Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy New Baby!

Brooke Susan Rogge made her debut on December 19th, 2008. It was a fast and relatively easy delivery - thank you Brooke! She was 7 lbs and 2 oz. She is adorable - of course! She is also a really good baby. Calm and content. I am so happy to have 8 blissful weeks with her.

Cameron loves being a big sister. She gives Brooke kisses and giggles when she makes noises. Cameron is demanding of our attention though. We are doing our best to spend lots of time with her. I am not sure if it is the beginning of the Terrible Twos or if she is having a hard time adjusting - even though we are spending more time playing with her than we did before Brooke was here.

It seems as though our babies bring snowstorms and the flu. When Cameron was born we had a major snowstorm and our first night home Tim got the flu. This time we had a snowstorm and on our first night home Cameron had the flu. Poor Tim - he was/is on Cameron duty and she has been sick and not sleeping through the night anymore. Hopefully she'll adjust to the changes soon and begin sleeping again. I think I have gotten more sleep than Tim. Not to mention he also got the flu after Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, this was a busy, tired, fun holiday season. Since all was going well, we went to my dad's for our usual Dec. 23 celebration. Papa and Nana went overboard once again :) Cameron loved playing with Hayden and Ethan and seeing her aunts and uncles. We spent Christmas Eve at home, tired and unshowered. Probably the most low key Christmas Eve I have ever had. But it was also the most content I have ever felt. Two babies, a warm comfty home and a great husband all together.

It

Christmas Day brought Paul, Jen, Ethan, Hayden and my mom down to celebrate with us. The kids had a lot of fun and we didn't have to travel, so that made it easier for us. Sally and Paul stopped by to say hello and get a glimpse of the new baby.

Unfortunately we didn't see much of Poopa and Grandma Sue this Christmas. Tim's family has been incredibly supportive - as usual, and we owe them a lot of holiday time in 2009!

2008 had brought us a lot of positive changes. Two new jobs, a new home, and a new baby. We have been very blessed this year and cannot wait to see what 2009 brings!

Happy New Year!

The Rogges

Holidays Upon Us

Hello! I had a long Thanksgiving post written and then when I clicked PUBLISH it prompted me to the dreaded "this page cannot be displayed" white screen. AHHHH! I was so annoyed I had to take some time for myself and recover....

In October we took some family pictures at my Dad's house. Cameron usually has a scared look on her face when anyone but Tim or I take her picture. We have about 3 good ones. This is one of Cameron with Hayden and Ethan. Can you tell which one is Cameron? Hayden and Cameron have the look. It think it is cute they look so much alike.

Tim and I had our 4th wedding anniversary and his parents came to babysit Cameron for us.

Unfortunately our household was recovering from the stomach flu so dinner was out. We upgraded our cell phones and caught the new James Bond movie. It was a nice time even without a fancy dinner. And Cameron got to play with Poopa and Grandma Sue, so she was in heaven. She really has no need for us whenever a grandparent is around. We may let us live with her, but we are definitely not her favorites!

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. My mom came over and cooked a lot of the food. Tim cleaned! Jen, Paul, Hayden, Ethan, and Jen's parents came over for Thanksgiving dinner/lunch. The kids ran around and played together. It was pretty cute. It was the first Thanksgiving we hosted and I no one got food poisoning. Success!

We are into December and have just realized we have a few weeks left before the baby arrives. Names change by the week so there is no point in discussing them yet. I think we will have to wait until she arrives to name her. We did baby laundry and bought newborn diapers. We found a double stroller, some bassinets and I think we are good to go. I am definitely ready to be done and greet the new baby. I think Cameron will have quite an adjustment. She thinks the baby's room is her playroom and all the baby's stuff is her property. She's not good with change - she gets that from me. I hated it when my parents changed the outside of the house when I was growing up. Don't get me started on the time when I my dad shaved his beard. It was a dark day.

Tim did all the Christmas shopping so I take no blame. But I think he did pretty good. We put up our Christmas Tree and Cameron did not partake or care. But now she thinks the ornaments are pretty cool.

FYI - We'll be sending New Year's Cars/Birth Announcment after the holidays. I cannot manage to do two separate cards right now.

Happy Holidays!

Halloween Fun

Hello! October has been busy. I feel like I say that a lot! Tim still loves his job and I am into the swing of things at school. We have yet to decorate the new baby's room. Although Cameron is going to Papa and Nana's house this weekend so we can paint some rooms.

Cameron has settled down now and gotten used to her new routine. She used to throw tantrums when we picked her up from daycare, but she hasn't done that in a while. You may not believe me because she puts on a quite a good show for company. If she likes you she will do a "run." She sees you and then runs away. She runs around the house yelling RUNNING, RUNNING! It is pretty cute. Although we think everything she does is cute. She does funny things like pretending to wash herself in the tub - 'washing, washing' she says and she rubs in the bubbles to her arms. She peed in her potty on Weds. It might have been a happy coincidence though. She likes to sit on her potty while you are sitting on the big one. "Mommy too!" she tells me and pats the big potty. She is talking so much. She says thank you, welcome, bless you, plus she is practically speaking in full sentences. "What was that?" she said to me today when the wind blew the door shut. Must be daycare.

Cameron still loves to wear whatever she wants. She might be the only kids that must wear her jacket and hat to go outside.

This October we went to two pumkin patches. One with Grandma Sue, Great Grandma, Poopa, Max, Maddie and Aunt Terry. We also went with some friends from our summer playdate group. Cameron loves to be outside and run around. There were mazes and hayrides to keep the young-ins busy.

Here are some photos from the pumpkin patches! There was even a princess telling stories at one of the patches.

In addition to all the fun pumpkin patches we celebrated Tim's birthday. We had a little party with Tim's side of the family. It was a fun, busy day. It's so nice to be able to have more than 2 other people over at the same time - and not be squished. We all had places to sit and eat at the same time!

We had a fun Halloween. Tim worked hard carving a princess pumpkin for Cameron the night before. He busted out his Dremel tools and spent 45 minutes making pumpkin perfection.

Cameron was a flower and we took her to a few houses. She said her own version of trick or treat and she was quite thrilled at people giving her candy. We mostly took her to meet some more of the neighbors. Saturday morning we took off for the cabin. It was a beautiful weekend - perfect weather. Cameron followed Max around and chased Maddie. They jumped off the picnic table into a huge pile of leaves thanks to Poopa and Tim. The kids had so much fun playing in the leaves and throwing acorns into the lake.

October has flown by and now we are off into November, which is sure to fly by as well. Hope you all are happy and healthy!

The Rogges

Fashionista

Cameron has recently decided to dress herself. Here are some of the results. Glad we had no errands to run that day!

Tim has been in Kansas City at a sales conference all week. He left on Sunday and will return tomorrow at midnight. Cameron has had some trouble adjusting to his absence and has decided not to sleep. Therefore I have not slept either. Although I did not anticipate sleeping much anyways. I am always a little jittery about being alone in the big new house...

My mom joined us for dinner Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday we went up north to Aunt Terry's house for dinner. Uncle Scott made us homemade soup and other delicious stuff which had complicate names. Cameron played with Mac and Manny. Also known as Max and Maddie.

I have my 10th college reunion this weekend. Raphaela "world traveler" Dohm is going to fly in and will be partaking in the Gustavus fun. Rachel and Raphaela will be having a lot of fun drinking good ol' $2 tap beers while a pregnant old lady looks on longingly. I remember thinking how old the reunion people looked when we were in college and I always wanted them to leave "our" bar. So here we are 10 years later.... we are now the old farts intruding in on the college fun. :)

The Rogges

HOUSE

Here is a picture of the new house. I keep forgetting to post it!

Jill

Birthday Fun

So far September has flown by! We are still not quite settled. The rodent issue has still not been resolved. And my classroom is still not quite how I want it to be. Other than that things are great. Baby #2 is dancing in my belly a lot. We have yet to agree whole heartedly on a name..... She has a designated room -but that is about it. No decor, no clothes all washed in preparation. Second babies do not get quite the same reception as number one does. I just can't lay around and dream and plan while Cameron is grabbing my hands saying "outside, outside." Here is a pic of Cameron running in the backyard. Yes that is a dog house and no we are not getting a dog. :)

Cameron is pretty funny and she thinks everyone is funny too. "Your funny." is something we hear a lot. "I want it." has just made it into her vocabulary. We usually make her say please instead. "Peeeee???" is how is comes out. Nemo is her new favorite. She says "Oh no DARLA!", "Nemo", "Dory", and the favorite "Shark bait, ohhh ah ah". Pretty cute. She also randomly says "See ya dude." That catches us by surprise and we laugh pretty hard. Sometimes she looks at us says See Ya and runs out of the room. We thinks she is pretty cute.
Here is her "Silly Face."

We celebrated my mom's and my birthday with a party at her condo last weekend. We caught up with BFF aka Hayden and Ethan and Uncle Paul and Aunt Jen. Dad/Sharon/Beka/Chip stopped by for Ole Piper pizza and some hanging out time. It was basically sit around and watch Cameron time. She tends to steal the show. Especially with Papa and Nana around. Little Miss Center of Attention. Granda Sue stopped by too! It was a fun few weeks. It is so nice to have so much family around.

Here are some pics of Papa playing with Cameron and Beka and Chip attending the Cameron Show. Tickets available for purchase for future shows.

Speaking of my mom is here to babysit! Attending a friend of Tim's wedding this afternoon. Must go squeeze into a fabulous maternity outfit!

Jill/Tim/Cameron/?

Back to School

Hi everyone,



September has been really busy. We had a great Labor Day at my dad's house. We visited with cousins and aunts and uncles that we haven't seen in a long time. We swam, ate a lot, and took a boat ride. It was a great day and Cameron had a lot of fun.

School started again.... I wasn't sure I wanted to go back after our super fun summer, but once it starts I love it. And I realized that I won't have many people to play with because all our playdates were with teachers.

Cameron had a difficult time with her new daycare, but seems to be doing well now. She only cried a few days - that was hard on both Cameron and me. I felt sooooo bad when I left her. I went in the car and balled. I called Tim that first day and he was very supportive and finally got me to stop crying. I didn't want her to be scared and think I was leaving her forever. But now she likes her daycare ladies so it seems to be ok.

Tim is super busy with fantasy football. Three leagues. Nuf said. He is also in a serious mind battle with a rodent-like animal in the yard. He has made many weekend trips to the Depot to try and get rid of this thing that is tunneling paths through our yard. If you know what makes tunnels on top of the grass, not underneath, do share! Tim is quite perturbed. He is trying out a bunch of devices. Just today he saw that the "thing" has started adding on to his condo by tunneling in the front yard.

We are also making plans for redoing the deck and Cameron's playset. Lots to keep Tim busy. We. I say that loosely because it is mostly Tim and his dad aka "poopa" doing all the thinking and the planning. I get to pick the color. :)



I hope to post some pictures soon, but I seem to run out of time each day. And I have no new pictures of Cameron/house/us. I have to say part time teaching was fantastic.... kinda miss the days of being done at 1pm and having time to get stuff done before I picked up Cameron from daycare....



See you soon!



Rogges

Surprise!

I told my bffs that I would not do a blog, but I love reading everyone else's... So I thought I would join the bandwagon and start one. We do have a lot to share. 2 new jobs, a new house, a super cute girl, and another one on the way. We have had quite a busy summer. We sold our house and found a new one in Lakeville in June. July we packed up the house in Richfield, and in August we have been settling in to the new house - it is quite large to us. Not to mention having tons of playdates with our buddies.

Of course we are now battling a computer virus.... so entries may be sporatic. Teachers start back at work next week and Cameron starts a new daycare. A little scary for both of us... :) She does like their big black lab and all the new toys at Anji's house (daycare lady). I think she'll do fine. We are still working on unpacking all the random boxes and playing in the new house.

Here are some summer pictures. Enjoy!

Jill
(Tim only by association - I am sure he will not be blogging with me)
Cameron
#2

Still working on picture placement.... The top has a family shot on our last day at our Richfield home. The bottom ones are our last summer dinner pictures in Richfield. Tim and his BFF love corn on the cob. Another house shot, and finally mom and Cameron watching the fishies at the zoo. I hate the zoo, but Cameron has loved every minute of our weekly visits to the zoo. I'll work on getting some new house shots in the near future....