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.