had 8 pictures to choose from...but I figured you'd be okay with just a few! I didn't want to overwhelm you!

Hi Everyone, it's me...Lil P. Yep, that is a thumb...going for the mouth...mom told me I'll have to break that habit real quick!

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Top of my head...and my fist :)

Daddy says I look like an alien in this pic. He's funny!

Mom can't get enough of my side profile pics. She can't wait to meet me...well, she will patiently wait 'til May 27, but she hopes that goes fast!!

Holiday Decorating!

As you can see from my post below, our tree is up and there are presents under it! I love the Christmas Season. Each year Aaron and I make "blocks" together. We are trying to decide what we will do as our family grows, because it will multiply quite quickly if we each do our own! Here is our collection!

Our entire collection of blocks!

The '08 addition from me!

Aaron's '08 addition :) Go Vikings! ha ha ha, just kidding! Go Pack!

14 Week Update

Our appointment on Friday went really well! The tech was having so much fun taking pics of our baby during the ultrasound because he/she was cooperating so well. I'm going to try and scan those in this week and post the pics. That way you can all meet "lil P"! Even though this wasn't our big ultrasound, since she was doing one, she started checking on all of the baby's organs and such to see how things were going. She made us turn away when she went "low" because we do not want to find out the sex (well, I don't...and so Aaron is going to wait too!). Aaron said he tried to peak but I was staring right at him the entire time making sure his eyes were on me, and not the screen!

My cyst has shrunk from 4 cm to 1.5 cm, so that is really good news. And everything else is going well. The baby's heartbeat was around 150, which she said was good...the last few times we were there, she had mentioned the baby was a little small, so technically my due date could be 5/31. BUT - Friday the baby was right on for a 5/27 due date :)

It might be all the turkey I ate over Thanksgiving...or my bump is getting a little bigger!!

I'm still wearing my normal pants for the most part...but having a little trouble buttoning them :) So, I'm sure soon it'll be just maternity clothes!

Aaron's cousin Brooke and her husband Brad are due with their 2nd baby on the exact same day as us! I have been waiting to mention that until she officially posted the news. Her blog is on our links (Rylee Dawn). It's going to be so much fun having so many kids close to our baby's age. Every 4th of July there seems to be at least 2 or more new great grandkids..and next summer is going to be the same!

My sister Angela is due in January with her 2nd...so for the Tarara side, once Lil P is born, there will be 6 grandkids...ages 4 1/2 and younger! Lots of playmates all around!

I'm Thankful For...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Sorry it has been forever since we've written anything on here. Not much to update. Tomorrow marks the official end of my first trimester...and for that I'm soooo thankful. I think Aaron is to, he said nicely the other day "it's been a long first trimester" - here's to hoping that it'll go quicker now since the holidays are around to distract us for the next few months!!

I'm also thankful for my wonderful husband, who did not want to put up Christmas decorations outside, but did it because he knew I really REALLY wanted them! Last year I was pretty bummed we didn't have any and had said that will be the last time that the Anderson household goes with out Christmas lights! I loooove decorating for Christmas and seeing everyone else having lights up.

Anyway, Aaron was very nice and put up lights for me this year! Of course, I said it didn't have to be much, just trim our roof line and such...which is what we have done so far. But for those of you that know Aaron, if you are going to do something, you are going to do it right. Soooo, he has decided there is a little something missing and we are going to add a little more to it this weekend. I'm sure I'll post another pic when that is done.

Here is a pic of what we have done :)

I just wanted to update and send a thank you to Aaron in an "untraditional" way. I'm so happy to have lights up outside!!

We have our next appointment on Friday, so I'm sure I will be updating more this coming weekend. The one good thing about my cyst...lots of ultrasounds! We get another one Friday so hopefully I can get some pics and scan in a picture of 'Lil Poppy' for you all to see!

Hope you all have a great holiday weekend :)

Sharing the News!

I had been hesitant about sharing our news too early, which was driving Aaron crazy! Now that we have been able to tell people, he's been much happier :)

We went to the U.P. on 10/24/08 that is where we started telling people. We tried to keep it quiet, but it turns out the entire Anderson family was on to us. We told Lowell on Saturday morning...and were trying to get Tina and Tammy (and their hubbies) together to be able to tell them before telling more people. We finally got them together while we were at Aaron's auntie Di's house. Well, they barely had the chance to react to the news Aaron shared, when there was an uproar in the house and all of the aunts, uncles, and our niece/nephews, etc...were hugging us. Turns out we were the topic of the weekend, as everyone was expecting some exciting news from us!!

Aaron & I at the NMU Football game in Michigan...before our secret was out!

Aaron then called his mom right away. We wanted to tell her in person, but decided it was best that he called her and told her, to be sure that she heard it from us and not through the grapevine. Jean was full of emotions and tears on the phone. It turns out she had just gone to a Tarot Reader who had told her she had another grandchild on the way...but she was still waiting to figure out which one of her kids was going to be the lucky parent!!

The following week, we went out to my parents house to have supper. I had made a card for them (which by the way, I intended on doing for Lowell, Jean, and my parents, but didn't have the time to do so before the news was shared with them!). The card had a little football on the front and it was purple, gold, and green. On the inside it said:

There is going to be a new fan in town. Packers or Vikings? Only time will tell...

A new member of Team Anderson is arriving on May 27, 2009.

Since Aaron is a Packers fan, and I am a Vikings fan, we thought it'd be a fun, creative way to share the news. My parents were very excited as well. It turns out my dad seemed to have had a feeling we were going to have news like that to share...and mom couldn't wait to start telling people that she was again, going to be a grandma! My sisters already knew our news. I had to share my secret with someone so I could get some questions I had answered...who better than my loving sisters?? :)

Since then, we have started sharing the news with friends. It's exciting to tell people and hear their reactions. First question out of their mouths: Are you going to find out if it is a boy or girl? And the answer is no. We are going to wait until the baby is born. People think we are crazy, but I think it is exciting and will help with the motivation throughout the pregnancy/delivery!

We're Having a Baby!

At the end of September we found out that we are having a baby!! We are so excited. Aaron has been dying to share the news since day one, but I had to have him keep it quiet for just a little bit :) The day we found out that we were having a baby, we did a little research on the web, and found out that at that current time, our little one was about the size of a poppy seed. Since then, we have referred to him/her as "Little Poppy". So, you may find us calling our baby 'Lil Poppy throughout the blog!

It's been a long 11 weeks for us! Especially Aaron, since he had to keep quiet for so long, and wasn't experiencing all the things that I was...it was hard for him. At 6 weeks, I was experiencing severe pain in my right side. I ended up going in for an ultrasound to rule out ectopic pregnancy. That was on 10/6/08...and we saw our baby's heartbeat for the first time! They did indeed, rule out ectopic pregnancy. It turns out I have a cyst on my right ovary that they will keep an eye on, but it seems as though it is very common.

At about 7 weeks, I started having lots of morning sickness. My weakness was brushing my teeth! It made me very sick, and also brought me to the toilet a couple of times :) I was able to get through the days with lots of saltine crackers, and bread...I would typically feel better by the afternoon. The more food in me, the better I felt!

We had our 2nd appt. on 10/27/08, and that is where we met our doctor. Our doctor is the same doctor that both of my sister's have had through all of their pregnancies, so I am very happy to have her be mine. Everything went fine at that appointment, and we got to have another ultrasound to see how things were going, with both the baby and to see if the cyst had reduced.

Later on in the week, I was concerned because I had NO symptoms that I had been experiencing...I was not feeling sick at all. I had emailed my doctor to ask if this was normal (I was about 10 weeks). She said it was probably fine, but to keep an eye on it, and if nothing changed, she'd get an appointment set up. Well, things were the same over the weekend so we had another ultrasound on 11/4/08, and the baby was perfect...heart beating strongly and it's arms and legs were moving around. The baby was sorta waving at me, as to say, "I'm here mom, and doing just fine so stop worrying!" Our doctor even noted that at one time, the head turned toward me. Since that ultrasound, I have been much more calm and just taking things a day at a time! I'm still extremely tired and ready for bed by 8 most nights...so I know something is definitely going on in there!!

Me @ 11 weeks...just a little bump :)