Foster County Fair

Brian and I took the kids to Carrington to the Foster County Fair. Brian's parents joined us for an evening of fun. Annabelle had a great time! Cole had an okay time, it was late and he was tired but he was a trouper! Annabelle really enjoyed the petting zoo an most of the rides. Cole was a little timid when it came to the farm animals, we are going to have to expose him to more animals. He did go on 3 rides, however he cried on 2 out of the 3, he will have ore fun next year. The rides must not have scared him to badly because he kept on standing by the gates trying to get back in. Annabelle had a great time on the rides; there was one she didn't like but she was brave and didn't cry, although I don't think I have ever seen her eyes that big! She did find her favorite and rode it over and over until we were out of tickets. She is either going to have to grow a little bit before the Stutsman County fair in 2 weeks because I am pretty sure they let her ride by herself even though she was below the min height line. We might have to look for some think sole shoes for her.

Bird House

One of this weekends project was to finally paint a bird house that Brian got for his birthday one year. A while back Annabelle and I picked out colors for the bird house while we were at Wal-Mart. She wanted about 3 different shades of pink and I was able to convince her to get a pink and blue. She has been asking Brian if she can paint the birdhouse ever since he showed it to her. This weekend she finally got her wish. She and Cole and a great time painting! Some days the things she says and the things she does really surprised me. We got two cups for the paint: one for the pink and one for the blue and after I put the paint in each cup Annabelle announced "if you mix pink and blue you make purple." I wanted to say - "you are 3 and shouldn't know this stuff" she is getting to big and to smart. We now have a very colorful pink, blue and purple birdhouse in the front yard. Annabelle has been checking it every day to see if a robin (again not sure how she knows what a robin is) has moved in. After we were done painting Annabelle and Cole helped clean up the mess. After we were done with our painting Cole and Annabelle had a great time playing in the water. It has been so nice out the past few weeks that we have spent every minute we can outside and most of the time that involves the kids playing in the water - they are getting quite the tan lines. I am glad that they enjoy spending time outside!

Updates from Daycare

The news letter for daycare came out the other day and Cole was highlighted, "Last but not least we have Cole who things he runs the room since he is the oldest. He is sure busy and will be ready for the toddler room soon." I don't think that is quite as bad as Annabelle's write up when she was his age but I think the infant room is ready for him to move up with the bigger kids. He is scheduled to make the big move at the end of the month! I got an email yesterday from Sarah, the director, giving me the latest happenings with Annabelle. The provider in her room found a tick in her hair. It took 3 people working on poor Annabelle to get the thing out. She said it was HUGE and already had turned gray - one the grosses ones she has seen. Again parents of the year! It was right on a bone and when they thought they felt it they really had to look to see what it was. I guess it looked like it had been there for a few days - oopps. Annabelle was very brave and didn't even cry when they took it off. When I came to pick her up she informed me that I bug had been eating her head. Let the fun of summer begin!

Happy Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day at the Paulson house. We really didn't do to much. Brian helped at church in the morning and then it was time for naps for the kids. After nap time we spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside. The weather was so nice and it is wonderful to be able to get outside and enjoy it! Annabelle and Cole love the outdoors and we spend every minute we can playing in the yard.

Hard Charge

This past weekend I did my first tough mud race and had a great time. It was a 4+ mile run with obstacles. My legs are arms are a little scratched and bruised but I would definitely do it again!

Going Home

The last day of vacation we didn't do much. We hung out at the hotel until about 11 and then took off for the airport. Annabelle had been obsessed with Grandpa buying her a baby lion the whole trip, and how she came up with that is beyond me. We had not bought any souvenirs at this point besides the Mickey ears so Brian went searching for a stuffed baby lion. He was close - he came back with a baby tiger and Annabelle LOVES it! She named him Louie and wouldn't put him down. She did a great job on the flights and we made it back home to Jamestown about 11:30pm. I still don't think she is fully recovered but we are getting there. It was really fun watching her and Cole on Tuesday when they were reconnected. They kept giving each other hugs all day - it is nice that they love and miss each other.

Vacation Day 5

Today was Hollywood Blvd. Turns out it is not a great place to take a 3 year old :) When we first got there we took a pic so you could see the Hollywood sign in the back ground. After that it was down to where the stars are! The first thing we saw was Mickey and Mini Mouse. I was excited because at least Annabelle could get her pic with them even though she missed Disney. When we got closed she wanted nothing to do with being in a picture with time. It actually worked out for the best - turns out that you are suppose to "tip" them when you take their picture so we ended up saving money. We would walk down the street and there were all sorts of cartoon characters dressed up and they all would talk to Annabelle and ask her if she wanted to take a picture and she would say no to every one of them. We only made it a few blocks and decided that we were going to go back to the hotel to swim instead. We stopped at Jonny Rockets and had a quick bite to eat and then took off for the hotel. We did a great job managing without our California tour guide, however it takes Sharon, the GPS, a few minutes to get her satellites after parking in a parking structure so it makes the first 10 minutes of the drive interesting - turns out we are not good a guessing which way to go. Once we made it back to the hotel Annabelle swam for almost 3 hours. Afterwards the family that was left had some leftovers for supper and we called it a night.

Vacation Day 4

She woke up with energy and a little spunk - woohoo! We asked her what she wanted for breakfast and she said mac and cheese so that is what we made her and she ate every last bite - things were looking up. Today was beach day so after we got everyone up and ready to go off we went. Most of Brian's family went on this trip so there were quite a few people and each family had their own vehicle and as we traveled we tried to stay all in a line on the interstate. There were some interesting times to say the least. Brian and I always seemed to be last in the caravan - which was fine but sometime we had to do a little catching up and went though quite a few yellow lights...pretty sure they were still yellow. At one point when we got into Santa Monica Brian was trying to follow the car ahead of us and we were separated by another car that was not part of our group. That particular car was taking his time at a stop light or something and Brian was getting frustrated and muttering to the car to get moving or out of the way or something to that effect and Annabelle pipes up from the backseat as innocent as can be and say, "Daddy, you have to wait your turn." You couldn't help but smile and it always amazed me that when we went somewhere when it was all said and done most of the time all 6 of our vehicles were parked right in a row. Once we got to the beach Annabelle had a great time! She loved playing in the sand and in the waves. I think she could have stayed there for days. I am bummed that she missed Disney but I am glad that she was better for the beach - she lives for playing in the water!

Vacation Day 2

We woke up on day 2 and Annabelle was not doing well! Her skin was hot to the touch and she didn't look good. She wouldn't drink water because it tasted icky and she was clearly uncomfortable. We gave her some medicine and Brian went out to get a thermometer, the one thing we didn't bring. Annabelle and I went down for breakfast and I was hoping she would eat something but no luck. All she wanted to do was sit on my lap and she even fell asleep while we were there - not typical at all! Brian came back and we took her temp - only 98 degrees. We went back up to the room to decided what to do. I put Annabelle in a bed and she opened her eyes and then rolled over and closed them again - not normal for our spunky little girl. Today was suppose to be Disney and Brian and I decided that we would try it and we could always go to the hotel is things were not going well. We packed up our things, we stayed at a different hotel, and went to wait for everyone else. The whole time we waited Annabelle slept in my arms. When we left we put Annabelle in the car and she slept on the whole hour car ride to Anaheim. Once we got there she perked up a little bit but that only lasted for about an hour and then she either slept in the stroller or in my arms for the rest of the time that we were there. Brian and I finally decided that we were going to call it a day around 3 and went to find the hotel. Once we were checked in the first thing Annabelle spotted again was the pool and instantly perked up. We told her she had to eat something, she had not eaten anything all day, before she could get into the pool. We found a grocery store and bought some applesauce, jello and mac and cheese. She managed to eat some applesauce and jello and off to the pool we went. She swam for close to an hour -happy as could be. The only reason our pool trip ended was because she hit her head on the concrete when she was trying to climb out of the pool. Once we got back to the room we made some mac and cheese and she ate it like it was going out of style. She even asked for more. I figure since that was the first thing she had really had in 2 days we better not over do it so we just let her tummy rest. Again she went to bed that night within minutes. Brian and I were really hoping she would take a turn for the better in the morning.

Vacation Day 1

We recently went to California for Brian's nieces graduation and we had a great time! Cole stayed back in Jamestown with my mom. We thought with the busy schedule that he might do better at home and not running around without naps...turns out that it probably worked out pretty well. Annabelle was excited to go on the airplane. Our flight left at 7am so we were up around 5 and out of the hotel in Fargo at 6 - it was an early morning. Annabelle did great. She had a great time watching the planes and burning off some energy before our flight left. Once we got on the plane she continued to do well. She liked to sit in her own seat and insisted on buckling up any time she was sitting. She never cried when the plane took off or when it landed, in fact when it landed the first time she was saying "wee, that was fun!" We had a connecting flight and she did well on that one as well and she even took a little nap. We landed in sunny CA at 1:00 their time (3:00 our time) and decided that we were not going to hang out at the airport and wait for some of Brian's family. We got on the "school bus" or shuttle bus to the rental cars, Annabelle was pretty excited about the bus as well. Getting out of LA was easier than I thought and pretty soon we were on the open road - ok it wasn't all that open but traffic wasn't to bad, we had to slow down a few times but it was better than we expected. About half way though the car ride Annabelle started not to look so good and before we knew it she was throwing up. Luckily we had bought a bag of chips for a snack so she has something to throw up into. We stopped at a McDonalds to clean her up and change her clothes. We also picked up an extra bag for the rest of the car ride...just in case. Once we got to the hotel she caught a glimpse of the pool and wanted to go swimming. We told her she had to eat something before she could swim, she had not eaten anything since 10am that morning. We went to McDonalds to get her a cheeseburger and went back to the motel. We had already decided that I was going to stay back at the hotel and not go to the graduation party, it started at 8pm (aka 10pm our time) and Friday was Disneyland so we wanted Annabelle to go to bed. Anyway I ordered supper at McDonalds also. Annabelle took one bite of her cheeseburger and threw up again - poor thing. She then said she was done eating and wanted to swim. I told her she had to eat something and not get sick before we could go swimming...she then proceeded to eat ALL of my French fries and was able to keep them down. As promised we took her swimming. When we got back Brian left for the party and Annabelle and I started calming down. She watched a cartoon on the iPad and then fell asleep within 5 minutes of turning it off - that should have been my first clue that something was wrong.