Girl Time

Annika and I went to "Paint a Pot" today for some "girl time". She had a ball, and so did Mommy! We have to wait until next week to be able to pick the items up. I'll post a pic of the finished product when we get them back.

Our Little "table dancer"

For some reason, Jonas loves to get on this table at our rental house, and dance. Luckily he's VERY light!

Madison

My niece, Madison Elizabeth, 4 months old

My little helper...

I spent Christmas morning cleaning the house. Jonas decided to help me swiffer!

More Christmas pics..

Oma and Papa got the 3 "big" grandkids these adorable chairs. Jonas really preferred the pink ones!! Mommy and Daddy got Jonas and Annika "Elmo Live" for Christmas. He is a huge hit. Annika and Jonas were fighting over him. Too bad he's already broken!!! (He's being exchanged.) Jonas loves his babycousin, Madison!

The gifts...

Oma and Papa's House on Christmas Day. Couldn't fit ALL the presents in the picture!

We are all so spoiled!

Jonas was reading his "Cars" book from Grandma Lil and Grandpa Denny.

He LOVES that movie!

Jonas playing with cars from Gma Lil and Gpa Denny. It was a car/truck Christmas for him. SO stereotypical boy!

After.....

Before.....

Christmas 2008

Well, we started a new family tradition....bowling on Christmas Eve! Since we weren't able to go to Grand Blanc, we decided to go bowling. The kids were a little stir crazy from being stuck in the house for almost a week because of the snow. It was a lot of fun. We went to my parents in Grand Rapids on Christmas Day and spent the afternoon/evening with them and my sister's family. There was a lot of noise and chaos (mostly because of my children) but it was so much fun!! Check out the pics!

and the weather forecast is SNOW!

Yup, still snowing....

I heard that so far in December, it has snowed EVERY DAY except 4! We're getting close to 36 inches since Friday morning! Now it's getting a little annoying. We were supposed to drive to Grand Blanc for Christmas Eve with my Mom's side of the family. BUT, we won't be going now because of all the snow! What a bummer. I was SO looking forward to that!

More Snow!

We're getting hammered with even more snow. I think we've probably gotten close to 24 inches in the last 48 hours. We've got a blizzard warning for our county because of the wind gusts and the fact that the snow is SO light and powdery, it's taking visibility down to near zero at times. There was a horrible 30 car pile up about 30 miles south of us, and another 7 car pile up about 10 miles East, on the interstate. We've been "hunkered" down, but we did get out and play in the snow for a little while this afternoon. We started treking down to the end of our road to go down to the beach with our snow shoes. But, we got about 250 yards down the road and the wind was so brutal, that we turned around and decided to just play in our yard! We're supposed to get a break tomorrow, but another snow storm is heading our way on Tuesday! I was excited about the snow, but enough is enough!

Snow Day!!

Earlier this week, I was telling someone that I wanted one big snow "dump", where everything shuts down. Well, be careful what you wish for. We got it!! We got 13 inches in about 9 hours, starting at 4:00 am on Friday morning. Over 270 schools in Western MI were closed, and we closed our office for the day. I have to admit that it was really fun to be "forced" to stay inside and be together. Makes you remember what's important. We had a family movie marathon. I hadn't seen this much snow since I was a kid growing up in SE Michigan. We're supposed to get up to another 12 inches starting tonight, and over the next 36 hours. Jonas had fun for about 15 minutes while Daddy was shoveling! Let it snow!

Christmas Program

Annika was in our Christmas Program at church today. She was an "angel". See her in black on the second riser, right end. She did great, but fell off the risers at one point!

Cousins!

The kids and I went to the mall yesterday with my Mom, sister and her family. We saw Santa, but also did some other fun things. Check out this cute pic of Jonas and Mackenzie in the "police car".

There was also an indoor skate park in the mall. The kids loved watching the skaters!

Christmas Cookies

We baked Christmas cookies tonight. Perry was adamant that we undertake this holiday tradition. He's good like that. We had a lot of fun. You can see by the flower on the kids' faces that it was a hit!!

The Christmas Train

Here's Perry and the kids on "The Christmas Train". They went with my parents and my niece Mackenzie last weekend when I was in Milwaukee. The train is on a closed track that lasts about 90 minutes. Santa was on the train as well as a "princess" that read the kids stories. I asked Perry how it was and he said, "Long". :)

Girls' Weekend!

I spent last weekend with two of my very best friends in the world, Julia and Stephanie. We had not been together since October, 2005. I drove up to Milwaukee for Stephanie's baby shower and Julia flew in from Montgomery, AL for the weekend. We had such a great time! I miss them so much. Perry was so wonderful to take the kids for the weekend and let me do this. Annika did spend Friday night with Oma and Papa, which was a special treat for her. Then they took Annika and Mackenzie to the "Christmas Train" in a nearby town. Perry also met them there on Saturday with Jonas. Sounds like they had lots of fun. I'll post the pictures as soon as I can. For now, you can see some pics from our weekend by clicking on the following link to shutterfly. We had so much fun and Steph's family is so welcoming and warm, and hilarious. I can't wait to go back sometime in March or April, after her baby is born! I love my ya ya's!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AYsXLNi5ZtGTiY&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5&cid=EMsharshar

The Rental House

Here's a couple of pics of our rental house. It's actually quite comfortable and cozy. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, about 1300 sq. feet. All of our stuff is in storage about 40 miles away. It's interesting what you can live without!! We're having fun looking at open houses on the weekends. Know anyone who wants to buy a great house in Missoula???

The Beach

Here's a couple of pics of us on the beach our first day in Holland. The sunsets are amazing. Almost as good as Montana during fire season!!

Annika's First Pheasant

Here's Annika holding her first pheasant!! (She didn't shoot it!) She was quite fascinated by it. That's her cousin Travis in the background. We had a great visit to the Pearson family farm on our move out from MT to MI. It's always one of our favorite places to go.

Crazy Bounce

Here's a great place to get the "wiggles" out! It's called "Crazy Bounce" and is a huge warehouse sizedspaced with tons of giant inflatable slides and play structures. the kids loved it!! For perspective, that's Annika in the foreground in the blue shirt in the pic with the gator. Great wintertime fun!

Halloween

Here's some belated Halloween pics. Annika was Hannah Montana and Jonas was a pumpkin. We went trick or treating with Aunt Christy and Oma and Mackenzie. Such fun! Jonas kept trying to go up to the same houses over and over. So funny!

Holiday Family Photos

We took the opportunity on Thanksgiving Day to take some holiday photos. These are of my parents, my sis (Christy), her husband (Tim) and their daughters Mackenzie (16 mos.) and Madison (3 mos.). I can't remember the last time that we were all together on a holiday!! We also wanted to tak one of Oma and Papa with the grandkids. You've got to love kids!

Settling In

Well, it's been a lot longer than I'd planned since my last post! However, we've been very busy settling in to our new home in Holland, MI. We've gotten to see a lot of Oma, Papa, Aunt Christy, and her family. That's been so nice! I've gotten together with my mom twice to go to holiday craft shows and of course, we were all together for Thanksgiving, which was so fabulous. It's only 45 minutes from our front door to my parents' or sisters' front door. That's a little strange! I haven't lived this close to my family since I was in high school!!

We're settling in to our rental house quite well. It's a cozy place, right on Lake Michigan's lakeshore. We only have to walk about 1/4 mile to the end of our road and we're on the beach! I've attached some pics. It's absolutely beautiful. Perry enjoys walking the dogs down on the beach daily. There are also great bike trails all along the lakeshore area. Annika started her new new pre-school at Learning Tree Montessori the week after we got here. She loves it and is learning to read! She has also started ice skating lessons. She was moved up into the next class 10 minutes after she got on the ice! Not bad for never having been on skates before!! (Yes, I'm a proud mama.) She absolutely loves it and doesn't want to get off the ice at the end of her lesson. Jonas has transitioned very well. He doesn't seem to know the difference! That makes me a little sad because I would have like him to be able to remember Montana. Annika definitely remembers and asks often when we will be able to go back to Montana for a visit!

My job is going very well. I'm enjoying the staff and the physicians and a little less stress at work. There are still many challenges and lots to do!

Perry is getting to know the area and the fun things for kids to do. He's been to both local libraries, been to a great indoor play area with giant inflatable slides and play structures and last night we went to the indoor water park. We've also been to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum with my sister and her daughter, which is huge!

Anyway, better go. Hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!

Moving to Michigan!

Well, we've finally arrived! After a 15 hour drive yesterday, we are in Michigan! Our odyssey to Holland, MI from Missoula, MT started over a week ago when we left MT on October 11th. We had wanted to get out of town in the morning, but there was more work to be done on the house than we expected, so didn't leave until 3:30 pm. We were hoping to get at least to Billings before stopping for the night but then got stock in Bozemen in a snow storm!! You've got to love Montana!! Anyway, we eventually made it to the Pearson farm in Salem, South Dakota, where we spent a great week with Perry's family. All five of the Pearson boys were home for opening day of pheasant hunting season!! Now we are here in Michigan to begin the next chapter of our life. We're very excited to be so close to Oma and Papa and to Christy, Tim, Mackenzie and Madison as well as LOTS of extended family!

I thought that this blog would be a great way for our friends in Montana and everywhere else to keep up with us!! We will miss Montana so much. My love to my other family at Missoula Bone and Joint!