Merry Christmas Fun!

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas morning, we started the day with some delicious crepes.

I mixed, Jeremy cooked, and Jack tasted! YUM

Next we read the Christmas story, then opened gifts and stockings.

We spent the day at Nana & Grandpa Paul's house.

Jack loved his wooden train track set, but Curious George was run over a few times! :)

Auntie Megan took Jack for a ride on the sled while the rest of the family played boot hockey.

We even made our traditional family look-a-like cookies:

Generous Giving Paul (he was noted in the paper recently for the donations that the Son's of the Legion have given to local charities); Mother of the Bride Jeannie; Bridesmaid Megan; Snow-Suit Jack; Bride Julie; Groom Mark; Prego Marlene; Runner Jeremy; and finally - either baby boy or baby girl.

After Christmas we had a family fun night complete

with sledding and a visit to Chuck E. Cheese's!

And finally, we celebrated Christmas at Grandpa Jim & Besta's!

Jack and Besta played outside in the snow

Jack & Grandpa Jim played cars in the Kitchen

Feliz Navidad!

We had our first Christmas Celebration with the Hall family.

It truly was a fun time together - and it was great to celebrate Jesus Birthday with them.

Jeremy and I decided early on that when we host events, they can't just be business as usual. As we thought about Christmas this year, we decided to do a Mexican theme...thus, Feliz Navidad was it.

Jeremy and I greeted our guests with moustaches on!

Chancho helped hold the chips.

Tacos & Enchiladas for Dinner
Pinata Time!

Singing Carols, Advent Readings & Candles

Happy Birthday Jesus Cake

And presents, of course!

Mother of the Bride Dresses...

We had a great adventure this month helping Julie pick out her wedding dress. It is beautiful. I can't show you any pictures...obviously. However, I do want to share a picture of the mothers of the bride dresses that Jeannie and Stacey picked out! They were so funny!!

Christmas Lights

Amazing Tree! I can't imagine how many hours it took to decorate this one. Beautiful.

We went to the Phalen Park light show. Really unique light displays.



And our favorite house - It is synced to music.
Check it out at http://www.mnlightshow.com/

Compare & Contrast

Here are 20 week ultrasound profile pictures of Jack and Baby No. 2.

Do you think they look alike?

Baby No. 2

Jack

After a phone call to Dell...

that went NO WHERE, I decided to fix my computer myself. I did just that. Now, as you can see from the posts below - my computer and Vista are getting along. I can post pictures again. So, enjoy a brief recap from the last four months.

Picture Overload!!! - November 08

In early November my sister Stephanie got married. We spent the night before preparing our faces to look their very best!! Even Jeremy participated...isn't he a good sport?

On the big day - It was fun to have all three of my sisters there. And yes, that is Stephanie in an arm brace because she broke her elbow just before the wedding!!!

Two weeks later, my sister-in-law Julie got engaged! We are excited for her and Mark as they begin to plan for their big day and prepare for their life together.

Thanksgiving, like always, was YUMMY! We had all of our favorite things, including several pies that I made completely from scratch.

And finally, the big event - My ten year reunion!

Our team had been working on it for more that two and a half years. It was a great success and we are very proud of it. We had a wonderful turnout and lots of people thanked us for all the hard work we put into the event. Go Team!!

Picture Overload!!! - October 08

October found us in the rain cheering for Jeremy as he completed the Twin Cities Marathon for a second time. His time vastly improved and we couldn't be more proud of him. Jack was a great cheerleader. He would yell, "Go Daddy Go!" or "Go Runners!"

We also had to collect family pumpkins to display on the porch! Now this was not just a random go to the store and pick out some pre-picked pumpkins excursion. No no! We had to go out into the field and sequester just the right ones for each member in our family - including Baby No. 2. Thanks to Axdahl's farm in Stillwater, we were able to complete the mission.

What would the fall be without bonfires and smores? Jack LOVES smores. He even shared them with the cat we met in the woods and with his shirt.

And, what would the fall be without plenty of leaves to pile up and jump in?

Finally we get to Halloween. Jack was a "Jack-O-Lantern" courtesy of my sister Stephanie. He sure looked cute in it. I have been informed that Jack needs to have a more manly costume next year though. :) And, with all the fun of the political season, Jeremy and I found it fitting to dress for the occasion too - as Todd & Sarah Palin.

Picture Overload!!! - September 08

August usually brings us to the State Fair, but this year it was early September! Jack LOVED it. He tried all sorts of new foods, his favorite was the corn on the cob. He and daddy went down the giant slide. He pretended to be a farmer at the John Deere Kids Farm. We didn't spend too much time there, but it was just enough to satisfy all of us. Even me, in my first trimester with a queesy stomach!

September also had us visiting several area farms. We fed the animals, went on hayrides and picked out pumpkins here and there. Jack's very favorite thing was feeding goats.

Jeremy participated in the Fat Tire Festival again this year. He did really really well. As a matter of fact, he finished third in his age class. :)

Picture Overload!!! - August 08

Jack got his first pet - a beta fish named "Mister." He is no longer with us, and neither is the replacement fish we got for him. We have two more that we are trying to keep alive from my sister's wedding...we will see where that goes. We have since stopped naming them.


Jeremy and I went to Hawaii for a week's vacation. At that time, Jeremy was given the Crystal Award again, for the 4th year in a row! That means he earned first in the entire country in his division for sales generated and dollars sold. Congrats Jerm!!

Our vacation offered us a relaxing week on the islands of Hawaii and Kauai. We stopped off at Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island as we spent an entire day driving around it. Other highlights included visiting a Kona Coffee Plantation, having Hawaiian Shaved Ice, and Jeremy flying through he air between trees on a zip line adventure.

While we were away on vacation we announced our big news !

We finished off the month by camping at Itasca State Park with our good friends, Ben & Lindsay Belisle. It was a nice relaxing time together. Jack was able to visit the Mississippi Headwaters for the first time. It really is a beautiful state park. If you get a chance, we recommend camping there.