Beginning of 2015 (January, February, March)

I am in complete disbelief that we are halfway through 2015 - much less DAYS (days...not months...not even weeks) away from meeting our baby! To say the year has flown by is a complete understatement.

Also an understatement is to say I've fallen off the blogging wagon. I thought it had maybe been early June...perhaps mid-May since my last post. But no...April?! Good grief.

So here's my attempt to get back on track...at least to a certain degree...

January

• January was an up and down month in terms of "morning sickness" (aka all day sickness for me), so we sort of took the month one day at a time. Like my pregnancy with Linnea, the sickness just lingered...forrrrreeever. Unlike with Linnea, I ended up on medication, which helped a bit- although I think time was the biggest help. I'm sort of grateful that I felt this way in January - my least favorite month of the year. It was a decent time to just lay low.
• We managed some good outings... most notable being a trip to the Science Museum (Linnea's first time). 
• I obsessed a bit about a preschool decision for Linnea (and we managed to make a decision that we feel really good about - woo hoo!!). 
• The last weekend of the month we took a second annual retreat with our faith group from church. Last year was a little rough - sleep didn't go well. But this year was WONDERFUL! Linnea did so much better with sleep. We all had a great time. It was a great mix of play time, time with friends, and couple time. We needed that weekend - it was very refreshing. I'm kicking myself that I didn't get more pictures, but I thought this one was pretty sweet...

Random photos from the month...

 

February

• We hosted our annual Super Bowl party. We did it a bit differently this year - adults only. It was a hard decision, but our house just isn't big enough to effectively hold our friends and their growing families. We had a much smaller group, but we had a great time and it was a super entertaining game.
• I took a day trip down to Rochester with my besties Kirstyn and Jackie to meet up with other bestie Bethany. We had such a fun day shopping and catching up. I love these girls more than I could ever say! 
   
  
  
• We had a great Valentine's Day. Jeromy and I are not huge fans of a "traditional" Valentine's Day, so we've really enjoyed making our own traditions as a family. This year we hosted a pancake breakfast at church for our faith group. Super fun! We also had a family date to Pizza Luce, and then Jeromy and I had a movie date in our pajamas. It was perfect! 
  
• At the end of the month we found out that Baby Carlson #2 is another girl! I am so excited to have two girls!!
  

Random photos from the month...

March

• Early in March we spent the weekend down in Decorah, IA (home of our dear alma mater, Luther College). I'm serving on the 10-year reunion committee, and we had a meeting down there. We had such a good time! We stayed at one of the nicer hotels (had a suite, no less!). Linnea enjoyed the pool in the hotel. What a little fish! We enjoyed a couple of our favorite restaurants in town, and a bit of time on campus. We're super excited to go back down there for our reunion in October!
  
• Mid-March we took a day trip down to Eau Claire. Pretty much Jeromy's whole family lives down there. We were much overdue for a visit. We had a really great visit. We started the day off with a geocaching event (it was pi day!) at Perkins with Jeromy's Uncle Jeff. Following that event, we did some geocaching by Jeff's place. We then visited Jeromy's grandparents for a couple hours, then spent the rest of the day (including dinner) with Jeromy's aunt, uncle, and cousin. Jeromy's cousin has been battling leukemia. Although they've ceased treatment, he's doing quite well. It was great to see everyone. The weather was wonderful, and Linnea was very cooperative the whole day.

Linnea and Uncle Jeff at the Pi Day geocaching event..

Geocaching by Uncle Jeff's house...it was such a gorgeous day! (Can you find Jeromy in the below picture? LOL...)

Linnea with her Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Carlson

 

Reading with Great-Grandpa...

  

Linnea and cousin Tom

  

• The week after our visit to Eau Claire, my dear friend Rachel came into town with her new baby Andrew AND my other friend Kirstyn had her new baby Jack, So we had a major baby weekend! Linnea and I went to Ellsworth, WI for the day (with our friends Jackie and Gavin, and Sarah) to visit, and then Linnea and I stopped on the way home to meet Jack. Hooray! I love watching my friends become mamas. Awesome mamas at that. 

 Meeting Andrew for the first time (this was actually at a WOWZA dinner out, prior to our weekend visit...)

  

Ellsworth (where Rachel is from) is the Cheese Curd Capital of WI...so a trip to the creamery was definitely in order!

Gavin and Linnea at the creamery

Linnea loved helping Auntie Rachel with Andrew...

Reading with Auntie Sarah

Linnea became seriously smitten...

Meeting Baby Jack! This made me quite excited to have a new baby at our house! Linnea was so excited...

• Linnea got a big girl bike! After having learned how to ride a two-wheel bike (with training wheels, that is) at our Faith Group retreat, we decided it was time for Linnea to have a bike of her own. The bike we got is a bit big, but she's really enjoyed cruising around the neighborhood like a big girl! 

Random photos from the month...