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So I’ve basically slept through April and well on my way through May.  It doesn’t bode well for posts and pictures, unfortunately.  I’ll try to do better.

Dustin and I went up to the cabin in early April.  It was COLD.  There was most certainly still giant ice flows on the lake but we got the boat launched and in the water.

Peter and I hung out one afternoon and had some fun.  He is such a ham and says cheese for the camera.  I did manage to get one picture that wasn’t so cheesy.  That day Zoey got her haircut.  She looked and smelled so nice.  She wasn’t as big of a fan of the bows though.  Dustin didn’t like them either.  I did and that’s what matters.

Bethy was an awesome friend and brought Peter and I to Under Water World at the Mall of America.  It was really cool to walk through the tube and see all of the giant things swimming all around us.  Of course, Peter was very serious for the whole trip.  He talked about sharks for a long time afterwards though so he must have liked it.  We made a stop to Lego Land afterwards.  On the way over we happened to pass Diego.  From afar Peter couldn’t be more excited.  He yelled Diego and was saying hello.  Once we got close it was a different story.  I guess this Diego was a little big.  Overall, it was a great day though.

This year we spent Easter with the Bjostad family.  It was a really nice afternoon spent with the family.  Peter got a new big truck and drove it all day.  He even tried to drive it in the tree.

Peter got to go to the cabin too.  He and Dustin went up, along with Zoey of course.  From the stories and the pictures, it was still cold but Peter doesn’t ever seem to mind.  His first weekend he seem to remember everything right away from last year, including playing on the boat.  He now has figured out the joys of the throttle and going fast.  Oh, and if you’ll notice he’s wearing his sweet new life jacket in the second picture.  Grandma Sherry picked that out for him so he doesn’t have to be squashed into the other one.  He hasn’t quite figured out the new balance though and was a little top heavy.  He’ll get it.

March has been a fun month so far.  We started with a party in our city!  Yo Gabba Gabba Live came to the Target Center and all three of us went.  When we got to our seats, Peter just thought that there were more friends than he’d ever seen before.  It wasn’t until the lights went out and DJ Lance Rock actually came out, that his heart started to race.  It was awesome to see the pure joy Peter had watching his gabba friends that have only been on the tv.

St. Patrick’s Day was this month.  We wore our green and went to Dee and Mel’s house for corned beef and cabbage.  Everyone but Peter thought it was wonderful.  He ate bread and then saw the bowl of peanut m&m’s.  He wasn’t expecting peanuts inside though.  He wasn’t so much a fan of the peanuts but got every bit of chocolate off before spitting them out.

March has brought some fabulous news.  Baby number two is due on Thanksgiving!  We couldn’t be more excited to have our family grow but of course it’s a little scary too.  This little baby reminds us that we really do have a whole lot in life to be thankful for.

Car troubles are another party of life.  The monte died a couple of months ago and has just been sitting next to our driveway.  Well the alero took a turn this past week.  A new fuel pump later, the alero is back in full force.  In the process, someone came over and wanted to know how much for the monte.  They actually bought a dead car.  Go figure!  So in honor of all the miles spent in the faithful old monte, one last picture before it goes.

We go to breakfast at the Car Bar pretty much every Sunday morning we’re in town.  Our morning ritual to get ready usually involves Dustin getting up and getting dressed, then Peter gets dressed, and finally it’s Annie.  Peter likes to hang out in the bedroom and watch some Imagination Movers while the process is going.  What more could you ask for?

Valentine’s Day was a good weekend at the Zastera household.  Dustin and Peter picked out beautiful red roses to come home to on Friday.  Then whole family, along with Jim and Sherry, went to the Camping Show and out to dinner.

Peter has become the pro dancer.  He has some really sweet moves and really likes going in circles.

Dustin was hard at “work”.

Karthik brought a little football with him when he visited a while ago.  He left it behind and Peter thinks it is beyond sweet.  Zoey has yet to be convinced.

And finally, Peter has found out that there really is no better way to watch tv than in his wagon up close and personal.

Peter made calendars for some people this Christmas.  As requested, here are the pictures from each month.

We’ve been going through the drawers to see what fits and what doesn’t.  Peter got to wear some sweet jammies that he tried on and never took off.  They were still a little roomy but they worked.

You’ll notice in this picture that Peter was developing quite the doo.

So he got his hair cut!  Along with the awesome new look, he decided to try out dad’s belt because why not.

Now he really looks like a little man!

Bethy, Peter, and I went out to lunch and then to the Children’s Museum on Monday.  When we first got to the museum, Peter was very leery and shy.  He needed to check everything out and see what was going on.  Once he found some people his height running back and forth with foam blocks, he realized this was a fun place.

We learned about conveyor belts, water fun, block building, dinosaurs, ants, turtles, slides, rock videos, and directional skills.  It was all very fun!

Oh, and we had to adjust the straps on Peter’s new seat for my car.  Dustin thought it would be a good idea to test how secure it really is.  It’s safe.

I’m actually updating the blog with pictures!

We have a few from Thanksgiving.  We went to Mark and Lori’s for Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving Day.  Everyone had a good time till it was time for the big meal.  Then a certain short person decided he was not ready to be awake and went back to bed.  Once he really woke up it went much better.

With playing hard, comes falling hard.  Usually Peter is pretty graceful at falling but this time he crashed right on his face.  He got a nice fat lip.  While sitting with dad, he held his ice and for some reason felt the glasses would help.

The family celebrated Thanksgiving part two with the Sackett side.  Peter was up, down, and everywhere the entire time.  I don’t think he even stopped to really eat.  He did stop to play a little dice with Leslie though.

And just for good measure, he decided to model his boots.

That brought us to December.  We went to visit Santa at the lodge.  Peter was good with him from afar but when it came time to actually sit on his lap, he wanted nothing to do with him.  He was too busy trying to get free rather than take a picture.  He did like the cookies though.

We tried to take some photos of the kid and the dog for our Christmas cards.  The plan went a lot smoother in my head but we managed to take a few fun shots.  Most of them were of one or both of them running away.

A separate day we had another photo shoot.  This one was for a calendar we made.  Each month Peter got a new outfit and new props appropriate to the month.  It took all day and three adults to get it done but it was fun.  One of the side shots was Peter and Dustin together.

After all that hard work, some people like to relax with a nice beverage.

With December came snow.  The whole family went out to shovel/play.

Christmas season came.  Along with it came parties.  We went to Paul and Donna’s for Christmas Eve, Santa came to our house in the morning, and we spent Christmas Day at Jim and Sherry’s house.  We also got to celebrate with the Sackett side.  He had a really good time with the new tee ball set and pointing.  We rounded out the festivities back and Paul and Donna’s house.

Finally, Peter spent some quality time New Year’s Eve with Jim.  As a result, he is now an avid piano player and came home with a keyboard.

Now we’re into January already!  Today Bethy, Peter, and I are going to go celebrate Martin Luther King Jr and my birthday by going to the children’s museum.  There might just be some pictures of that soon 🙂

So I know it’s been a very long time since we’ve posted and we’re sorry.  I have to admit that we didn’t take many pictures throughout November and then there was December.

We started the month passing what could only be the plague around the family.  When we started to regain something resembling health when the Monte Carlo took a turn to be sick.  I guess it didn’t get the memo that you’re suppose to get better and is now out to pasture next to the driveway.  Anyone want a sad broken car?  After borrowing a van, thank you very much Paul and Donna, Dustin now drives a pretty blue Mazda hatchback.  It’s very fun to drive.

Meanwhile, since we were sick and worried about cars, we didn’t notice until a Friday evening that the bill pay company nicely decided to pay a bill for us.  Unfortunately, we didn’t actually have a bill scheduled to go out at that point in time.  The gas company was now the proud owner of 800 of our hard earned dollars.  Of course there was no one around to help on a Friday.  The fabulous part is that no one really was any help for over a week.  Finally we found a few people that realized we needed help and the gas company electronically paid the money back.

Picture the scene from Willy Wonka where he makes the giant bar of chocolate travel through the air and reassemble in the tv.  Well our money is the bar of chocolate and it is still floating somewhere in the air.  It’s amazing how quickly they can take the money but giving it back is so much more difficult.  It’s been a three week battle and all I can say at this point is I love money and Kim from the bank.

Now we’re at the end of December and just about to the Christmas fun.  It’s a really good thing too because I think we could really use some extra Christmas cheer this year.

So with all of that, I promise that there will be lots of pictures including November and December coming real soon.  Thanks for being patient.

We carved two pumpkins this year, Bert and Ernie.  They never did get hair but they’re cute anyway.  Peter wasn’t such a fan of the actual pumpkin but rather enjoyed the goop.  He also really liked to drive the chunks of pumpkin that got cut out.  I guess we never got a picture of the actual final product but really they look pretty much the same, but one tall one with a uni-brow and one short round one without.

This morning we woke up to a special treat.  Dustin made bagels.  Peter was a big fan.

Then this evening Peter transformed into his favorite thing ever, Ernie.  We made his nose red and the front of his hair black.  He wasn’t a fan of waiting for it all to dry but we made it through.  We made a few stops to trick or treat.  We’ve been trying to teach him “Trick or Treat” for a week now.  He didn’t say it.  He did like the candy that he got from the people anyway.

Towards the end of September Donna, Paul, Drew, Dustin, and I were up at the cabin.  It was the Gandy’s big celebration.  The day ended up being a mini-tour.  We finished out the day at the Gandy and then came home tired and done.

Peter is a really good eater.  He’ll eat everything but a few green items.  Well that is until he discovered frozen peas.  He couldn’t eat them fast enough.  I guess I know how to get some green in him.

We got snow!

Dustin celebrated his birthday so I made him a cake.  He got to pick whatever flavor he wanted.  He picked german chocolate.  I did have for him and put regular chocolate frosting on my half.

It was a sad, sad day when the boat came out of the lake.  Dustin, Donna, Scoop and I took the last ride to the landing and it was cold.  Paul met us with the truck and trailer and out it went.  Dustin and Zoey rode on the boat back to the cabin.  It’s now hibernating for the winter under the roof.

After the boat came out, we were able to start our annual tavern tour.  This year we started at Hillside.  We then went to a lovely bridge to have lunch on the side of the road.  Next we went to Rosenthals.  Tami was celebrating her 40th birthday.  We played with the trivia cards at Roamers (even though it’s not really called Roamers anymore.)  The Shop had tasty appetizers.  Just ask Donna about the mushrooms.  Finally, we rounded the day out at the Crow Bar.  Once we got back to the cabin, there was suppose to be a post party but the other people never made it.  Overall, it was a great day.

Peter got a bunch of fun Halloween gifts from a Halloween gift exchange.  He got a sweet hat and gloves, some really cute outfits, and a big green pumpkin bucket.  His favorite was to put the fruit snack packets he got in and out of the bucket.  He didn’t realize until later that there was goodness in the packets.  We also put the fun pumpkin and spider window clings on our front window.

Zoey got a haircut.  She looks and smells awesome now!  She even got pretty pink bows.

And to round out the post, here are some fun pictures of Peter hammering.