My kidney, the grinch. And other holiday-time germs.

For the past 30+ years, Ross and I have made the trip back to Minot, ND to spend Christmas with our families. We've never missed a year. Until now. We finally met our match. Who knew a kidney stone could stop us (and by us, I mean me), dead in our tracks?

Add to that, the stomach flu attacking each member of the family one-by-one, and there you have our 2010 holiday schedule. And I even baked this year. It's the last time I try that.

We'd like to give the in-law/mom-and-dad/gpa-and-gma of the year award to Gpa Dave and Gma Vickie, for their caring and sharing this weekend. By caring, I mean them dropping everything and driving down to Fargo on Christmas Eve to be with us to celebrate a mini Christmas, and help with the kids. By sharing, I mean us so generously sharing our flu germs with them. That's right. Our guests even received the royal treatment.

Today and tomorrow, we will disinfect this place in preparation for another weekend of family in town.

Amidst all the craziness, it was a great day and Gus was happy as a clam. We had everything we needed.


By the way, Nora was the only one who didn't get sick. Which explains her looking good for a picture.

Merry Christmas everyone! We will certainly remember the Christmas of 2010. And now that I'm no longer in pain, I'm already looking back and laughing at it. Kind of.

Nora is 4 months old

Nora's stats from her 4 month doctor appointment:

14 lbs., 9 oz (70th percentile)
25 inches (77th percentile)

She enjoys watching Gus, rolling from her back to tum, taking baths, and not sleeping through the night.

Who needs sleep when you can see this smiling face 2 or 3 times a night?

Let the indoor activities begin

I hear we've received a record amount of snowfall, to-date, for December in Fargo. We don't mind the snow, but when it's also frigid-cold, we need to find fun things to do inside.

Like vacuum,
or bring massive icicles into the house to see how long they'll last.


Have our cous and auntie over for some fun.

Watch your brother play outside. Or maybe she's day-dreaming.

Start the holiday weight gain early!

And attend sporting events. Thanks, Bjorn, for these great tickets!

Wrestle your uncle,
then slow things down a little and enjoy the music.

Will is learning, too.
We've had friends over to play. This is Jake, my co-worker's adorable little guy.

And of course, we went to see Santa. This must be farmer-Santa. He was nice.

Gus got a cookie from Mrs. Claus.

Gus and Jake loved the snow!


Winter is definitely upon us but we're looking forward to it this year in our new house.

Nora I

Nora, the First, was my great-grandmother on my dad, Steven's side. Nora Larson Bakken.

Here's a photo of her, taken on May 19th, 1923, with her husband, Ted.

Thank you, Grandma Ethel for sharing these photos with us. I plan to put a copy up in Nora's room.

Baptized

Nora was baptized at First Lutheran Church in Minot on November 27th.

Her Godparents are Uncle Joshua, and Aunt Christy.




She had crazy hair after the ceremony, but oh well! We didn't have time to find a comb.



Hm, so this picture is not a Christmas card kinda family photo, but it's the best we can do with a busy 3 year old.

Happy Baptism, Nora Grace!

Half the calories

We made a last minute decision to head to Minot for Thanksgiving, but not until Thanksgiving morning which meant we missed the big meal. Isn't the food one of the best parts of this holiday? Yes, and we were bummed. But on the bright side, we probably consumed half the calories we usually would on this weekend.

Gus got another round of birthday presents while in Minot. Lucky!

Spidey hat from gma and gpa.

Airplanes (lots of them), from Nancy and Leo.

His friend, the snowman.

Nora kicked back and relaxed inside, and enjoyed the peaceful moments while Gus was outside.


Great Grandma Ethel with 2 of her great-grandkids, Nora, and Will. We missed you, Hava! Looking forward to seeing you at Christmas!


Despite missing the main event (food), this Thanksgiving was wonderful. We have so many reasons to be thankful, and we're grateful for everything we have - most importantly, our families and friends.

Stress Test

We passed!

And the truth be told, the past 2 weeks weren't overly stressful, they were fun. OK, fun and exhausting. Within 10 days, we closed on a new house, moved, painted, cleaned, celebrated Gus' 3rd b-day, my 33rd b-day, Nora's 3-mo b-day (does that count?), did both kids' doc check ups, and I started back to work which means Nora had her first few days at daycare. I don't think we'll try to pack that much into a 10-day period again for quite awhile.

It was a whirlwind, but we cannot complain. We love our new home, and we are very grateful that we had our families in town to share in the excitement with us. They helped paint, clean, entertain kids, fix stuff, lift heavy objects, etc. You name it, they did it. THANK YOU!

So here's your invitation: swing by or stay if you make a pit stop in Fargo. Nora wants to smile at you, so come on over.

I love this stage, the smiley-baby stage. All you need to do is glance in her direction and she grins from ear to ear.

The big 0-3!

That deserves a medal

Nora slept from 11pm last night 'til 6:20am this morning. It's never too soon to start rewarding good behavior, right?


Please don't let this be a fluke. Please.

Typical second child

No, I'm not taking as many photos of Nora as I did of Gus. But I'm still taking them.

A Minnesota Halloween

We spent Halloween in Minneapolis again this year. We couldn't miss our god-daughter, Gabby's 2nd b-day party! It was a Halloween-themed party, which was an absolute hit for the kids.

Gabby took a swing at her pinata.


So did Gus. But neither of them were strong enough to unleash the candy. Michelle finally resorted to attacking the thing with a scissors, and then ripping it to let the candy loose. Those things are tough to crack!

Happy 2nd birthday, Gabrielle Marie!


And so we've come to one of my favorite photos of 2010. In between the birthday party and trick or treating, Michelle turned on a movie in Gab's playroom. Gus said he 'didn't want to take a nap', so I told him, 'fine, you just need to rest'. About 20 minutes into the movie, I checked on my spidey:

After their naps, they were ready to hit the streets.

You ready? Yep. You ready? Yesss. Let's DO this!


Gabby was Minnie Mouse.

They did pretty good!

Thank you, Goins, for hosting us and for a fun b-day. Gus loved every second of our visit.