Grandma Marion's 80th Birthday Party

Here are a few snapshots taken at my Grandma Marion's 80th birthday party, which was held this past Saturday night at the Hunter's in Britton...

Here my mom holds Halle as the birthday girl looks on (this is the ONLY picture I took with Grandma Marion in it the whole night! Grrrrr...)


Halle admiring Grandma Connie's pretty necklace...

Brendan sitting at the table...
My aunt, Lana, her fiance (notice how I used the "official" term, Lana??), Paul, and my sister, Erica chatting away...
The Hunter's is actually a resturaunt/bar where many wedding dances are held, so it's complete with a stage and dancefloor. It was no surprise that the kids spent most of their time dancing the night away - here's a picture of Halle and Brendan busting some moves.

The kids having fun on the stage -
Grandpa Tom and Cary having a nice chat...

The party was a lot of fun - Happy 80th Grandma Marion!!!

Celebrating Christmas at our house (Dec. 15-17)

The weekend before Christmas was a busy one! Cary and I had both of our Christmas Parties for work, Cary's Friday night, and mine Saturday night. Grandma Carol came up and spent the entire weekend with the kids for us! YAY! Here we are at Cary's party in Brainerd....


On Saturday afternoon, Grandma Carol and the kids made some treats for Santa...chocolate dipped pretzels! YUM! Halle dipped and ate all of her pretzels, while Brendan consumed about 1/2 of his!


Sunday morning was our actual Christmas celebration -- and Santa made an early visit! Here, Brendan tries on his new slippers from Santa...

And, checks out his stocking...

Brendan got a new train set from Santa - YAY! (Halle got the cutest little picnic basket, complete with a red/white checkered table cloth, dishes, and cups - she loved it, but was a bit sleepy so she spent most of the "Santa" time on my lap)

After breakfast, it was finally time to open presents!


Brendan got a ton of real tools from Grandma Carol - he LOVES them!
Grandma Carol made Halle this ADORABLE apron - doesn't she look cute in it?? She also made a matching set of pot holders, and an oven mitt!!
The apron, potholders and oven mitt were needed because Grandma Carol also got Halle a.........


NEW PLAY KITCHEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is the cutest thing ever - it's two sided; on one side is the typical kitchen set-up - fridge, microwave, sink, stove, dishwaser, etc....

And on the other side - it's an outdoor bar-b-que grill area!

It is so much fun - both Halle and Brendan (ok, and me) have been having a blast playing with it! There are SOO many cute accessories that go with it - and it's been so fun watching them "cook"!

Decorating the tree

This past Tuesday, Cary picked out a gorgeous tree from a feed store in Brainerd, and we spent the evening decorating it and the rest of the house. The tree is HUGE, stands 8 1/2 to 9 feet tall and looks beautiful in the living room.

Here it is with the lights and the angel, before we added the ornaments...

Ornament time!


A close up - ooooohhhhh, pretty...Brendan had a blast helping us decorate; Halle, on the other hand was terrified. Here is a picture (sorry it's so dark) of her crying as we carried the tree into the house...
And, while we were decorating, she retreated to her bedroom and sat on Brendan's bed.

I finally made her laugh, however, but if you look at her eyes they are still shimmering with tears. Goofy kid. She got over it after awhile, and is ok with the tree being in the living room now.

Every year Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Charlie make each and every one of us our very own wooden decorative "placecard" -- they are always so cute, and it's so much fun to take them out each Christmas and use them in the decorating - here is a picture of the various ones from over the past several years... I wonder what this years will be??

Just wanted to share a couple of my favorite memories from the night:

*Brendan, wearing a stocking on each hand proclaiming, "Mama, I'm wearing Santa's gloves!"

*Halle refusing to walk into the living room and past the big, bad tree. She stood on the edge of the carpet and cried and cried.

*Hearing Brendan in his bedroom comforting Halle while we were in the living room, "Hawee, it's ok, it's only a tree."

*Brendan and I's conversation when we found the plate we use to put out the cookies for Santa:

Brendan: What's that, Mama?

Me: It's a plate we put cookies on on Christmas Eve, so Santa can have a snack when he stops by the house.

Brendan: Does Santa like cookies?

Me: Yes, and he also likes milk.

Brendan: And he also likes meatloaf. Santa really likes meatloaf.

So this year we'll probably be setting out milk, cookies, and meatloaf!

Fun at Grandma Carols...

Over Veteran's Day weekend my sister and I took a trip to the Twin Cities to do some Christmas shopping, and Cary was busy studying for the CPA exam, so the kids got to spend the weekend with Grandma Carol!

Halle is lucky enough to have her very own baby at Grandma's house, and she loves her! She also has the cutest little cradle, hand crafted by Great-Grandpa Lee for her baby to lay in, and baby blankets made by Grandma to keep her little girl warm...(as you can see, she's not all that delicate with her, though, and has been known to pitch her face down into the cradle if you mention it's time to eat :))


They played games...
(She looks like a teenager in this picture!)They played outside...

And before bed it was time for the "pants-optional-bubble-wrap" dance...

What a fun weekend! Thank you Grandma Carol!

Grandma and Grandpa's New Wheels...

I'm sorry it has been so long between updates - I've been swamped lately, and have been slacking in this area!

Anyway - here are a few photos of Grandpa David and Grandma Connie's new car! The coolest part about it is that it's a hard top convertible!

Here, Grandpa simply pushes a button and the top folds itself into the trunk...

Wha-la! Sports car! In fact, after the top was completely in the trunk Brendan shouted, "Oh my gosh! Grandpa David has a race car!"

Brendan's turn for a ride in the race car...

Happy Halloween!

When you hear the familiar sound of people dragging out their winter jackets, hats, mittens, and long underwear - everyone knows what that means - it's Halloween night in Park Rapids! This year was no exception, 50 degrees Oct 30th, 22 degrees Oct 31st. Still, we braved the cold and blowing snow to take the kids trick-or-treating down Main Street. They (well, Brendan at least) had a great time and loved getting candy from the merchants. Though they were wearing layers upon layers under their costumes, they still froze solid and our trick-or-treating was more of a mad dash from store to store. Here are a few pictures from the night...

Halle was a hilarious monkey, complete with a bouncing tail (these pictures are taken at the bank where I work)...


Here she is eating her first sucker; though it looks as though she doesn't like it, she's actually making that face because I told her to "smile" - she LOVED the sucker...Ah man, is it really snowing again? We're gonna freeze out there!
And here is the little Train Engineer/Conductor (his one and only request when I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween, no thinking, no pausing, just "Momma, I want to be a train conductor")...
A few pictures from home...

Can you tell he's very excited about his candy??? Every morning he looks in the pumpkin and says, "Yep, it's still in there!"

Carving pumpkins

In the true spirit of Halloween, we spent this past Thursday evening carving pumpkins. Daddy did the lion's share of the work, and with the help of the kids (and some carving patterns), created some pretty darn cool jack o'lanterns!

Here Brendan watches Cary clean out one of the pumpkins...



Here are the finished creations...

First, Halle's pumpkin - a kitty!

Brendan decided on a ghost in the graveyard...
While Cary's pumpkin became a spooky gargoyle...Here are all three of the finished jack-o-lanterns...

And, one more picture of the three pumpkins taken with a little bit of light shining on them...

If anybody is wondering where my pumpkin is; I cut into the top of mine and found the inside to be completely moldy. The outside was hard, and there were no visible holes anywhere on the pumpkin, but the inside was completely rotted out, so I was unable to use it. I do have another one, though, and will try and carve it this week!