valentine banquet '10

dan and i went to the loveliest valentine banquet at Deerwood Baptist Church again this year. romantic ambiance, delicious food, precious friends, beautiful music, and hilarious entertainment. i look forward to it for weeks before! sigh, and now it's over.:) but, spring will be here soon. the meal was catered by Maucieri's. there were appetizers and desserts, too, made by jen and served by young tweens and teens from the church. arnie played the harp and sarah b. played her cello. devon did a hilarious "ole and lena go to the opera show" poem he composed for the occasion, with arnie on harp accompaniment. then jen sang a beautiful song. then arnie and devon played a "classical piano" number.:) arnie was dressed as his character "julio", a mexican who likes soup -- specifically lizard soup his mama makes for him. crazy! anyway, it was absolutely wonderful and i can't wait to see what jen will do next year!!!

Christmas '09 at angie's, or...i can't fit in my pants anymore

dad, mom, jack and i took a little roadtrip to be with angie and family for their first Christmas in Minot, North Dakota. it was such a blessing to be able to have the time available to do it! 5 days of fun fun fun!:)

the road trip could have been more fun. did not see a single culver's, starbucks, or caribou coffee from baxter to minot (we didn't go through bemidji, mn. there may have been signs of civilization there!). i was dying for a coffee on the way out and did find a very nice mom-n-pop joint in devils lake, no dak. on the way back it was sunday and it was closed. well, Praise the Lord and boo hoo!:) oh, and did i mention jack's blow out diaper? and the burger king that didn't have a changing table? not fun.

Christmas at angie's was fun. we had to open gifts the first night because the kids were wound up out of their minds and we were going out of ours.:) jack was as excited as predicted about his "d-tar" from auntie angie and uncle matt. jack loves to play his guitar and make up songs. the girls seemed very pleased with the headbands, and doll hats and scarves i knit them.

the Christmas food was our usual feast of naughtiness: swedish tea rings galore, huge taco dip, egg bake, homemade pancakes, french dip sandwiches...where's the veggies?! who cares?!:) ha ha! i think there were a few eaten in the five days. and some fruit. oh, and i am sure there were some diced veggies in the food the night we went out for chinese. i am sure that counted. anyway... Merry Christmas it was!

another church photo

i love taking photos of jack with my parents in church. it's very nice. this day they all color coordinated so lovely that i couldn't resist! jack prefers sitting with them anyway. mostly because papa has a tootsie roll (or five) in his pocket for him.:)

buddies

well, here's jack's favorite buddy. papa dan! papa came over to visit the other day. jack immediately took him by the hand and led him to his bedroom. then he got behind papa and pushed papa's behind right through the door.:) then he shut the door. after a bit i heard them playing "rock 'em sock 'em robots" and had to get a photo.

"mus mash"

jack calls these a "mus mash". he takes a drink from his cup and laughs saying he has a "mus mash like papa!". :) this mus mash was made out of homemade kool-aid play-doh.

my tomatoes

no more tomatoes in my garden. getting down to the last of the tomatoes ripening in the window sill. i cooked up all the red ones yesterday and put green ones in their place. dan sez, "...weren't these tomatoes red?...". ha ha! like the green ones turned red and then back to green.:) i was amused. he was confused!

birthday lunch

the day before my bday my parents took jack and i out for chinese food. jack loved it. especially the chinese doughnut. ?

bananas at ten paces

jack loves to put his boots on. he also loves hats and gloves. i don't usually let jack run around in his diaper, but he was really hot and i was letting him cool down. then he wanted a banana. is he cute, or WHAT?!!! and somehow this photo reminds me of my father.

speaking of my father, one of my favorite quotes from him is, "oh look, a weiner.". dad was sitting next to the grill. he just happened to lift the lid and noticed that there was one hot dog left from dinner. he promptly grabbed and ate said weiner. classic.

papa dan

papa dan just dropped in for a visit. jack loves him. jack played with papa's hat and papa read some seseme street books to jack. it's really cool watching my dad be a grandpa to my own child.

papa babysits

my dad babysat jack all alone on saturday for a few hours. i have to say, i think that was a first for him. dad has 5 grandkids. jack and dad are buddies. when mom and i arrived back at my parent's house we were met at the end of the driveway by dad and jack. jack was all bundled and dad was pulling him in a sled. jack had a huge smile on his face and he was saying, "whee!".

potter family... 80's style

i found this family photo over at my gram's house. i am taking precious family photos that i discovered were in a 4-drawer dresser next to the TOILET in my gramp's bathroom, and putting them in an album. this photo was taken in front of our tiny little first home. i am on the left. my sis and i are wearing "member's only" jackets, i think. you probably can't tell, but there are pin stripes on my jeans, and i am wearing kilty tasseled loafers!!! ha ha! but they do not have taps. (pcc inside joke)

Church photo album

i borrowed 3 photo albums from the Church library.

i wanted to scan the photos. i just love modern technology. here we have a photo of me in braids in sunday school. i'm the kid at the top. i think the other girl might be amy hallda. we also have a classy black/white

photo of a beautiful chandelier... and my greasy dad!:) wow. 1979.

another fantastic day

i have to say, i am pretty contented with the life i lead. it is, in fact, fantastic. today was another blessed day taking care of jack. he really amused me today by getting excited watching "the price is right". little arms were flapping away with happiness. so, i let him watch a bit. at one point he laughed at the tv. he has such a sense of humor. he laughs all the time.

tonight my husband is out-of-town. my mom & dad took pity on me and invited me out to dinner with my grandparents. we went to applebee's... with the baby. duh-duh-duh-DUM... and he was PERFECT! we put him in the high chair there for the first time. he was content playing with his toys. you just have to keep the utensils and water glasses far away.:) after a bit my dad held him, then my mom, then my gramps. we all were entertained watching him.

when the food came i put him back in his chair. God is so good. somehow when they were plating my cheeseburger, 3 penne pasta noodles fell on my plate. i chopped them finely and fed them to jack while we ate. gramps gave him one of his broccoli. when dessert came jack was not left out. he had his first huge mouthfulls of whipped cream. and then some of my dad's hot fudge. then some of my mom's ice cream. it was so much fun. jack has not met a food substance he doesn't like. he even knawed on my pickle (he liked it) and my lemon slice for my water (he loved it!).

jack's first mall santa

i took jack to get his photo taken with a "real" santa saturday. we were there 30 minutes early, so i did a little shopping at bath and body works first. ho ho ho. when i got back there still wasn't a line. i was the first, and only one in line when santa showed up. weird. jack was a doll and the photo turned out nice. i get it next saturday. i bought a 5x7 and a bunch of buttons and keychains for Christmas gifts.

here is a cute photo of my dad on santa's lap when he was a little boy.

nole's birthday and a visit to the orchard

nov. 2 was my mom and my niece enolea's birthday. nole turned 2. jack and i took a road trip with my parent's in their van to go visit my sister and her fam.

note: jack was once again a fabulous traveler. no diaper blow-outs or leakage. he took a nap most of the 3 1/2 hour trip and went about 5 hours without a feeding. then, when he was fed, he nonchalantly took a bottle from my dad whilst strapped in his carseat. what a treasure.

it was a typical visit to my sister's. the kids fought to the death over toys, stripped naked, danced around (dare i say "like indians"?) knocking into furniture and each other, and made enough noise to wake the dead.:) but, they are still sweethearts. eme asked to hold "baby jacky" about 4 times i believe. nole made funny faces for jack. ele gave me a big hug unasked for. and that's why i subject myself to visiting them.

on saturday, after eme's gymnastics class, we went to an apple orchard in northfield, mn. it was absolutely everything an orchard should be. even small children can pick apples from the short, plump trees. in a little building there are apple and mn tourist-y foodstuff to buy. i bought 1 dozen hot-off-the-oil sugared apple doughnuts and a carmel apple with fudge. we all wandered out again to where there was a small manmade river and pond among the trees. we sat on wooden benches and ate apple doughnuts and watched the naughty children throw apple cores into the water while seeing how close they could get to the water before my dad and i blew a fuse. :) before we could, in slips ele's foot. oh well, back to the car. on the way i noticed that the rose bushes were still in bloom.

(photo of nole this summer at a park)

baby dad

this is a photo of my father as a baby. isn't he adorable? footy pajamas!!!