Tonight Emma decided to play with some rocks that Beth has collected from up north. She sat on the floor to see what type of a picture she could create with the rocks.
Her creation: Rock Man!!
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Her creation: Rock Man!!
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Sunday, January 18, 2009
Winter Rock Man
Emma decided to outfit her Rock Man for Winter. She gave him a hat, put mittens on his hands, and built a miniature snowman for him to carry in a birdcage!!!
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Monday, January 12, 2009
Rock Band
Kids playing their new Rock Band game on Christmas day.
Thanks for the drums, Grandma Beverly!!!
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Thanks for the drums, Grandma Beverly!!!
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
WOW! Catching UP!
Merry Christmas to all!!
It's been some time since David or I have blogged! I guess the holidays took us away with them and we have not. really, stopped to blog. Everyone is well and we have been busy enjoying Christmas! Christmas Eve was quiet, my kids went with Brad and Paul and Gretchen were at home in Cold Spring. I was frantically finishing Christmas Day entertaining details!!! AAAAAGH! But, a nice dinner with Barb and Rich calmed things down. Emma got to open a couple of presents to warm her up for the BIG event :)
Christmas Day was full and fun! Emma was so excited to open Santa presents in the morning, then family converged for lunch! All of the kids came home and The Houston and Cameron-Enberg families embarked on our new blended family Christmas celebration. I think that all of the kids had a good time and no one got hurt...:)
Since Christmas the kids and parents have been around the Metro on various outings including HopeKids events at the Science Museum, Gameworks, and a movie (Bedtime Stories). We spent a fun day at the Minnesota Zoo, went sledding and snowman making at Valentine Hills, and shared an over-stimulating afternoon at the Mall of America :).
In the morning, we leave for Illinois to celebrate Christmas with the Nord side and have lots of time with new baby Alexis!!!
Pictures to be posted...
-posted by long winded Beth :)
It's been some time since David or I have blogged! I guess the holidays took us away with them and we have not. really, stopped to blog. Everyone is well and we have been busy enjoying Christmas! Christmas Eve was quiet, my kids went with Brad and Paul and Gretchen were at home in Cold Spring. I was frantically finishing Christmas Day entertaining details!!! AAAAAGH! But, a nice dinner with Barb and Rich calmed things down. Emma got to open a couple of presents to warm her up for the BIG event :)
Christmas Day was full and fun! Emma was so excited to open Santa presents in the morning, then family converged for lunch! All of the kids came home and The Houston and Cameron-Enberg families embarked on our new blended family Christmas celebration. I think that all of the kids had a good time and no one got hurt...:)
Since Christmas the kids and parents have been around the Metro on various outings including HopeKids events at the Science Museum, Gameworks, and a movie (Bedtime Stories). We spent a fun day at the Minnesota Zoo, went sledding and snowman making at Valentine Hills, and shared an over-stimulating afternoon at the Mall of America :).
In the morning, we leave for Illinois to celebrate Christmas with the Nord side and have lots of time with new baby Alexis!!!
Pictures to be posted...
-posted by long winded Beth :)
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Happy Birthday, Green Elephant!
One year ago, the Chatty Chatty Princess received Green Elephant as a gift on Christmas Eve.
Green Elephant has been her closest friend ever since!
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Sunday, December 14, 2008
New Photos
Some new pics are on the blog. The first is a picture and letter that Emma dictated and illustrated for Bryanna and Nick. She's very excited to meet Alexis! Emma had breakfast with Santa on saturday morning, with Barb and Rich, at the St.Paul Macy's. Santa came to visit her at her table and they had quite a long and animated conversation while Santa read her list. She came home with the snowflake on her cheek, a balloon braided candy cane, a tummy full of french toast and bacon, and the satisfaction that she got her requests known to "the big guy".
We've been decorating the Christmas trees for most of the week, off and on. The real tree is in the living room and still standing...the fake tree is upstairs and holds the really old family ornaments and really fragile ornaments. Zoe is a good helper and Braxton and Gretchen helped finish the little tree upstairs on saturday. The last pic is from Braxton's band concert last week. He never looks at me or poses for one just one good shot, but this one is ok. He wore the Santa hat all night. Now he wants his own!
We all enjoyed seeing pictures of baby Alexis! Zoe had 5 friends over on saturday for cookie baking and sleep over and they all looked at baby pictures too. Lots of "oh, she's so little and cute!"
Sister in law Jennifer and her friend Norma left on saturday morning for 3 weeks in Columbia to enjoy Christmas with Norma's family. We pray for safe travels for them. We are, however, in the throws of more unseasonably cold weather...
12 more days til Christmas...
-posted by Beth
We've been decorating the Christmas trees for most of the week, off and on. The real tree is in the living room and still standing...the fake tree is upstairs and holds the really old family ornaments and really fragile ornaments. Zoe is a good helper and Braxton and Gretchen helped finish the little tree upstairs on saturday. The last pic is from Braxton's band concert last week. He never looks at me or poses for one just one good shot, but this one is ok. He wore the Santa hat all night. Now he wants his own!
We all enjoyed seeing pictures of baby Alexis! Zoe had 5 friends over on saturday for cookie baking and sleep over and they all looked at baby pictures too. Lots of "oh, she's so little and cute!"
Sister in law Jennifer and her friend Norma left on saturday morning for 3 weeks in Columbia to enjoy Christmas with Norma's family. We pray for safe travels for them. We are, however, in the throws of more unseasonably cold weather...
12 more days til Christmas...
-posted by Beth
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
New Kid On The Block :)
Bryanna Lynn had her first baby tonite! After many hours of unsuccessful laboring, a C-section brought Alexis Kate into the world sometime around 8:15 pm. 7lbs, 70z. and 19 inches long. Mom (Bryanna) is tired but the grandparent and auntie groupies are jazzed up! Pictures posted soon...
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Playing Catch Up
Hello Everyone!
It's been awhile since I've made a blog entry, and it's my turn. Since our last entry, time has moved quickly. The holiday season is, very much,upon us! I've started the shopping, baking, decorating, and card stuffing. Zoe filled out our cards this year, David wrote the letter and put together our family photo, and I put on the stamps. :) There's just never enough time to take care of details and simply enjoy Christmas.
We chose a beautiful tree in under 3 minutes on a very cold and windy day last weekend. Even Emma ran for the warm van. We decorated the tree and enjoyed it for a couple of days before it fell over, on tuesday, while no one was at home. Braxton came home first and called Bayley home to help him push it back up against the wall. When I came home we wrestled with it for more than a half hour before we got it to stay up. It's been 3 days and it's still standing!
Braxton had his Christmas band concert on monday evening. He looked cute in a Santa hat! It was a good concert full of traditional holiday standards and even a chance for audience sing along. On wednesday, my Pre-schoolers put on their annual Christmas Chapel at Bethel's great hall. The place was packed and the pre-schoolers delivered a great show! I have been the stage manager for the past 3 years and spend the whole show running kids around back stage and shoo-ing them on and off stage when they're cued. Watching the DVD is always so funny to see all the spontaneous things that the kids do. On tuesday we attended a Christmas show at our church. Barb and Rich came along and everyone enjoyed it and the cookies at intermission!
The weekend will be spent having more Christmas fun, and finishing projects ( I hope). Zoe is having some friends over to decorate cookies and stay overnight. Some nasty snow is predicted for sunday so it will be a good day to stay inside and do Christmas stuff.
At present, we are all awaiting the birth of our newest family member! Bryanna is in the hospital laboring to have her first baby girl. I remember the day that Bryanna was born so waiting for her baby to be born seems surreal. Life is weird...
That's all for now. It's time to do some Santa work while all of the kids are out of the house. Emma is waiting for another tooth to fall out and is expecting that the Tooth Fairy and Santa will work together to bring her something special this year :).
-posted by Beth
It's been awhile since I've made a blog entry, and it's my turn. Since our last entry, time has moved quickly. The holiday season is, very much,upon us! I've started the shopping, baking, decorating, and card stuffing. Zoe filled out our cards this year, David wrote the letter and put together our family photo, and I put on the stamps. :) There's just never enough time to take care of details and simply enjoy Christmas.
We chose a beautiful tree in under 3 minutes on a very cold and windy day last weekend. Even Emma ran for the warm van. We decorated the tree and enjoyed it for a couple of days before it fell over, on tuesday, while no one was at home. Braxton came home first and called Bayley home to help him push it back up against the wall. When I came home we wrestled with it for more than a half hour before we got it to stay up. It's been 3 days and it's still standing!
Braxton had his Christmas band concert on monday evening. He looked cute in a Santa hat! It was a good concert full of traditional holiday standards and even a chance for audience sing along. On wednesday, my Pre-schoolers put on their annual Christmas Chapel at Bethel's great hall. The place was packed and the pre-schoolers delivered a great show! I have been the stage manager for the past 3 years and spend the whole show running kids around back stage and shoo-ing them on and off stage when they're cued. Watching the DVD is always so funny to see all the spontaneous things that the kids do. On tuesday we attended a Christmas show at our church. Barb and Rich came along and everyone enjoyed it and the cookies at intermission!
The weekend will be spent having more Christmas fun, and finishing projects ( I hope). Zoe is having some friends over to decorate cookies and stay overnight. Some nasty snow is predicted for sunday so it will be a good day to stay inside and do Christmas stuff.
At present, we are all awaiting the birth of our newest family member! Bryanna is in the hospital laboring to have her first baby girl. I remember the day that Bryanna was born so waiting for her baby to be born seems surreal. Life is weird...
That's all for now. It's time to do some Santa work while all of the kids are out of the house. Emma is waiting for another tooth to fall out and is expecting that the Tooth Fairy and Santa will work together to bring her something special this year :).
-posted by Beth
Monday, December 1, 2008
Going to the Holidazzle Parade
Starting on Thanksgiving, downtown Minneapolis has a "Holidazzle" parade Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings through Christmas. These parades are fun and family oriented with lots of bright lights and festive music.
The weather was warm on Saturday so we decided to take the whole circus out to see the parade. It was great!!!
+ posted by David
The weather was warm on Saturday so we decided to take the whole circus out to see the parade. It was great!!!
+ posted by David
Sunday, November 30, 2008
haha...snow=)
Here's a shoutout to Grandma Beverly and all the Illinois relatives to supposed to get 5-7 INCHES OF SNOW!!!!! We didn't even get a quarter of an inch. Be sure to call and tell Mom how much snow you actually got!
Wonderful Wicked
On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Beth and Bayley went to the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis to see "Wicked." They ordered tickets last May through the drama department at Bayley's school. This was Bayley's first time seeing "Wicked," So she was super excited to see her favorite musical on stage. During intermission, Bayley said that the show was "AMAZING!!" Her favorite song was "Defy Gravity" and Mom's favorite song was "For Good." Bayley was lucky enough to be sitting next to one of her friends, but unlucky enough to not be sitting next to Mom. It turns out that the drama department had the students sitting next to the students, and parents sitting next to the parents. But the good things from the show outweigh the bad by far. All in all, the show was...Wondeful.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thanksgiving Celebration
This year we celebrated Thanksgiving by going to David's Sister's house in Deephaven, Minnesota (a suburb to the southwest of Minneapolis about a 35-minute drive from our house).
Catherine got married this Summer and brought another blended family to the Houston Clan. Catherine's new husband is Kevin Cameron and he has three boys - Neil, Craig, and Carter.
Also invited to the festivities were David's parents - Rich & Barb - and Kevin's sister Kathy and her family. Paul & Gretchen were not with us this year, but Kathy and Tony brought their children - Kaylin & Thadeus. So all together we had nine children at our celebration: Neil, Craig, Carter, Allie, Jack, Bayley, Braxton, Zoe, Emma, Kaylin, and Thadeus.
Plenty of fun for everybody!
It was a nice early winter day - sunny and in the mid-30's. Some of the kids went ice skating on the small pond behind the house. Other children enjoyed television, video games, or ping-pong.
The food was wonderful. Catherine prepared us a fresh turkey after the defrosting accident caused the loss of the original frozen turkey and some other "incident" caused the loss of a turkey breast. Other family members filled out the feast by bringing garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. We had numerous desserts: pumpkin, apple, pecan and french-silk pies; and cookies and brownies.
After the great feast and celebration we went home and took our traditional walk through the neighborhood. The highlight was seeing the new light display in the center of the neighborhood where one man creates something new each year. It's like Christmas morning - the anticipation of seeing what the new theme will be.
This year it is a 25 foot tall pirate ship.
Way cool!!!
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!!
+ posted by David
Catherine got married this Summer and brought another blended family to the Houston Clan. Catherine's new husband is Kevin Cameron and he has three boys - Neil, Craig, and Carter.
Also invited to the festivities were David's parents - Rich & Barb - and Kevin's sister Kathy and her family. Paul & Gretchen were not with us this year, but Kathy and Tony brought their children - Kaylin & Thadeus. So all together we had nine children at our celebration: Neil, Craig, Carter, Allie, Jack, Bayley, Braxton, Zoe, Emma, Kaylin, and Thadeus.
Plenty of fun for everybody!
It was a nice early winter day - sunny and in the mid-30's. Some of the kids went ice skating on the small pond behind the house. Other children enjoyed television, video games, or ping-pong.
The food was wonderful. Catherine prepared us a fresh turkey after the defrosting accident caused the loss of the original frozen turkey and some other "incident" caused the loss of a turkey breast. Other family members filled out the feast by bringing garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. We had numerous desserts: pumpkin, apple, pecan and french-silk pies; and cookies and brownies.
After the great feast and celebration we went home and took our traditional walk through the neighborhood. The highlight was seeing the new light display in the center of the neighborhood where one man creates something new each year. It's like Christmas morning - the anticipation of seeing what the new theme will be.
This year it is a 25 foot tall pirate ship.
Way cool!!!
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!!
+ posted by David
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Bring Your Chatty Chatty Princess to Work Day
Emma has no school today and the other kids are at Brad's house. So Emma is visiting David's office today and providing entertainment for his colleagues.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Weekend Run Away
David and I were able to take some time and escape up to our favorite treks on the North Shore. We took off on friday morning and wasted no time winding our way up Hwy 61 towards Grand Marais. We, first, made s stop at Tettegouche State Park's rock beach to give me some cairn building time. It's a favorite pastime while up north:) The beach is sheltered from wind and, usually, secluded. Once in Grand Marais we had an early dinner at the Blue Water Cafe and a stroll through the Ben Franklin and the Trading Post, then we were off to check in at the Outpost Motel. Rufus and Sunny were whining to get out and run trails before we even got settled. Saturday the winds were up and a few flurries made it pretty cold hiking but some trails through sheltering woods made it feel much better. With deer hunters around, David and I had to choose hikes where they weren't. We started up Eagle Mountain, but descended when the hike got boggy and headed further north to the Canadian border to check out Pidgeon Falls. The spray made it feel more like Niagara! Beautiful though! Late afternoon moose hunting on the Gunflint trail yielded NO moose but we did come across a beautiful wolf checking us out as we checked him out (from our car). He disappeared before we could get a good photo :(.
Today, we packed up and stopped at Cascade Falls, a regular and favorite hike of ours. The falls were running fast and ice has begun to form on the trees and pathways. We, also, hiked a short path through Gooseberry Falls State Park. The lake side paths were open but the inland paths were closed to hikers but open to hunters. We walked down to the Superior shoreline and checked out the "agate beach". Since neither one of us knew what an agate looked like we didn't find any. A nice hike though and another chance for the dogs to stretch their legs off leash before putting them back into the car for the ride home.
Kids at home jockeyed between Brad's house, my house, and church. Bayley went to see the Rockettes in Minneapolis with her GS troop. She loved the show! Who wouldn't love the Zeigfield- like toe kicking Rockettes?! Brad took the 3 kids to see "Madagascar 2", also. Emma spent the weekend with Barb and Rich. They went to see Madagascar 2, as well, and Emma attended a b-day party for an old pre-school friend on sunday. A busy weekend for all!!
a P.S. update on Braxton...we saw the ortho doc, last week, and Braxton has finally gotten the all clear to lift weights and start conditioning for spring sports. YEAH!!!
-posted by Beth
Today, we packed up and stopped at Cascade Falls, a regular and favorite hike of ours. The falls were running fast and ice has begun to form on the trees and pathways. We, also, hiked a short path through Gooseberry Falls State Park. The lake side paths were open but the inland paths were closed to hikers but open to hunters. We walked down to the Superior shoreline and checked out the "agate beach". Since neither one of us knew what an agate looked like we didn't find any. A nice hike though and another chance for the dogs to stretch their legs off leash before putting them back into the car for the ride home.
Kids at home jockeyed between Brad's house, my house, and church. Bayley went to see the Rockettes in Minneapolis with her GS troop. She loved the show! Who wouldn't love the Zeigfield- like toe kicking Rockettes?! Brad took the 3 kids to see "Madagascar 2", also. Emma spent the weekend with Barb and Rich. They went to see Madagascar 2, as well, and Emma attended a b-day party for an old pre-school friend on sunday. A busy weekend for all!!
a P.S. update on Braxton...we saw the ortho doc, last week, and Braxton has finally gotten the all clear to lift weights and start conditioning for spring sports. YEAH!!!
-posted by Beth
Catching Up
Sorry all ... we've gotten a little behind with posting.
Here are some pictures of recent events: (i) the kids in a corn field at the local apple orchard, (ii) some pictures from the baby shower weekend at Auntie Pam's, and (iii) Halloween costumes.
Enjoy!!
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Here are some pictures of recent events: (i) the kids in a corn field at the local apple orchard, (ii) some pictures from the baby shower weekend at Auntie Pam's, and (iii) Halloween costumes.
Enjoy!!
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