Surprise

We are having a baby! I am due June 23rd and we are very excited. It is exciting now that everyone else finally knows too! We told our immediate family on Christmas Eve and grandparents on Christmas Day. With our aunts, uncles, & cousins finding out at our family Christmas celebrations. I think most everyone was surprised and excited, but the best reaction award goes to my sister. If only I would have asked Travis to video tape them opening their presents. There was screaming, jumping, running, an "I love you", hugging, an "I hate you", hitting, and then crying so I'm pretty sure she is excited. The "I hate you" came only because I haven't been sick, except 1 afternoon and I'm due 2 weeks before she is.

Coming back to Missouri for Thanksgiving and not letting the cat out of the bag was especially difficult since Jessi is expecting also, but I have been lucky that I haven't been very sick. I was nauseous a lot in the beginning, but just had to eat all the time to keep something in my stomach. Poor Jason has been doing all the cooking- even making me toast first thing in the morning.

I will post more when we make it back to Minnesota, including pictures from Christmas. Jason & I have been having a great Christmas break (minus being sick all day Monday) and are so thankful we decided to stay this extra week.

Even Better News

We are going to be back in Missouri for a week and a half! Instead of driving back to MN on the 28th we decided to stay in Missouri for a while longer. Since I have the week off from work Jason decided to talk to his boss and is not going to work that week either. We are excited that we will be able to stay longer and get a chance to hang out more with everyone. Our first 4 days consist of us "running" from one Christmas to another so it is exciting to have some relaxing time back in good ole MO!

This weekend the weather is a little chilly. We left for church this morning and when we got there realized we should listen to the radio once in a while because it had been cancelled. We needed to run to the store anyway so we got our groceries and found Jason a shovel so he could clean off our steps at the apartment. The bank sign said -4, but we have been downgraded to a Winter Storm Warning instead of Blizzard Watch so things are looking up.

We were going to take our gifts back to MO and open them on Christmas morning, but after sitting around in our cozy apartment all day yesterday we decided to have our Christmas. I got some nice shirts that I'm thankful to have before we head back for Christmas- they will take up less space in my suitcase and now I know I have clothes to wear!

Today we are watching football, making chocolate covered pretzels and packing for our extended vacation in Missouri. I know it is "cold" back home, but Jason & I have agreed it isn't cold unless it is below 0 so enjoy your "warm" weather. Hopefully the ice will be gone by the time we get there and it will be even warmer than it is there now.

Good News

I just talked to Jason and after talking with his boss this afternoon he will not be working on Wednesday or Friday next week (even though the business will be open). Luckily, his boss was generous enough to let him have those days off even though he doesn’t have any vacation days to use. We are very thankful that we will be able to travel back to MO on the 23rd and be back the entire weekend! We will be leaving after Jason gets home from work Tuesday night and arrive in MO around 2 am! I am home from work for the day and only have to go back for my Christmas party on Tuesday next week from 8-2 so I am done with work for the year! Yippee!!

By the way, for those of you not already counting only 5 days till Santa Clause comes! I had a phone call this afternoon to remind me- thanks Andi!! But I may be even more excited with the countdown of 4 days until we leave for MO!!!

We are expecting blizzard conditions this weekend so we will probably be stuck at home. Oh well, I think I will spend most of my time packing and getting ready for our trip home anyway!

Brrrr!!!!!

I didn't go outside at all today and I am not looking forward to leaving for work tomorrow morning. According to weather.com....

Right Now for Redwood Falls, MN Snow and Windy -7 F Feels like -35 F!

I didn't realize it even got that cold! I guess things are looking up for us later this week... (for a while at least)

Here is our 7 Day Forecast

Thank goodness we are headed back to Missouri for Christmas- I would like a white Christmas, but really just want to thaw out a little!!!

Oh Christmas Tree

Our trip back to Missouri for Thanksgiving was great. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures while we were hanging out with everyone. Jason was successful on his hunt in Illinois and I had fun getting to visit with my co-workers from last year. We stuffed ourselves at each of our Thanksgivings and had a looong trip back to Minnesota. The weather was not very good and the roads through Iowa were pretty bad and traveling was slow. We ended up spending the night in northern IA and drove the last 3 hours home on Monday morning. The total driving time for the trip back was around 11 hours. What fun!! Hopefully the weather won't be like that for us when we are traveling for Christmas.

Jason's doe from Illinois

We don't really have room in our apartment for a big tree and I didn't want to dig through the warehouse at work to find our Christmas decorations so my mom let us borrow one of her "Charlie Brown" trees. We decorated it and now our presents (what few we have) are underneath. Don't worry these are just our presents to each other...I got all of our shopping done on Black Friday and wrapped before we left Missouri so they are all stashed away at my mom's house. Hopefully no one is snooping! And it isn't your eyes playing tricks on you, our wrapping paper is pink and orange. I left the wrapping paper at mom's and have tons in storage- so instead of buying more Christmas wrapping paper I used what we had in our closet. Of course the only thing we had was the leftovers from our wedding....I guess it was time to use that paper up anyway. So yes, we have a smaller than usual tree and different colored wrapping paper than most people, but we definitely have snow and cold weather!

We have been counting down the days until Christmas for quite some time now. Jason will hopefully find out for sure this week his work schedule and if he has to work Christmas Eve. We are hoping to leave on the 23rd and arrive in MO late that night. (We are keeping our fingers crossed that Jason doesn't have to work the 24th!) And our days are chock full of Christmases. I can't wait to see everyone and spend time with our family again.

Today we were under a severe winter weather watch for all of today and into tomorrow so we have been hanging out at home and we actually made some chocolate covered pretzels and peanut butter crackers. I can't promise anyone will get to try them because they might be all gone by the end of this week. Hope everyone is staying warm and is ready for Christmas- only 11 days!