Santa!

Last weekend, Daniel and Andie's school had a special visitor, SANTA!!!! We all went in on Saturday morning to see him, have a little breakfast, and make some Christmas tree ornaments.

Here is Daniel working on a penguin ornament

And the Man himself! This was the best picture of all of the ones taken between our camera and one of the school teachers.

After lunch, Nate had some work to do in the garage, and with a little more help from Neighbor Tom, got all the doors on and adjusted. Don't they look beautiful?? Now, to figure out where to put everything. Nate says he's going to be so organized now, that he's not going to be able to find anything.

Lastly, a pic taken this morning of the kids sitting together on the step with their morning cereal snack, getting ready to head out for school. It's not very often that we get a photo op of the two of them sitting nicely together, and smiling.

Winter Wonderland Weekend

We had our first big snow of the season this weekend. We went to bed with grass, and woke up to find this.

Daniel was very excited when we opened the curtains and he saw the snow. He couldn't wait to get out there and play in it.

So, he and Jen headed out after breakfast for a little fun, while Nate and Andrea watched from the warm kitchen windows

The snow was wet and sticky and PERFECT for building a giant snowman.

The rest of the weekend, Nate had a major project lined up with neighbor Tom. He's been talking about and planning for building some garage cabinets in order to try to organize a little bit out there. Nate came up with the plans, took some measurements, and Tom went to work with his CAD software drawing up the plans. They started with 18 sheets of particle board and a bunch of pine for face-frame material, and went to work.

This is how I had everything "organized" before we started.

Nate and Tom got all the parts machined in Tom's garage Saturday, and then Nate started assembling the boxes Saturday evening back in his garage. Sunday, Tom and Doug came over to help installing everything.

And, here's where we ended up so far. Next, I have a bunch of holes to drill for the adjustable shelf pegs, and we need to finish drilling out the hinge holes for the doors. Lastly, a little paint, and it'll be all done.

Vegas Baby!

Last week (Nov 4th - 7th) Jen and two of her friends took a much needed and much deserved extended weekend vacation to Las Vegas. Nate was all geared up and ready to be the single dad for four days, but his excitement began to melt away as the kids started getting sick the days prior to Jen's departure. Andrea had her first experience of throwing up, and did so for about 4-5 hours one night. Then Daniel started up early the next morning. The kids were feeling better after about 24 hours, and Nate was calm once again. until.... Jen got the bug in while in Vegas and had to retreat to her hotel room for about 18 hours, and Nate got it about 4 hours later. Fortunately, Nate's mom came to the rescue, as he was unable to fulfill his fatherly duties with his head buried in the toilet.

The bug was pretty quick, and everyone felt great after about 24 hours, so Jen's trip wasn't a total bummer, but she sure could have used the extra day.

They visited M&M land, and this sign is made from 100% M&Ms

Jen ran into Woody and Buzz from Toy Story and just had to get her picture with them for Daniel.

Lots of beautiful themed hotels

Here's Jen, Sara, and Gretta at Toby Kieth's, drinkn' beer from a mason jar

Halloween Time

At Daniel and Andrea's school, the week before Halloween was full of fun. One day was 'backwards day', they had pajama day, crazy hair day, and of course, a costume party day. Here's a picture of the kids on crazy hair day.
And a picture of Danie's class lining up for the big parade. He's the Spiderman behind Scooby Doo.

We tried to get a good picture of the two of them in their costumes, but Andie wanted nothing of it.
Here are the pumpkins we carved this year

On Saturday, for the second time in as many years, one of our neighbors had a Halloween gathering. There was lots of great hours devours, and the kids had a fun time playing in their costumes.
Then came Trick or Treating!!! Daniel was very excited this year. Check out the muscles on that kid!!

Andie and I came out for a few doors, then we headed back in to man the candy bowl for all the other neighbor kids, while Daniel and Jen grouped up with some of Daniel's neighbor friends.

Daniel telling a very animated story while his 'girl friends' listened intently

They found some really spooky decorations at some houses in the neighborhood, but they sure didn't scare Spidey!

When they were all done, Daniel had the biggest haul of candy he's ever seen

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy 30th Birthday Jen!!!!

Well, it happens to the best of us... and on Oct 28th, it was Jen's turn. That's right, she turned 30!!! Daniel was a big help in shopping for presents this year. Mom said she wanted a new wallet, so Daniel picked out this sweet new 'Wonder Woman' one.
Andrea got her a new tumbler cup with a big straw so Jen can take her home-made smoothies with her to work in the mornings.

And Nate got her a new watch and some new perfume from Vicki's

Happy Birthday Honey, I hope the next 30 are even better than the first!

Jen's Cake Skills

Jen decided this past year that she want's to be the "cool cake" person in our ring of family and friends. Well, this is one of her latest cakes, which was created for Andie's birthday party with the Quist side. The birthday was a monkey theme (explaining the monkey in the picture)


And like the rest of the cakes that were made for Andie's other parties, this one ended up like this....

Fall Pictures

Fall makes for such a beautiful time to take outdoor pictures. We had a stretch of beautiful weather lately, and we were all able to enjoy the few remaining warm days. We took a whole bunch of pictures one afternoon with the intent of printing a bunch off for family. Below are a few of our favorites.