Lately

We're still here...and life is getting back to normal (whatever normal is!)

Here's what's happened in the past month:

We got rid of Finley's nuk!  She would whine about needing it more and more and eventually Pat snapped and forced me to go along with his decision to get rid of it.  Ultimately, I knew we needed to, I was just terrified of her sleep without it and our afternoon car rides. 

When Grandma and Grandpa Morgan were in town, we made a trip out to the Mall of America to go to Build-A-Bear.  We planned to shove all of the nuk's inside the animal and then she'd sort of always have them close.  Let me just say that no one should ever go to Build-A-Bear on a weekend.  Pure hell.  Luckily the Rainforest Cafe also had a B.A.B. and there was no line! 

Fin picked out a penguin.  She had no clue why we were shoving her nuk's inside and she didn't cry one bit.

Here she is getting ready to kiss it's little heart.

Pressing the pedal to get the stuffing fluffed up.

Penguin getting stuffed.

Giving him a bath afterwards.

She had a long screaming car ride home from the mall (past nap) and had a rough go falling asleep for the next 2 nights and naps, but after that she would ask 2-3x/day for the nuk and we just told her it was in the penguin and that seemed to be enough.  She went everywhere with penguin for about a week and now he just sleeps in her crib at night. 

While at the mall, she also got to go on a Blue's Clue's ride.  We had a great weekend with Grandma and Grandpa - even though Finley was fighting a cold.   

Pat and I were able to spend a night out on the town in February.  I guess this was our babymoon!  The company Pat works for had a great year and so decided to throw a themed holiday party and treat all the employees to a room at the Saint Paul hotel.  I have always wanted to stay at this historic hotel, but we never really had a reason to spend that much money on a hotel in our home city.  We had a great time getting dressed up for the 1930's gangster themed party held at the Wabasha Caves.  Our table had 2 other pregnant wives and one new mom so we shared waters and shirley temples while the hubbies cut loose.  The next morning, the company sponsored brunch and when we picked up our car from valet, the $5 tip was the only money we'd spent since checking it the night before.  It was awesome!

Pat finally had a good reason to part his hair!

We finally got enough snow to make a snowman!  It melted a day later, but we'd waited all winter to be able to do this :) 

Here's our Mickey Mouse snowman!

First time sledding down the backyard hill.  Pat had grand plans for a luge style track down the hill - he was going to shape it and flood it, but alas we never got enough snow.  She loved this hill, though.

And two weeks later, we ate lunch out on the deck! 

Finley has fully recovered from RSV, but her room smells like a Vick's factory.  She is so much more pleasant to be around now that she's feeling better, getting sleep, and we are sleeping.

I took my crazy test this past weekend.  I'll find out in June if I'm a neurological clinical specialist - and honestly I have no idea if I'll even pass.  I like to think of it as the smartest and stupidest thing I've ever done.  It's basically like I went back to school (in a condensed 6 months), am current on the research, and am generally more excited about what I do...But, it nearly drove me over the edge to be a mom/wife/pregnant, working 4 days/week, and trying to study - all while Pat's job was stressful and our poor Fin spent about 4 weeks being sick.  Never again.

In the midst of this, our garbage disposal went out.  It's something I never realized we depended on so much.  Super Pat installed a new one and a pretty new faucet while he was at it.  Picutres to follow, but I was so proud of my not usually handy hubby. 

Life is good - healthy girls, spring-time, no more studying for me, and a working garbage disposal.  We are grateful!