Merry Christmas!

We decided not to send Christmas cards this year and instead wait to send baby announcements early next year. Consider this our holiday greeting to you!

Today, we went to downtown Racine to see the snow sculptures at Winterfest. Click on our photo to see a few of the cool snow sculptures and a few of Santa's reindeer too!

More baby preparations

Last Saturday, my sister Susan and friends Alina and Francesca threw me a baby shower for my friends here in Wisconsin. We had a great time and the baby was showered with many more gifts from my generous friends and family!

Today, my parents came over to help with more baby preparations. My dad and Jay put together a toy shelf and hung the new bookcase on the wall. My mom and I put together the highchair and car seat, and started washing everything in Dreft! The room looks great - now all we need is the baby!

Click on both photos for more.

Thanksgiving 2009

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at the Matters' on Buffalo Lake. Since I won't be able to travel at Christmas this year, we decided to make the trek to northwestern Minnesota. We had a fun weekend eating lots of good food and spending time with family. One of the highlights of the weekend was when I got the perfect hand in cribbage - 29 points! Apparantly the odds of this happening are about 1:650,000 in a 4-person game. I guess I am pretty lucky!

Baby Shower in Minnesota

On November 14th, Jeanne, Trisha, and Kari threw me a baby shower at Trisha and Ben's house. It was a lot of fun and the baby received many wonderful gifts from my very generous friends and family. We couldn't have asked for a better day! Click on the photo to see more.

The night before, Sarah took me to see Jerry Seinfeld at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. We had fun waiting for Jerry behind the theater before the show. We were the only superfans who were waiting for him and when Sarah shouted, "Hi, Jerry!" to him, she got a very nice "Hi" (with eye contact) in response. We weren't in the right place to get autographs, but maybe next time... It was my first time seeing Jerry perform his stand-up act - he was great!

3D ultrasound

Here is a picture of the baby from a 3D ultrasound we had done last week. We know he/she has hair and a cute nose and mouth. They were still able to keep the sex hidden, so we are eagerly awaiting the surprise in January!

October

We started off October by reorganizing the bedrooms to make room for the baby. Here's a picture of the new crib, assembled by Jay and Grandpa Larry.


A few weeks later, we attended the wedding of our friends Frankie and Mike in Hilton Head, South Carolina. A large group of us from Modine made the trip south for the fun weekend. Click on the group photo to see more.

We finished out the month by attending my 10-year college reunion at Northwestern, celebrating our 6th anniversary and Halloween.

Less than 3 months until the baby arrives! Click on my photo in the 21 weeks post to see more photos of the baby bump!

21 weeks

I've been asked to see some pregnancy photos, so here is one of me at 21 weeks in one of the cute new maternity outfits that my mom bought me. We've been taking a weekly photo since 14 weeks, so click on the photo below to watch me grow!




Also in the past few weeks, we celebrated Jay's birthday, got a new car, and went to the MN State Fair. It's been a fun summer!

New Car

We bought a new 2010 Subaru Forester. The cash for clunkers deal got to be too tempting. We really liked the smooth ride and low road noise. I will miss the freedom of driving a beater, but the only constant in life is change I suppose.

Fishing Charter 2009

The weather was perfect when Pa, Grandpa, and Dave came to Racine for salmon fishing. We caught a bunch. These were the best tasting salmon I have had. Click on the picture for more...

Independence Day Vacation 2009

We took a full week off this year to celebrate the country's birthday this year. We spent the first half of the week in the Twin Cities. We went to a Saint's game, took a Segaway tour of the old mill district in Minneapolis, went to the Como zoo, and got together with friends we haven't seen for a while. We acted like tourists. Click on the pictures to see more. The second half of the trip was spent at Buffalo lake fishing, boating, and enjoying fireworks.

Mink

Today there were two baby mink running around in our yard. One of them decided to curl up for a nap right in the grass. We could have picked him up if we had wanted to. I am worried since I haven't seen their mother, so we fed him a turkey wiener.

Euro Trip 2009

It's been a while since we did anything truly blog-worthy, but our trip to Germany and Holland is worth a new post. I had a conference to attend in Dusseldorf, so I decided to bring Laura along and combine business and pleasure. Our flights connected in Manchester, and while I flew to Hannover to take care of business, Laura flew to Frankfurt to spend some time with Ralph, Heidi, Vanessa, and Lea. I then took the train to Wurzburg on Friday to meet up with them. On Saturday, Ralph and Heidi drove us to Munich. We took a open-top bus tour, explored the Deutsche Museum, and dined at Hofbrauhaus. That evening, we also went to the Dettelbach wine fest. Sunday, we visited Neuschwanstein and barbqued in the backyard. Early in the week, we took a dinner booze cruise on the Rhine river. Laura explored Dusseldorf while I attended the conference.
On the weekend, we traveled to Amsterdam where we visited the Anne Frank House, the Van Gough museum, and the Red Light District and took a canal cruise. Click on the pictures for more details.

Cancun 2009

We just got back from a great trip to Cancun with Gary and Deb. We stayed at the Omni Hotel & Villas on the south end of the Cancun strip. We arrived on Thursday and spent that afternoon and Friday relaxing at the resort and on the beach. On Saturday, Jay and I took an adventurous bus trip to Chichen Itza. On Sunday, all four of us spent the day at Isla Mujeres driving around in a golf cart, going on a snorkel tour, and swimming with the Dolphins. We had a few more hours to relax at the resort on Monday and then it was time to go home. I'll be posting pictures on the blog soon, but for now, here is a link to some pics on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=68347&id=581068540&l=7b422.

New Snowblower

We finally broke down and bought a snowblower. Toro of course... We got close to another foot of snow and we figured we would do our part to turn around the economy. Now that we put this much money into a piece of equipment, I am convinced that it will never snow again. Check out the video to see how proud Laura is of her new machine. It had no trouble with the snow up to the top of it's mouth. We also used it to clear off a skating rink behind the house and tonight we are hosting a skating party.