{Anna's Big News!}

Anna (and the puppies!) have big news to share!

That’s right, come early January, she will be a big sister! We are thrilled to share we are expecting baby number 2!

Our official due date is January 5 (and of course the accountant in me cannot help to point out, while a 2012 delivery would provide the obvious tax benefits, we are just looking forward to our baby having a healthy and safe delivery whenever he or she is ready to join us J) 

We had our first prenatal appointment back at 8 weeks at the end of May and were thrilled to see our little bean and hear a strong heartbeat of 184.  I think we were both pretty nervous, but when Pam, our ultrasound tech, quickly identified the baby and a strong heartbeat, we were filled with excitement, joy, AND relief to see our little bean bouncing away with a strong heartbeat.

We are so excited to be expanding our family - So far the pregnancy is going fairly well, I came down with a really severe cold in the very beginning and it took a lot out of me to recover from, but since then I have been feeling good, just extremely exhausted, which I dont rememeber being this tired when I was pregnant with Anna, but I am sure that has something to do with the fact that we are busy chasing after her every day. We are happy to report we had our second prenatal appointment today and heard a strong hearbeat once again, this time at 166 - quite similar to when I was pregnant with Anna, could this mean another girl?!?!?  We will have to wait and see come August!!!!

{Wishing Bob a Very Happy Father's Day}

I realize this post is now a week late, but I wanted to wish Bob a very happy father's day and thank him for being such an amazing husband and father to Anna.  I absolutely love watching him play, interact, and care for Anna, he is so great with her and she absolutely beams with pride when he walks through the door at night.  A favorite of Bob and Anna's is to go to the park behind our house -I absolutely love seeing them walking through the field hand in hand, they really do make quite the the cute pair:) In honor of Father's Day, I thought I would share a video of Anna and Bob bonding by practicing their somersaults a few weeks ago -

Too stinking cute:)

Last weekend we had a free Saturday morning and took advantage by redeeming a Groupon I had purchased months ago for the Mulberry Farm in Sherwood, we had such an amazing time and the farm was perfect, Anna got to get up close to so many animals, ride a pony, and take a hay ride - below are a few pictures of our adventures!

Totally into the pony ride

Taking a peek at the bunnies

A little unsure about the baby calf

Anna and daddy enjoying the hayride

Family pic on the hayride

{It's That Time of Year Again!}

Bay Beach time that is!  With the beautiful weather we have had the past month or so, we have managed to take the time to hit up both Bay Beach and the Wildlife Sanctuary a few times already this spring.  Anna is all in when it comes to visiting either of these "hot spots" for kids!  She absolutely loves riding the rides at Bay Beach - I think the train and merry go round are still her fave, but she also enjoys the ones like the lady bugs, trucks, catepillars, etc.  We also have enjoyed going to the Wildlife Sanctuary and feeding the "rockies."  We taught Anna to say robin this spring, which has translated to "rockie" and now every bird we see is "rockie".  Nonetheless, we have had such fun taking her out and about and look forward to doing it much more this summer. 

First Ride!

Love the merry go round!

I suppose we need to teach her to look forward when we drive?

Cruising in the catepillar!

Feeding the ducks with our cousins!

Daddy & Anna

Checking out the owls

Cousins!

Grandma with all her grandkids for her birthday!

{Us These Days}

I thought I would share two videos I recently took of Anna....eating jello and bubbles are two activities that are HUGE in the Seidel house these days - If you ask Anna what she would like to play with, chances are her response would be BUBBLES!!! Thank goodness for cheap entertainment :)

{Easter and More House Pics}

Happy Easter!  I wanted to share a few quick pictures from Easter this past weekend  - we had a great weekend, spent Friday night at our house with Paul and Lois and Becky and the girls - I am loving that spring is here and we enjoyed sometime outside playing with the kiddos and enjoying the warm sun.  Saturday Bob, Anna, and I went for a long run, and then spent much of the day cleaning inside and out.  We enjoyed having a Easter dinner at my parents and enjoyed a visit from my Aunt Di Ann.  Di Ann loves an opportunity to see Anna and I know really enjoyed playing with her.  Before we had gotten there, the Easter Bunny had made a stop at my parents and left Anna some gifts and hid some eggs for her to find, Anna caught on quick and loved searching for the eggs and collecting them in her basket.  Sunday morning we woke up to find the Easter Bunny had paid us ANOTHER visit, this time at our house.  Anna found her basket and quickly found the eggs he had hidden around the house.  It was fun to watch Anna try to eat the candy he had brought her, she hasn't really had much candy before and she still doesn't seem to be very interested in eating it, just unwrapping one piece after another and leaving them lay - the puppies are in heaven:)  We spent the afternoon at my Aunt Colleen's for lunch and then came back to Green Bay and enjoyed dinner at Makinaw's with the Seidel's before coming home and settling in for the evening.

Checking out what the EB brought at grandma and grandpa's...

Hunting for eggs!

Smiles with Aunt Di Ann!

Love this one...

Books and note from the EB

"Hmmm, which Reese's pb cup should I open and lick next?"

All dressed up in her Easter dress! (and on a side note  - check out the humungo feet!:))

Family pic...

We had some time Sunday morning to finish hanging some stuff in the bath/laundry room since the floors were done, I still have a few ideas in mind, and Bob is going to make me my risers for the washer/dryer so these rooms are still a work in progress but I thought I would share pics of the floors.  I absolutely love these two rooms now that they are somewhat complete.  The half bath was always just the room we walked through to get to the laundry room, but now that the floors are done and we have repainted, it has such a nice and calming feel to it -

Lol....my attempt at "art"  I searched for a cute painting/canvas to hang in the bathroom - I couldn't find anything so I tried to get creative on Pinterest....I am not sold on it, but it is hanging up for now..

{Our Little Dancing Queen}

Last week, my mom, Elizabeth, Anna, and I packed up and headed out east to visit Mike, Michele, and Buster and see their new, beautiful home!  It is absolutely gorgeous and it was so great to finally see it and all of their hard work over the past year while they went through the building process.  I have to admit, while Bob and I would love to build our next house, after realizing all the decisions you have to make, it seems to be quite a daunting task!  We had a great time, spent much of it around their house, enjoying the peace and quiet (Anna loved spotting the TURKEEE! that roamed around their area), shopped our little hearts out, and even enjoyed a fun girls night out dinner while Mike graciously stayed home and babysat Anna - big thanks Uncle Mike!!!  Overall it was a great weekend and I am so happy to report that Anna did absolutely awesome on the trip...she went with the flow, napped when she could and traveled really well on the plane.  In fact, on our last leg of the trip home, she was out within 20 seconds of take off - and I certainly enjoyed the cuddling!

Showing Uncle Mike all of her "pretties" (hair bows)

New Hampshire, Here We Come!

Watching the Planes

Waiting for the parade with Chel - a little unsure of the clowns

Having a snack before we head home and playing "peekaboo"

In other news, apparently we have quite the dancing queen on our hands - Anna absolutely loves to dance!  I found my Aladdin soundtrack the other day and ever since, whenever Anna sees the case she brings it to the cd player in our room and asks to "play."  (Our favorite is "Part of Your World")  So it is no surprise that Anna is a big fan of having a dance party, which has become quite common in our house lately, especially on our days home together:)  Below is a video from Thursday night when we were out east of us Willis girls having a dance party.  A favorite activity we use to when we were younger, we never pass up an opportunity to have one when we are all together and there are no boys around - as you will see, Anna fits in quite well!

As I was taking the above video, it reminded me of a video from my bachlorette party back in the day, so I had to dig it out when we got home.  As I was watching it, I was not only quite embarrassed, but more importantly, caught myself smiling and laughing - I am so lucky to have such awesome ladies in my life - and now I can clearly see where Anna gets her good moves from, so I thought I would share, although surely Michele, Liz, and Stacy may not be very happy with me:) 

One final video I wanted to share is Anna dancing to one of her favorite songs, apparently we watch a little too much of the Big Bang Theory, as whenever the theme song comes on, Anna abandons whatever toy she is playing with to dance along with the music, and off course, doesnt miss the opportunity to shout "bang!" at the end:)  Bob caught this one on his phone tonight - sorry for the darkness, we were getting ready for quiet time.

{Almost a Finished Product}

Wow, have we been busy the past couple of weekends - I want to give a huge thanks to our parents who have totally helped us out the past two weeks and to Bob's brother Brad for pitching in tonight and helping us set up our new furniture.  Two weekends ago, Anna came down with a pretty nasty cold, it was her second cold she has ever had and it hit her pretty hard, so we spent much of the weekend cuddling on my parents couch while Bob and his parents pulled up the rest of our sub floors and pulled thousands (and thousands) of staples...a huge task and I am sure it wasn't a lot of fun, we are so gracious for their help.  Luckily they finished by the end of day Saturday so we were able to get some furniture shopping done on Sunday.  Maccos came to start the job Monday and actually finished a day early on Thursday.  They were impressed with all the pre-work we (well, mainly Bob, but I helped!) had done and since we weren't actually staying at the house (it wasn't livable in the least) they were able to work a little later in the evening to finish early.  It was so fun to stop over every night to check out their progress.  Last weekend was spent putting appliances back in, Bob put all the trim back on, cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning and slowly our house came back to normal.  I could not believe how big of a job this really was when you consider all the trim had to be removed, as well as furniture, sinks, toliets, and appliances.  But in the end, it was SO worth it, the floors are absolutely fabulous.  Every time we come home, we cannot help but comment that it feels like a brand new house.  We are really pleased with our choices and we think it all flows really well together.  We topped it all off with buying some new furniture - a new table, chairs, server, and bar stools (and a bench for the table as well, I love it!) and a TV stand for the family room.  It all came in tonight and Bob and his brother managed to set it ALL up, way to go guys!!!  All Bob needs to do is set the TV back up.  Anna and I are off to Manchester to visit Mike and Michele on Thursday and see their new home and we get back I plan on focusing on our laundry room/half bath.  Since we painted, the decor we had in there doesn't really go and I think I have talked Bob into building me risers for our washer and dryer..we shall see...hint, hint!!!  For now, here are some pics of the work so far....

Bob pulling up the floor in the kitchen

See, I did do some work!

Family room before....

Family room after, the puppies are loving their new digs!!!  While I love everything we did, the hardwood is my favorite!

Family room again, just need to set up the TV

Guest bathroom with new tile and new paint

Kitchen with new tile and new table and chairs.  The tile we chose was called Solerno and it was put down in an 18X18 and 12X12 pinwheel pattern.  Bob really wanted to do the pinwheel and I am glad, it looks really cool.

Another view of the kitchen