Ice fishing at Pottery Pond

The Red Wing Rotary Club had a Kid's Ice Fishing Contest this past Saturday. Although I'm not a big fan of ice...or fishing, I am in Rotary and volunteered to help out. Jeremy brought Evan out for the last hour and a half. Although we didn't catch any fish, Evan had a good time - especially after DJ showed up! Eating a fish cookie. We made many treacherous trips across the frozen lake for more hot chocolate and cookies that day.

Watching for fish.

The only fish we "caught" that day was a tiny minnow (someone's leftover bait) that had frozen to the ground. Evan was pretty excited and insisted that we take it home. (We didn't.)

Its been three weeks since my last post. Life has been busy around here, but not the "interesting" kind of busy that makes for good photographs. Here is what we have been up to the past few weeks:

Today we went to our FIRST movie with DJ and Beth. We went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, which was about as bad as I thought it would be - but, hey, we went to entertain the kids, right? Evan was enthralled until about halfway through when he began to get restless.

And here is the latest addition to our family - Baby Jonas. Evan's Grandpa Wayne got him this "Fur Real" puppy for Christmas. It's stomach moves up and down and it makes snoring sounds.
We haven't posted any bathtub photos for a while, so here goes:

Last weekend we had a play date with Erica, Elsie and baby Donnie. Evan was a bit crazy for all of Elsie's toys but we all had a good time. Elsie's trucks and trains were a big hit.

Evan "taking my picture" with Elsie's princess camera.

Erica and baby Donnie (1 month)

BIG SMILE!

Evan being tickled by Becky, whom he asks for all of the time. "Momma I wanna' call Bwecky an teller to come ober."

Christmas, extended...

Last night Grandma Barb brought over some Christmas gifts for Evan from Jeremy's Aunts. All the gifts were a hit!




Diane and Greg gave him a great tool set that matches the set he got from Grandpa Hellmuth for his birthday. It is so cool! It comes with a tool belt, tools...

a hard hat...

and even a plumbers crack!

Evan got some squirting Thomas trains from Bonnie and Dan, and asked to take a bath last night so he could play with them.

AND, he was passed down the family farm! This barn was made for Jeremy (we think) by Jeremy's Grandpa Nelson (we think) when Jeremy was little. Pat's kids got the barn from Jeremy when he outgrew it, and now it has been passed down to Evan. Plus, he got an adorable farmer and cart with it!

It needed a little touch-up paint, which I took care of this morning (and got a little carried away, as usual.)

Isn't this cool? The door on the side opens up to reveal the hay loft. I would have loved one of these when I was a kid.

Congratulations Jeremy -

2009 Blue Ball

Fantasy Football League

Champion!

That's right - after all of these years the helmet (a.k.a. the trophy) has finally made it's way back to our house.

Zoo Trip

We haven't taken a family trip to the zoo for a while now, and since it was so darn cold out yesterday we thought we would spend the day looking at the dolphins and such. It turn out we have a budding aquariest in the family! Evan LOVED all of the sea creatures. We ended up spending about two hours in the dolphin/shark/aquariums section. Evan is smiling in these photos because I bribed him with a sucker. That's right, I bribe my two-year old. I want to look back on this time in his life and have at least a few pictures with Evan looking like he is having a good time (he is the king of not smiling for photos.)What's that coming...ahhhh! It's a shark! Evan and Emily both thoroughly enjoyed the touch-tank.But what got Evan to laugh the most was the tidal pool - not the anemones or the starfish - but the loud rush of water every 30 seconds.
"Wook, Mom - a tuwdol! He swimmin', he swimmin'!"The poor little tyke was so pooped out from our trip he fell asleep before we left the zoo parking lot! As you can see, he didn't even get a chance to finish his sucker (aka: the bribe.)