Happy New Year - - - - Updates: Xmas, the Boys and Me...

Thank the moon and stars, the holidays are over. :) No really... it was a complete blast and so good to see everyone, but it's always good to get home and back into the swing of things and relax. Chris even has this week off of work (his company closed the doors for the time between xmas and new years) and it is SO nice to have him around to help out.... especially considering that I am SO exhausted right now and can't seem to get enough sleep. I need this first trimester to be over. More about that later though....

Our first stop for Xmas was Gma Bonnie and Gpa Dean Hoglund's in Annandale for Xmas Eve. Always a good time, and they always have some sort of festive headwear for each holiday, and this one was no exception - check out the reindeer antler-wear in the pictures below. They have such spirit. The boys took a while to warm up to the new environment and people but eventually got pretty friendly and adventurous. And as always, Santa (a REAL good one) visited us there. He knew lots about all of us and came bearing wonderful gifts. Oscar was the first to receive a gift and felt pretty darn good being on Santa's lap. He looked right at home.... MacKay was another story. His cousin Sophia helped prod him over to Santa when it was his turn, but the minute that bearded man leaned down to pick him up MacKay was fit to be tied and wanted nothing to do with him. Typical. But the highlight of the evening was the shock we all had on our faces when the presents started coming up from the downstairs.... you should have seen the pile. We tried to take picture (included below) but I don't think any of them did it justice. Granted, it is a big family.... but wow. Next year we are going to have to bring a trailer with. :) It took quite a while to get through all of them and the boys of course were more interested in the boxes and wrapping paper... at one point we almost thought Oscar was missing, but he was just under a ton of paper that his cousin Jack was helping to pile on him (Oscar loved it). The boys got tons of nice gifts: lots of adorable outfits, educational toys, percussion set (band in a box), and their prized "Nitro Blasters" (space age guns that light up and make god awful noises) - again Chris won't stop playing with those either. We also played "the dice game" this year..... and someone that I won't name (JOEL) :) stole my prized gift (Aveda candle) and swapped his "mystery gift" with me - some gadget of some sort that can hold pictures .... everyone was laughing as NO ONE knew what this thing really was... which Gpa Dean informed us was the very reason that he wrapped it up and put it in with the other gifts (he cracks me up). So I've informed them all they will be seeing this gift again NEXT year. We've decided it will forever be the returning "mystery gift". :)

After Xmas with the Hoglunds we headed to Gma Chris's for the night, and the very next morning we did it all again with my family for Xmas Day: Gma Chris, Gpa Gary & Terri, Uncle Dennis... and MY Uncle Denny, Aunt Sandy and cousin Christopher (Shannon's family) who came down from Duluth to celebrate with us. SO happy they made it... Xmas's just aren't the same without them. All my favorite and best Xmas memories involve them at my Grandpa MacKay's (Skitch) house in Duluth. So we got the boys all dudded up in some Christmas colored sweater vests (Chris just rolled his eyes at this one) and had a great visit. Again the boys got tons of gifts including some remote cars (more for Chris's entertainment at this point), some heavy metal tshirts (Led Zeppelin and GNR) courtesy of the boys' Uncle Denny and a Teeter Totter. I personally was just happy to devour some of my mom's famous onion dip (meant for veggies but just so much better with potato chips) and her Lemon Angel Pie - that only comes out but once or twice a year. MMMMMM

The Friday after Xmas we headed to Gma Diane's to celebrate with Chris's mom's side of the family. Again the boys took a while to warm up (more so MacKay), but the minute MacKay saw his Auntie Jolene he reached out for her (I'm apparently chopped liver) and knew he was safe. The boys LOVED Gma Diane's tree with all the sparkly balls on it and wouldn't leave it alone. As always Bingo was played ... and I'm waiting for the day when I can get in on a game again as I haven't played the last two years cuz I have been too busy with the boys. :) And the highlight this year was the Wii. Gma Diane got our family dual DVD players for the headrests in our car for the boys... great idea. And the other families (with older kids) got Wii gaming systems. They had one hooked up and everyone was playing bowling, boxing, baseball etc all night long. I was skeptical about the Wii at first, but now that I have seen one in action they really do look like fun. Everyone had a blast with it. And once again, the boys were showered with great gifts..... LOTS of books, outfits, DVD players, movies etc. Their grandparents sure know how to spoil them :)

Saturday we had a day off (whew) and we used it to take the boys out to "Little Feet Children's Shoe Store" to get them their first pair of REAL shoes. Up until now they have been just wearing their Robeez which are great. But thought it might be good to get them some better support and something they could wear if they were outside or not on soft surfaces. Turns out the boys are the same size (5.5 - WOW big feet) tho Oscar's block feet needed to up to the "Wide" stature. So the boys got their first pair of Stride Rites (see image to the left). It was hilarious cuz neither of them seemed to want to walk once in them. Once MacKay did he regressed back to his "Frankenstein" walking days... a little stiff. Oscar on the other hand was VERY aware of his shoes. That is something funny about him, he's always checking out his duds,... the patterns on his pants/pj's, the graphics on his shirts etc. So he was walking around (heel to toe) and kicking his feet out in front of him to check out his new footwear. Even on the ride home he completely ignored my mom in the back of the suburban and just stared back and forth between his left and right foot at his new shoes. And now with a little more wear and practice they are walking like champs in them.

Later that night (Saturday) Chris and I met up with Heidi and Chuck Nygren for some dinner.... SUSHI. YAY. It was so nice visiting with them and catching up on what is going on. Wish I lived closer so I could do stuff like that more often. I am very much looking forward to heading down to the cities this weekend (alone) to go to my friend, Lisa's, baby shower..... most of my close friends will be there and it will be so good to catch up and see Lisa's cute little belly.

Our last stop was on our way back up to Brainerd on Sunday to attend Great Gma Hoglund's (Bernice) Hoglund extended family Xmas. It was a good turn out and great to see everyone. The boys were pretty well behaved considering they didn't get a good nap in and were very tired when we got there... but they caught a nice long nap on the way home after we left.

Well that about covers it for XMas. Onto some updates with the boys. Oscar has his upper molars. Had been noticing for the past couple weeks he was getting drooly again and chewing on his fingers... but I always was told the next teeth were the bottom ones next to the two he already has. Never even bothered checking molars. But there they were.... sharp as razor blades back there. It looks like both of them are working on those bottom ones too as there are bumps there and lots of chewing on things (especially fingers). They are just growing up so quickly. And tho they are both becoming a little more picky with what they will and won't eat, we're still trying a lot more new stuff: chicken breasts, grilled cheese, green beans, chicken nuggets, apples, cantelope chunks, meatballs, etc. Oscar is the more picky of the two... MacKay will pretty much cram anything in there (and loads of it too).. but when MacKay is done, he is D-O-N-E and there is no coaxing him. Unfortunately tho, both the boys caught bugs after all the Xmas chaos. Had to figure that was going to happen with all the people we were around. Oscar caught it first and got a raging temperature on Monday afternoon that lasted for 2 days. And just last night MacKay sparked his up and today is just looking horrible. Poor guy. So we're just keeping an eye on them and will probably bring them into the doctor tomorrow to make sure they have no ear infections or anything else that might have caused their fevers. We just hate seeing them like this.... Chris just gets all bent out of shape about it and that makes me lose it - he's supposed to be my rock :) So hopefully this passes quickly cuz none of us are getting the amount of sleep we need.

Lastly.... we were supposed to have our OB appt on Monday but due to scheduling mistakes it had to be moved to Tuesday morning instead - which was a bummer cuz Chris couldn't make it (was the ONE time this entire week he had to go into work for a meeting). I was SO excited to see my OB (Leland) again and have an ultrasound to find out my due date and more so to make sure that there was just ONE in there :) I had been having dreams about having twins again and was waking up in a panic. He walked in and welcomed me back and cracked a few jokes like he normally does (at my expense usually) and we got right to business to figure it all out. IMMEDIATELY I saw the ONE little baby in there. I had told him I was either 13 or 9 weeks along... and he quickly told me that I was probably closer to that 9 weeks based on the size and development he was seeing. After measuring up Hoglund Baby #3 we found that I was 8.5 weeks along, ..... and that puts my due date to August 8th. Unnnghh, I have to be mega prego all through the hot summer .... :) Oh well. Either way we are excited..... tho there was a part of me that was hoping to be further along cuz that would mean I wouldn't have to put up with this horrible morning sickness. I never had it with the boys - more just a nautious feeling here and there that was fixed by eating something..... but this time I am on and off again sick all throughout the day and eating makes it worse actually. But it looks like I will have to endure it for another month or so. We scheduled up our diagnostic scan (ultrasound) for Friday March 13th where we will get to find out what we are having - EXCITING. Basically will let us know if we start digging through our bins of clothes for boys outfits to reuse.... or if we need to do a bit of shopping for more girlie things.

Well that about brings us up to date..... here are some pictures of the Xmas festivies and such. Hope you all had a wonderful Xmas and New Year..... come back again soon.

First picture of Hoglund Baby #3 - taken at 8.5 weeks gestation. I know I know, it just looks like a big blob.... the head is on the right and the bottom half on the left. Cute huh? :)

Just some more cute bath time pictures. I love this expression on MacKay's face..... and Oscar enjoying a nice scalp massage from Daddy

As I said before, Bonnie and Dean almost always have some sort of festive holiday headwear for all of us for Xmas and July 4th. Here are the boys donning their reindeer antlers.

MacKay and Oscar with the wonderful Santa that stopped by Dean and Bonnie's. They got these cute little pig and cow toys that sputter across the floor as they vibrate. They actually did a pretty good job of unwrapping these presents themselves too.

Family picture with Santa and all of the grandchildren piled on the couch with Santa as well. [From left to right: Taylor (holding MacKay), Stella, Jack, and Sophie (holding Oscar)]

Just some cute pictures of the boys playing with things at Bonnie and Dean's house. MacKay was walking around with this doll that Stella got from Santa for the longest time - I love the way he cups her head to hold her.... and he also was having a blast with their Blackjack handheld game. Meanwhile Oscar was trying to help everyone stack up all the Xmas presents and divy them out to people.

Had to include some pictures of the blizzard of presents and wrapping paper at Dean and Bonnie's. The boys were in hog heaven sitting in the middle of all of this. It's like playing "Where's Waldo" in a lot of our pictures just to find the boys in the midst of all of this.

The boys on their new Little Tikes Whale Teeter Totter from Grandma Chris. We decided this was a present to leave at Gma Chris's house (hee hee) due to the size. They can either get on together (at each end) or on by themselves (in the middle). And a picture of MacKay with his Nitro Blaster from the Hillmann family (Kelly Jo, Joel, Sophia, Jack and Stella). The boys both actually figure out how to "fire" the thing and were mesmerized by the flashy lights inside. And every time we would call it a gun, Chris would jump in and correct us "No, it is a NITRO BLASTER". He's such a kid himself.......

And I just love this picture. It wasn't taken with the flast enabled so it has that dim lit quality that isn't super clear... but just sweet how both the boys are playing with Gma Chris's tree and ornaments.

A picture I just HAD to include. Noreen and Dalton (her 2 month old) stopped over to Gma Diane's for a bit to visit while we were there. Was so good to see her. Noreen and I both went through IVF (she a year after me) and got to be very close talking about the process and pregnancy. Very happy to have someone like her in my life to chat with about all this stuff. Anyway, here is a picture of her adorable little son Dalton in his Xmas hat.

Pictures from Gma Diane's Xmas. Gma Diane and MacKay (her little mini Chris)... and Oscar being mischievious and playing with the ornaments on the tree.

MacKay and Oscar with their Auntie Jolene (really their 2nd mother) and Uncle John getting loved up.... followed by a cute picture of Oscar getting some special attention from Jolene. They are both such giggle bugs. I have so many pictures of them smiling like this.

That's it for now..... come on back soon for more updates.