Christmas City of the North Parade

Friday was the Christmas City of the North Parade in Duluth! Aaron and I haven't gone for a few years (too lazy, too cold, too boring...) but we headed down there this year with a bunch of our friends. The weather was PERFECT - low 30s, no wind. Anna brought cookies and we could actually see what was going on! Matea and Kylie (the youngest kids in our group) hung tight and did great until 8:45 when we FINALLY saw the end of the parade.

The highlight of the parade was a toss up between Matea seeing a gigantic Curious George on the PBS float or seeing our friend Jon, who was in the parade with his work, handing out carebeaners (I'm sure that isn't spelled right) in the shape of dollar signs. Yes, he is a banker. :-)

shaving cream

Matea needed a bath the other day, so we decided to let her "finger paint" with shaving cream. Which turned into a "cover your entire head with shaving cream." This video might only be interesting to family. :-)

cornrows!

Well, after getting some tips from Juli (braid UNDER not OVER) I gave cornrows an attempt! Here it is - they are short, loose, and messy but I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I need to practice. Matea's hair was damp when I braided it today, I think dry would be easier, but I have no idea really. She was a pretty good sport which was helpful because it sure took me long enough to do these. I am excited to continue practicing - hopefully I'll get good at this and we'll have another go-to hairstyle that'll last a long time!

Jack-lyn

Last Wednsesday Jodi was over for dinner and we decided to carve our pumpkin. It was a little disappointing - there weren't that many seeds and our pumpkin was starting to rot even though we bought it on Sunday! Anyway, Matea was surprisingly really excited to stick her hand in the pumpkin and grab all the gunk that was in there. Aaron carved the pumpkin with a KNIFE - I was surprised he was able to make the face! Growing up we always used those little pumpkin saws.

Anyway....Matea couldn't say "Jack-o-lantern" so "Jacklyn" sat out on our step - and was still there this morning!!!

Happy November everyone!

cold day and citizenship!

Two and a half weeks ago my parents and grandma came up for a visit! We had a fun weekend hanging out and relaxing - with the exception of our trip up to Two Harbors to go walk on the breakwater thingee. IT WAS FREEZING. I have been outside in the middle of winter and it has been more pleasant than it was that Saturday afternoon. The wind was INSANE - it literally was pushing Matea! Here are some pictures from our excursion!

On October 13 Matea FINALLY became a US citizen!! It took us a while to file the paperwork, but now EVERYTHING is complete. The court hearing took a whole five minutes - the judge was really nice and seemed to be fully sincere when he said "God bless your family." Brandon was able to take some time off of work to come to the court hearing, and then we went out to Starbucks afterwords since we were in the car driving away 16 minutes after our 1:00 hearing! Matea is now OFFICIALLY Matea Mimi!

Finally - an update!

The month of September really wasn't THAT busy, but blogging just didn't happen! We've had some fun weekends lately. A few weeks back Dan and Danica Troolin came to visit - it was a last minute trip and was so much fun! Aaron and I had a blast getting to know their kids, and I think Maddy became Matea's new best friend. :-)



I know this picture of Matea is a little out of focus, but I love her expession. :-)

The weekend after the Troolins were up Nate and Angie were here for a couple days! Despite the COLD weather we had fun going up to Enger Tower and just relaxing!

It has been such a blessing to be able to connect and re-connect with college friends - and we are thankful that they are willing to come up and visit!

rose garden

we hung out at the rose garden and the malt shoppe the other day...here are some pictures. I've been playing around with photoshop again, so this includes some fun with that. :-)