Last Post of the Year...

Happy Birthday to Baby Neve! She is a New Year's Eve baby, and turned one today!

Ten years ago we partied at Matt and Brian's apartment in Chicago...Party of the Millennium, complete with a flesh-colored 2000 Jello mold (all I can say is never, ever, use heavy whipping cream in the place of Cool Whip in a recipe)

This marks post number 100 for the year! Whoo-hoo!

Let's celebrate 2010!

Post-Christmas II

Link to video of kids and Santa...

Video of Santa's Visit

Post-Christmas

Photos are getting posted, videos to follow! For now, a quick peek!
Check www.30poundcat.shutterfly.com

And then there was one...

Merry Christmas! We put out the cookies, milk and oranges (for Santa's reindeer) and are ready for Santa!

Sweet!

Yum...I love these little red velvet cupcakes! I had so much fun today with my cousins Cal and Mac - we went to the mall and saw The Princess and the Frog!

Sushi Balloon

We went to a Japanese teppinaki-style restaurant tonight for dinner and figured Alex would get a kick out of the show they put on. Er, not really. He was much more taken with the kids birthday party going on at the table across from us. One of the parents was really nice and brought him a piece of birthday cake and a balloon animal dog. Eventually, it unraveled and we tried to coax it into the number "3". As you can see, it didn't really work. But it still means Christmas is right around the corner!

Santa's Workshop

Busy building the days until Christmas comes!
(thanks for the tool box, Aunt Becky and Uncle Caleb!)

And look at that happy dog - Otto loves Christmas too!

I Wish it Was Christmas...

...In five daaaayyyys!

Sweet cover of this song by The Stroke's lead singer Julian Casablancas, it's a new holiday favorite of mine!


And the SNL original...

SNL Christmas Song

Letters to Santa

Only six more days!

Banana...Banana...Banana!!!

It's only fitting that Alex is wearing his Brobee sweatshirt for this one!

The Aggrolites - Banana (Yo Gabba Gabba!)

WTF | MySpace Video
Banana Song by the Aggrolites on Yo Gabba Gabba

And a boatload of bananas in the house around Christmas can only mean one thing: BANANA BREAD TIME!!!

Ho, Ho, Ho, Candy Cane Joe- Joe's

Seriously the best treat we have had this holiday season is the Candy Cane Joe Joe cookie! Made by Trader Joe's, it's basically an Oreo-type cookie with crushed bits of real peppermint in the cream. Grandma G brought a box on her visit last weekend and we have been munching away ever since. And what better way to honor it than by making it into an eight for the calendar? Now, if we just had some eggnog to dunk it in!

Number 9...

Stacked!

We took our holiday card photo on Sunday. We had a few outtakes, and were able to get Otto in the photo only because we used the timer on our camera and didn't have someone taking the picture. He is basically useless if there is a photographer trying to get his attention and will run right out of the picture.

1. Click - camera is in the right position.


2. Click - make sure the snow is out of the way!


3. Click - oops, where is the dog?


4. Click - er, where is the mom?

Eleven and Counting...

Twelve Days of Christmas

Four Alarm Santa

One Saturday in December you can hear the fire trucks going up and down the streets. Santa rides with the firefighters and hands out candy canes and takes pictures with the kids. We missed him the first time he went down our street, so Dad set out to track him down. After much circling and searching, and even a trip to the fire station to see where Santa was, Dad figured that he had missed him. But by chance, he caught the fire truck and Alex was able to see him and the fire fighters! Even better, about a half hour later he came back down our street (doesn't that figure!) :)

Dinner time

Out to dinner with Mom, Dad, Grandma G and Aunt Shelly! I'm having so much fun visiting with them!

Santa's Coming

We had our picture taken with Santa at the mall. He is the same one Alex has had his picture taken with for all four of his Christmases. He was also happy to help us with our advent calendar, thanks Santa!

15 Days

We hung up some garland tonight on the front columns, Alex wasn't really into taking a picture, so we also include Lincoln as an alternative to the countdown...

He didn't really care for the article in the paper today about "pet proofing" holiday decorations.

And the Register had a great headline today that pretty much sums up the weather!

The Aftermath...

Check carefully...you'll see the 16 in there somewhere!


We had about a foot of snow yesterday, but the worst part of it was the windy conditions that followed. At 8 am, I saw maybe two cars in 15 minutes. Most businesses were shut down today, and schools are closed again tomorrow. Bundle up and stay warm, because the temps are dropping to bone-chilling lows tonight!

Snowmageddon '09

I can't take credit for "Snowmageddon", but it seems pretty fitting. We have over a foot of snow with more expected tonight in addition to 40+ mph winds. In fact, I'm blogging from my iPhone because our net connection isn't working (thank you 3G network for holding up). Alex helped Dad shovel the snow, and I have a feeling he is going to get that snowblower for Christmas this year...

Tasty!

Check out my very own Christmas tree in my room - I picked out the blue lights myself! Eighteen days to go!

St. Nicholas Day

Only 19 more days, and we received a visit from St. Nicholas today! Alex put his boot out and St. Nick left him a little surprise - a Thomas car and an ornament for his little tree in his room.

Jingle Jam, Jingle Jam

20 days til Christmas!

Double Down...

...'cause Christmas is coming!

Reflections of...

...the number of days until Christmas!

(please excuse the gross toilet in the background!)

Deck the Rails...

(Grandmas, aunts, uncles, grandpas: please note the plethora of Thomas motorized trains...and they don't even represent ALL of the ones Alex has!)

Advent Calendar 2009

You know we couldn't kick off Advent season without it!

Snakes on a kid!

The invite...


...the party!


Our big boy has turned three years old! [insert comment about how we can't believe how fast he is growing up, how it was only yesterday he was a (not so) tiny little baby]

Alex had his first birthday party with some of his friends from school. We went to the Iowa Reptile Rescue at Southridge Mall and had a wonderful time. The kids got to see and touch some of the animals there, including turtles, snakes, geckos, and bearded lizards. It was a kick to see them get so excited about the animals. The Rescue does a wonderful job and serves a niche in the community.