Christmas Vacation 2010!!!

As I mentioned in my last post, we had a busy Christmas this year. Technically we had three Christmas' this year! We celebrated with Shannon's Dad and siblings before Christmas, then we traveled to Texas to celebrate Christmas day with Shannon's Mom, Step-Dad, and siblings, then returned home and celebrated with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law! So needless to say, when we were done, we were one big tired family!

We were all VERY lucky and received many nice gifts and had awesome meals! We all got updated wardrobes, the kids got very nice toys (including a play kitchen from Mom and Dad), and our family finally got caught up with technology with our first flat screen TV (Thanks again Dan and Irma), and a Wii from my brother and sister-in-law.

I'm not going to give day by day record of events, since that would be a little boring and honestly, I don't know if I could or not! I'm just going to let the pictures tell the story.

Oh, and one other thing, flight delays with two small children really suck. That is all.

Merry Christmas 2010!

OK, I know. I took a little bit of a vacation from my journal. We have had a bunch of stuff going on the last couple of months with work, weather, and the holiday season and I just got behind! So, now I have to play catch up (again). I am going to try and post the correct date (for record keeping purposes) when these posts SHOULD have been made, but I assure you it is actually early March as I type them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We kept the photo card tradition going for another year! However, this year, since we were really busy in getting ready for Christmas and our trip (see the next post) I was 100% responsible for getting the photo taken, printed, and sent out. I have to say it wasn't bad, but it could have been better, the kids weren't in the best mood and I wasn't in the best mood to deal with them! In case you were keeping track, the past years can be seen here: 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006!

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Will's First Birthday...

Will (aka: Bubba) turned one on November 11th, but since that was a Thursday, we decided to have his party on Saturday, November 13th. We planned on having a small get together for friends and family and have some lunch and cupcakes! I was kind of worried if people were going to make it or not because of the fluke snowstorm the Twin Cities got earlier that day, but almost everyone made it! Shannons's mom and step-dad also made it up from Texas without any problems!

The food was awesome, we had sloppy joes, pasta salad, Greek lettuce salad, chips, deviled eggs, and both chocolate and yellow cupcakes!

Bubba really didn't know what to do with his presents. He liked pulling the bows off and ripping some paper, but had more fun running around and giving the paper pieces to people. Maeve and I did most of the unwrapping, but toward the end, he would actually sit on my lap and get into the ripping! He got some very nice gifts! We are very fortunate to have such generous friends and family. He got a bunch of cute clothes, a couple tool/work bench learning tools, a little people fire station, an mini-ATV from Uncle Mike and Aunt Jess, a mini-fire truck from Grandma Irma and Pappy, and my Dad and Mom got Will some wood blocks and Dad hand built him a beautiful wood toy box/chest! I'm sure will have his toy box for a very long time, just like MINE!

After we got done opening gifts, it was time for cupcakes. We just gave Will a chocolate cupcake and let him figure it out on his own. It didn't take him long to get into it. He really seemed to enjoy it, but he was also VERY tired, so after he had about half the cupcake down, he went down for a little nap!

Overall, the party was a blast, despite the random snow storm and I am pretty sure Bubba, along with everyone else that attended had a great time!

First Snow of the 2010-2011 Winter Season!

11/13/10

During the early morning hours of this November Saturday we got our first snowfall of the year. I think it caught many people (including myself) off guard. The weather people were predicting anywhere from a "trace" to ten inches! I spent the day before the snowfall raking up the last of the leaves, getting the hoses brought in, the water shut off, the lawnmowers put away, and getting the snow blower fired up. Then I had to get the snowmobiles out of the backyard and in the driveway so they wouldn't get buried! When we woke up on Saturday (the day of Will's birthday party) we had a solid wet six to eight inches of snow! It was beautiful!

Here are the first "front yard" and "back yard" pictures of the year:

Since this snowfall, Mother Nature has given us two more small (one to three inches) snowfalls and an ice storm. I am hoping the snow will keep up during the entire winter season!