Happy 2nd Birthday, Emma!

Emma turned two last Sunday! Her birthday party was yesterday, and Evan (and the rest of us) had a great time! Isn't she cute?

Evan played so hard that he decided to go "ni-night" for a while. He grabbed one of Emma's blankies and laid down for a minute.


Emma is just beginning to enjoy "dress up" and decided to change her outfit for us all. What a pretty little princess!


Playing together (and showing off Evan's Dora the Explorer tattoo.)

All the kids on the couch. This was the best photo I took of all 6 of them. Getting them all to sit in one spot was no easy task! (Mason, Evan, Emma, Madison, Natalie and baby Johnathan.)

Thanksgiving Day Photos

Thanksgiving Day we visited Jeremy's Grandma's house for an afternoon dinner, and then headed to my (Emily's) Mom's house for dinner in the evening. In true Thanksgiving fashion, we all ate until our bellies ached.

Evan's Great-Grandma has a mirror hanging behind her couch. It only took Evan a few second to "find" the other boy in the mirror and begin taunting him...


Evan and his Great-Grandma Eileen.

Evan and his Auntie Karla (and Grandpa in the background.)

Evan loves to wear his Grandpa's hat.

Evan truly was the entertainment of the evening - here he is in his Great-Grandma's chair. Why the smiling face? Because Grandma has a massage pad on her chair. Daddy turned it on for Evan and he LOVED it. I think Santa may have to bring us one. It was the quietest he was all day. After the initial giggles, he sat in the chair for ten whole minutes and didn't say a peep! He just sat there with a big smile on his face.

Here's a video of Evan in the chair - for those of you that don't know him it may not seem like much, but for those of you that DO know Evan, know that he is a very active child, and he almost NEVER sits still...especially for more than 5 seconds at a time!

Grandpa showed Evan how to ring a bell that his Great-Grandma got from Germany.

Tonight (Friday) we braved the cold weather and went to see the Holiday Stroll parade. There were real reindeer and a big firetruck with Santa on it! Evan had this look on his face pretty much the entire time. I couldn't tell if he was fascinated or bored...

The Whipped Cream Incident...

This morning I made a fruit salad, and in true Minnesota fashion, that "fruit salad" recipe required whipped cream. Well, I thought it would be fun for Evan to get his first chance at licking the beaters. I grew up with a good cook for a mom, and she always let us kids lick the beaters.

If you'll notice, Evan has no pants on. He was busy in the living room while I was whipping the cream, and decided things were best done without his pants getting in the way.

Where's the good stuff, Mom? I'm all out! (He looks kind of crazed, doesn't he? I swear there was no sugar in the whipped cream!)

And now we know what Evan was doing in the living room while I was whipping the cream - getting into my purse (which I thought I left in the car last night, but apparently I was mistaken.) If you look closely, you can see the pair of pants he was wearing 2 minutes before this photo was taken. I have to laugh, or I'll cry...
Ahh, and here are the two snuggle-bunnies. Evan and Jonas are becoming better friends again. For the record, Jonas was on the couch first. Aren't they cute?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Alejandro comes to play!

Tonight my pal Amber brought her "cute as a button" baby boy over to play. Alejandro is 13 months now and is walking around like nobody's business. The two had a tough time sharing, but the Mom's were ready to intervene. Plus, Becky came over to see Ali, too, so we had a good ratio going on...

Is this not the cutest picture you have ever seen? I think Ali should get a modeling gig for those rosy cheeks and pouty lips. What an adorable little man he is!

Evan in his Jump-A-Roo "showin' Ali how its done."

The John Deere Tractor was a big hit. (And that is a red block Evan has in his mouth. Not quite sure what he was planning to do with it.)

Yep, still got the red block.

Becky stopped over to see how much Ali has grown. Evan was actually happy sitting in her lap, but like always as soon as I snapped the photo he made a funny face!

And here's a quick video of Ali "petting" Jonas. It was too cute to not share.

For any of you that have kids - this is the best Emergency Sheet for your babysitter that I have found. It has lots of things on it I would never have thought of - like where we keep the thermometer and how to use it, for example. To print one out for yourself, click here (PDF file.)

This morning we suited-up and went out to play in the first real snowfall of the year (and when I say "real" I mean 1/16 of an inch...) Evan had a great time, but he didn't like getting snow on his mittens and kept stopping to "show me."

"I have snow on my mittens, Mom."

"I SAID I HAVE SNOW ON MY MITTENS!!!"


"FINE, I'll brush them off myself..."

"TA-DA!"

As usual, I forgot my camera most of the week. Today would have been a great picture day, actually - we (Evan and Emily) went Christmas shopping with Emily's Mom and Grandma. It was a fun day, and Evan was a trouper the entire time - and he only took a ten minute nap all day! I was impressed. Needless to say, he went WILD once we got home. Here are a few pictures of him wrestling with his Daddy on the couch. He still has that persistent teething rash around his mouth and is drooling by the bucketful. He has eight front teeth and four molars so far. Hopefully the drooling will end soon...

We busted out the Jumparoo again this week. Evan has been in a "bouncy" mood and has now learned how to "jump" so we thought we would encourage it by bringing the ole' Jumparoo out of the attic for another run.

Evan's "Excited Face."

I had a few more fun photos from the week but my camera battery died while I was uploading them so I guess they will have to wait until I get another chance. Only 5 1/2 weeks until Christmas everyone - can you believe it? I can't wait to bust out the tree and lights!

Evan's very FIRST haircut!

As many of you have seen firsthand, Evan's hair can be a bit unruly. Although sometimes it springs itself into cute little curls, the majority of the time he has "nap hair" - or, as I affectionately call it, his "Gene Wilder" look. So, today we headed off to Larry and Del's Barbershop for Evan's very first haircut. And yes, we saved the curls for the baby book, of course.



The "Before" look


There was quite a long wait this Saturday, so Evan spent some time riding on the wooden horsey they had in the shop. Might have to dig the old one out of Grandma Irvin's attic - he had quite a good time on this one!




Getting ready...

A little nervous...

But he sat like a champ. No tears or nothin'! He really wanted to "see" the clippers, but Daddy kept him occupied. I just realized that this is the best "after" picture I took - and now its naptime for Evan so a better "after" photo will just have to wait.

Grandpa Nelson and Auntie Karla cam to visit this morning - and Baxter knew right where to park his behind in order to get some much needed attention. He was purring so loud we could hear him in the other room. Plus, now he smells like Karla's perfume instead of dust bunnies.

And last, but certainly not least - Happy Birthday Staci! Love the new hat... Feliz Cumpleanos a tu!

Fish Training in Japan

How did they-?...Whaa?...I...WOW. Amazing. Simply Amazing.

YES WE DID!

I guess we aren't moving to Canada after all...

Hooray USA!

Erica, Elsie, Evan and Emily (wow...four E's! How funny!) went door knocking today for the DFL. It was fun, but Emily must have been jinxed. Almost every door she went to no one was home (and two were watching the football game and wouldn't answer the door) and she almost fell down a flight of stairs - twice. It just wasn't her day. In the end, no injures, except to her pride.

Tonight we visited Bill Habedank's 100 Pumpkin Display here in Red Wing. It was amazing - its free with a canned food donation or monetary donation to our local Red Cross, and it is simply something worth seeing. Most people go see it on Halloween, but we thought we would skip the rush of people and go enjoy tonight instead.

For those of you that have seen "Pretty Red Wing," here is the classic view of the Mississippi River from Baypoint Park.

And of course, the display wouldn't be complete this year without some political pumpkins. Here we have the DFL symbol, Obama, Franken, Sarvi and Wollschlager. Amazing. They looked even better up close.

And Evan now has a rash around his mouth. Poor little fella. We thought it was from teething, but the doctor wasn't sure. He gave us some hydrocortizone cream and hopefully that will do the trick. (Oh, and it's definitely not an allergy - I was worried we would have to find the kitties a new home, but the doc said they weren't the cause.)

Sitting on the couch with my buddy, Jonas.

"C'mere Jonas!" (Jonas looks scared.)

And a silly picture with mom. A great end to a great day.