Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!  We had the entire extended family over and it was a blast.  Elsa and Nora sang at church on Christmas Eve and then it was time for a huge meal and presents!  There are a few new pictures up and this video on our YouTube link of Elsa and Nora waiting for Santa.

Piano Recital

The Twins had their winter recital on Sunday and we've got the exclusive footage.  They played as they usually do, a little timid yet.  We added a few more videos to our YouTube page; the link is just to the left of the photo slideshow. 

The Party

The big party was this last weekend and from the pictures it looks like Jenna had a great time.  Thanks to all who made it that day and helped out.  And thanks for all the gifts for Jenna, she loves them!  There are a couple of new photos in the slideshow.  In one of them you will probably see Jenna crawling on top of her new activity table.  It took her all of about 2 minutes to get her leg up there and try to stand up.  Quite the little adventurer.

Jenna's ONE!

Happy Birthday to Jenna today!  
I'm not sure if the picture shows it or not, but being a Gregory girl, she did manage to fall into the corner of our bed a few days ago.  She took it right on the bridge of her nose, and this was exactly 15 minutes before our family photo for the church directory.  Other than that she's been doing well, organizing and then disasterizing everything in sight.  We haven't had a lot of new pictures but there should be some up after her party.

Texas wedding

The girls had a blast at the wedding this weekend.  Lots of running around, some wild dancing and then some more running around made for a fun night.  They also had some fun in Austin at Zilker Park and in San Antonio shopping along the river.  There's more pictures up in the slideshow as usual, including some new ones of Jenna.

Pumpkin Fest and School Pics

The few photos from Pumkin Fest are up and Elsa and Nora got their school photos today.  They had some pretty good smiles and they were happy with them.

Jenna Walking & a Trip to the Apple Orchard

Here's a short clip of Jenna taking a few steps.  I apologize for the quality, it was shot from my iPod but I think you'll get the gist of it.  She doesn't take much more than about 10 steps at a time, however if you hold her hand she literally runs.  She's going to be quite the terror in a few months.


Melissa and the girls took a Sunday trip to the apple orchard and picked some apples this last weekend.  Melissa got some nice pictures of it.  Everyone is getting excited about going up north for Pumpkin fest soon and I'm sure we'll have a post up shortly after we are back.

GO Brewers!

So these pictures aren't from the game today, I had to dig them out of the vault, but here's to the Brewers being one game up on the Diamondbacks.

Short trip to Christchurch

We've spent the last two days about two hours north of Christchurch in a vacation town called Hamner Springs.  Finally we've gotten to see some of the views that are so often talked about.  We spent Friday hiking up to a waterfall and then taking a dip in the hot springs here.  Quite the way to spend the night after a three hour hike.  Tomorrow morning we head back to Napier and then it's time to head back home.

Greetings from Tomorrow

Just thought we'd make a quick post.  The trip is going well so far, the flight down here wasn't quite as bad as we were expecting.  Melissa is working through Wednesday when we'll go down to Christchurch for 2 nights and then back up here.  The weather wasn't too bad Sunday and Monday, but now it looks like we're going to get a stretch of rain and high winds for the next 2 or 3 days.  I put just a few of the pictures we took in the slideshow, but there will be plenty more the next few days.

Talk to everyone later,

J&M

School Starts and Camping

The twins had their first day of school last week...1st Graders!  They were both looking forward to getting back to school and hanging out with their friends and chasing the boys around during recess.  They are very excited.

This weekend was going to be the big Labor Day trip to Door County, but those plans all went awry.  Some flu bug hit everyone except for Jason and most of the trip was spent trying to sleep it off.  On top of that, the brief rain Friday turned into all day rain for Saturday and most of Sunday.  That didn't stop Jenna or the girls from playing a little bit around the campground and still having a good time though.

Our New Zealand trip is coming up this week and we'll try to update while we are out there.

Jenna in the Tent

Here's a quick video from camping.  Jenna was loving just hanging out in the tent and every few minutes she would poke her head around the corner checking out what was going on.  We certainly have some funny kids.

Camping!

This past weekend was the big camping trip and everything went pretty well.  We got rain off and on Saturday, but an impromptu trip to the bowling alley in Prairie du Chien filled the time nicely.  At the campground we got to hike a few trails; one which climbed up the bluff (around 500' in elevation) and wore everyone out except Jenna.  It was really was a fun trip and the twins learned a lot from their Junior Ranger books (they got nice patches after completing some of the activities).  Check out the pictures in the slideshow for some of the views and hiking that we did.

Busy Summer

Well there's a lot of new pictures in the blog slideshow so check them out, that's an order.  4th of July parade in Tosa, taking the whole family to the Brewers' game (Jenna doesn't like the Brewers' taking the lead during her nap time), the Gregory family party, and dinner at Grandma Weiland's house, just to name a few things we've been up to.


There's also a great new Jenna sour face photo in there too, I don't remember what was stuck in her craw this time, but it's almost as bad as the peas or when Amanda had cold hands.  I'm sure there will be more photos after the weekend too.

Hope everyone else is enjoying their summer too.

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Piano Recital

Elsa and Nora got to play in the spring recital this afternoon and they both did pretty well.   They had to create some artwork to go along with their song and they both had the most creative projects.  Nora played Hush Little Baby and created a little bed out of a box cover.  And Elsa played Shoo Fly and made a fly swatter with yarn.

 

 

Peas?

Jenna has been starting some baby food this week and it's been funny finding out what she doesn't like.  I'll let the pictures tell you what she thinks of peas.

A Busy Month

So it's been a busy month around here and hopefully I can get this all written out before Jenna wakes up (see picture below for what an unhappy Jenna looks like).  

First of all, Amanda Couch took some awesome pictures of Jenna and I posted all of them in the slide show.  She did a great job and I'm sure we'll be ordering a lot of those.  Jenna was a ham of course and was in a pretty good mood the whole time, but the picture below is by far my favorite.  If that isn't Elsa/Melissa's baby lip....

Then we broke down and traded in Melissa's car for a...umm...mini-van.  A sad day for everyone.  So now the girls have been fighting over who gets to push the buttons to close the power doors since last week.  It works a lot better for picking them up from school and hauling them around though, so it's serving it's purpose well.  On a side note, James I can't believe you willingly drove one around Dubuque.  

Then last weekend just before bedtime, Nora fell into one of the kitchen stools and cut up her mouth.  That warranted a 3 hour trip to Children's Hospital where, after cleaning up her mouth, we found she didn't need stitches after all.  She dodged the bullet there, because the first thing she screamed after it happened was "I don't want stitches, I don't want stitches!"  Apparently I haven't told her that after awhile stitches are just something you do once every year or so.  

That's about all the news for now, enjoy all of the awesome pictures.
Amanda's Photos

Flabbergast Birthday Party!

What a birthday party!  Thanks to everyone who helped out and everyone who made it to the party.  The girls had a great time and it looked like everyone else did as well.  If you click on the link below it will take you to the slide show of all the pictures we took.  We tried to get a picture of everyone, but the kids were moving pretty fast.   Thanks again.

Party Pictures!

6 Years Old!!

Elsa and Nora had quite a day today.  It started with a picture of them on channel 6's feature "Look who's six!" at 7:30 am before they left for school.  At school it was treats and birthday hats.  After they got home they had to wait for Melissa to get home to find out what their birthday surprise was.

After lots of questions and hints they still didn't know.  They had some dinner at Zaffiro's and afterward we went to the Cellular Arena to watch some Disney on Ice.  It was a hit, even with Jenna (who couldn't turn away from the lights; leave it to Disney to get our 2 month old hooked).  In the end they said it was a great surprise and they had a great time and a late night.

So here's to the big 6 year olds.
 

Snow...

Today was the first snow day for the girls and they enjoyed it slightly....for about 3 hours total today.

There was probably 15-20" in most of the areas around the house.  It took quite a bit of work, but to Elsa & Nora it was worth it.  We've got some new pictures up and will probably be adding some more snow pics tomorrow.

Fresh Pictures

Well I thought we'd just have a post to put up some of the new pictures of Jenna.  She's getting big (about 10 lbs) and is doing pretty well.  She's been sleeping pretty good with the exception of a few nights here and there.  We certainly can't complain. 

And judging by her smile in this picture, she's pretty happy too.