Christmas Tree

So we have officially started to decorate for Christmas. On Saturday we bundled the kids up and went to a local boys scout tree "forest" to pick out our tree. Maycie was very excited to see the trees and said her famous "WOW". We walked around the lot for a few minutes, then Collin and Maycie found the perfect tree. Miles even smiled at it...I guess that meant he approved! We decorated it with Maycie's help. She put a decoration on and screamed "I did it! Yeah, me!" Miles just blew raspberries and giggled as we decorated. He must have thought we were hilarious!

Here they are getting ready to go get the tree.

Miles Update

Miles is now almost five months old and is so much fun. He's rolling over both ways (back to stomach and stomach to back), laughing up a storm, making bubbles/blowing raspberries, smiling, and grabbing for toys with his hands. He loves to play in his exercise saucer because he can grab at all of the toys there.

Like I have stated before, he is such a big boy that even he is wearing 6-9 month clothes now! It is so strange to have one child (Miles) off the charts and one child (Maycie) barely on them. Miles received the all clear for cereal and baby food at his last doctor's appointment. He wasn't too sure at first but now when he sees the spoon he opens his mouth up like a little bird.

We hope you are having a great day. Happy Thanksgiving early!

Maycie turns 2

Maycie turned two on Nov. 6th. We met up with the grandparents for dinner at Rainforest Cafe Thursday night (her actual birthday). She loves looking at the fish there and loved it when the waiters brought out birthday desserts for everyone. Once it was her turn to get a birthday sundae she wasn't so sure of the whole experience but loved blowing out her candle. Then on Sunday, we had some family over to watch the Vikings/Packers game. Maycie cheered the Vikings on to a victory! They must have seen their new cheerleader and thought that they couldn't let her down.

We tried to get a family picture..it's not the greatest but hey with two kids and a dog, I think that it's pretty darn good.

Maycie now knows that she is two so I thought that I would update you on all of the fun things she is doing.

** She can count to ten...sometimes she forgets a number here and there but it is still cute.

** She knows her ABC's and loves the letters LMNOP and W.

** Is potty trained during the day but needs a pull up for over night.

**She jumps, runs, and sometimes hops all around the house.

**She is very inquisitive and asks "What's that? or points to things and asks "this?"

**Maycie sings, plays Collin's guitar (with assistance of course) and dances all day!

**Knows all of her body parts

**Knows animals and their noises...ask her sometime what a horse says! We didn't teach her it but when you ask her what a horse says, she responds with "GO, GO, GO!" We must have gone to the horse races too many times this summer.

**She can dress and undress herself --this is wonderful when she needs to go to the bathroom & For some reason she needs to get naked to go to the bathroom.

**Maycie can scream at the top of her lungs--Grandma Schwartz might have permanent damage to her ears

**Can use three to four word sentences to describe what she wants.

**Her favorite words are "I do it", "Mine", "Yeah, Me!" and "Hug/Kiss!"

**Loves to give hugs and kisses to everyone especially at bedtime. She has already grasped the concept of stalling.

We hope you all have a great week!

Doctor's Appointments

Hi all. Just a few quick items of interest for you.
Maycie turned two on Thursday Nov. 6th and had a great day...more on that later.
We had Maycie's 2 year appointment on Tuesday along with Miles's 4 month well check. Here are the stats.

Miles
17lbs 11 oz
27 inches long

Maycie
21 lbs 6 oz
33 1/4 inches


Needless to say we are taking bets on how long it is going to be before Miles passes his BIG sister in weight.

New pictures

Here are a few pictures of Maycie and Miles from the past two weeks.

Excuse the laundry basket in the background.

Maycie just loves to hug him!

Miles in the middle of rolling over

Long Overdue

I am so sorry that it has been so long, we've been quite busy around our house. (I also added a few posts that didn't get published earlier).

The days are flying by so quickly due to Miles laughing and smiling up a storm each day. He gets really happy when his big sister talks to him. Miles also has been gaining weight like crazy which makes me a little nervous for his eating habits as teenager. We better start saving now. Miles also has been rolling over at least once a day during tummy time and has discovered how to grab at items that he wants. My favorite is when he is eating, he'll grab and hold my cheek. It just melts my heart.



Maycie has been quite entertaining lately singing and dancing. She loves when Collin plays his guitar She also has been working really hard on pronouncing her words which cracks us up. She now can point to and say all of her body parts-our favorite is "bottom". She said"stinky bottom" when she passed gas yesterday in the bathtub. I thought that I was going to fall over with laughter.

Miles at 2 months

Miles turned two months old on Monday-wow how time flies.
His stats at birth were:
8lbs 0 oz.
21.5 inches

Two month stats:
13 lbs 6 oz.
24 inches

WHAT A TANK!!! Miles is in the 90th percentile for both measurements which is the complete opposite of Maycie who has never gotten above the 50th percentile.

He is smiling and cooing everyday. He even has rolled over from his stomach to his back several times. Miles was surprisingly brave when he had his shots yesterday and reacted extremely well- no fever and had the same appetite as before.

I wonder how long it will before he passes Maycie in the weight department....

Strange but True

Maycie has been trying to get dressed all by herself lately...

She found her swimsuit in the laundry basket that I just filled...two minutes later all of the clothes were out on the floor & Maycie was having fun. Who needs tv when you have her?

Maycie also LOVES to put socks on her hands like gloves/mittens. This makes me wonder why she didn't like her own mittens a few months ago..

Three Men and FOUR babies

The night after Davestock, we hosted a small BBQ with some of college friends that we haven't seen in long time. Matt, Tonya, and their daughter Bailey came over to grill out along with Johnny, Paula, and their daughter Stella. The girls and I figured out the last time we saw each other was at Bailey's first birthday party. Paula asked if I knew I was pregnant then with Maycie and I said no. No wonder I was still hungry after just eating an entire sub from Jimmy John's! We had a great time talking and catching up with them.

Collin with Miles & Maycie
Johnny with Stella

Matt with Bailey

Stella (born June 21st)

Miles (born June 25th)

Davestock II

Just like last year, our friends Dave and Carla Limoges had a big party named Davestock. Basically, we eat, Collin, his dad, Rick, along with friends play music, and we all have a lot of conversations about the summer thus far. This year it was so much fun since Maycie was old enough to dance and Miles was able to be introduced to some of friends that hadn't met him yet. Maycie had a blast dancing with herself, playing with all of the other kids running around including (GULP!) a boy named Payton. Once she met Payton, they played house walking/pushing a stroller with a doll in it, held hands (DOUBLE GULP!), and dancing with each other. Miles had a blast sleeping and being held by many different hands. Here are few pictures.










Maycie listening to Grandpa Kritzer, Marty Buum, and Tim Penny.








Miles is ready to go to the party!














Maycie dancing to daddy playing the bass guitar- you can't see them but Collin, James, Jer, and Rick are in the background



Maycie with Payton









Proud Mamas!
Jen and I with Bianca(born June 13th) and Miles (born June 25th)

Here's looking at you kid!

A father-son candid moment.

Updates, Updates, Updates

So I have fallen off the wagon in regards to blogging. It has been a very busy three weeks with many fun activities going on. In my best teacher voice, "Let's begin." (so I miss teaching a little bit...it's that time of year)

Ellingson Wedding

This past weekend, we drove out to Sioux Falls to see my cousin Jess get married to Tonya. It was such a beautiful wedding!! Tonya was stunning and Jess was the picture of happiness.
Maycie and Miles most of my extended family which was a blast. Maycie was a dancing queen and Miles was very well behaved. Here are a few pictures.

Day one with Pull ups

Maycie was very successful today with her pull-ups. She didn't have any accidents during the day and only one right before bedtime. We were very surprised and proud...she must love her new underwear. She just loves to go to the bathroom like a big girl and even has her routine down pat. We do need to work on how much toliet paper she gets though.

Potty Training

Hello all! Maycie has decided she is ready for the last stage of potty training...pull-ups! Over the past couple of weeks Maycie has been telling us when she is ready to go to the bathroom, proving yet again that she is a big girl. Then this weekend it seemed like she wasn't "using" her diapers, even for the dreaded number two, but insisting on being a big girl using her potty chair. So I decided tonight that it was time to buy pull-ups. Once I got home, she was screaming with delight at her new underwear. Before she put them on, she went to the bathroom and then we put them on. She loved to pull them up and down on her own. What a big girl! We'll keep you updated!

Sunday

On Sunday, Grandpa and Grandma Schwartz came up to celebrate Grandma's birthday. We went out to eat and then went swimming in the pool. Maycie hadn't taken a nap all day so at about 5 pm she just crashed. It took her about 45 minutes to completely wake up. It was quite funny. Here's a picture of our littles sleeping with their grandparents.

Fish in the Lake

Hi everyone! On Saturday we went to East Bethel to Collin's Aunt Sue and Uncle Jack's house on Coon Lake to celebrate Kimberlee's 19th birthday. While we were up at the lake, there was a tornado warning and we had to go to the basement. Actually, Kim, her friend from HS Samantha, Jack, and myself (Megan) saw a tornado starting to form while we were on the lake. At the same time, the sirens started to sound. It rained hard for about an hour so we passed the time by playing cribbage. Here are some fun pictures from Saturday.







Miles sleeping





Maycie playing in the puddles

Three weeks old

Miles is three weeks old on Wednesday and doing great. I knew that he was going to be a big boy when I was pregnant but I didn't think that he was going to be 8 pounds at birth. He still amazes me with how much he wants to eat-eating 4 oz every three to four hours. WOW! Miles even gained a pound in a week! He is smiling and is very alert when he's awake. He follows our voices with his eyes and even opens them when Maycie kisses him.

Maycie has been such a wonderful sister to Miles. She has learned how to say, Miles sleeping, shh! and puts his pacifier in his mouth if he cries. Collin and I have witnessed MANY interactions between the two little ones but this morning took the cake. Collin and I woke up to Maycie sitting in Miles's room singing and playing with some of his toys. She greeted him with a loud, hi Miles and continued to play. I guess she wanted him to get up and play even if it was 7 in the morning. (OK so we slept in...oh, boy did it feel good.)
Well, I'm off to get some cleaning done! Have a great day.

Fourth of July!!

Maycie at the Petting Zoo in Waseca. She also said hi to rabbits,
piglets, baby chickens, and a dog.





Miles relaxing while listening to Grandpa Kritzer's band The Three P's.














This year for the Fourth of July, we travelled down to Waseca for the All School Reunion and Collin's 10 year HS reunion. Grandma and Grandpa Schwartz came over to Waseca for awhile to see us making it a family affair. Maycie really loved swinging at the park and talking with other kids. We saw fireworks at Great Grandma Kritzer's and the Jaycox's. Maycie didn't care for the fireworks at the Jaycox's because they were so close but at GG Kritzer's she started to like them...maybe it had something to do with us being inside and farther away. Miles slept for most of the weekend but still managed to make women's hearts melt when he smiled.

Home Sweet Home

We've been home for almost a week now getting adjusted to life with one more addition. It has been going great. Miles is only waking up twice a night which give us three to four hour stretches of uninteruppted sleep. We were a little concerned about Maycie waking up when Miles does but she has proven to us that she is a sound sleeper.

Here are some more pictures of Miles from the hospital. Maycie saying hi to her brother.

We are a family of five!

Hello everyone and welcome to our new blog!

On Wednesday, June 25th, our family had a new addition, making us a family of five (if you include Walter). Miles Patrick Kritzer entered the world at 8:43 a.m. (12 hours after my water broke). We are so thrilled to have a handsome young man and a beautiful little girl. Maycie loves being a big sister. She wants to hug, kiss, and hold him all of the time. She's such a little mother hen. It has been quite rewarding to see her be so gentle and loving towards Miles.
We are all doing great and are excited to spend some quality time together. Hope to see all of you soon.









Here is our first family picture. Miles was less than three hours old here.