Hairspray!!

For Ella's 4th Birthday she opened her hair salon. I was lucky enough to get an appointment. I found that Ella and her assistants Emma and Ruby believe in the power of product, lots and lots of product.

Before

During

After
*Note I paid $1 and I'm about to get $5 in change, I think that sounds about right!

Eventually the stylists got tired and took a cake tasting break.

Happy 4th Birthday Ella!!

January Update

I got excited this week because we received the last of our stage one paperwork. I was psyched to send it all in today but sadly some of the forms have to be redone. I'm hoping we can get it off next week though, the end of step one is in sight.

We also got our 171 - H!! This is the $800 piece of paper that says we can bring an orphan in to the U.S. It takes months to get so it is kind of a big deal.

We finally had a baby shower for Bianca and Everett. We played my favorite shower game, Pass the Baby. Everett was a good sport.

First Picture of 2010

We had a quiet New Years Eve with Maren and Ken playing Wii and eating Tacos. Here's hoping 2010 is the year dreams come true.

Last But Not Least

We spent Christmas morning debating whether to brave the snow and make the trip to Iowa. We decided we couldn't get snowed out of Christmas! The drive was o.k. until the temp dropped 20 degrees between Albert Lea and Clear Lake (a difference of only 35 miles.) Fortunately for us, other drivers hit the ice first and we had a freeway lined with cop cars warning us to slow down. We made it to Brian and Melody's for a delicious Christmas dinner thrown together at the last minute. The next few days were spent hanging out with family we don't get to see enough, playing games and eating lots of Christmas favorites like Grandma's Cherry Dessert and Melody's Kumla.
The new Norman Rockwell? It was tough to pull the boys away from world domination for our annual cousin picture so we decided to embrace today's version of playing games together. The living room was almost always full of this scene.
O.k. we played some good old fashioned card games too. Rook is always a family favorite but we also played lots of Bananagrams and Monopoly Deal this year.

Grandma Dody with the Grandkids. We are lucky the whole family can still get together for on Christmas.
A little healthy cousin rivalry. Jeff and Erik picked rival colleges to attend. So at Christmas the cousin who attended the school who lost the Wartburg vs Luther football game has to wear apparel from the winning school and sing their fight song. This year Luther lost!

Christmas Eve

Was spent with the Thieles. We opened way too many gifts in the morning before the extended family arrived for a poker tournament (where Brian was unable to defend the scuba frog) and a white elephant gift exchange.