Marc and Tina's Wedding

This morning we headed out from Lakeville at 5:45 a.m. and drove 5 1/2 hours to Grand Forks, North Dakota for my brother's wedding. Marc and Tina had a small ceremony and tonight we will have the reception. I am so excited for Marc and my new sister Tina to start their lives together. Marc even got a little choked up- typical Cloutier style...ha! I'll post more pictures later from the reception and the swimming pool fun at the hotel.

Night Time Stories

Here are some pictures of the girls that I took using my new camera. You might notice one child with a band-aid and the other with a huge scar on her nose. Annika got a little wild and crazy dancing to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer music and ran into a kitchen chair and Kate mysteriously got a huge cut on her nose during nap time- who knows!! We just hope that all of the scars and bruises disappear by next Friday for Uncle Marc and Tina's wedding in Grand Forks, ND.

Happy New Year!

It's very hard for me to believe that it is already 2009! That means my babies are going to be 3 years old. It just can't be! We had a fun New Years at Uncle Chad and Aunt Jenny's house in New Prague. We also celebrated with Grandma Bakke, who drove up from Westbrook. The girls had fun with their party hats and noise makers, but unfortunately my camera decided to die on New Year's Eve. So today I went and purchased a new Canon Powershot SD790 Digital Elph to replace my trusty old PowerShot A75 that I bought almost 6 years ago. It treated me well up until two days ago. I can't wait to try out my new camera and post some pictures really soon. Also, thanks to my friend Jenni for designing a new header for our family blog. I think it looks great! Happy 2009 and God's blessings to you all!

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!