The Holidazzle Parade

I know that this picture is a little late- but I wanted to show everyone our first Holidazzle Parade picture. For those who don't know, the Holidazzle is a parade that takes place on Nicolet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. It takes place in the evenings and the floats and people are all lit up with Christmas lights. The girls really enjoyed the twinkle lights and Christmas songs. Santa and his reindeer even finished up the parade. We went for the first time this year with our good friends Kati and Jeff and their children Natalie and Leah. We got a parking spot just as the parade was starting, so we sort of had to hurry. Sadly the drive out of the parking garage took longer than the entire parade. Somehow we got lucky and only waited 20-25 minutes to get out of downtown Minneapolis, Kati and Jeff had to sit for 45 minutes. Yuck! Next year we will head up super early and camp out on the sidewalk so we don't have to hold the kids on our shoulders the whole time. Annika had the best view of all, atop Daddy's shoulders.

Yippee!

Hi everyone! Yippee.....we are now home in Lakeville after a great week up north in Two Harbors. It was so much fun playing in all of the snow and hanging out with family. But as always, it's nice to be back in our own home. The mountain of laundry is shrinking and the pile of snow clothes is packed away- now on to the rest of winter break! We are excited because we get another whole week of family fun. First we are going to spend a couple of days hanging at home and then I will head off to school for a few hours to get ready for the next two weeks- a teacher's work is never done! I am sure we will sneak in a trip to the Minnesota Zoo as well as maybe the Children's Museum in St. Paul. Then on Wednesday Grandma Bakke, Jason's mom, is coming up to the Twin Cities to celebrate a late Christmas with us and Uncle Chad and Aunt Jenny. We will spend New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in New Prague at Chad and Jenny's house. I am going to head over to our local party store and pick up some hats and noise makers to help the girls ring in the new year. I'll be sure to post some pictures, too.

Sledding Fun and Almost a Disaster!

Some Christmas day fun was in store for the Bakke family today. We are up at my parent's house where they have over two feet of snow to play in. The girls have been loving their sledding adventures- their giggles are awesome. Today we almost had a disaster, we can laugh about it now, but I wasn't laughing when it happened. Daddy and Grandpa thought that the sledding was more fun (fast and slippery) on the driveway. For those of you who don't know, my parents live on the only highway that leads from Duluth to Canada along the north shore of Minnesota. It is a very busy highway. Well.... Annika was on her way down the "hill" and Grandpa was supposed to catch her...well after first trying to stop her with his boots, then failing with his hands, he finally went diving for the sled with Kate in his hands and saved her. They were still a good distance from the actual highway, but I was scared! Thank goodness no cars were coming! So.....Momma has decided there will be no more sledding down the driveway. Later in the afternoon Jason and I and Marc and Tina went snowshoeing on my parents 40 acres. It was amazing!! For those who don't know Marc and Tina are getting married on January 9, 2009. How exciting! Enjoy the videos, pictures and giggles. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the North Shore!

A Very Snowy Day!

It has been snowing since eight this morning and it doesn't show any signs of stopping! So I ran to Target and picked up some supplies for baking and bought the girls a big girl sled! Our neighbors have a small sledding hill in their backyard so we headed over there for a little. The girls had fun and thought it was silly. They especially loved throwing snow on Ginger- so funny! Right now the girls and Jason are napping and I am enjoying George C. Scott in the Christmas Carol and some yummy eggnog. I LOVE winter break! The snow will probably cancel my dinner plans with my college friend Jodi, but I would rather not end up in a ditch in St. Paul or worse. The temperature is supposed to drop dramatically tonight and the wind chill will hit a lovely -30 again. So the blowing and drifting snow will create a frozen tundra out there. I am glad that we got outside to enjoy a beautiful snowy day. God bless!

Christmas Cookies

It is Christmas cookie time! The girls and I cheated the last few nights and made store bought sugar cookies. Kate and Annika had so much fun placing the cookies on the sheet. First they were all along the edges, then stacked in towers, then spread all over the place. They were being really silly, but they loved it. This weekend we will do some real baking to get ready for my annual cookie baking get together with my college friends Jodi, Jenni and Laura. We've been getting together every December since 2002. This year the event includes doing all of the baking ahead of time and then just relaxing with some appetizers and wine while the husbands and children play. We usually spend an entire day mixing, baking, cleaning and sorting all of the goodies between the four of us- this year we decided to just have the fun part together, rather than the work. I think it will be great! Hopefully the next two snow storms won't interfere with our plans. We are going to get more snow tonight into Friday and then again on Sunday. We are heading up to Two Harbors on Monday morning for a week up north. We are looking forward to some time away in the great northwoods of Minnesota, plus all of the yummy food we plan to make. Jason and I are going to attempt to make Norwegian Christmas bread and sweet soup this year, just like Grandma Luella. Cross your fingers!

A Winter Wonderland

We are in the middle of a wintry blast of snow and wind. It started yesterday afternoon, unfortunately Jason was out running in it- yuck! Today our high temperature did not get above -1 degrees with a windchill of around -28 degrees. BRRRR! For a few days it was around 33 degrees and the snow was starting to melt, but after last nights snowfall we are all white again for Christmas. My parents had a blizzard over the weekend and ended up with about 12 inches of snow- we can't wait to see it! Only four more days until winter break or rather a much needed mental health break- ha!

A New Adventure....

We are officially potty training! We are using big girl pants, well sort of-they are called pull-ups. Annika doing great! She told us three times today that she had to go potty and she did! She was so proud. We keep asking Kate if she has to go and she just says, "No, I'm good." Typical! Annika has always been the leader of the two, so I am sure Kate will follow in her footsteps quickly.

A Gingerbread House!

Tonight we decorated a gingerbread house with Grandma and Grandpa Cloutier. It was a lot of sticky fun. Thanks to Uncle Nathan and Auntie Jen for a great early Christmas present.

Cousin Fun!

Last weekend we were back in Avoca at Grandma Bakke and Great Grandma's farm. The girls got to see their cousins Brooke and Brayden. They haven't seen each other since summer, but they picked up right where they left off....having fun!

All I want for Christmas....

Last night when we got home from our trip to Grandma Great's farm Annika was playing with her stickers. The girls use them almost everyday and it's really good fine motor skills practice for them, well.... they are almost all gone. So Annika came up to me and said, "Mama, do you think Santa could bring more stickers for Annika?" I chuckled and thought that Santa could probably handle getting some stickers!

Then today at daycare the girl's friend Natalie was holding her new baby sister Leah. Well, Annika wanted to hold her sister too. I guess she wouldn't let Kate go. She wanted to be just like Natalie. Gotta love it!