Happy New Year!

Some of my favorite moments from 2010 (click for larger view)

Happy Birthday Mommy!

My birthday was yesterday (the 28th) and I came home from work to a birthday cake crafted by my two favorite boys! 

My Mom and Bruce took Evan and I out to dinner for my big day (Jeremy had to work.)

And my favorite part: a special birthday song from my little man!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas -we visited lots of family and ate lots of great food.  We are lucky to have a large extended family full of amazing and fun people.  We thank the heavens above that each of you are in our lives!  Merry Christmas - and here's to a great 2011!

On Christmas Eve Evan was so excited that he couldn't get to sleep.  At 11:30 he was still tossing and turning, so I whispered to him "Do you hear that?  I think I just heard sleigh bells!  I think Santa may be on Dar's (our neighbor) roof!  We better hurry up and go to sleep or Santa will miss our house!"  BAM - he was out like a light and didn't move again until morning.  Ahhh, Christmas magic.

Christmas Morning Video:

A new bike from Mom and Dad, The Polar Express book (which we didn't have yet - thanks Great-Grandma and -Grandpa!) and lots of other fun toys from Uncle Kelby, Grandpa and Adriana, and Santa!

My boys on Christmas Eve while watching the cats play with a giant ball of compressed catnip.  It was hilarious!

My favorite Evan-ism from Christmas Eve:

Evan: "When I was a baby, I got presents from Santa!  And when Santa's reindeer were babies, they got presents from Santa.  And when Santa was a baby, he got presents from...me!"

Our sad little gingerbread house

"Hey, Mom! Take a picture of me and my friend Rico!"

Painting the morning away...

Tonight we watched the Polar Express (again) and made a sad little gingerbread house.  It looks okay from far away, but close up...

...not so much.  Poor little gingerbread house!

Puppets and Dinosaurs

Evan really wanted to go outside and play in the snow when I got home from work today - but it was zero degrees outside (-10 with the wind chill) and so I convinced him to stay in and make hand puppets with me instead.  We found an old pair of socks and broke out the art supplies. 



While we were playing with them, Evan's hand puppet ("Konk") decided to describe to my hand puppet ("Hot Chocolate") what kind of dinosaurs he liked.  It was so cute! He was naming off all of these amazing dinosaur names - and most of them I had actually heard of (thanks to my having a little brother who also loved dinosaurs).  Velociraptor, Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus, Pteranodon, you name it!  I was pretty impressed so I asked him to explain it to me again for the camera.  Of course, it wasn't as succinct the second time, but still cute!

Storm of the Century

Red Wing officially received 20" of snow this weekend.  Grandpa Rex was nice enough to lend us his snow blower (thank you Grandpa Rex!) and when we returned it on Sunday we brought our sleds with for some winter fun.  Evan and I had attempted to go sledding the day before, but the snow was so deep and fluffy that he sunk and the sled wouldn't go down the hill!  It worked much better on Sunday - each of us went down the hill once with Evan...and hauled him (45 lbs) back up the hill.  So, Rex got out the four-wheeler so we could ride back up instead.  It was so much fun!

Big hill!

And, while we were snowed in on Saturday, Evan found a stray yellow marker and decided the footstool needed to be decorated.  Below is his drawing of a tiger, complete with stripes and sharp teeth!  Luckily, it was Crayola and washed right off.

Holiday Train

We braved the impending snow storm tonight and headed to Lake City to view the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train with DJ and Beth.  First we made a stop at the library to watch the Polar Express movie, make a train ornament, and view some neat model trains. 

Here the boys are watching the Polar Express.  (We actually just watched this movie last night at home and Evan really loved it.)

Later on we went down to the tracks to view the Holiday Train.

The lights were actually pretty impressive, and there was a live band playing Christmas songs in one of the cars (below.)

Evan and DJ had a 45-minute snowball fight...

and made snow angels...

 AND, got to meet Santa!



It was a really fun time, despite the cold.  We times our departure perfectly and were able to view the train on its ride to Red Wing.  We raced it to the levee and caught it just in time to watch it roll to a stop for the night before we headed home.  What a fun time!  Definitely something we will plan to do again next year.

Evan the Ice Skater

I used a little too much water when I mopped the kitchen floor yesterday - Evan said it looked like a skating rink and put on his ice skates (slippers) so that he could "show me some tricks."  Here he is performing his routing on the freshly scrubbe floor.  p.s. Notice his multi-colored slippers?  He told me wearing one blue one and one red one would make him go faster.

A Snowy Saturday

 Nothing stops this kid from riding his bike -
not even 6 inches of snow!

First snow angel of the season

Video of the big snow race: "Four Wheels" VS. "Four Legs"

Happy Belated Birthday Emma!  The Nelsons and Neumanns got together for a triple-date night (Jeremy/Emily, Derek/Annie, and Evan/Emma) at the bowling alley and Bierstube.  Although Evan and Emma went "dutch" he did end up sealing their night with a stolen kiss.  Emma was not thrilled. 

 

Jumping for joy as his ball knocked over some pins