Christmas in MN

We made it back to Minnesota last Sunday night and have been recovering. I finally got the last of our things unpacked yesterday and the suitcases are back in the closet. So today I am hoping to get our blog updated! Jason & I had Christmas in our aparment the weekend before Christmas. Here are a few pictures. I couldn't post these before Christmas so I thought I would post them now that I am finally going to get this caught up from our extended vacation.

Jason with his stack of presents! Jason opening one of his gifts some warm socks and a bib

Jason with "his" bib I was taking the pictures while we opened presents- Jason took a few of me, but they were blurry and in one he cut off my head, but he took this picture after we were done opening gifts.

Showing off my baby bump- this was at 13 weeks. I know it's a little sad.

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!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This past weekend was opening weekend of gun season (for deer) in Missouri. We were not planning on driving back and Jason wasn't going to hunt in MO this year, but Friday morning we were both not doing much at work and we decided about noon that we would pack up and head back. After running around to pack everything we got on the road and actually made it back to MO at a decent time. Jason got to hunt all day Saturday, with only a 20 minute lunch break, and I got to hang out with Jessi, Andi, & TJ. We went to the soup & sandwich lunch at my mom's church and then watched Simba (The Lion King). When Jason finally got in that night we headed to his mom & dad's for supper to hang out with his mom, dad, & the rest of the family. Sunday Jason hunted until 10:30 or so when he killed his doe. After lunch he took the deer and the gun back to Shelbina and then we left for MN around 2:30. The trip back to MN always seems to take so much longer and we are usually tired so when we got back around 11:30 we both were exhausted and only partially unloaded the Escape.

I am happy to say we finally unloaded the rest of it last night- which is good because Jason will reload somethings tonight and the rest tomorrow as we are heading to Illinois for him to hunt on Friday and Saturday. I am heading back to Centralia, where I worked last year, to hang out with my old co-workers and on Saturday we are traveling back to MO. I get to stay in Missouri all next week as I took some vacation days. Jason, however, has to make the trip back to MN Sunday night so he can work Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday before making another drive back to MO Wednesday night for Thanksgiving. Poor guy- I told him if he was really tired I could ride back with him so he didn't have to drive alone, but he said he will be good. I'm glad because I'm not sure what I would do with three days off in Minnesota!!! Maybe go crazy.

We hope to see everyone over Thanksgiving and I'm not sure if I will blog any more before December so HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL (and don't eat too much turkey)!!!

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

Last weekend and the first part of this week were unseasonably warm. We actually went to the polls on Tuesday without a jacket as it was in the low 70s. The predictions for the rest of the week were for the temperatures to drop and possibly have snow over the weekend. It rained all day Thursday, but wasn't too cold. Low and behold Friday morning when I went outside to leave for work there was 4 inches of snow on the Escape that I had to brush off! It snowed until noon and then turned to rain as the temperatures rose to 33 and most of the snow was gone that night. When we woke up on Saturday it had snowed another inch or two and the high for the day was 27 . Today we can't get our windows open to let any fresh air in because they are frozen shut. It is supposed to warm up this week though and be in the 40s later in the week. I'm not sure that is really warming up, but I think the cold weather is here to stay. I have already been playing Kenny Chesney's Christmas CD (not when Jason is around) and am getting in the Christmas spirit and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet! I guess snow and below freezing weather has that effect on me!

Jason took this Friday morning before leaving for work Another picture Friday morning, looking across the rooftop

Yesterday afternoon Jason & I went to Mankato shopping. I was surprised at how busy the town was especially since it was opening day of shotgun season (for deer) or maybe that is why it was so busy! It was pretty cold out too and some of the roads were nasty. We saw a couple of vehicles in the ditch on our way there and had to drive slow on our way home because of ice on the road. I did take some pictures on the way there so here are a few more of our first snow of the season!

My work Saturday afternoon

That is standing corn out in the field.

Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the wind is blowing like crazy- I don't think it ever stops! Yesterday the high was 27, but with the windchill it was 16. Oddly enough, people don't think that is cold yet- I can't wait to see what they do call cold!

Our trip started out to do some shopping for Christmas, but we weren't successful with that. We made a total of four purchases, all for us, and one of them was dinner at Applebee's. I guess I am going to have a lot to do on Black Friday!

Where did October go?

I can't believe it is already November! It is crazy how fast time flies anymore. As some of you have pointed out to me I have been slacking on getting our blog updated- asking if we are really that boring and that busy- October was a little bit of both!

Jason worked all day, so after cleaning both rooms, I spent some time creating these new posts! I will try to do a better job of updating- with or without pictures. Here is a recap of our blogless month.

Mizzou Homecoming!

Last weekend we traveled back to Missouri for Homecoming. We were very excited to get back and to be able to see the Tigers play in Columbia! A big reason we traveled back for Homecoming was for Kyle as he was selected for the Homecoming Steering Committee. Thankfully Jason & I were able to leave work a little early and get on the road a little after 5:00. We arrived at my mom & dad's house at 1:30 and had to do some laundry because Jason had no clean jeans. Sadly, this probably doesn't surprise many of you since Jason & I always seem to be running late and disorganized!

Anyway, with clean jeans and a few hours of sleep we left for Columbia the next morning at 6:00am for the big parade. It was actually my first time to go to the Homecoming parade. We had a good time watching it with Travis, Jessi, Andi, TJ, & Stephanie. Kyle found us after the parade and then we met up with mom & dad at Lonestar (Kyle got to choose-since it was his big day) for a great lunch! Game time was a few hours away, but luckily with all the activities that got to attend mom & dad had a room at the Stoney Creek Inn and we all headed there to hang out for a few hours. After the kids (and Jason & dad) napping a little we headed back to campus. We got to see the Eckler clan at their tailgate as they were cleaning up and to see a few people at the CAFNR Alumni tailgate before we headed into the game. It wasn't a very exciting game, but it was nice to see the Tigers win!

After the game we headed to Shelbina, to Jason's mom & dad's house, where we got to see everyone Sunday for lunch and hang out with them before heading back to Minnesota Sunday afternoon. It was good to see everyone and spend a weekend in Missouri. We are already counting the days until Thanksgiving!

Jason & TJ at the paradeJason & I before the game mom & dad before the game Mom, Dad, TJ, & Andi excited for the game Kyle & Stephanie Jason & I at the beginning of the game Kyle, Mom & Dad watching the game (or rather posing for a picture during the game)