Gearing up for Christmas!

Miss Alissa has helped us make some great crafts to gear up for Christmas. Jasper came home a couple weeks ago with a construction paper link leading up to the 25 days of Christmas. Jasper gets so excited to take off a link each day. He does want to chew on the paper after we take off the link, so that sometimes is a challenge. And he also made a glittery pine cone ornament. It's up on the tree - smack dab in the middle where everyone can see it! Cozmo was thrilled to see that on the tree - pine cones are his FAVORITE, especially the ones out at the Wilson's house - he could play with those forever!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving! We were able to spend the morning with the Wilsons and afternoon with Grandma Vicki and family. We spent the day eating, sleeping, playing Wii, looking at Black Friday ads, and playing board games. Jasper enjoyed his first Thanksgiving - but he did say that he can't wait until he gets to actually eat the food, although he did enjoy green beans and turkey baby food in spirit of the holiday! AND he traced his hand and made a turkey out of a pumpkin at Miss Alissa's! *unfortunately, we didn't charge our camera batteries so we didn't get any turkey day pictures with grandma vicki and family :( note to self: charge batteries for next year!

Santa Claus

(Note: I have photos to attach to this entry but couldn't get them to load. Soon.)

Jasper met Santa Claus for the first time Nov. 28 during Christmas in Olde Town (Altoona). 

As you can see, he was a little nervous at first, however he warmed up to the Jolly One quickly and then couldn't take his eyes off the beard.

Hopefully he gets what he asked for. We'd hate to disappoint the kid on his first Christmas!

Change of pace

With regular sitter Alissa fighting a cold Dec. 4 Jasper visited some new friends at Angie Julander's house. She said he was a good boy all day and, by the look of these photos, he made some new buddies.

Love this photo!

While mom was at great-aunt Sandy's baking cookies on Sunday dad and Jasper played ... and played ... and played until grandpa Paul and grandma Debbie got there for a visit.

Of course, I had the camera and caught Jasper — who stands at EVERY opportunity — trying to get the attention of his puppy, the Coz.

I just love this photo! (Even with the dirty glass!)

Christmas time

We stopped on our way out of Wells Fargo Arena Dec. 4 after the Iowa Energy's first home game to snap a photo (thank goodness for the timer) in front of a big Christmas tree. I'm sure there will be FAR more Christmas tree photos now that we've got ours up at home, too.

Iowa Energy

The Wilsons continue to support Iowa's best professional basketball team, the Iowa Energy, who play their home games at Wells Fargo Arena. The Energy opened the 2008-09 season with a big win Dec. 4 against Albuquerque and we were there.

It was technically Jasper's first game, although Nat and I went to a dozen or more Energy games last year (when she was pregnant) — we were season ticketholders. We chose not to renew our tickets this season but I'm sure we'll make it to a handful of games.

Jasper loved the bright lights, the continuous movement on the court and, of course, the dancing girls!!!