January Re-Cap

Only 78 more days left of tax season!



This is what we have been doing this month. Reagan has pushed her baby around in the shopping cart, holding her purse.

She unrolled the toilet paper while I was showering. When I got out of the shower, she was just staring at the mess.
She loves to put on my shoes and go stomp on the treadmill...

...and listen to the MP3 player.The couple of days that the weather was decent, we went to the dog park...my favorite. Reagan watched the dogs and they loved to watch her. We ate bananas and ran into another girl Reg's age who let us watch her feed the ducks. The good weather only lasted that day, but it was beautiful.
Reagan learns to eat yogurt. We also have been giving her other things that she can spoon feed herself, like cereal and soup. It makes a royal mess and she hasn't quite grasped the concept yet. One day, I took some of the yogurt out of the narrow container for her and put it on a plate so that she could spoon it in easier. She scooped up the yogurt and tried to put it back in the container! It was funny.Oh, how I love this look! I am in love with my little Reagan. She drives me nuts all the time and we butt heads, but she is my little star.

Ramblings

The rain persists and Reagan is sleeping. I thought I would post some of my thoughts.

1. I am bummed that the Chargers lost. I would have LOVED to see them make it to the Super Bowl and I would have loved even more seeing them end the Patriots winning streak (sorry New Englanders). It has been a long time since I have rooted for a specific team in the SB, so it would have been nice this year to put some meaning into the big game.

2. This one might be TMI for some, but it was too funny not to share. Yesterday Reagan wandered in while I was on the toilet. She assessed the situation, grabbed a fistful of toilet paper, and handed it to me. It was so nonchalant and funny. I also caught her trying to put shampoo on her baby's head and this morning she went to throw something away for me and after she didn't return from the kitchen, I knew I needed to check up. Sure enough, she had grabbed a bunch of cracked egg shells from the trash and crunched them up in her hands. YUMMY! Reagan is a very "see-do" baby. What she sees us or someone else do, she wants to do. If I am dipping my chicken in bbq sauce, she needs to have some bbq sauce on her plate to dip as well. If I am done running on the treadmill, she will go get my shoes and MP3 player and go stomp on the treadmill. I actually caught a picture of this that I will post in the near future. And she loves more than anything to get up on the chair and play with the computer mouse and the keyboard. I know that this isn't the best one, but we still let her. Today I let her do it and ended up needing to close over 100 windows that she opened.

3. American Idol...hoorah! Last week I watched majority of the Philly and Dallas auditions. As usual, they were hilarious and entertaining, but the best part was the judges (namely Simon's) reactions. It's been a week, so I can't remember the specifics, but I believe tonight they are in San Diego! I'll be watching...

4. Last Saturday Matt and I bought Reagan some new pants at Childrens Place. They were so adorable. One was jeans and the other was cargo. I thought they were 2 for 15 dollars. They were actually 15 dollars each. So when I put them on Reagan yesterday morning, I wasn't too disappointed that they didn't fit around her waist. I returned them and ran into a huge sale that they were having! I scored big time. I got her 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants (that fit) for 15 dollars. The accountant in Matt was very proud of me for returning 2 items for 30 dollars and getting 5 items for 15.

5. Matt always laughs at me because I love to schedule and write things in my planner. I usually consult it in the evenings. He sometimes will sneak in and schedule things for me, like:

7:00 get up
8:00 shower
8:15 do hair

You get the idea. I do not schedule like that, but he teases me anyways. He thinks it is funny. SOOOO, you would think that I would have my dates right? Well apparently not because on Saturday I called to wish my brother a Happy Birthday and he very nicely pointed out that he would enjoy it the next day. I could have sworn that last Saturday was January 20th. I guess it was actually the 19th.

18 months strong

This morning was Reagan's 18 month check up and she is still so healthy! Matt and I have quite the knack for producing linebackers, too, as her sweet doctor politely pointed out that she will do extremely well in sports. She is very strong and solid. Her weight is at 31 lbs and 15 oz, right where we thought it was. She is off the charts as far as percentile. I am not sure about her height, I just know that she is in the 50th for that. Her weight is really the only thing I pay attention to. She received two shots--Hep A and Chicken Pox--which left her screaming in tears. She struggled and kicked so much the the first leg prick came right out and the nurse had to stick her again. For the second time that morning, I had someone else tell me my daughter was "very, very strong." Reagan is actually almost 19 months (this week), but due to our insurance changing this year, this was the soonest I could get her in. We are so glad to be back on Kaiser, by the way. Last January, we switched over to cheaper insurance (a PPO) because Kaiser raised their rates. All was well, except for the fact that I had my medical year from hell. I have never had a PPO before, but I will never do it again. I received like 4 bills for one procedure or visit! There was a period of time where not a day went by that I didn't receive a bill of some sort in the mail. So when insurance time came up last month at Matt's work, we gladly switched back to our HMO.

What has my athletic 18 month old been up to? Well, she loves to wear her Snow White shoes around the house. She is so cute in them. I tried to get a video, but it didn't turn out well. She loves Little Einstein and will "pat-clap" on demand these days. She is talking and jabbering up a storm. Her vocabulary consists of: "mom " "dad" "I'm sorry" (she says that one like twenty times a day) "whats that?" "up" (sounds like "upp-ah"--thanks Lindsey!) "shoes" "soooooft" and "rooooooll"

The other day Matt made some waffles for us and Reagan loved them so much. It could have been that Matt is a wonderful cook or the fact that he put chocolate chips in them! All is well with Reagan!

Dogs

Have you ever noticed that some animals look like their owners? Dogs, in particular. It can be seen in the coloring of the dog, but mostly is found in the expression and body shape. For instance, in the mornings I usually pass a woman walking (sometimes jogging) with her dog. The dog is a sleek, trim black dog and the woman is a tall and athletic with dark features. A few minutes later I pass a short, stocky man that is walking his two pudgy basset hounds. Coincidence? Do owners gravitate towards a dog that they can relate to? Or after a while, do you and your animal take on the characteristics of each other, such as sometimes happens with you and your spouse after a great deal of time being married. Just wondering.

I should also note that this doesn't apply to everyone that has a dog. I can think of many friends and family that don't look like their pets.

There has got to be some sort of name for this phenomenon.

Adjusting

The holidays are over, the dreaded tax season is beginning and we have been experiencing some crazy rainfall. Given these conditions, I have spent the last week feeling slightly sorry for myself, then I spoke on the phone today with my family in Utah. The snow they have been receiving makes the California rain seem trivial in comparison. For instance, my sister spent 2 hours trying to get from her home in Bountiful to school at Weber, only to find roads and freeways closed. People were sliding off the road left and right and the amount of accidents couldn't even be counted. I am sure she will blog about it (right, Linz?) so maybe check out her site in the near future to read more on it.

Reagan is little Ms. Personality these days. I thought coming home from Utah would be so hard for her since she had been around nonstop action for 10 days, but she has been adjusting rather well. She loves to play with me and Matt. Her favorite things to do lately are to jump from the cedar chest in our room onto the bed (more of a fall than a jump, really), and play with her dolls, including feeding them, hugging and kissing them and the other day I walked in and caught her trying to put a diaper on the baby! Her quick mind and instinct to learn and pick up on the things we do is fascinating to me.

Have you seen American Gladiator? We have. I am kind of ashamed to say it...that I find pleasure out of seeing half-naked body building men and women running around, trying to beat the crap out of some tiny contender. When Matt and I first tuned into it, I thought, you have got to be kidding me, let's change this stupid channel. Ten minutes later, I was asking Matt to please check back and see if it had returned from commercial. Crush and Toa are my favorite gladiators. I think Matt likes the dude with the dreads and the chick that does the roundoff handspring thing.

I miss The Office

Seriously, my thursday nights are lame now.

Matt and I felt the emptiness this last Thursday as we sat down to watch a re-run that we had probably already seen 30 times, only to find that it had been replaced by some lame reality show crap. Didn't the Donald have his 15 minutes of fame like 5 years ago? I am not dogging on those of you who may have tuned into it, but I really can't stand quality shows being replaced with D-list actors and actresses who are looking to make it big by pretending like what they are doing is reality t.v. when in reality they are acting and in real life, REALLY can't act.

I might have to get out my Season 2 of The Office and watch it over again.

If you are looking for some good laughs, 30 Rock and the older series Arrested Development provide similar comedy.

White Christmas

It was a snowy Christmas, as those of you who were in Utah already know. It was fun. Matt and I haven't had snow on Christmas since 2003, when we were pretty much snowed in. Grandma Rasmussen had a Princess Party for the granddaughters and Reagan so willingly came as Snow White. Also in attendance were Belle, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.
Lindsey put together a Christmas Eve program at the Roundy home. Grandpa read the 12 Days of Christmas, Loren ready the Nativity by the light of his headlamp and the grandkids acted it out. We tried to sing carols and it was just pure madness.

************Thanks Katey for this AWESOME photo of Reagan**********************
Matt's best $3.00 investment ever: Enjoy California t-shirts. One of the great perks of living in San Fran is the nice deals found on Fishermans Wharf.

Sledding on Christmas Day at Burton Elementary.
They built a jump, but I don't think it quite worked out how they wanted it. Christmas Day was beautiful. It snowed all Christmas Eve and there wasn't a cloud in the sky on Christmas Day.

Celebrating a Half Decade

"If I had a chance for another try, I wouldn't change a thing.

It's made me all of who I am inside."

Matt and I celebrated our usually-overlooked (in lieu of Christmas) anniversary on the 28th of December. We left Regs with family and stayed overnight in Salt Lake at the Armstrong Mansion, a bed and breakfast. We splurged on dinner at Flemings and I had the most mouth-watering filet mignon ever. I really don't eat a whole lot of steak, so I may be a bad judge of that, but I also happen to be a little picky eater, so when I almost licked my plate clean, I knew it must have been a good steak.
Also, I knew this must be a good steak restaurant because the server moved the bottle of A1 sauce prior to snapping the photo.

Its been a great 5 years. Couldn't have asked for someone better! :):)

I am so blessed

I seriously don't know what I did to deserve it, but I have been blessed with the most amazing family ever. I had a great upbringing and my parents and brothers and sisters are the best. Then I married into the most awesome family ever and my blessings literally doubled. I couldn't imagine being married to a better person than Matt, who is my best friend and so much more. Then I have this amazing little 32.5 pound bundle of energy who stole my heart 18 months ago.

(She really is 32.5 lbs...we weighed her at the airport where they weigh baggage.)

We spent 10 days just being with our families. Such a treat for us when we live 12 hours away from everyone and even farther from our family in Cleveland.

Reagan had such a blast with her cousins. They were so sweet with her.
Jeff and Paselly were married on the 27th and braved the cold. I didn't feel too bad for them because those lucky ducks headed out that night for the toasty Bahamas. Reagan looked so adorable in her dress.

My mom My sistas

Cousin-time!

Radical

A truly radical Christmas was had by the Rasmussen family.

The two raddest toys ever. The sit-n-spin at Grandma Roundy's and the play kitchen at Grandma Rasmussen's. How would you like your eggs? Scrambled or over-easy?
Raddest diaper. Anyone need a good plumber?
Raddest facial expression.
Raddest New Years pic of a "Jazzed" and "Rock-Starred" Matt and Lindsay.Raddest tree topper ever.

Raddest gingerbread house. This was done Cabela's-style, complete with a triscuit roof, slim jim chimney, and banana chip molding. You know your a redneck if...
Raddest New Years Eve activity: noodle hockey. Thanks, Mel.
Raddest outfit coordination. Caitlin and I wore the exact same outfit on Christmas Eve, right down to the brands and color of socks.
Raddest Nativity-reader. Dad Roundy insisted on turning out the lights, so Loren was left to improvise. I was vaguely reminded of my spelunking, nutty-putty cave days.

Happy New Year!