Best seats in the house

Someone I know has a loving wife that got him seats to tonight's vikings game in the 1st row in the end zone for his birthday! Now that's a birthday gift! If she could have only included a vikings win...Anyways, we saw him on TV and thought he would like to see how cool he looked. Sorry to say, the loving wife that bought the gift didn't make it on TV.

For those of you who are not quite sure...No he is not the one with the painted face.

Curoivie

So I decided to try my hand at the old family Curoivie recipe this year. I think they turned out pretty good. Well, aside from the fact that I only had green sprinkles (No those are not chives Paul)and target only had 3 cookie cutters and they were not especially festive. Now that I think about it I think those sprinkles were a wedding present. I knew they would come in handy sooner or later. Thanks Sis.

I did get a little tired of cutting cookies towards the end so I decided to expedite the process a little.

And wouldn't you know it, the "Jedi Master" had to send me a box in the mail to show me how it's supposed to be done. (Which I REALLY appreciate). No kidding, Erin went out to get the mail while I was making these and they were there. That's some timing.

Thanksgiving in Minnesota

We just got back from a Thanksgiving trip to Minnesota, and when I say "just got back" I mean two weeks ago. We had a great time visiting everyone, only wish we had more time to visit and catch up. It seems like there is never enough time for that. The grandkids made good use of their time anyways. Got in some great eating, played some Wii, talked a few old men into playing football even though they would regret it for a few days afterwords, and even took some time for a picture. Notice the uncooperative one on the bottom right. This was the best one I could find.

We also had a few days to visit up in Alex and got in some QT with Grandma, PAul and Sonja.

Some of the younger cousins were smart and spent most of thanksgiving day hiding out with all Alondra's great toys. (sorry this picture is out of order but if I tried to fix it it would only make things worse. I hope you can forgive me.)

Took advantage of some of the time at grandmas to raid her craft station.

Painting?

Painting.

Painting!

And....a little mac n cheese

It's not hard to figure out who was Avery's buddy this trip.
We had a great time visiting. Thanks to Bro+12 for the great turkey, I wanted to eat about 3 more plates full but I held off. It was great to see everyone and we will see you again soon.

"Make Like a Tree and Get Out of Here."

Campaign "Fun Facts"

I just read part of a Newsweek article that talks about the inside stuff that happened during the campaign. I saw this quote and laughed out loud. I figured you all would like to read it.

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

I love our new President!

Here is a link to the full article if you want to read it.

--->Click Here<---

What a beautiful day.

I don't know about anyone else but I just can't seem to wipe the smile off my face lately. I guess it's just been a good couple of days.

"Getting better all the ti-ii-ime, better, better, better."

In honor of happy things(and the beatles) I thought I'd post a few smilie pictures.

~sigh'

NOVEMBER 4th

A Bug's Life.

Another wonderful Halloween for the record books. Ok, so no records were broken that we know about but it's just more fun to say that way. Avery was very excited to get her Lady Bug costume on but once it was showtime she got a little shy.

But only for a second, then it was off to the races.

After we did the rounds we spent the evening on the front step handing out candy to strangers. I guess it's ok when it's the other way around. Avery made certain that everyone got a piece.

Then she danced a little in hopes that it would lure more kids to our door.

Here is Tuppy in her Bee costume. Avery asked me on Thursday if Tuppy could come with trick or treating. Obviously we said yes but we said she would need a costume so Avery suggested that she dress up like a bug. So there you have it. Tuppy as a bug.

Round about 8:30 we were all starting to wind down and get ready for bed.

But not until after one last dance!

Bare with me on this one.

The sigh at the end of this video sums it all up in less than a word.

Pumpkins!

We're all pretty big fans of pumpkins around here. Avery found a good one at Mildale's Fall Festival last weekend.

She even shook it to make sure it wasn't broken. Nobody likes a broken pumpkin...except maybe the pumpkin repair man. That's kind of a small demographic though so I don't think we'll spend too much time worrying about them.

Grandpa's visit.

So I know this is extremely outdated but you have to cut me a little slack. I've been pretty busy with school and writing papers. I know, lame excuse but it's all I got. If it's any consolation Grandpa and Avery had a really fun time together. We had a really nice visit and Avery now knows that Grandpa Gary lives in San Diegogo.

They both really liked playing with this toy.

As a matter of fact, they played so hard that Grandpa needed a quick check up when they were done...just to make sure.

Since grandpa was the last person to stay in our guest room, that bed has now been dubbed "Papo's bed". ...At least until the next person sleeps there, then it will probably get to be theirs for a while. She's very diplomatic that way.

Yes, I'm a political junkie.

If you're a political junkie like me this might be interesting for you to look at.It is a graph that shows the national trends. It collects data from ALL the polls and averages them together to give a "more accurate" picture of national trends. Does that make sense?



I am starting to grow a little tired of the whole thing but I just can't help myself. I am just really looking forward to this being over. In the mean time...Let's look at the latest polls! ;)

Yes We Can!

...and we will.

A Happy Number 2

As most of you probably know, Avery's second birthday was on Monday. It was a wonderful weekend filled with fun and relaxation that couldn't have been any better. I think Avery had fun too. What made it extra nice was that Gma Ollig was able to come for the party and stay for a nice weekend. As you can see, the two of them were best buddies this weekend.

I really cannot believe that it has been two years but I guess it's true. Or at least that's what Avery keeps telling me. I am sure from the next picture that you can guess the theme of the party. Starts with Strawberry and ends with Shortcake.

I can assure you that she read EVERY birthday card! As you can see here, that took a lot out of her. She held in there thought, afterall there was cake waiting for her upstairs.

Special Request: The Renslows requested a picture of her opening her card from them. ...there you go.

Had to put this one on here because it reminded me of a picture from her first birthday. Don't have time to look for it now but in the near future I will do a before and after for you. Kinda like Bro +1.5 does at work. I'll explain later.

Had to have a picture of the cake. She's been talkin about it for 4 weeks!

We spent the last day of Gma's visit at Deanna Rose Farmstead. A great city park with all sorts of farm animals for the kids to interact with. We had a great time.

Not sure what they were looking at but it sure was interesting.

We sure love those goats. And this one loved the metal fence.

She had to wait for her actual birthday on Monday for this present since Dad built it and I was too slow to finish it for the party on Saturday. She loved it all the same.

She also loved the bubbles she got.

The whole weekend made her so happy she made Mom dance with her in the front yard. Might as well let the whole world know how happy you are...Well, at least those people lucky enough to be driving by our house at the time.