Blog no more...

FYI- We will no longer be using this blog (not that we used it much recently). We have started a new blog and will use that one instead. If you didn't get an e-mail from us recently with our new blog information, and you want to see our new blog then please let us know.

Long time no blog!

So today we finally took down the Christmas tree today and decided that it was time to end the holiday season (or we were just too lazy to do it until now). After all our un-decorating of the house, we remembered that once upon a time we had a blog on the internet. We haven't updated since Halloween, and believe or not a few things have happened since then.

It is so long ago that we won't bore you all with details from Thanksgiving, but we enjoyed a wonderful trip to see friends in St Louis and spend the holiday with them. We had great food, excellent company, and an incredible time. If it wasn't for the 12 hour drive in the snow with 2 kids, we just might visit them more often.

Then December came and life got busy. We hosted a big get together for Todd's residency program, we had dance recitals for both girls, we set up decorations for Christmas all over the house, and so many other things. We won't go into too many details about all we did, but here are a few highlights.


Thanks to all of our friends and family for the Christmas cards. It has become one of our favorite traditions to hang them all on the wall and see them all together.

 

We had a wonderful Christmas in Minnesota this year. Anna's Mom and Dad flew out on Christmas Eve to spend a week with us. It was a great time with them and we enjoyed being here in Minnesota with them at our house. They were so good with the girls and so much fun to have visit.
We had a great Christmas Eve dinner at a nice steakhouse in downtown Minneapolis. Christmas morning was filled with so much excitement from the kids. Jayda was so excited to get a red-headed doll, with "red hair just like me!!!". Addison was fascinated with the snow shovel she got, and also the baby that she wouldn't put down for days. Both kids got sleds to use in the snow, and plenty of miscellaneous games and gifts. We all got matching pajamas that we opened on Christmas Eve and wore the entire day.

 

When in Minnesota you must at least play in the snow and cold for one day. After opening gifts on Christmas, the kids were excited to test out their new sleds and shovels. Since the temperature was rather warm and almost 15 degrees, we decided to go outside and play. The kids loved it, and grandma and grandpa were great sports to play in the cold with them.

 

Both Jayda and Addison have birthdays within a few weeks of Christmas. Since Grandma and Grandpa were here we decided to celebrate both of them the week after Christmas.
Jayda invited several friends over and we had a "Color Me Mine" party where each child got to decorate a ceramic plate they got to keep. They all loved the painting and Jayda had so much fun with all of her friends.

 

Addison got to have a party with just the family and she also enjoyed her birthday. She was SOOO excited when she opened her present that was a tunnel to crawl through. She couldn't wait to open it and crawl through it, and she just loved it when Grandpa John made an attempt to crawl through it too.

 

We hope the rest of you had a great holiday season and are now recovering from it all. It really is a great time of year, and even though we get so busy and life becomes so hectic we really enjoy it all. Thanks to all our friends and family for another great Christmas.

Tricks and Treats

Tricks-

My sneaky brother Joey gave us a huge surprise when he showed up on our door step the day before Halloween! We had no idea he was coming and I'm glad we were home when he showed up. I'm always badgering him to come and see us, so I guess my badgering paid off! We had a great time and we are so glad he came.



Fun Rides with Uncle Joey at the Mall of America




Treats-

Joey was kind enough to bring the girls large caramel apples! The girls loved them, or at least what they could bite into!



Getting ready to go trick or treating. I got dressed up as a skunk (thanks Amy P for the idea) and took the girls out while Todd & Joey stayed home to pass out candy.


Jayda and Addison loved their costumes, even after halloween was over they kept wanting to put them back on and wear them. Addison did her best to keep up with Jayda and her friends. Jayda raced from house to house trick or treating with the neighborhood kids. Addison had to skip every other house so she could catch up since her legs don't run quite as fast. She also would grab handfuls of candy not understanding you are supposed to take just one. They both really enjoyed all of the activities we did for halloween (and there were a lot in the weeks leading up to halloween).

Gas....

Two or three weeks ago I posted about the price of gas and how excited I was that it was $2.78.

This is the price at Costco today, I can't believe it.

Fall fun

Quick update with some recent fall fun activities.

We went to a nearby pumpkin patch to pick our Halloween pumpkins. Even though it rained a little, the girls loved looking for pumpkins. Jayda would run from one to another yelling "Mommy look at this one, it is perfect!"


An old-fashioned wagon for them to sit in with pumpkins.



We also spent a day at the Minnesota Zoo last weekend. Perfect cool weather to be out and about, and so many pretty trees to see while looking at the animals.






Part of the zoo is an actual working farm with cows that they milk, pigs, and goats. You can feed the goats with food from your hands. Addison thought it was so fun, but every time she got close she would jump back and start laughing.



Not used to seeing a moose at the zoo. I guess growing up in the West, where moose run wild in the mountians makes it seem strange to have one in the zoo.



As I said before, tons of trees at the zoo with some really nice fall colors