a place called home

We are really enjoying our new place since we moved in at the end of November. It has plenty of space and is exactly what we had been looking for. Now the weather has to warm up so we can enjoy the patio and yard more ...

We got a snowman-making kit for Christmas and I wanted to teach Ethnie how to make one. We went out the other night when it wasn't too bitterly cold and made a really cute small snowman. The barret-style hat and pipe cause him to look a bit like a french painter. We named him Jacques. He now stands proudly in the front yard! Ethnie says 'hi' to him every day. We had fun making him.

We've been married for 5 years!!!

On January 3rd, we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary!! We can't believe how fast time goes. We were very excited to celebrate five years of marriage so we spent our anniversary weekend at the Nicolin Mansion, a bed and breakfast in Jordan, MN. It was wonderful! We had the best time there. It was exactly what we needed and enjoyed every minute together. There are quite a few pictures to look at so I made a slideshow to look at. Just click on the link to see it. We stayed in an art deco style room the first night and a gorgeous traditional-style suite the second night. The breakfast each morning was phenomenal! There were two courses plus dessert. That is quite a lot of food to eat at 9:00 a.m.! But, we had no problem eating every bite! I describe what we ate in detail in the slideshow. We did plenty of resting, relaxing and romancing!

Ethnie turns 3!

Ethnie turned 3 December 30th! We can't believe how big she is getting. Between Christmas and New Year's Eve is definitely a hard time for a child to have a birthday. There is just so much that has just happened and that is to come during this time of year. So, it's hard for us to plan much for her. This year, there was a snow storm on her birthday so there wasn't much we could do. Her uncle Steve came over to play and she got to open her presents. She got some food for her play kitchen and a cash register so she can play 'store'. We also got her a cake from Dairy Queen that she picked out herself. She thought it was the greatest thing to blow out candles and sing 'Happy Birthday!'

Our Christmas

The last three weeks have been very busy for us so we need to fill you all in on a few things! We did have a nice Christmas. We were able to host Christmas Eve for Matt's family and had Michelle's mom and Rick over on Christmas day. It was our first year having a large enough home to entertain in. We really enjoyed having family over to celebrate Christmas. We also had a great time decorating cookies together for all to enjoy.

It was fun to watch Ethnie enjoy Christmas this year. Being older, she understood what was going on a little bit better. She was very anxious to open up her gifts! She also discovered that Santa does come to our home! Even though she is afraid of Santa (she wouldn't go near him this year), she was excited about her scooter she got from him! She also got a large play kitchen from our dear friends, the Burtons, and a red wagon from Nana.  

On the day after Christmas, we were able to spend a couple days up north with Michelle's dad. It was great seeing more family. Ethnie had a blast playing with Grandpa and Grandma's dog and cat. Overall, we had a fabulous Christmas and spent valuable time with family.