Cody's First Christmas

Cody experienced his first Christmas just a few short days ago.  He stayed up on Christmas Eve long enough to open almost all of his presents and he LOVED it!!!  He especially enjoyed all the attention of Grandma & Grandpa Anderson, Uncle Al & Aunt Joann, and of course, Mommy & Daddy.  He liked ripping the wrapping paper, especially in miniscule pieces!  He really did get excited when seeing what was under all the pretty paper.  A few times his whole body shook and his eyes got wide open...of course, never when the camera was ready!!

Before the festivities...he was so excited!!

A rare photo of Mommy & Cody!

First present to open! What could it be?

There he goes....ripping the paper....

Ooh!! A TRAIN! Thanks Al & Joann (and, err, Grandma & Grandpa Hart who also bought him this :))

Here is a video of the little man in action!  Don't mind our laughing in the background! 

Cody was a very lucky little boy and received lots of very nice toys and clothes.  Some highlights were the "Busy Ball Choo Choo" train pictured above, Little Tikes piano (already taking after his dad in the musical field), his first little truck/car, farm animals, a book about the Christmas story, much needed clothes in his current size, and a super cuddly homemade blanket.

He wasn't spoiled AT ALL!!

Here's hoping each of you had a wonderful Christmas & a very Happy New Year!!

Pretzel Snack Recipe

My mom brought this YUMMY snack for Christmas (blog & pictures to come soon!) and I wanted to share the recipe with "all" of you readers (ha ha, does anyone look at this thing besides me?).  It was delicious!  I thought it might be healthy until I read about the buttery popcorn oil...darn....oh well!  I don't know what it's official title is, so I'm just calling it "Pretzel Snack"!

PRETZEL SNACK
2 lbs. pretzels-small bow shape
12 oz. buttery popcorn oil
1 pkg. ranch dressing (dry)
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
1 t. dill weed
1 t. cayenne pepper ( or chili powder)

Mix ingredients together. Pour on pretzels in large ziplock bag or large tupperware bowl with lid. Flip bowl or bag over every 5 minutes for 1 hour.

Sick AGAIN!

Our little boy is sick AGAIN.  He has a really nasty, hacking cough for about the 5th-6th time in his not even 10 month existence.  It is so painful to hear.  It's like he has junk in his throat (his lungs are clear--checked several times by the doctor) that he can't cough out.  It's so heartbreaking!

He was running a little temp tonight, about 99.9...hopefully he will get rid of that during the night...otherwise we may have to bring him to Urgent Care tomorrow.  I have to work tomorrow morning, it's my crazy time at work.  I hope he is doing better tomorrow.  Today we did buy him a warm-mist humidifier that you can put Vicks in.  I hope it helps.

Please say a little prayer for Cody if you can.  I know he is probably just building up his immunities but it is hard for this Momma (and Dadda) to watch.

Blessings!

Merry Christmas!!

Here's hoping that you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Please enjoy these photos of Cody, taken by CLM Photography. The link is for the full set of photos. I'm completely in love with them!!

Our Little Boy at Christmas Time

My parents just arrived from the northland, and my brother and SIL will be over to our home later.  It's our first time hosting Christmas at our new house.  We are getting so excited for Cody to experience his 1st Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

Second Tooth

Cody's second tooth popped through today! No wonder!! He has been quite the crabby little boy lately, and hasn't been sleeping well either. It all makes sense now.

He really did get his "two front teeth" for Christmas!!! :)

Let It Snow!

Gordon got to take out the snowblower for the first time this morning.  He said he enjoyed doing it, but missed the reward of doing the actual physical labor of shoveling.  We broke down and bought a snowblower this year, as we knew it wouldn't be as easy for me to help with the shoveling with a little one in the house.  Our driveway is pretty darn big when it comes to shoveling, too. I think it was a good purchase!  

The End Result:

First Tooth

Cody got his first tooth a couple of weeks ago!  I can't believe how long it takes to totally come up, but I guess it's a slow process.  If you click to enlarge this image, you can see a pretty good view of it!  He wasn't bothered by it much at ALL.  I hope all of teething goes this way, but I'm totally expecting it not to.

Our little one is growing up fast.

Cody had such wild hair this morning after his morning nap.  It was pretty cute.  He also managed to scratch himself on the face in a couple spots with his razor-like nails.  Those things are just crazy!  A manicure is in the works for him tomorrow before he heads out the door.  That's one of Gordon's official tasks as Dad...I just cannot do it!  He is too wiggly and I am too scared I am going to clip too much.  Gordon does a wonderful job of it.  I have to say I am very lucky for having such a helpful husband when it comes to raising our little one.  He often takes the "not-so-pleasant" tasks.  I couldn't do it without him!  

Cookie Making Party

On Saturday afternoon, two of my good friends, Careen and Natasha, came over, braving the winter weather, and we had a cookie [and candy] making party! It was a lot of fun and something I had never done before. I offered to supply the 'basic' ingredients (flour, sugar, eggs, etc.) and they just had to bring a recipe and anything unique as far as ingredients. We ended up making 5 things! We made gingersnap cookies, peanut blossoms, peppermint almond bark, lemon snowball cookies and fudge balls! We all took home an equal portion of the proceeds!  I wish I would have thought to take a photo of us in all of our baking glory!  ;)

Above are photos of the finished products & some of the cookbooks used....below are some yummy closeups!

If you want any of these recipes, feel free to let me know!

Being Silly on a Friday night

Just a few pictures of Cody from tonight.  He was in such a good mood!!  We were having a good time playing up in my office.

He's permanently attached to a bib these days.  We call him our Drooly Boy!  Today, he went through FOUR bibs at daycare and still was kinda damp at the end of the day.  Luckily, we have a well-stocked supply of bibs, as I have a wonderful mother who hand-makes ALL his bibs.  They are so nice with three layers, cute patterns, different sizes, etc.  I told her she should open up an Esty shop!

I like how this one shows off his big blue eyes. I'm so in love with him!

New Neighbors

We will probably have some new neighbors in the spring!  They started working on two houses right across the street from us.  Yes, in December, in Minnesota.  Brrr.  It makes me very thankful for my cushy office job.  We knew it was only a matter of time before the land got developed, but we were hoping we could keep our 'view' of the marsh area.  I can't believe they are building houses in this day and age, but I guess someone must be buying them!  

If it's not too much to ask, I hope we get some neighbors with kids around Cody's age.  It would be fun to have 'playdates' so close and get to know some more couples to do things with.  Our current neighbors are very nice, but one doesn't have any kids, and the other has older kids (junior high & up).  We really enjoy getting together with other couples/families, and don't do it nearly as often as we'd like.

9 Month Statistics

We took Cody in for his 9 month well-child check a few weeks ago.  Here are his 9 month stats!

Weight - 18.15 pounds (25-50% percentile)

Height - 28-1/2 inches (90% percentile)

Head Circumference - 18 inches  (didn't write down the percentile)

He's looking to be a tall boy...but I know things can easily change!

He didn't want to let go of the sign....(notice the crinkles!)

We really are pleased with the pediatrician we chose for Cody.  She is really honest, approachable, down to earth and easy to talk to.  She works at the clinic in our town, so it's really convenient.

Cody's next well-check appointment will be at a year!  Omigosh.

Christmas Cards

Yay!!  Our Christmas cards have arrived!  

My cousin, Chrissy, took the most adorable photos of Cody for our 1st ever photo Christmas card!  I haven't "revealed" the photos to anyone...but I'll be posting the pictures on the blog next week.  They turned out SO cute and I'm super excited to share with everyone.  Of course, I think DS is the cutest boy ever, but I'm slightly biased :)

That said, I'd better get to stuffing & mailing.  I 'cheated' this year and did address labels, but that saved me so much time...

Happy Holidays!

Close Call

Whew.  What a day.  

Long story short:  Dh's work laid off 22% of its workforce today, approximately 120 people.  There was some scary times this morning, but dh is safe.  He was offered a different position in the company, starting tomorrow.  They cancelled this massive computer conversion project that he was 100% involved in.  That was his job.  Fortunately, he is very well respected and valued there, and we are so grateful that he was offered another position.  We were praying for good news & we are extremely blessed by God's Will in this matter.  

Here is an article about the layoffs from bizjournals.com:

Select Comfort cuts 22 percent of headquarters employees
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by John Vomhof Jr. Staff Writer

Select Comfort Corp. announced Tuesday it is laying off 120 workers, or roughly 22 percent of the work force at its Plymouth headquarters.

The layoffs are part of a broader cost-cutting initiative “in response to further slowing of sales after Thanksgiving and in anticipation of continued macro-economic challenges in 2009,” the bed retailer said in a statement. The company is best known as the creator of the Sleep Number bed.

Most of the cuts will affect general and administrative or customer-service positions.

Select Comfort also said it will immediately cease the implementation of SAP-based IT software and all associated activities.

Those cuts and others that Select Comfort is exploring are expected to save the company approximately $15 million a year, beginning in the first quarter of 2009. However, the company will incur a charge of $35 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 related to asset impairments — approximately $4 million of severance payments and other cash costs.

“During the course of the year, we’ve navigated through an extremely difficult macro-economic environment by focusing on reducing our cost structure and improving product margins,” Select Comfort President and CEO Bill McLaughlin said in a statement. “We expect these macro-economic challenges to continue and possibly worsen in 2009. Therefore, we’ve taken additional actions to better align our cost and cash structure with our 2009 outlook for the economy.”

Select Comfort (Nasdaq: SCSS) also previously had announced that it is on track to close approximately 20 stores during the first quarter of 2009.

The company said Tuesday it will “continue to examine its store base, and expects to close additional stores throughout 2009,” and it “is assessing supplemental opportunities across all functions to reduce overall cost structure.”


jvomhof@bizjournals.com | (612) 288-2101

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Brrr....it's 9:24pm as I write this and it's currently 11 degrees below zero. It was just straight up nasty out today!! Very windy, blowing snow, etc. Not as bad as in other places like North Dakota, so I'm grateful it wasn't worse. We got Cody all bundled up to head out to daycare this morning & he was slightly reminiscent of the younger boy in "A Christmas Story". 

Cody is so darn cute though in his winter jacket, fleece hat, mittens and shoes.  I already lost one of his mittens though.  And, so it begins.

This is not good. Only my third post and I'm already out of things to talk about so I bring up the weather. Great.

We, and when I say we, I mean Gordon, installed the convertible car seats last Friday. We ended up buying the Britax Marathon for dh's car and Britax Roundabout for my car. Does this mean we're car seat snobs now? Yikes. I got a very generous gift card to Target from my work for Christmas, so we used that money and put it towards the car seats. They are super nice & Cody really seems to like them.  I must say, it's quite a bit easier to get him in and out of the car now in his "big boy" seat.  They are really easy to adjust the straps, too.  The infant carrier was getting sooooo heavy since he weighs over 18 pounds now!  At his 9 month appointment, he was 1/2 inch shy of meeting the height limit, so it was definitely time to upgrade.  That said, it was kind of sad to pack away the "bucket" though. He's growing up too fast!

By the way, anyone know how to make a gas fireplace stop stinking?  We have not used our fireplace much since we moved into our home, because when we turn it on, it gives off quite an odor.  It is kind of that "just turned on the heat" smell, except it doesn't go away after a few minutes, and it drifts through the entire house.  I've read it could take 30 hours for the smell to go away...Lord help me!  I don't know if we have had it on for 30 hours; it actually makes me somewhat nauseous after awhile.  I don't know if it's worth calling the fireplace repair people or not.  I wish we would have asked before our 1 year home inspection.  Oh well.  A nice warm fireplace sounds so wonderful on these cold days, but not when you want to just go outside to breathe fresh air afterwards!

Cody Meets Santa

We took Cody to meet Santa at the Albertville City Hall on Saturday. It was a really low-key event.  There were only a few kids there and we didn't have to wait in a line. We weren't sure what he would think, but Cody was OK with Santa! He gladly sat on his lap and studied Santa awhile, but after a few minutes, he let us know that he had been there long enough! It was pretty cute. For the cost of a food donation, we got the attached photo for free. Cody also got a book (about cats-how appropriate!), a little snack, and they had coffee, cookies and cider. It was nice to attend a neighborhood event!

First Post ...

Welcome to my blog!

I've been wanting to get a blog going for months, and I'm attempting to finally do this. My timing is horrible. It's less than 2 weeks until Christmas, I have an active 9 month old, and my work is crazy busy! I want to at least give it a shot and see how it goes. I'd like to get in a routine of posting daily or at least every few days...for nothing else, to have a record of what goes on in life! My memory seems to be completely shot for the most part, so maybe this will give me some sort of chance of remembering life with a baby. I can only wish I started this 9 months ago, as those memories are quickly fading.

I hope you enjoy & visit often!