Sunday, November 25, 2012

Thankful for....the holiday season:)

This week we spent a lot of time feeling thankful for SO much... Daren and I both had some extra days off work with the Thanksgiving Holiday Wednesday-Sunday so we enjoyed quite a bit of family time, and even had a day in our jammies for most of the day:) We are so thankful for each other and our girls and feel truly blessed with what and who we have in our lives! Here is a glimpse of our week.
Danika is very much into being a helper and she helped me make bread...
 
Kneading the dough...
 
 
I don't have any pictures to prove it, but Daren and I started our Thanksgiving morning by running the 5 mile Turkey Trot in Eau Claire (yes, I said BOTH Daren and myself) it was a perfect morning for a run and although he was exhausted at the end, Daren did great and wasn't even too sore on Friday! Although, when I asked him if he'd be getting into more races with me he happily declined:) Maybe we can at least make the Turkey Trot our 1 annual race together?!?!
After the race, we celebrated the day wtih family at the Dummer Farm.
 
Danika took advantage of the last of the gorgeous days by playing outside with Chloe...
 
 
 



 
 
Since I'm a week late (or really just on time these days!) we had a special milestone last week... Haddie Grace turned 8 months old:) Seriously, where does the time go? I don't know if it's because we are older, have done this before, or because H is cruisin' faster than Danika did, but every day she is doing something new and the time is like a blur from when we were in the hospital with her until now!
She kind of most definitely will NOT lay still for her monthly pictures anymore, so this is what we get instead...I guess it's reflective of who she is!
 
"Yay for me, I'm 8 months old" 
 
"I want that camera" 
 
"I just want to stand...and of course only hold on with 1 hand" 

 Love, love, love:)
 
What is Haddie up to? Well, here's a snapshot:
Likes: Any and all food, putting things in her mouth, making music, watching her sister, jumping in her jumperoo, bedtime
Dislikes: being left alone in a room, when Danika takes something away, having her face wiped, sleeping through the night (notice how bedtime is a like, but not so much sleeping the whole night! Hopefully sooner than later for this mama's sake)
Development: Crawls at lightning fast speeds, pulls herself up and holds on with 1 hand, walks along furniture for a few steps, claps, waves 'bye-bye', has 3 teeth (2 on the bottom and 1 on top just sprouted yesterday) blows bubbles, screeches, screams, and yells:) giggles, says 'mama', 'dada', 'baba' and other misc... consonant sounds, signs 'more' and 'eat' at mealtime
 
Her next check-up is in December at 9 months, so we'll see how she's growing on the charts at that point.
 
As much as we love Thanksgiving and having time with our families, there is nothing quite like the Christmas season:) We had to get things rolling and kick off the season by getting our Christmas tree... we all bundled up and braved the cold weather to go cut down our perfect tree.... sounds dreamer than it truly was with 2 small children, but we survived and did manage to find a great tree that is up and festive!
 
 
Danika ready to be a helper 
 
We had to do a little up hill hiking, but we found it!  
 
TIMBER!! Dad and Danika next to our chopped down tree 

 
Haddie was  a trooper too! She stayed bundled up in my carrier and barely moved an inch the whole time:)

 
Getting ready for the unveiling in our living room... 
 
And the bare tree... 
(notice Haddie in the bottom corner of this picture ready to make her move toward the tree already!)
 
 
And TADA! The tree is complete, thanks to Daren and another little helper:) 

 
Danika somehow never was curious about the tree at all when she was Haddie's age, but Haddie is a bit more mobile and much more interested and curious in everything around her, so we'll see how this goes! We kept the ornaments a little high, but not much we can do about the actual tree itself!
 
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day/week/weekend shared with special people and good food... and are ready to embrace the holidays as much as we are!
(On a funny note that reminds me....Danika is still unsure about this Santa character- when we have asked her what she wants Santa to bring her she keeps replying "Nothing, I already have toys" It's adorable, and a little sad all at the same time...not so sure we'll make a visit to the big guy this year unless by some miracle she has a change of heart:)
 
With Love,
The Dummers

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Halloween, Gymnastics and other Fall fun...

Here we are again! After a few tired weeks, I'm finally making a point to take the time tonight and update the blog with some pictures. We've had some fun this month and wanted to share it with you...
 
Decorating pumpkins- Danika wanted to paint her little ones:)

 
 
Our littlest pumpkin:) 

 
We gave Danika many options of what she could dress up like for Halloween(but encouraged HEAVILY away from Dora...I know, bad mom that my wishes come before hers!) I even took her to Target to look at the various costume's but because Haddie was using the same ladybug costume from when Danika was a baby, D decided she wanted to be the same thing...So we ended up wtih two little ladybugs:)
 
The big D bug showing off her wingspan:) 


 
Little H Bug and daddy... 
 
For the first year we actually did 'real' trick-or-treating:) We went to all the houses on our cul-de-sac. Danika wasn't so sure about going to stranger's houses, but after our neighbor loaded her bag practically half full, she decided she could get used to it:) After we'd leave a house she said 'Are we going to another one?'
After our neighborhood we headed to Elk Mound and visted Great Grandma Dummer and went to the farm as well, where we saw cousin Chloe all dressed up too!

 
Grandma, Grandpa and the bugs! 
 
The excitement of getting all the goodies home and taking inventory!
"Hmmm....what should I pick?!?!?"
 
 
Obviously I'll pick a sucker every time if it's an option:) 
 
And Hadster enjoyed her puffs too! 
 
 
Aside from the Halloween festivities, Danika also started gymnastics class a few weeks ago! She loves it, but has a hard time following directions because she just wants to do what she wants to do:) She is loving it though!
Doing songs and exercises to get warmed up...
 
BIG balance beam... 


Climbing on the big mat to get to the balance beam
Her favorite thing to do is the trampoline and sommersaults on the wedge mats. Daren took video of her in action on the wedge mat, but unfortunately you see more of my backside than her doing a sommersault, so I'll spare you that:)
 
Our typical days/nights at home the last month...
 
Haddie keeps trying more table foods. Her favorites seem to be chunks of cooked carrots, avocado, banana, toast and even tofu! 
 
Danika has become quite the artist and is more interested in doing activities with paint, playdough, and stamps... (She was making a 'get-well' picture for Chloe)
 
 
Just another silly day with dad! 
 
Haddie has found the pantry and when the door is open it's her top pick of places and spaces to crawl to! 
 
Happy girl:) 
 
On Friday night we went for a quick trip to visit cousins Connor and Madeline in Northfield. The kids (and grown-ups) had a nice time visiting. The sweetest moment that I had to capture was Connor reading Danika a couple bedtime stories...He was so animated and she was so engaged- Can we have you every night at bedtime?!?! ;)

 
Of course we had to take advantage of the beautiful weather on Saturday by getting outside and riding bike (before we had to spend 2.5 hours in a car for our drive home!)

 
 
Well, there's a short and sweet update:) Hope the last month has been a good one for all of you. Now that Halloween is officially over let me be one of the first to say.....
 
WELCOME to the Christmas Season!!! LOVE this time of year:)
 
Until next time...
 
The Dummers
Daren, Jamie, Danika & Haddie