Candles, Flashlights, and Oil lamps...

Our car being buried in a snow drift.

Lucy, Chels, and Dave opening presents in the dark. The flash from the camera makes things seem a lot brighter than they were.

Opening my new camera from Jesse.

Jesse trying on his new robe.

On Christmas Eve as the snow continued to come down the power went out in Stuart and Church was canceled. We knew it wouldn't be much longer before our power went out and thankfully we were prepared. We had buckets and pitcher of water filled, the gas range going full blast, and we'd collected all the candles, oil lamps, and flashlights in the house. Good thing too, because as predicted the power went out and stayed out until sometime in the early afternoon on Christmas. As a tradition in our family we all get to open 1 present on Christmas Eve night just before bed. I made sure Jesse opened the big fluffy soft robe I got him, because I figured he would need it to keep warm. As pictured above Jesse got me a new digital camera. It's the step up from the one I already had and I love it. It's a 10mgp instead of 6mgp like the old one. The rechargeable battery wasn't holding a very long charge on my old camera and I have been complaining about it for some time now. I just couldn't bring myself to pay $60 for a new battery. Luckily Jesse got me the new camera and I passed off the old one to my brother. He got a memory card from my mom and found a replacement rechargeable battery for less than $40, so we both won big.

Wilson Christmas...

Grandpa & Cody.

Jesse and the slightly portly Boo.

Sydney enjoying the bouncing ball toy she got from Grandma Rita.

Logan, Dave, Jesse, and Ken. This is post tickle attack upon Jesse. Little Miss Sydney was leading people to the trap on the couch where the unsuspecting victims were tickle tortured by David and Paul. I know Jesse is a sucker for kids, so I made sure she asked him.

Grandpa Bob wanted us to have 1 last family Christmas on Christmas Eve @ their house, so we did. Someone brought his urn, so that he could be with us in spirit. Things were a little different this year, so instead of heading up to grandma's in the evening we spent most of the day there. It was nice to get to spend so much time with everyone. I only wish it were under better circumstances, but you know us we had a great time together no matter what. Sharing stories, telling jokes, enjoying good food, and watching the kids open presents. I only wish Grandpa was there to try some wasabi peas with the rest of us. He would have been the only one who could have stomached them and I just know he would have loved them.

IOWA...

Standing in front of the broken branches in my grandma's front yard.

David & Chelsey in front of the branches in grandma's yard.

Jesse & Dave checking out the broken branches.

The trees were thick with ice. Everything was thick with ice.

One of the bigger branches that broke of the tree in my parent's front yard right near the driveway. We made sure to park as far from the tree as possible. The branches breaking off sounded like thunder.

The aftermath of the ice storm.

As most if not all of you know already Jesse and I drove back to Iowa last week and we made it just in time before the storms hit. There was a bit of an ice storm as seen in the pictures and then a bit of a blizzard that buried our car, took out the power at my parents house, and drifted us in for a while. My parents have a picture of the 2 of them standing in front of a broken down ice covered branch taken in the 70's when they were dating, so my mom requested pictures of us in front of a branch similar to theirs. I think they turned out nice.

Presents...

* Note: We realize his hand is on backwards, but he's a monster so anything goes.

For Christmas I was decorating my own wrapping paper and for the 1st round of presents I went all out, but soon I realized that hand painting all that detail was a little bit more work than I was willing to put in and more time consuming than I had originally thought. Thus I went for a more subtle holly berry theme. Jesse took my example and made a mockery of my simple designs. He definitely one upped me on this one. Well I'll get him. I'm going to start planning my Christmas paper designs for next year right now. We'll see who has the better paper next year. ;)

and yes... yes it is a competition.

Baby Jesse...

As most of you already know I don't have many baby pictures of myself and when I met Jesse he only had one of himself. This bothered me for several reasons... 1) I love pictures, especially old ones. 2) What if we had kids some day and they wanted to see what our childhoods were like? Well Luckily for me my grandparents and other family members have graciously sent me copies of pictures over the years. I've been putting them in order in an album and loving reminiscing as I go through them. After going to Texas in September and looking through Jesse's sister's album I thought Ah ha! I will make copies of her pictures and start a Jesse album too. Little did I know that Jesse's mom would suprise me with way more pictures than I could have ever imagined, old report cards, poems & papers, certificates, awards, and even a self portrait (see below). I was so thrilled. It was supposed to be a Christmas present for him, but I couldn't wait to show him. We've been looking through the album and all the paper work over the last week. It's pretty funny. We thought we'd share some of our favorites with all of you. Big thanks to Bobbi for the pictures and to Brendon for helping attempt to put them in some sort of an order. He loves them! It probably would have been more impactful @ Christmas, but I just couldn't wait to share them with him.

Jesse's 1st professional photo.

Belly popping out of the shirt.

Double chin.

Redhead?

1st birthday with Brandon

2nd birthday with Brendon

Brendon & Jesse all dressed up. I was told that Bobbi made these outfits for them.

Bathtime @ grandma's with Sean & Brendon.

Riding the carousel with Grandpa & Brendon.

Mullets.

Bringing home baby Jared.

Uncle Stan posing Jesse with beer cans to be funny.

Farmer Jesse haying the cows.

Jared, Brendon, & Jesse

Soccer team. Can you spot Jesse and his cheesy open mouth grin?

Bringing home baby Linsey.

Riding horses.

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth, my 2 front teeth.

PeeWee Football Star

Houston...

Izzy attacking me with his weed whacker.

Izzy vacuuming. That kid loves to vacuum and he sure does know
how to work a Dyson.

One of my favorite pictures of Miss London.

Izzy and me playing with Play dough. this was before Brendon cut my shaggy hair.

Coloring.

Watching the garbage truck come by and pick up garbage. They love big vehicles.

Izzy being a good big brother and helping London learn her shapes.

London playing with Tickle Me Elmo Extreme or as she calls him Melmo.

London and her good friend Meow (the stuffed cat). Jesse & I got her Meow for her baby blessing when she was only a few months old. Apparently it's her current favorite doll. She carries Meow around with her and treats her like a baby, pretending to feed her and rock her. It's pretty cute.

The daily routine. Drinks and cartoons when we get up while mom makes breakfast.

Looking out the window @ the kids in the neighborhood getting on the school bus. They love love love school buses.

Wearing the Shrek eared Santa hat. In the previous picture you see London wearing it, because she saw me wearing it then insisted that I let her wear it too. The girl is a total girlie girl she has a thing for hats and shoes. Next up purses, make up, and then boys.

"Come on London!" Weee Ewwww! Weeee Ewww! Weee Ewww! They love to play firefighters and they play so well together. They're definitely best buds.

Playing trains in Izzy's room is a favorite pastime for sure.

Aye yie yie! The kids catch phrase for sure.

Building block towers together.

Izzy and his cute dimples.

Izzy had me help him attach a box to his bus, so he could pull it around the house. This time he had London set in it while he tried to pull her around. She weighs only a few pounds less than him, so this proved to be a harder feat that he had originally thought. He kept saying "Too heavy, Too heavy London." He moved her a few inches and then the box broke, but London never flinched.
She just sat there and enjoyed her milk.

London loves to play little mommy and go through brother's dresser drawers.

I brought 3 books for the kids when I came down to visit. 2 of the books had noise making elements that the kids loved. Here London and I are reading about frogs, as she would say "Ribbit Ribbit!"

It's amazing to me how much London has grown since we saw her in September. She's talking a lot now and you can understand about 75% of what she says She copies her big brother a lot and in doing show has begun to learn her alphabet. Brendon says she knows most of her letters and that's quite obvious if you spend any time with her. Anywhere you go if she sees letters she will point out the ones she knows and tell you what they are. Not bad for only being 19 months old.

Izzy does a great job of keeping everyone entertained, especially his sister. He was making London's laughing doll crack up just to see London laugh. It was pretty adorable watching them make each other laugh.

Making snow flakes after the haircut.

Cleaning up the aftermath of making snow flakes.

See what I mean the girl loves shoes. She has to try on any free pair of shoes that she sees laying around.

Playing with clay again. We did this several times. This time Izzy is running over the guy I made out of clay with his cars. He would do this endlessly saying "Poor guy!" over and over again.

Eating some Chocolate Frozen Custard while mom was out @ her church party or Izzy told me "Erin, Mom has to go talk to some ladies." I was a little worried about how the kids would do while she was out, but they were fabulous. We stayed up a little later than normal to watch a movie and enjoy the custard, but other than that we followed their nightly routine and they went to bed with out a peep. I was so relieved as was Mom.

The crown we made for London. I brought crafts with me for the kids. This was London's project. She preferred to stick stickers on it and read the letters rather than wear it, but that's ok at least she liked it.

For Israel I brought a kit for making cars. We made him a firetruck which he loved and then he even helped me make a police car which he said was for London. He's a pretty sweet big brother.

Getting ready to see Santa was a great experience, but seeing him wasn't really so great. Both of them sat on his lap seperately, but they both screamed bloody murder just the same. Before we saw Santa there were lots of things to play with and even a pet store where we stood and watched all the bunnies, birds, puppies, and hamsters playing. Brendon has their official Santa pictures which I am sure she will post on her site for all to see.

Even if they didn't like Santa they sure did like playing in the mall's play place with their friends from playgroup.

Izzy being a helpful big brother taking London's coat off.

London wearing Mardi Gras beads the night she refused to wear a shirt. As Brendon said "We might be in trouble. She is running around topless with lots of Mardi Gras beads on. " Ha!

Izzy helping make dinner. "Look Erin Look Erin Look! I helping."

London refusing to eat the dinner and instead playing with her food.

London wearing Daddy's crocs.

Israel wearing mommy's crocs.

Making scary faces or silly faces if you ask me.

Cuddling

Little Firefighter girl.

Reading the frog book again. Ribbit Ribbit!

They were supposed to be posing nicely wearing the hats that Brendon just made them, but London was not having any of that.

Getting ready for church.

London wearing another pair of my shoes. She actually managed to walk up their big staircase wearing these shoes. It's crazy how good she is at walking in shoes that are hunderds of times too big for her. She's got a real talent there.

More snowflake making.

Playing the snowflake game. We would put a snowflake on our head and then the other person had to try to blow it off our heads. This provided tons of entertainment and lots of laughs.

The kids helping me get the air out of my airmattress while I cleaned up my room.

Izzy reading books. They're actually Suze Orman books about fincial futures and what not. He took them from his parents room and proceeded to
pretend to read them.