Altoona tree lighting

I'm so mad at myself for blowing these photos from a tree lighting ceremony Dec. 10 in Altoona. It was so dark I couldn't get my camera to focus and, when it did, the flash blasted them.

Ugh.

Oh well. We all had a great time and Jasper loved giving Santa hugs and visiting with him. We also got to go for a horse-drawn carriage ride. J liked it but was more interested in the bags hanging from the backside of the horses. "What those for?" he asked. We tactfully explained what they were for but he didn't quite get it until one of the horses actually used his bag and we caught a wiff. (Ewww!)

Merry Christmas!

Hide-N-Seek

Jasper has found a new fun spot to hide - in his closet. Adam took a picture of him while he was attempting to hide, even though, we would say "Jasper, where are you?" and everytime he answered, "I'm hiding in my closet!"

Bed Head!

Jasper woke up with some crazy bed-head and we had to take a picture! I called him Spike the rest of that day!

We're Building Bears...and Owls...

One of Grandma Vicki's Christmas gifts to Jasper and Noah was a trip to the Build-A-Bear Workshop at Jordan Creek Mall. Jasper decided he wanted to build a bear, which he called Teddy. Noah chose an owl, which he called Turner, named after the fact that the owl's head turns around - very clever! Noah had done this before, so he showed Jasper the ropes. They picked their animal of choice, watched as the Build-A-Bear crew stuffed them until just the right "fluffines," took a red heart, kissed it, rubbed it in their hands, and made a wish and placed it in their newly adopted animal, washed it off, then made a birth certificate. And the trip was complete with Jasper picking out a firefighter costume and Noah, a Woody costume.

We had a fun time and Teddy and Turner are sure to be great pals!

*This was a trip with cousin Noah on Saturday afternoon. Friday night/Saturday morning Cousin Sydney spent the night with us and we went to Breakfast with Santa - those pictures will be posted soon - it was a great cousin's weekend! Jasper was saying 'I love my cousins' by the time the weekend was over.

Putting up the Christmas Tree!

We headed off to Menards on a cold Tuesday night to pick out our Christmas Tree! Hopefully one day, we'll make the trek out to an actual Christmas Tree Farm like Adam and I have done once or twice when we were first married, but for now, Menards gave us just as fun of an experience! Jasper was very involved in picking out the tree telling us 'whoa that's a big one' or pushing the cart near us so we could load up the tree.

After we got home, Daddy cut off a portion of the stump and got it all ready for the decorating to begin. We put on the lights, decorations, and completed it with a star on top.

Another special decoration to us this year is a ceramic Santa, painted by Great Grandma Bev. It plays "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and Jasper likes to twist it up so the music plays.

The bottom picture is the "pre-decorated tree" where Jasper was holding up his star decoration that he made at the Festival of Trees.

2010 Festival of Trees

Jman, Grandma Vicki, and I headed to the 2010 Festival of Trees. It is put on every year at the Polk County Convention Complex in Des Moines and proceeds benefit Blank Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, my camera batteries were low, so I only got one photo. But this is a photo of Jman and Grandma Vicki in front of the M&M Tree. We enjoyed looking at the beautiful trees and had a nice visit with Santa where Jasper asked for a vacuum and tractor (both in green if possible). We got stuff to make a marshmallow snowman (the booth was out of frosting) and were planning on riding the train, until the train broke down as soon as we were headed in it's direction. Despite these bumps in the road, we still had a great time!

Bittersweet Thanksgiving

This year's Thanksgiving was a little bittersweet. It was the first Thanksgiving without Jasper's Great Grandpa Bob and his Great Grandma Bev. We missed them both, but were thankful for the time we were able to spend with both the Wilsons and Trissel side. Here are a couple photos of Jman, Dom, and Perri reading with Uncle Tim on the Trissel side and Syd and Grandma Debbie and Jman and his cousin, Joey, playing, at Phyllis' house on the Wilson side.

Potty chart

Potty training is going very well with Jasper. He goes a couple of times every day at day care and a couple of times at night when we're home.

Here he holds up his potty chart after going for the first time at Alissa's. He gets a sticker each time he goes when he's there, but we've upped the ante and he gets M&Ms at home.