Bentleyville

We went to a place called Bentleyville last night about a half hour away. Some guy has this love for Christmas lights so he started collecting them and putting them up in his yard. Eventually he opened it up to the public so people can come walk through and see the Christmas lights. They have free cookies and cider. They also have Santa there (for those whose children aren't terrified of him) and you can make s'mores around the fires. The whole thing is free. You park your car and take a school bus to the place and walk through. It's really cool and Sophia loved it - almost as much as Ben. To give you an idea of how many lights there are - they have over 600 snowflake lights put up in the trees.

It was quite the exciting night too. On the way home we decided to try to take a different way back. We ended up making a wrong turn and going through Proctor. Ben was so busy trying to figure out what went wrong that he didn't notice the 30 mph sign. He got pulled over for speeding but we prayed a lot and the guy didn't even give us a ticket! Needless to say, he won't be speeding anytime soon.

a walk in the park

Today it was much nicer outside so we decided to venture out to Chester Park with the kids for a walk. It was really fun and Sophia and I really enjoyed eating the snow together!
-Jenny




As you can see, Caleb enjoyed himself as much as the rest of us!

So cold...

...but so beautiful. When I got up this morning it was around 7 degrees below on the thermometer. On my way back from dropping Sophia off at preschool I noticed how awesome the lake looked. I couldn't resist stopping home to get my camera and driving to a couple spots to take some pictures. Don't worry, I left Caleb in the warm car while I took the photos. In case you've never been to Duluth when the lake looked like this, the white stuff is steam because Lake Superior is actually warmer than the air outside! You can click on the pictures if you want to see a bigger view of them.
-Jenny

Baking supplies

Notice anything unusual on our baker's rack? Caleb has found a new place to play. I probably shouldn't have taken pictures of him because it only will encourage him...but it was just so funny!
-Jenny

Gingerbread Cookies

We made gingerbread cookies with Sophia Friday night. We had a great time. Of course, after awhile I realized I needed to push the buttons and eyes in for her because they were practically being pushed out the other side of the cookies! The cookies turned out great, though, for our first time making them! It was a really good recipe.
Jenny

Morning Run

This morning I got up at 6am and went for a great run through Hartley Nature Area–about five miles as the sun was coming up. I saw lots of animal footprints, one rabbit and and scared two deer. It was an amazing morning, with freshly fallen snow. I've recently decided to begin running more regulary and I'm absolutely loving it. I hope that it can continue despite the craziness of having two children and the temperatures falling. And, by the way, no I didn't take a camera with me on the run...I found this picture online, but figured I'd give you a visual.
–Ben

Dinnertime tricks!

Sophia and Caleb both learned new tricks they were showing off during dinner tonight. Caleb can now say he's "so big." This is a great trick with hands full of pasta sauce. I don't know how he looks so happy though. He's got a double ear infection right now!



Sophia, on the other hand, learned how to make a farting noise with her cup. They both were equally as proud. We won't say which one we were more proud of!

Caleb can walk!

Caleb learned how to walk this week! He actually has been taking one or two steps at a time for about three weeks. On Thanksgiving, we were at some friends' house and our friends Travis and Melissa came over with their one-year old, Sheinah. As soon as Caleb saw her walking around he started taking a bunch of steps! He still crawls a lot but I'll bet by Christmas he will be walking all over the place.

Gobble Giddy-Up

Sophia and Jen didn't miss out on the fun either. Sophia got to run her first ever 1/4 mile race. She began by running on her tip toes, but quickly realized this wasn't the best strategy. However, she did find motivation to run after the turkey who was leading the pack. All the kids in the fun run got to have "1" as their race number...way cool.

Happy Thanksgiving

Gobble Gallop

Well, this morning marks the first annual Gobble Gallop in Duluth. Our friends Eric and Denise own the Duluth Running Co. and organized the race. There were over 700 runners at the event.

I had fun running with and encouraging a couple friends of ours, Jericho and Jackson. Jericho and I came in at 21:06. Not too bad considering he ran the entire race with substantial knee pain, and it was only my fifth time running in about a year.

It was a blast!

"Dow"

Caleb said his first word this week, besides "mama" and "daddy." He climbs onto absolutely anything he can. Yesterday he was standing on Sophia's chair in the living room. As soon as I went in there and said his name he started saying "dow, dow." (That's "down" in case you couldn't figure it out.) I don't know what my parents did with seven of these little guys! Last week, I came in the living room and he was standing on top of the coffee table with a marker in each hand and a huge grin on his face! Clearly, he learned the word because he hears it more than any other!

Cowboy

I had a request for Caleb's cowboy pictures from Halloween. Who knew that a baby could look so cute dressed up as a cowboy?

Cotton Candy

This was last Sunday at our big all church celebration at the DECC (the convention center in Duluth). After all the build-up, it turns out that cotton candy is NOT something Sophia will be having again anytime soon. She took one bite and spit it out!

Newbies

So we have decided to enter the 21st Century and create a blog. We figure, since we're not that fabulous at keeping in touch with people, we might as well at least have a blog so you can see a little of what's going on with us. Make sure to leave comments!