Sarah in her Dora pajamas

Sean and Sarah playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Jason, Meghan, Sean and Sarah

Aunt Kim and Sarah singing and watching themselves on t.v.

We just had a great visit with my sister and parents who were in town this past weekend. Kim was here to celebrate her 40th birthday in Milwaukee. It was great to be able to be a part of her milestone birthday and to remind her that she's 3 1/2 years older than me. Tee-hee. It was fun to watch Sarah monopolize Kim's time while she was here. She wished Uncle Cleo could've been here, too. I love having her here to visit, but hate to see her go. Of course, I cried as we said good-bye at the airport. While I know she's happy to be with Cleo in Virginia, I miss her terribly. Thank God for free calling after 7 p.m. Thank you US Cellular. :) Now if I could only get her to have a DSL connection to her computer so we can webcam better. It doesn't work real well with her wireless connection for some reason.

Sarah's vocabulary increases every day. It's so amazing to watch that process occur. She knows her letters, counts to 13, knows her colors, says some words in Spanish, and is extremely independent. "Do it myself" is a very common phrase in our house. She had the stomach flu for the first time a week ago. Poor thing. She didn't know what had hit her and was quite upset. It passed through all of us before my family came to stay. So if we had to get it, it came at the right time. Not fun.

Jason's staying busy with school activities and lessons. He's getting ready for solo/ensemble and a couple of jazz festivals coming up in March and April. We're looking forward to going out with Meghan and Bob this weekend to celebrate their February birthdays. It's always a good time when we all can get together.

Better go. The Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice crossover show is on and I haven't started watching. Priorities. :)

Trip to The Cities

Thoroughly enjoying our time with old friends

Roomies!

The reason for our trip up north...the happy couple: Tim and Angie Hoffman

Starting from the front center and going around to the left: Doug and Sue Berg-Williams, Heidi and Eric Songer, Jason, Stacy Julson (Dan was ice-fishing--we really missed him), Paul Budde, Drew Disher, Kim Budde, and Camille Disher.

It was a fabulous wedding and an extremely fun college reunion! Thank you to Tim and Angie for having us share in your special day. Thank you to Kim and Paul for your amazing hospitality. It was wonderful to catch up and spend time together! We are so lucky to have maintained our close friendships with these college friends that mean the world to us. It makes us want to live in The Cities every time we go visit.

Sarah reading a Dora book to her baby doll while we were up in Minnesota.

Thank you Mom and Dad for watching her while we were gone!

Happy 2009 to all of our blog readers!

The Holidays

Sarah playing in the dress Great-Grandma Laura made for Aunt Meghan






Sarah and Grandma Gillette posing for a picture for Grandma's 65th B-day

Sarah and Aunt Meghan admiring the Christmas village

The cousins opening up Sean's gift

Father and daughter on Christmas Eve









Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Whitehead's house






Opening presents Christmas morning

Reading a book with my cousin, Val, her husband, Garry, and daughter, Aida.

Watching for the jack(Snoopy)-in-the box at Great Aunt Ellen and Great Uncle Dick's house where we celebrated with Jason's side of the family.

Cousins: Sean, Sarah, and Gabe (Jason's cousin's son)

Uncle Dick, Aunt Ellen, Nikki, cousin Steve, and Gabe.

The pictures pretty much lay out our holiday season. We had a great time celebrating my mother-in-law's 65th birthday the Saturday before Christmas. The Lane family came up and we enjoyed all of the Christmas decorating at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We went to Iowa for 5 days and enjoyed a lot of relaxation and good food with my folks. The first Christmas Eve service in their new church was wonderful and Sarah enjoyed every minute of the visit. She especially loved playing with her 2nd cousins, once-removed (????), Aida and Cassidy. We really treasure the times we're able to see my cousin, Val and family. What would've made the visit perfect would be if my cousin, Scott and family and my sister Cleo and family could've been there, too. :) We really missed Kim and Cleo's presence at Christmas, but were glad to hear that they had an enjoyable holiday together with his side of the family.

After driving back to Wisconsin in dense fog, we turned around the next day and headed down to Illinois for a fun, belated Christmas get-together with Jason's family. Dick and Ellen always outdo themselves with all of the entertaining details.

We had so much fun watching Sarah experience all that is Christmas. She was constantly pointing out Baby Jesus and Santa wherever we went. We're very thankful for all the blessings in our lives and the time spent with family.

Sarah's two-year pictures