Christmas day events

Since this was to be the first Christmas that Judy and I would be alone, Kirstin had pity on us and invited us over to her house again for Christmas morning, so that we could watch the excitement the boys would have opening their presents from Santa. Logan is very excited in this next picture. Liam is passing out the gifts; oh they are their own.

Oh, great. I got the Galactic Heroes. I am greatly excited and pleased with this gift and my expression does not begin to show it. Hey, my brother got one to and he is just as happy.

Hey, Liam, look at this collection of books I have! I like books.

I can read them also. Well, actually, Grandpa read them to me.

Yeah, but look at this. It is a coloring book. I can make these pages beautiful.

These new wooden chairs from Grandma and Grandpa Larsen are nifty. We each have our own. They both look the same so we won't really know which one is ours and we will not have to fight over them.

Then after opening our presents and getting all sweaty, it was time to clean up in the bathtub. We like baths and usually have a lot of fun splashing in the water, despite the looks on our faces.

See, I am sitting in Logan's chair and I left mine for him. And he is not beating me up over it.

Logan is playing with the new collection of Galactic Heroes. They are really cool.

I also like my puzzles.

This is just one of my most unusual, out of the blue, faces. Nobody ever gets the picture they really want. I try to throw them off a bit. It is working.

Liam is laughing at the funny face that Logan just made.

You aren't the only one who likes puzzles. I have my own.

Thanks Kirstin and Jeff for letting us chair Christmas with you. (I have already been to Menards).

Christmas Eve at Smenteks

Judy, myself and the Barnharts, along with Jeff's mom , dad and Jed all showed up at Kirstin and Jeff's house to spend Christmas Eve with some family. We had a good time talking and eating. We had a little orphan girl (Gretchen) show up, as evident below. Logan was there at his Star Wars table

And then his brother Liam. He had kind of a puzzled look on his face. Maybe he wants the chair his brother is is sitting in.

Gretchen and Lorelei really enjoyed their cousin's musical chair.

Joseph was busy playing with the Logan bucket 0' toys.

And just so there isn't any fighting over the new PJ's, their names are neatly engraved on their behinds. This one belongs to Liam.

And this one belongs to Logan.

It is always fun to be at the Smenteks for Christmas Eve. We will be there next year also.

Big Day in Big Lake for Andrew

Early in December, Andrew took part in the 7th grade band concert at the Big Lake High School. Andrew is 1st chair in the trumpet section, which says that he has practiced enough to be in that spot. Every time I hear a trumpet on the radio, I think of Andrew in the band. Maybe he is the next Louis Satchmo Armstrong or Al Hurt. He was doing a very good job of holding his trumpet up above the music stand so we could hear really well. The concert was really a good concert with eleven Christmas/winter songs. Way to go Andrew. During the last song, all the Santa hats came out and Andrew never took it off. Here he is with brother Brandon.

Halloween Time

I know that Halloween was last week and I am not as quick as others in posting photos. But here are some of them. There were some scary animals, one of them was Tiger Zoey. Then we had Lion Liam doing his best lion growl.
Taking up the rear was Puppy Logan. He did have his sad puppy dog face on.
Then we have the gallant Sir Joseph, who protected all the trick or treaters.

We had the pleasure of having Princess Lorelei Belle with us on our rounds to the neighbors doors.
Somehow the young Vietnamese Gretchen join us.
During the night, the princess found a little puppy and wanted to take him home.

A Great DAy At The Park

On Saturday, Kirstin and Jeff's anniversary, we had Logan and Liam all afternoon. We decided to take them to the park to play. During the walk to the park, Liam decided that he was very tired and tried to fall asleep, while Logan was busy looking around. Well, we eventually got to the park (Earle Brown School play ground) after stopping at some friends to keep Liam awake. They saw the slides and thought it would be great fun to walk up. They tried to walk up and made it only a foot. So we helped them. Then they thought they should come down. But Liam decided that he wanted to go to school and tried to get in. "Let me in", he said. But nobody was there. "Ohhhhhh! It's Saturday" he thought.
Meanwhile at the slides, older brother Logan was having a ball whooshing down the green shoot. This is the best fun he has had in a long time, at least that we know of. Well, I bet that their dad has some pretty fun stuff he does with them, but they never tell us the fun they have had.
Sometimes they decide that they must do the same thing at the same time. "Get out of my way, brother"! "No, you get out of my way". "I was here first". "But I thought of climbing up first". We had to break up the fun (at least it was fun for Grandma and Grandpa).

Both Logan and Liam found this neat cable net and climbed under it and then they stood up. They were caught. They didn't know how to get out and started to cry. Only if we could catch bad guys like this.
The last event was the swings. To Liam, this was very soothing to him and he just sat back and enjoyed the ride.
On the other hand, this was equally as fun as the slides for Logan. He was grinning ear to ear. He is one happy boy. This pretty much ended our trip to the park and we headed back home. This was a very good day with grandma and grandpa, until they caught sight of their mom and then the tears started rolling down their cheeks. It is funny. They don't miss their mom and dad until they see them, after being away for hours.

Hey, it's Ellies big day

Happy Birthday, Ellie. Two years old is a lot. Judy and I talked with Ellie in China over the computer on her birthday. It was so much fun to see Ellie jumping around and hear the excitement. She was excited to see us.
Since Ellie was living in Utah, I didn't think that I have very many pictures of her, and I thought I was going to have to use some of Kyle's pictures in this blog post. Then I got to looking and could not believe how many pictures I had of Ellie. I struggled to get it down to 27 pictures (all good memories) from the original 62 that I picked from the hundreds of photos I took of Ellie. So here they are. This is Ellie on her first trip to Minnesota to visit, just two and a half months old. Isn't she cute? We got her to smile quite a bit. If I remember correctly (let me know if this is not true), when Ellie was fussing, I would take her down to the basement to calm her. Half way down the steps she would stop crying and she was fine, as long as I stayed there. When I came back upstairs, she would start getting crabby again. It must have been all the dust mites and mold that did the trick, or maybe she just wanted to have some one-on-one time with "Bapa". Anyway if my memory has failed me, just post a comment.
The is the outfit I wore when I was blessed at church. I look like a princess.
Just call me smiley. I can clap, too (talent runs in the family).
Here I am with my boring cousins. I completely overwhelmed them with my stories and put them all to sleep. I am going to have to be more creative to keep them from going to sleep next time.

Just getting a stroller ride. Fun!!!!
I am starting to get some teeth. Can you find them? They are right there in the front.
Peek-a-boo at the park. It's me.
I love this slide. Why can't we do this more often?

I am crawling through the tunnel on the play set at the park. I have never had so much fun.
I have a lot more teeth now, and I love my stroller.
I did go to college and attended a lot of classes with my mom and dad. I must have earned enough credits to graduate. My board almost fits. Well, actually, it fits good enough.
Here I am at the graduation after-party. I am just adorable with my little brain squeezer on.

I am expecting a very important call. I think it is a job offer in China. Hello?
Noeloni is tickling me and I can't eat my ice cream. She makes me laugh all the time.
Really Dad. You have got to do something about this grass. It is almost up to my waist and I keep tripping over it.
There is something very interesting at the petting zoo. I wonder what it is? I better go investigate it. Is it okay if I go take a look?

Let me out of here!!!!!
Moooooo. Here cow! I have some food for you, but I ain't coming any closer. You are going to have to come to me. And don't stick out your tongue so far either. That is gross.
The best time at the petting zoo was my first horse ride. I was going so fast that my hair, what little I had, was flying backwards. All I could thing about was singing the theme song to Bonanza.
I had never been on a swing before Grandma and Grandpa Larsen came to visit me. This is great fun. I don't ever want to stop. Keep going. Higher, higher!!

Sigh! This is my very dreamy look. I might be thinking of someone special. I won't tell anybody that it is you, Bapa.

I love to finger paint. My favorite medium is yogurt. and my favorite canvass is me. Yippee!

This is my very scary pop up book. I am okay with it as long somebody is holding me.

These are a couple of mean, scary pirates. Arrrggg.

I am feeling a bit sad. This is my last visit to Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's before moving to China. I hope I won't get too lonely.

Actually, I am not that sad, because I have ICE CREAM. Mmmmmmmm!