The New Van

So, here is the newest [as of yet unnamed] member of the family:

Parked in the driveway at my parent's house
A picture of the odometer: 82 miles! Kind of exciting for us because this is our first new car!


PS Car purchasing details are now all worked out. However, the work is not done because we still have to pay state sales tax and work out the license plate stuff because the dealership was being...well, poopy.

Crafting Revealed

This holiday season, I was feeling especially crafty! Almost every night in December I got my craft on in my new craft area in our basement (pictures of craft area coming soon). Here are just a few of the things that I made for family members (with some help from John in one case).

This is kind of an odd picture, but the gift is actually behind grandma on the fireplace. John and I made my parents a fireplace guard similar to the one at our house. It fits tightly over the fireplace to prevent the bumping of noggins on the stone. I had some leftover material and ended up making 3 matching throw pillows for the couch (not pictured at all for some reason). A little bit amazing is that this gift was so large it was hanging over the top of the backseat on the passenger side during our trip to MN. Although it was right next to me, it didn't touch me at ALL during the rolling action we experience in the car. Which is good because underneath the soft batting is very hard 2x4' s and plywood. A little bit sad is that we had wrapped this in big lawn garbage bags because of the size. During the confusion after the accident, this gift was temporarily misplaced (and I thought thrown away). With a little work, we were able to get it back from some very nice people. However, it was damaged on one side at some point.
I made a baby quilt for Cana! Wooohoooo! I was actually sewing the binding on this quilt when the accident happened. Still not sure how I didn't end up with a needle/pin in my eye, but I didn't!

This is a quilt I actually started in 2002 as a gift for my friend Jessica, who was getting married. The pattern of the quilt is called "Greek Cross", which is where she went on her honeymoon. Time got away from me and I didn't ever get the quilt done. But, I didn't feel right giving her the baby quilt and not her wedding quilt. So, I hurried up and finished this quilt also.

The backside (shows the stitching) of the wedding quilt


In addition, I created 3 different photo calendars for our families which I didn't take pictures of....

Car Shopping

One of the biggest tasks we had to accomplish/decide before we could make the trip home was regarding the car. Just before Christmas, the insurance company called to inform us our car was indeed totaled (umm...DUH!). We had a small amount of rental car insurance we could use.

So, we weighed the options. Use the rental insurance to get home and then buy a new car. Or use the legendary babysitting services available at the grandparent's house and buy a car in Rochester. John and I decided to look at cars in Rochester to see if we could narrow things down a little bit. It was unbelievably helpful to have Grandma and Grandpa around to watch our tornado during this time. Otherwise we have a scenario that looks a lot like this:


One of us asks a question
Car salesperson responds
William runs away
One of us has to follow him
Anywhere between 10 -15 minutes elapse when parent returns with William in tow
William starts wiggling/whining
Parents try to catch each other up. Difficult to hear over the increasingly loud protests of the lap restrained William.
Repeat several times
Leave the dealership with sore muscles, headaches and frustration over not knowing all the answers to the questions asked or if you missed something important during the tantrum.

So, very very helpful to have willing and economical babysitting available to us. While shopping we quickly determined that we needed to look for vehicles in the minivan class (shock! horror! us! A minivan!). Neither one of us is at all interested in owning another SUV at the moment. In the end, I fell madly in love with a Hond@ Ody$ey. I would have made out with this van in the parking lot if it would have made any price difference for us. But it didn't. And, the Toyota Sienna had an almost identical feature list with a price tag close to $5000 less. We negotiated, I cried, and John did research. Apparently a LOT of people are in love with the Sienna (Consumer Reports, Edmunds Review to name a few - I'd link you, but I'm lazy. Maybe you'll get lucky and John will come back in and hook you up).

You all know how the story ends: we drove home in a 2009 Toyota Sienna. And it is lovely. I'm still trying to get over my torrid imaginary afair with the Ody$ey so the Sienna can have a chance. It hasn't swept me off my feet yet - but to be fair, I haven't really given it a chance. The previous love affair aside, several things are holding me back. First of all, this is a brand new car and I didn't really get to pick what color I wanted. We were hugely limited by time and the features we wanted in our van. The features narrowed the search down to ONE vehicle on the lot: silver with a gray (leather!) interior. Not a bad choice, maybe even what I would have picked if I someone had handed me the rainbow and told me to pick. I'm just a little crabby I didn't get to pick. The second issue was the financing. The financing was just short of a nightmare. We started the paperwork on Tuesday afternoon. Close to four hours later, we walked out of the dealership without a car and a tired, hungry, crabby baby (I thought the shopping was the longest part, not the part where you write a check and walk away with keys). The next morning we spent an additional hour at the dealership working on things on top of close to 2 hours of time on the phone with the bank/dealership. Two days after we started the process, we drove home in a van that wasn't completely ours.

We started the financing on 12/30/09 and we didn't actually complete the financing until 1/2/09. I will be fair and throw in the fact that the first was a holiday with both the bank/dealership closed - but still! Totally a stressful experience when I was imagning having to somehow get the vehicle back to Minnesota because things didn't work out.

So! That is the whole story! It is done! It is all good now! And...this a little piece of what William was doing with Grandpa and Grandma while we were out!

Building track races with Grandpa

Eating snowman ice cream with Grandma after dinner (I'm also informed that he cuted himself MANY cookies during this time also. The key? He has learned the all important word: please)
Ice cream, what a treat!
Rocking with Grandpa while reading books or watching a little TV
Trying to walk in Grandma's shoes.

Breathe in that New Baby Smell....

What a treat! I was able to use the good Grandparent baby sitting services and sneak over to my best friend Jessica's house to get my hands on her brand new baby girl: Cana Christine! She was absolutely beautiful with a TON of dark hair! It was great to see I haven't lost any of my baby holding skills, although I did manage to drop Cana's pacifier down the front of my shirt while holding her. I am tempted to blame Cana as the pacifier started out IN her mouth and ended in my shirt. Luckily Jessica and Chris were very forgiving of my ineptness!

Me with my future daughter in law?

More Rochester Christmas (Heidt)

It is a good thing that Christmas is my favorite holiday and favorite time of the year. Because this year we had a whole lot of Christmas! On December 26th, we celebrated with John's family at his brother's house in Rochester. It was wonderful to have everyone together to visit and watch the kids play together. Before we had children, I wouldn't have rated watching kids play with their cousins very high on the list of things I was excited about. However, every time they are together, I have to admit at get a little teary just seeing how cute they are together (most of the time). It is so heart warming and wonderful! Now, my only regret is there aren't MORE cousins out there for us to play with (Hear that aunties and uncles? My mother is going to kill me).

William with his Uncle Mike Heidt. At one point Mike had all three of the youngest cousins balanced on his lap - would have made an adorable picture except I was worried one would topple over if I wasn't right there.

We were in luck that Christmas was at Uncle Mike's house! He has LOTS of cools toys for us to play with (it helps that Mike's kids are only 6 month younger than William). William was obsessed with mowing their carpet. He ran many laps around their house before dinnertime mowing down the carpet.

Jungle Jim: At one point, most of the little kids were climbing up, over and around Uncle Jim and [cousin] Ben! I missed that photo opportunity as I was worried about head bumping or finger stepping occurring without supervision!
After 5 different Christmases, William finally figures out the presents and opening of them. Wow! Puzzles! Thank you cousin Mikey!

Oooohhh....admiring the puzzle!
And a car! And an airplane! Thank you Uncle Joe and Aunt Cathy!

William LOVED this playhouse! (hint hint....birthday coming up...) All the kids enjoyed trying out Alex and Elena's new toy house. William especially liked the doorbell that would ring. Who is it? Someone is here! He would say every time.

Christmas Morning with McGarry's Grand Forks

Growing up, we always spent Christmas morning with my dad's family. This year was no exception. The only difference was that we had to leave in the afternoon in order to be back for the Heidt family Christmas the next day. I don't know if we've ever made such a quick trip before (or if we'll ever try to do it that way again. It was a long time in the car.).

Eating Christmas breakfast - yogurt, banana followed by....

First on the agenda was eating GranGerry's carmel rolls. William approved very much of this kind of breakfast. I think he ate two whole rolls by himself (and NO I wouldn't normally let him eat that, but it was Christmas!).

Getting ready to open gifts AGAIN! William was more interested in all the choo choo train ornaments on Grangerry's tree. We didn't really get very many pictures of him opening presents because it was hard to juggle the camera, help him and help John with different present opening tasks - sorry! We got a lot of great gifts!
William was so tired after opening presents, it was time to "sleep". This is one of his favorite games. Everyone gets a pillow and blanket and has to lay down while pretending to snore.
Another fun game: hiding under GranGerry's tiny tea table.
Something about this game he found hysterical. We played it over and over and over and over again.

Wearing his borrowed ski hat from GranGerry on the way to the Wennersten's.

William loves his Great Grandpa Budd. Well, he loves all his Great Grandparents. But, he is especially fond of Great Grandpa Budd. Grandpa Budd almost always has candy in his front shirt pocket. On Christmas Eve, William patted Granpa's shirt and didn't find candy. Great Grandpa had to do some work, but came through for us on Christmas Morning. Since we've been home, we've talked about Great Grandpa Budd almost every day. William always says "Grandpa Budd candy pocket?"

Michael wearing his Christmas stocking

The backseat of my parent's van (and a handsome man sleeping). I don't think we would have ever sat this well together growing up. Now that we are physically bigger, it is still amazing to me that we made it 6+ hours this close to each other without fighting. If you look carefully, I'm putting the binding on one of my quilts - hooray for completed projects!

The roads going home weren't always great. This meant an extra added dose of anxiety for this mama. However, the roads were dry, the sun was shining and I wasn't driving... so onward we went.

Christmas Eve: Grand Forks Wennerstens

Because we are crazy, we decided to go with the rest of my family to North Dakota as planned for Christmas. However, because of the unplanned accident and following surgery, we couldn't leave the day we planned. This forced everyone in my immediate family to leave on 12/24 and make the return trip on 12/25. that would add up to about 13+ hours in the car in roughly a 24 hour period. Not ideal for anyone, especially people who are nice enough to transport the crabby pregnant chick (that would be me) and the unpredictable toddler (that would be our kid).

Traditionally, we celebrate Christmas Eve with my mom's family by going out to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. This year, we didn't make it in time, so we had to start with yet another tradition: Christmas dinner. Christmas dinner for 15 is a pretty big deal though no matter how you look at it.

Grandpa Budd lighting the centerpiece candles before dinner. One looooooooooooong table. Another favorite tradition: no kid's table. Everyone HAS to eat at the same table because that is why we are there: to be together!
Aunt Megan entertaining William before dinner. Here they are "booming" down the steps. Don't know how to play? Sit your backside on the step and slide it down to the step below you. When your behind hits the step, say "BOOM!" Very, very fun!
Grandpa's turn for entertaining. Here they are talking on the phone using Great Grandpa's Yatzee game.
Grandma and Aunt Megan doing dishes
Mama trying to set up the tripod for some family pictures in front of the tree. Yet another great tradition is taking a family picture of each family group in front of the Christmas tree. I used to HATE and I mean hate this tradition. However, now I really appreciate being able to look back and remember each Christmas and see how our family has changed.
But, then everyone decided they would rather sit on the couch. Argh! Oh well! Here are all my cousins on my mom's side of the family and my grandparents (mom's parents).
My immediate family
The McGarry's (and Heidt's)
The Heidt's (and mama is rocking the "Very, very tired" look here). I think this look is going to be very in in 2009...especially at our house
More Heidt's
My grandpa wears this same bow tie and pop up Santa pin every year. I remember playing with the Santa when I was really little. It is pretty special to see William playing with it this year (and he was FASCINATED).
William didn't really understand the whole present thing at first. He was more interested in picking up all the wrapping paper and putting it into Great Grandpa's garbage bag.
Helping Mama open up his presents: Mr Potato Head
He LOVED it! We spent a LONG time playing with Mr Potato Head before we could move on to the next present. This face he is working on is a little bit Picasso-esque, don't you think?
Grandpa trying out Scott's new binoculars...can you see Santa?