Baby #2

Rob and I are excited to announce we are expecting our second baby on June 27th! Today I had my 20 week appointment and everything went great. The ultrasound was so amazing to see the baby punching me, kicking me and just generally not stopping moving. Because the baby was moving so much we weren't able to get any clear pictures, hopefully we will have another ultrasound so we can post some pictures.

When I was pregnant with Cooper I decided if we were going to find out the sex of the baby and told Rob that with the next one he would be the one to decide. We were so happy with the decision made with Cooper, Rob decided not to find out. It turned out to be a good decision since the baby wouldn't cooperate anyway, it had it's legs closed the whole time. :) I thought we were going to schedule the c-section today but the doctor told me we would schedule it at my next appointment. More updates to come.

Cinderella Ball

Christy called me and asked if Cooper and I would like to go with her and Kaylin to the Cinderella ball. I asked Cooper if he wanted to go and he was so excited to dance with Kaylin. The website said to wear royal ball attire and enjoy a night where fairy tales come to life. I wasn't sure what Cooper should wear since he has had a growth spurt again and has outgrown the majority of his dress clothes. Connner was also able to come so the three kids had a blast. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a little too girly for Cooper but it was fun. How cute are these three?

They also had a craft station where the kids could decorate a crown, here is Cooper's crown:



Then came face painting, Cooper decided to have a prince crown from the princess and Kaylin decided to have a butterfly.



Then it was dance time.



When I asked Cooper if he wanted to go next year he said "of course I do!"

India

I had the opportunity to go to India for two weeks at the beginning of this month. The trip was through my MBA program at Carlson and also happened to be the last class for getting my MBA degree completed. We started out with a week in Delhi which is the capital of India, it took a few days to recover from the long flight (I think it was 18 hours total travel time) and while we were there we visited companies that do business over there; Ameriprise, Wal-Mart, several Indian government agencies, a startup company, United Health Group and many others. Delhi is a city of about 17 million, there are literally people everywhere, one night when we left a visit at peak rush hour it took us 2 ½ hours to go a little over 7 miles. Delhi’s traffic in general is not too bad due to a lot of roundabouts that the British built.


Over the weekend we took a trip to Agra which is where the Taj Mahal is. If you are ever in India and have the opportunity to go see it, I would highly recommend it. It is really unbelievable to see in person. Although it was a 6 hour bus ride over 200km to get there (one way) it was still one of the highlights on the trip. A member of our class that is from Agra arranged the whole trip and it was awesome, we also got to see the Agra fort which is just down the river from the Taj.


Back in Delhi on Sunday we went to go see Aksradam (sp?) Temple which was really amazing as well and I would recommend going to see that too. It is more modern than the Taj, but the carvings and everything are just insane.

We then flew to Bangalore for the last week of our trip and spent the week again visiting companies and sightseeing. Some of the companies we visited included: Target (of course the best of the trip!), Sony, Lenovo, Infosys and a bunch of Indian companies. In Bangalore I also got to meet up with a friend of mine from a project at work. He had come to the US back in the summer for the project I was working on and he is from Bangalore. We were able to get together a few nights and go out to eat and do some shopping, it was great! Bangalore traffic is horrible, they do not have the same system as Delhi and sometimes you would sit at lights for what seemed like 20 minutes, although it probably wasn’t really that long. It is a city of 8 million and they do not have a metro, although that is under construction, so when any of you visit it should be better.


The trip back was even longer (total travel of 24+ hours) as I missed a connecting flight in Newark on the way home and had to spend an extra night in Chicago before getting home on the 16th. But overall it was an amazing trip.

Most frequently asked questions about my trip and the answers:

· How was the food, especially the Indian food? It was good and I was very lucky to not develop any stomach issues while I was over there. We went out to four large group Indian dinners that were all really amazing. They do chicken a lot of different ways, have good breads, rice and desserts.

· What was it like? For those that have been to Mexico, very similar buildings and shopping, just bigger and a LOT more people.

· Would you ever go back? Yeah I think I would eventually, would be neat to bring the family and show them what I saw and all the stuff that I missed.

· Are everyone’s jobs eventually going to move to India? Yes (just kidding, I have no idea,) they do a lot of things well, but some things transfer easier than others

· Are there really cows everywhere? Yes, they are everywhere. Even saw one in a convenience store, literally in the store, he must have been shopping.

· Do they have McDonalds/American food there? Yes. There was a McD’s close to our first hotel that we frequented. Although they have no beef, the Big Mac is a King Burger (or something similar) that is either veggie burger or some type of chicken. We also went to KFC and Subway a few times.

· What is the money? It is called the Rupee, and the exchange rate is something like $1=50 rupees, you felt like you had a lot of money because of the large bills.

Texas 2011

While Rob is in India, Cooper and I flew to Houston to visit the Mosher families. It was a much needed break and we had a great time! We took all 7 kids to the Houston Zoo on Friday and the weather was amazing, you can't beat 70 degree weather considering when we left it was around 10 degrees. The zoo was really great, if you are even in Houston, I recommend checking it out. The kids all really enjoyed the elephants, especially the two babies. They were so cute!



Cooper had so much fun playing with all the kids, playing a Wii for the first time and being able to play outside without wearing a jacket. Well at least for the beginning of our trip. Towards the end of our trip the weather did change and it did get colder.



Every time I am in Houston we go to Kemah to eat at Joe's Crab Shack, walk along the boardwalk and check out the aquarium. Since the last time I was there they expanded the aquarium and added a sting ray exhibit where you can feed them. I have to admit I was a little leery to feed them but it was pretty amazing. You take a piece of raw shrimp and hold it in the water and they come right up and take it out of your hand. One thing we learned really quickly is they get excited when the come to grab the shrimp and splash you.

It was a great trip and as always hard to come home. I am so lucky to have such amazing family down there. When ever I go down there it's like no time has passed and we pickup right where we left off.

Christmas

This year we celebrated Christmas a little differently than in prior years. We had Christmas eve brunch at the Peterson's house then went to my parent's house for our traditional Oyster Stew and reading of the Christmas story. I had been quite a few years since we have celebrated with both our families on the same day and it was fun to see everyone in one day. Since Rob will be leaving for India we decided to stay home on Christmas day and celebrate with our little family of three. It was a great day but somehow didn't feel like Christmas without celebrating with one of our families. Not to say we didn't try -we had Santa Claus waffles, opened stockings from Santa and even some additional presents to each other. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Cooper loved to hang out under the tree and gaze up at the lights and ornaments.

Family picture in front of the Peterson's tree

Cooper looking so handsome at my parent's house while opening presents.

The boys with their new Nerf guns from Santa, they went "hunting" shortly after opening these.

Macy's 8th floor and visit to Santa

We had planned on going to the Holidazzle parade today but decided we would take Cooper to see the Macy's 8th floor display and visit with Santa instead as the weather wasn't cooperating. We were a little shocked at how long the lines were, we thought by getting there early it would help avoid some of the lines. Cooper was pretty amazing while waiting in the lines, I think I was more annoyed than he was.

The display this year is a day in the life of an elf. He really enjoyed the display and even stopped long enough for me to take a picture.


Then it was time to visit Santa. I had prepped him that he needed to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted him to bring him. He did great! He wouldn't sit on Santa's lap but he sat next to him and told him what he wanted for Christmas and gave him a high five and said he would be good at least until Christmas, we will have to see..

Thanksgiving 2010

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents. We started the morning out by watching the parade and Cooper helping me make the stuffing and creamed corn. We were sad that Christy's family wasn't able to join us, they were too sick to come; both Christy and Adrian were miserable.


After dinner we had a visit from our friends James, Natalie, Jordan and Jacob and then we sat down to play a game of Hand and Foot. This is probably my favorite card game and mom and dad killed us!

Halloween 2010

We had a wonderful Halloween! This year we decorated the house which Cooper loved, he was so excited to show people everything when they came over. He also enjoyed running around with my witch hat which was super cute.


We invited our families over for lunch so everyone could see Cooper in his costume because he decided he wanted to go trick or treating in our neighborhood with his friends Leah and Amanda. Mom and dad brought Kaylin out since Christy had to work.


It was once again unseasonably warm so Cooper and Rob were able to head out side and play some Football.

Here is a picture of Cooper with the girls before we headed out.


The kids in action.

We were surprised by the Brooklyn Park Fire department, they were driving around in a fire truck handing out candy to all the kids. They almost gave Kerri and I a heart attack though because they were driving through the neighborhood with the lights flashing.

Cooper with all his candy, he is so excited!

Pumpkins

After picking pumpkins at Di & Rog's a couple weeks ago, Cooper was ready to carve pumpkins. One of his favorite hobbies right now is cutting. He will sit at the table with his kid scissor and shred all the political junk mail and ads for at least an hour if you let him or watch out if we take out the Play Doh!

As in prior years we wanted to also go to Eveland Family Farm to go on a hay ride and see the animals. It really is an amazing place we always enjoy ourselves when we go there. Cooper loved seeing the animals as always though he was a little scared on the hayride which surprised us, since he is normally so fearless. He had to hold both of our hands the entire time, not that I am really complaining..

Now it was time to finally carve the pumpkins! He was so excited and kept asking if he could cut by himself. He did pretty good carving with a little help from us.

Here are the finished pumpkins:

Then on Friday night we went to my parent's to carve more pumpkins and hang out with my family. Cooper still wouldn't touch the "guts" of the pumpkins but he had a blast carving and hanging out with Kaylin.

Swimming lessons

Tonight was Cooper's last night of swimming lessons and he passed his class! While the season didn't start out very smoothly, by the end he was a pro! This was the first class where I didn't have to go in the water with him so the first class was kind of a disaster, including me getting into the water when I wasn't supposed to because we were running late. By the second class he was much better and I only had to give him a couple of the "I mean business" looks. Towards the end of his class while he was waiting for his turn to swim with the instructor he would catch my eye, wave and say "Hi mommy!" it was so cute!

Even though he passed this class we are going to take a break from swimming lessons and switch to sports. He starts his first tiny tot sports class on the 9th and it should be interesting, they will play basketball, soccer, t-ball and floor hockey. He loves playing basketball and soccer and even asks me to be the coach when he is playing with Rob but the thought of a group of 3-4 year olds running around with floor hockey sticks makes me nervous. I am sure I will have some interesting posts in the next couple weeks from his class.