The nursery in waiting.

Well as some of you know - we are expecting our first child. I am currently 26 weeks pregnant and realizing how fast things are going already. We are not finding out the sex of the baby so gender neutral is our theme :) I started painting the nursery and getting things slightly more organized and below are some pictures of the progress.






Here are my little helpers...Well, Maggie (the dog) is just plain bored out of her skull since she can't play while I am painting. And well, Abby (the cat) seems to compete for ladder time and enjoys playing with the plastic drop cloth.


Below are pictures of somewhat of the finished project. Still trying to decide final layout of the room but we have a little time for that.

Kitchen floor redo

Slowly but surely we are working on making some updates to the house. One of our quick and inexpensive fixes was a face lift to the kitchen floor from the cracked mud tinged off white linoleum that was previously laid (should we also note, it was laid on top of an even more hideous display of linoleum). This is before:




This is in the process of our project. Matt deserves all the credit for the hard work of ripping up 2 layers of linoleum and further more doing all the intricate cuts for the corners and for laying all new quarter round.


Maggie can't seem to keep her eyes open for any picture. She tried to be involved which only made mom and dad angry as she tracked sealant and putty all over the floor.
Below- are pictures of the nearly finished project. We have since finished the painting and edging and can move on to the next project.

It seemed a little later in the season than we expected to see snow- but for those of us from the midwest it was a welcomed surprise. It was our biggest snow this season with about 4-6 inches at our house- which for some of you is considered only a dusting. But for Charlotte, it came with power outages and days of school closings. Below are some pictures of our house and property in the snow.









We are now looking forward to spring and having some nice weather to enjoy camping, hiking and other outdoor activities.

Christmas Journey 2008

On December 23rd, Matt and I embarked on our long Christmas journey to Missouri and Texas with our dog Maggie. As you can see- just thinking of the trip made her tired but visiting with the friends and family was well worth it.

Maggie traveled extremely well. She had quite the nice bed in the back seat of the truck and we stopped every few hours to stretch our legs.

Missouri was our first stop where we stayed in Steelville, MO at my parents house. On Christmas day, the entire family comes together at their house for lunch and to open presents. Below are some pictures of the day of activities.

Above- Heidi helps Avis (her beautiful adopted daughter from Guatemala), Jordan and Cameron open their gifts.
Jordan (Wendy's daughter) playing with some "goo" !
You always have to steal a picture of Cameron (Wendy's son) smiling.

Snuck another picture : )

The nieces and nephews keep us laughing and feeling like kids again!

Avis trying on her new princess outfit while Cameron looks on.


Jackson (Dana's son), Cameron and jordan found their own source of entertainment...




Matt was the resident jungle gym for all the kids.

The farm is filled with fun activities such as horseback riding- - -



tractor riding-
blowing up pumpkins with shot guns and fireworks- (Robin and Dana below)

And collecting and chopping wood for heating the home in the wintertime.

Papa prides himself on building the perfect cord. And it all starts with the process demonstrated below. The wood is chain sawed into 20" sections that are measured using markers on the chain saw.

It is then transported back to the farm in the bed of the truck where the wood is unloaded
Split - and


Stacked into the perfect cord!

After lots of hard work at the farm- we made our way to TX. Matt knew the perfect way to sleep despite the rain or sun!


And well- then so does Maggie. She really knew how to ham it up!

In Texas we were welcomed by relatives who also made the journey from Minnesota. We sat around a great bonfire and caught up on the past year.



Above- Annie was the "roasted pig" that was tortured by her brother (right) and cousin.




Cousins Diana and Caryn- and Maggie!


On our way home- we stopped at the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, TX to visit 2 cheetahs that I hand raised and transported there a few years ago. It my first time back to see them. I wish I could say they remembered me but I think the thought of their impending breakfast took over any memory of their "mother".
Tambo is seen below: He suffered from feline herpes that affected his eyes quite drastically. He had surgery that made a huge improvement- but still leaves them looking slightly abnormal.

Despite them not remembering me - it was fantastic to visit them and see their new place that they have made home.

Covering 2,912 miles and driving through 12 states- Our trip was wonderful...it was exactly what we needed to rejuvenate and relax.