A Family Tradition

How about a no-explanation picture post?

7/17/2004

6/18/2005

11/28/2010

1/22/2011

New Year, New Posts. No, Seriously.

It's been a while, as Jules informed me today.

Seriously.

A lot happened. I went out of town for the weekend of December 17th to go to a friend's wedding. When I got back, I found Kathy had thrown herself down the stairs in despair.

Not really, but she did fall down the stairs while I was eating way too much Indian Food, drinking White Russians with my high school buddies and dancing to a never ending avalanche of music. Trust me, it sounds more fun than it really was. But I was glad to get back home. I was worried that Jules would find someone or something else to replace me as her favorite non-mom thing.

Like a ceiling fan.

Or a seahorse glow worm, courtesy of Jake and Melinda

I was also worried that I may have missed too much, and that she would have grown a tremendous amount in my absence.

She either went to college or was practicing for solid foods. Thanks Aunt Kari for the U of M Onesie

But all was well. She smiled, she laughed, and then she got quiet and read some interesting tourism literature.

"I want to go to there. They have a giant cherry on a more giant spoon." Thanks Uncle Paul and Aunt Jen for the book!

And then came that magical night, which I will never forget.

Christmas Eve, 2010. Jules' first Christmas is a White Christmas

I don't think I could have asked for a better Christmas present for myself than to be snuggled in with my family on a snowy, wintry beautiful White Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, this will just make all future Green, Blue, Brown and slightly orange colored Christmases pale in comparison. Which, when you think of it, is kind of counter-intuitive if you're somebody who studies their colors.

Seriously Dad?

Christmas day we woke up and opened presents.

Kathy and I have matching PJs, for any who wondered why I own such lovely jammas.

Of course, it was slightly bittersweet. Even though this is our first Christmas with an adorable little girl, we very much missed Acrodyl (he was our cat to whom we had to say goodbye last April) as this was the first Christmas since 2004 without him. He was always so good at playing with his (unopened) presents and then falling asleep on the spent paper.

Acrodyl, 12/25/2007

But Amethyst got all confused and thought we were celebrating Amethystmas.

"You got me this tree with all these dangly bits and wires to chew on, and now presents? How awesome to have a whole season devoted to me!"

Oh, and remember earlier when Jules was sitting in the high chair? That was practice for this moment on Christmas Day.

Rice cereal. "Solid" food, after a fashion.

And since then, she's moved on to green beans, squash, and sweet peas. Videos to come later, trust me.

My best friend Zach stopped by with a bag. This seems inconsequential, so let me go back to the trip I took (during which, as I mentioned, Kathy also took a small trip).

Dad. Seriously.

Sorry.

So, I shared a hotel room with Zach and there was a shopping bag which he instructed me not to look at, under penalty of being left behind in New Jersey. This was a serious threat, mind, because he was the one who had reserved the rental car for our return trip, so though I had every intention of fronting some money for the trip, he was still the one metaphorically in the driver's seat. So I didn't look.

Some of you may remember, months ago I posted the story about Juliette's baptism. I posted a picture of her with my parents and said I would tell you about the bib later.

Nobody ever asked for bib follow-up.

The bib came from Zach as a "Welcome to the World" gift. His friend Annie made it. And,he said, there was more of the present to come but Annie had broken her arm, so it might be a while.

Well, it turns out that she got it finished in time for the holiday season. And that is what was in the forbidden bag of mystery from the hotel room, which was the same bag Zach brought with him when he came to visit our house! And in it, we found this:

Photo does not do the quilt justice. Will get better picture later. Thanks Josh and Ning for the outfit!

So, with Christmas behind us and now New Year's Eve (thanks Auntie Mo and Uncle Kevin for hosting, and thanks Cousin Lydia for letting Jules use your crib while you were at your grandparents' house), we've taken the tree down and are settling into a winter routine. Which involves lots of this:

Rice Cereal, Green Beans, Squash, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish bib to match my shirt.

Stay tuned, I'm going to get back into the habit of blogging. I've got videos of Christmas morning and videos of Jules eating solid foods which I find entertaining. Plus, as always, more pictures and more stories. I hope everyone had a safe, happy and warm (you know, spiritually and emotionally if not meteorologically) holiday season and have a prosperous 2011!

Thanksgiving and Decorating Granny & Poppy's House

Well, I hate to tell everybody this, but...we didn't get ANY pictures of Thanksgiving. We were just having such a good time, and we stuffed ourselves so much...we just straight up forgot.

But, never fear! Juliette's first Thanksgiving was a success. She was thrilled with the people and the music (including "Alice's Restaurant" and "The Turkey Song") and had a very good time hanging out in front of the fire. She loved looking a her great uncle Marty ("Goofy Mary" as cousin Madeline likes to call him) and had a good time being passed around the assembled guests. We had a fairly good crowd at my parents' house this year, which included the aforementioned Marty and his wife, my mom's sister Bridget and their two boys Ryan (of Pokey Lafarge and the South City Three fame) and Alan, my uncle Dan (Kathy's boss), his wife Tina and their three kids Maggie, Connor and Colleen, my Grandma (Ma, as she is now known) and, after dinner, Maureen, Kevin, Maddy and Lydia showed up. We ate way too much turkey and pie and drank our fair share of beer and wine.

Side note about the beer; I brought Blue Moon but no oranges, so instead I poured half a shot of Blue Curacoa into a pint glass and then poured the beer on top of it, which had almost the same flavor that I was going for but turned the beer a swampy greenish color which became quite a nice conversation piece.

But the biggest conversation piece was, of course, Juliette, and how awesomely cute she is!

The day after Thanksgiving, instead of hitting the ridiculous sales and facing possible trampling death, we went back to Granny and Poppy's for breakfast and to help them decorate their house for Christmas. I love my parents' house at Christmas, it's so pretty and awesome. Here's a taste:

I look awkward, Christmas 2009, photo by Lori Weier

But making a house look this good takes a lot of work. And a lot of child labor.

Maddy tries on the new tree skirt, which is more of a tree poncho on her.

Juliette gets drafted to fluff the garland.

Jules worked hard, and finally got so tired she had to relax a little.

Jules gets cozy for a nap.

Best napping spot EVER.

As good as that nap was, she found another spot that was just as good.

Or, this is the best napping spot ever.

It was a fun time, as you can see.

Every day should be like today!

We had such a good time, that before we knew it, we had eaten all three of our meals of the day there. Granted, Mo and I ran to Target once to pick up some replacement lights for some of the garland, and then my dad and I had to run back again for more lights as well as to rectify a shortage of chocolate, so our Black Friday wasn't entirely void of shopping, but we didn't stand in line all night like some crazy peoples.

So, we kicked off our holiday season with a couple of fun days, and we can't wait for all the season has to bring! We've got a cookie exchange party, a fancy party, and plenty of family traditions to enjoy! Years ago, when I worked in retail, this was my least favorite time of year. I'm glad that feeling has disappeared, to be replaced by all this happiness and happy anticipation!

Our First Road Trip!

This past weekend, we loaded up the car with enough stuff for a two month adventure and pointed ourselves North. Or rather, it just seemed like it was enough for two months' time. I guess that's what happens when you travel with a child. Two people travelling alone for three days? A bag of clothes and a container of snacks for the car. Travelling with baby? Two bags of clothes, diaper bag, bassinet, car seat, dangly toys to keep kid interested, blankets, hats...the list goes on.

To be fair, we also packed up a bunch of clothes that Juliette has rather suddenly grown out of. Seriously, little girl...when did you start getting so big?

Anyway...so the three of us piled into the car and headed to Bluegrass, Iowa (a suburb of Davenport) to visit family on Kathy's side. We don't get to see them much, since her family is fairly well spread out. She's one of ten kids, and the rest of the family lives in Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa and Colorado. But we try to get together once a year for the purpose of awarding a new champion with the Family Classic Trophy.

Seriously, the competition has been fierce and bitter in past games, and this year was no exception. But before I get to that, I have to tell you that Juliette's world was thrown into outer orbit this weekend when it comes to aunts, uncles and cousins.

See, Jules only has one aunt and one uncle on my side of the family, and they're here in town. And that one local set comes with a pair of cousins, Madeline and Lydia. Pretty manageable for a three month old little girl. But get together with Kathy's family (and they weren't even all there, we were missing two on a trip to Paris for their fifteenth anniversary and one couldn't get away from work) and suddenly, it's relative overload. But, Jules seemed to enjoy it. She got to see Grandma and Grandpa again, which she enjoyed.

Grandpa got fuzzy since last we saw him

She also got to see Aunt Lisa again, along with Aunt Lori and her boyfriend Justin. But then came the wave of cousins.

Morgan takes a swing at the Pinata

First up, we've got the oldest, Morgan. She's 8. Here, you see Uncle Jeff protecting himself from Morgan's powerful lust for candy.

Kaitlyn's refrain: "Can I hold her?"

Kaitlyn LOVED Jules. She kept asking to hold her every five minutes, oblivious to the fact that everybody else wanted to hold her, too.

Andrew took the 2010 Family Classic Win, and, thus, gets the trophy for the year.

Andrew won the competition this year, so obviously it wasn't for cutest new little girl. He's pretty happy, though, so I can't take that away from him.

Jake also wanted some candy

Andrew's younger brother Jake got into the Pinata action as well. Here he is venting his frustration on having to stare at the trophy for the next year knowing he couldn't pull out the win. Or, he really really wanted some candy.

Madison also liked to hold Juliette

Morgan's younger sister Madison was a big fan of Juliette as well. At this point, I think Jules was getting a little tired of all the cameras. But we still had lots of pictures to take...

Max: the man with a million costumes

Kathy and I finally got to meet our newest nephew, Max. His parents kept vanishing upstairs with him, only to bring him down in a new costume. My favorite? The jailbird/pumpkin (sadly, I did not get a picture of it). It was a pumpkin costume, but the legs and arms were black and white striped. Escaped Pumpkin!

Of course, we had to get a picture with all the grandkids gathered around Grandma and Grandpa.

The whole gang

The red shirts most of the kids are wearing are from when Kathy and her siblings were young. There are numerous family pictures with all the kids wearing these shirts. Juliette got to bring her #10 shirt home!

But let's not forget that while in Davenport, we had some serious business to attend to.

"Trick or Treat, Smell our Feet. No, Really, They're disgusting after walking all over the neighborhood."

Well, okay, we had some other serious business to attend to as well as the Family Classic, but it was Halloween, and the kids needed their sugar fix. It looks like here we have a Minnesota Twin, two princesses, a Power Ranger (I think?) and, in the background, Madison is a Rock Star. And what about our little girl?

Kathy and I went as new parents too tired to come up with actual costumes.

Jules went as a Sweet Pea! Because she is.

Now, to the competition.

Per the usual, there was a lot of boasting and trash talk beforehand, not least of which came from this guy:

Steve: "There's no way you're going to win, you shouldn't even try."

Well, okay, maybe he wasn't trash talking Juliette, but Uncle Steve did spend most of the competition claiming that his skills were the superior, that he would carry the day, and that others (most notably myself as I was sitting nearby) had best polish up on their game if they wanted to even stand a chance.

For the record, the game was Bingo Blackout.

Allow me to repeat that: Steve was talking trash about our skills at a random game of chance.

Okay, now that you've let that sink in...

I guess there's no suspense left, as you already saw that Andrew carried the day, leaving Steve only slightly deflated (there's always next year). We got the past winners all together for a group photo afterwards.

The Winners, past and present

Back row: Jeff (2005 Lawn Olympics), Joe (2003 Bowling), Elliot (2004 Baseball Penny Bet), Dave (2008 Reading R.T. Rybak's Mind); Middle Row: Kathy (2001 Biggest Fish), Adrienne (2007 Rock/Paper/Scissor Challenge), Lance (2006 Diet Coke & Mentos Shoot-out); Front Row: Morgan (2002 Star Attraction), Andrew (2010 Bingo Blackout, Current Champ) Note: No competition was held in 2009. We went to Puerto Rico for Joe and Shelley's wedding. Everybody won.

I would just like to point out that I hold the record for least amount of time in the family before winning the Family Classic Trophy. Less than a week after Kathy and I got married, we held the 2004 competition and I won. Granted, I took part in the 2003 Bowling tournament, but I was roundly pummeled due to my complete lack of bowling skills.

After the competition, it was time to bring out the Piñata.

Lance poses with the Piñata 

The kids all had a good time giving this thing some good solid hits. Even Juliette.

Uncle Dan watches as Jules takes a swing

Okay, so she needed a little help, but that's to be expected.

All in all, it was a great trip! Thanks to Uncle Dave and Aunt Ninfa for hosting, thanks to Aunt Kristie for reserving a block of hotel rooms, and Happy Birthday to Aunt Carissa! Juliette loved getting to know all of you a little better, and can't wait to see you all again (plus the three that were missing; Paul, Jen and Erica).

That was fun, but I'm ready to go home now

Jules handled the travel portion of the trip up very well; she fell asleep when she got in the car, woke up briefly when we stopped to get gas and use the restroom, but then fell right back asleep and stayed that way until we got to the hotel. A diaper change and a meal later, she fell asleep again! On the way back, though, she was a little more active. We had to stop to feed her twice, and the second time she had been crying for a little bit because we couldn't find a good place to stop. But all in all, she was a perfect little travel companion. Like her parents, though, when the trip is over, she's just anxious to get home.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Boo!

Scared ya!

She's my little pumpkin!

Pumpkins have tasty fists.

Some bunny loves you!

WHOA THEY WERE BOTH IN MY LIVING ROOM!!

Trog Dor, the Pumpkinator!

And Kathy HATES spiders. With a passion.

The Patch

After celebrating Lydia and Mo's birthdays on Saturday, we went out to Eckert's Orchard to pick some apples and get a pumpkin. So we woke up early, got Jules dressed up for the occasion, and headed first to Granny and Poppy's.

Juliette dons farm attire.

We met up with Mo, Lydia and Maddy, piled into two separate cars, and headed across the river.

First thing we did when we got there was point out the new Country Store, which my uncle Dennis designed.

(Editor's note: Juliette wanted me at this moment to tell you all "Luowuaoul. Buweh. Hnk! Ungi." That is all).

First, we stood in line for a while.

A really long while.

Even Lydia got kinda tired.

I assure you, that is a yawn.

Finally, we got on the tractor. Jules was so excited, she almost woke up.

So close to waking up

Kathy got some good cuddles in, though.

At the first stop, we hopped off and grabbed some Granny Smith apples.

She held it long enough for Kathy to get a bite.

All this talk about Granny Smith made Juliette want to see her real Granny.

Granny doesn't look like an apple...

We loaded ourselves back onto the wagon and went to the pumpkin patch.

Mo and Lydia at the Pumpkin Patch

Jules picked out our pumpkin for us.

Lydia found something she thought would be good for carrying the pumpkin home in, but it had to stay at the farm.

"Our pumpkin would TOTALLY fit inside this milk crate!"

And then, a short ride later, Juliette found the perfect pumpkin for her.

Somewhere in this bin is the perfect one...

There we go.

Afterwards, we had lunch and then made the long trek back home.

It was a tiring day, no doubt. But it was a great new fall tradition!