A White Christmas

We had a successful Christmas again this year. I had to work a lot, but we still managed to get to Jackson for a day, and to Emily's house for a day. We raced to Jackson on Christmas Eve and made it to candlelight church service. Then, we went back to my parents for our traditional Oyster Stew Dinner. My Grandparents even made it this year before they headed down to Arizona for the season. Jake and Kyla were also around, along w/ Terri and her family, so it was a full house. After dinner we opened gifts and stayed up late playing games. The next morning we were off to Emily's in Lakeville for more food and presents. We did Fondue, which was great, and played a couple games. Landon of course hit the jackpot w/ all the presents he received. He says his favorites are his Dinosaur, his Scooby Doo Chia Pet, his Bublebee transformer, his Cash Register, and his Incredible Hulk socks and blanket.

An Early Christmas

Over Thanksgiving in Iowa we celebrated Christmas since my Grandparents would be in Arizona. The kids got PJ's and race cars. These are Landon's cousins...first and third cousins, I believe. This get together was shortly after Iowa CREAMED Minnesota in Football, so of course Ryan and his family came dawning their Iowa gear, rubbing it in to us MN folks. Ryans two boys are great wrestlers, and Landon just LOVED tackling them and wrestling around. He has a ways to go to be at their level, but something tells me every year he'll get a little closer.

Happy Holidays..

December has flown by, so we figured we better get our tree and decorations up...Landon loves looking at Ornaments every year and decorating the tree w/ them. This year, Grandma Jan sent him some Ninja Turtle ornaments which he was stoked about. Casey decided to be a Grinch and not put up any lights on the outside of the house, using the excuse that we just moved and don't have time or know where they are. At least Landon is in the full Christmas Spirit!!!

Love My Aunt Nancy

Over Thanksgiving in Iowa, we stayed at a hotel w/ a big swimming pool and Aunt Nancy came to stay too....The kids all LOVE their aunt Nancy. Landon is always asking when Aunt Nancy is coming to visit or when we can go back to a hotel to stay with Aunt Nancy. Thanks for a great weekend, Aunt Nancy!!

Tag, I guess I'm it now..........Thanks Terri

I am.....also very THANKFUL for a happy and Healthy FAMILY

I know.....that Africa is a CONTINENT.

I want....to take a vacation.

I have.....everything I need.

I dislike....working 40 hours a week...I'm marrying for money next time~~~

I miss.....the no-stress college life and all the great people I met there.

I feel....Blessed

I hear......Landon coughing (what else is new??)

I smell......nothing (unlike last night when I smelled gas and realized Landon had turned on our gas stove w/o my knowledge and I almost scorched my hair the next time I turned it on)

I crave.......Thanksgiving Dinner w/ my mom's famous mashed potatoes....YUM

I cry.....at sappy shows like "Extreme Makeover Home Edition"

I search........all the time for my work keys that I constantly misplace

I wonder......why I didn't go to school to be a doctor or a lawyer or a gold digger???

I regret.......the brat I was as a child. I have a feeling revenge as a mother will be quite sweet.

I love......my family, my friends, and TiVo.

I worry....all the time about Landon.. It drives Casey insane.

I remember.......nothing. I have no memory since I got pregnant 4 years ago.

I dance....with Landon in our house, other than that it would take massive amounts of alcohol.

I don't.....cook, clean, or work out as often as I should.

I argue.....with myself. I may be bi-polar.

I write....on post-it-notes a lot since I lost my memory.

I win.............WIN? What does that mean? Ask my sister, I LOSE ALL THE TIME.

I lose........any argument with my sister.

I wish......I won the POWERBALL so I could jet set all around the world w/ family and friends.

I listen......to a lot of country music.

I can usually be found.......at work or with Landon, both can be very stressful!

I am scared.....to death of people dying that are close to me.

I need......A VACATION.....

I forget........EVERYTHING

Cousin Chloe

This picture was taken at Chloe's baptism. Landon loves taking pictures holding Chloe, he thinks its such an important job. Don't you think he'd make a great big brother (don't read anything into that)??????

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet (thanks aunt Terri)

Landon was KUNG FU PANDA for Halloween this year...I think it was a good choice because his other choice was Spiderman and I saw a million Spiderman's out but no other Kung Fu Pandas..Landon loved trick-or-treating. He especially loved reciting a Halloween poem that Aunt Terri taught him on a long car ride......he even called a few people to say Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet.....you know the rest. What I was amazed by was how much Cambridge gets into the Halloween spirit. In one area of town, there were TONS of kids out, and several people hauling decorated trailors behind their ATV's, dropping off kids and picking them back up.. A couple of them had oranage lights and hay bails on the trailors....it was like a huge neighborhood party. Also in this neighborhood are some die hard home owners that go all out, and I mean ALL OUT. They should be charging admission to see their house..These houses were more decorated than ANY house I've even seen decorated for any holiday, including christmas. They had oranage lights lighting up a path to the back yard where you could see a grave yard, they had people dressed up and hiding in places to jump out and scare you, and they had their garages completely transformed to some scary scenes (some too scary for Landon). They had witches handing out cider and aliens driving cars. It was like a haunted neighborhood. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen a neighborhood get together to do. The above pics. are with Mathew and Emily Sohn, who also passed out the coolest Halloween treats of the night.

Pumpkins

We almost forgot about carving pumpkins this year! A couple days before Halloween we realized we still needed to carve our pumpkins, so Landon picked out what he wanted his pumpkins to be and Casey and I carved away.. Landon chose a pretty simple smiley face for me to put on his "strawberry pumpkin", and he picked a Skeleton for Casey to carve. They both turned out well. Surprisingly, Landon wanted NOTHING to do with the guts of the pumpkin. He wouldn't stick his hands inside and get dirty....considering what a true "boy" he usually is I was pretty shocked by this.

The Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we took Landon to the Green Barn pumpkin patch in Isanti. Although I don't think it holds a candle to the Poppe Pumpkin Patch, we still had a great time. Landon's favorite things were the hayride, the treasure hunt in a maze, searching for the perfect pumpkin,and the Corn Pit.......

more pics. of Landon getting mail

The Not So "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

_This past Sunday, Landon woke up around 7:30 and wanted breakfast. As usual, Casey got him some cereal and went back to bed. About 5 minutes later I wake up to Landon SCREAMING bloody murder! We both jumped up and went out to the dining room thinking he's hurt or something is terribly wrong. When we get out there we find Landon freaked out and theres a HUGE spider that dropped from the ceiling to about 1 inch infront of his face just dangling there! Just thinking about it still freaks me out! What are the odds this spider had to land directly infront of his face as he's sitting there minding his own business eating breakfast? Casey killed the spider and Landon eventually calmed down. When this all happened I didn't have my contacts in so when I first saw Landon freaking out I was just like "what?"and Casey had to tell me about the spider in his face! Needless to say Landon is still a little touchy on the spider subject! Of course Casey takes full advantage of this and scares him whenever possible. The next morning, Landon was excited to receive a halloween package from Grandma Jan, then he opened it and Grandma had mailed Landon 2 huge fake spiders (not knowing what happened the morning before)!! Landon is still a little timid around his new toys!!

The Drama of Getting Mail From Grandma!!

Landon just LOVES getting mail, and Grandma Jan is pretty good at sending him something every few weeks. This week it was a Halloween Package. In the first picture you'll notice he's super excited that he got mail. Then in the second picture he's a little ticked off. Well, Grandma mailed Landon's package in a Velvetta box, and Landon thought Grandma sent him Macaroni and Cheese!! He started crying and was so mad Grandma would send him that. I explained to him he needed to open the box and once he did that he was excited to see all the great halloween treats. He got a little pumpkin, some fangs, 2 fake spiders (which caused more drama: read the next entry), some pop-rocks, and some halloween sour worms. Thanks Grandma for NOT sending Landon Macaroni and Cheese!!

p.s. I can't get the other photos on this post so those are posted above, separately.

5 FIELD GOALS?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Around 11pm Sat. night we got a phone call from Jake asking if we wanted to watch the Vikes/Colts game from the 40 yd. line! Jake's girlfriend, Kylla, got her Dad's season tickets and the couple they were going with backed out, so we got to go instead! We took the light rail to the Metrodome, which was an adventure in itself. Once we were there we had GREAT seats, and the game was fun, until the end!! It was a close game and the Vikings played better than the Colts throughout the game, but never got in the endzone, just field goal after field goal, so we figured it would catch up with them. Just when we thought the game would go into OT, Payten Manning proved himself and showed MN what a REAL quarterback was like when he made a great pass w/ seconds left to set up the game winning field goal.. Oh well, it's always fun to see the game up close! Thanks Jake and Kylla!!!

Crazy Hair Day

Fridays at Landon's "school" they have different days such as "Bring your favorite stuffed animal day" and "bring your favorite book day". Last friday they had "Crazy Hair Day", so I took the opportunity to be able to do Landon's hair since I don't have a girl and never get that chance...So we decided to Spike his hair and load it up with some hairspray and this is what turned out.. I don't think it was as much "Crazy" as it was quite stylish!! I like the look! Casey and Landon, however, tell me I can't do it again..Landon got to school that day so excited to see all the "crazy hair" and it turned out he was the ONLY one who participated!! Casey said Landon was still proud of his hair and didn't feel dumb at all...That's my Landon!!

A day at the Park

This afternoon we took Landon to the City Park, his favorite. It's along the Rum River (isn't as cool as the name leads you to believe) and there are a lot of walking trails that lead to 2 different parks. It was a fun afternoon, Landon loves showing off at the park, and also loves to go down by the river and throw rocks and watch the fish. As you can tell by the picture, he also loves to try to be just like his dad.