My Blog

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.

So I realised that it’s been much to long since we’ve added some fun updates and pictures so pull up a seat and here we go.

First off, there are of course fun cabin pictures.  Peter decided that he needed his hat and then sun glasses all on his own.  One of his favorite toys up there is sticks.  There is one stick in particular that he loves.  It’s actually lasted multiple weeks.  I don’t think Zoey is as much of a fan but they work it out.  Peter also figured out how to climb up on the riding lawn mower.  We’ll have to put him to work sooner than I thought.

Bethy, Peter and I went to the Como Zoo before school started.  We had fun seeing all the animals.  Peter was very serious the whole time.  He wasn’t a fan of the monkeys.  Flamingos are a winner, zebras were kind of cool, and he really likes pictures of giraffes so we admired the real thing.  I think he had more fun while we waited for the Sparky show and playing with the spoon from the ice cream.  We all thought the butterfly tent was super cool.  They were every where and huge!

Bethy went to visit her grandpa Ralph and we were fortunate enough to reap the benefits.  There’s nothing better than fresh sweet corn that was picked right before you eat it.  Peter couldn’t agree more.  Although, he was a little confused on which end to eat.  Once he got it straightened out, he ate two whole ears!  

The family went to the State Fair this year.  I love going every year so it was fun to be able to share the experience with Peter.  He thought it was awesome as there was so much to see, smell, taste, and hear.  Everyone loved his hat.  He even got a free button because of the sweet hat.  He’s a little man after my own heart and loved the chickens.  He even tried talking to them.  He wasn’t so sure on the pigs but they are really big and loud.  One of our party did end up crashing after all the sun, food, and fun.  That meant it was time to go but we’ll be back next year for sure.  

We went with my parents, Jim and Sherry, on a day trip to Lark Toys.  It’s an awesome toy store in Kellogg, MN.  There are so many rooms full of really good toys.  Peter got to pick a wooden pull toy.  He had a good time testing them each out but finally decided on a giraffe.  He also ended up with two cars and a new bib.  Even Dustin got something, a deck of cards with scientists on them.  After we shopped and played, it was time to ride the hand carved carousel.  Peter rode the chicken and it didn’t go so well.  He cried the whole time.  We did move to the cart being pulled by an ostrich and that wasn’t as bad.  We’ll wait to try another ride for awhile.  After the toy store, we at lunch at a cute cafe.  Peter was a fan of the Amish family’s cute kids.  We went to a creamery and had ice cream.  Peter really liked all the big bikes that where there.  Then we admired the beautiful drive home through Wisconsin.  

September 19th was the 5k walk.  I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t make it.  In my head that seems like forever.  We all gathered at Thomas Beach on Lake Calhoun.  Matt Logelin stood up and thanked everyone for coming.  He held up Maddy but she didn’t have as much to say, although she made the rounds later and had plenty to talk about then.  (I think Peter has found his future bride.)  We then all started off around the lake.  Peter thought he should walk like everyone else.  He wasn’t very speedy though and had fallen earlier so he had a scraped knee.  After we convinced him it was better to ride, we cruised on.  I was amazed when I asked if we were almost half way done and found out we only had blocks left.  I actually made it!  Thanks for everyone’s support.  

And finally after all of that, we’re worn out…

Yesterday, we completed harvest of the 2009 hop crop. This year we were able to recover quite a bit of Cascade, some Chinook, Mt. Hood and a small amount of Perle and Goldings. It’s going to be an exciting brewing year!

On September 19^th Dustin, Peter, and I will be doing a 5k walk on Lake Calhoun. The walk is to raise money for the Liz Logelin Foundation. This foundation was created in honor of Liz who died twenty four hours after giving birth. Her husband Matt was left to raise their daughter, Madeline, while trying to grieve the loss of his wife. Through this hardship, he has been able to create a foundation to help other families who have lost a husband or wife and are in need of financial help raising their children.

I am very grateful every day for the many blessing in my life. I have a wonderful husband who supports me and loves me. I have a healthy and happy son who is growing and exploring his world every day. We all have friends and family that we know we can turn to and count on in good times as well as hard times. To be able to share even just a little piece of that happiness with someone in need is an honor.

I’m turning to you for help in this cause. We would love to have your emotional support for this walk. Let’s face it, a 5k walk seems a little daunting to a novice with old lady bones pushing a stroller. We would also welcome any financial support. I know times can be tight for everyone now so if you can’t give much, or anything, I understand. I also know that because times are tight, even the little bit we can do will make a difference to those in need.

Thank you for your love and support,

Annie (along with Dustin and Peter)

P.S. – For more information on the foundation and walk, you can go to http://thelizlogelinfoundation.org/