Happy 13th Birthday Nate!

It's official ~ we now have a teenager in the house!

Not to embarrass him too much, but he is a great kid growing up into a great man.  He has always shown great empathy for others and still does.  He's a lot like his dad in that way - very kind hearted.   He's also as tall as mom now and has size 11 feet - Wow!  He still loves to read ~ in that he's a lot like his mom.  I was an avid reader starting in childhood and can still be found with a book in my hand most evenings.  

For Nate's birthday I took him and a friend to see Avatar in 3D (notice the glasses).  We all really enjoyed the movie, the special effects are as amazing as they say.  We had some great conversations afterwards about things that came up in the movie and I was once again amazed at the mature conversations I'm able to have with Nate.  We just have this great connection and can talk about stuff - from serious stuff to fun stuff.  I truly enjoy spending time with him and am very proud of the person he's becoming.
               I love you Nate :-) Mom

Edina JV Invitational Swim Meet

Nate had a swim meet during the Christmas break. He swims for Anoka High School on the JV team. The team includes 7th - 12th graders. This is his first year and he seems to be a natural and is really enjoying himself despite the 6 days a week of practice. Their are about 60 boys on the combined Varsity and JV and the older boys do a great job of mentoring the newbies. At this meet Nate swam in 4 events: 50 yard freestyle, 50 yard breaststroke, 100 yd freestyle and 100 yard breaststroke. The best event for him (that we saw) was the 50 yard breaststroke - he placed 3rd in his heat and was the only 7th grader swimming in the heat!

New Year's Eve

We had a couple of families over for New Year's Eve and all the little girls decided to be princesses.  They made good use of the dress up clothes that Natalie's cousin Elizabeth gave her.  This was a momentous occasion because up until now, Natalie has not wanted to dress up at all.

Mall of America

As many times as my mom has been here to visit us, she's never seen the Mall of America. Well, we took care of that this visit ~ the girls went to MOA for a day of fun ~ the boys had absolutely no interest in joining us! I "watch" Sarah's best friend Abby so she came along with us. Sarah, Abby and Natalie enjoyed a few rides and Natalie decided to use her Christmas money to buy an American Girl doll. She picked out the Bitty Twin that looks just like her and named her Gracie. She has been sleeping with her ever since!

Christmas morning 2009

This was the year that Natalie really got into Christmas!   She came downstairs and was so excited to see that Santa had brought her what she asked for....a BIKE!  Nate and Sarah also got what they wanted ~ a bike for Nate and a DS for Sarah.  This is a small sample of the many pictures we took that day....we were blessed once again this year with a wonderful Christmas and family to share it with ~  Merry CHRISTmas!

Christmas Eve

Our tradition every year is to attend mass on Christmas Eve. This year Kim and Sarah sang in the choir and Nate accompanied the children's choir on his violin for their song "Lullaby to Jesus". We were very happy to have Nana and Papa join us this year from Ohio.

Christmas Eve sledding

We started off Christmas Eve with a little sledding in the morning. We had gotten quite a bit of snow for a couple of days before so it was time to pack it down and make some sled runs! It started with Steve, Kim, Nana, Papa and all the kids, but Nate and Sarah ended up going to a neighbor's house before we got our runs finished.....we didn't let that stop us. As you can see from the pictures, Steve, Mom, Dad & I had a ton of fun sledding with Natalie (and without :-) )!

Macy's 8th Floor Santaland

Dec. 23rd we went to downtown Minneapolis for a visit to Macy's Santaland exhibit: A Day in the Life of an Elf. This was the 47th year for the holiday display. This year's show tells the story of two young elves and all that happens at the North Pole as they prepare for Christmas. Natalie wasn't sure about all the moving displays, but the rest of us really enjoyed it. It was amazing the level of detail that was in all the displays. The girls even got to meet Mrs. Claus! At the end of the exhibit the girls were able to write a letter to Santa and drop it in the mailbox. It was fun having Mom and Dad here from Ohio to join us and Sarah's friend Abby came along too!

5th Grade Wax Museum

Sarah participated in the wax museum at Ramsey Elementary on Dec. 22nd.  She chose to be Narcissa Prentess Whitman - the first white woman to travel the Oregon Trail.  Sarah had to research her historical figure, create a presentation, come up with a costume, and "perform" at the wax museum.   She spent a lot of time reading about Narcissa Whitman and created a fantastic powerpoint presentation about her.  She also had a 2 minute speech that she gave during the wax museum whenever anyone pushed her "start button".  

A visit to the ranch

Our good friends Wayne and Vivian Jeffrey took Nate and Sarah out to their friend's "ranch" one Sunday after church. Artie is an avid hunter and has many exotic trophy mounts that the kids enjoyed seeing. Some of them scared Sarah a little and Nate was awed enough to forget to take any pictures of them! Artie and Pat also have a barn full of horses, goats and a few cats. They also have a dog that Sarah really enjoyed. As you can see from the pictures they had a great time touring the barn!