Once a Jersey girl, always a Jersey girl....

The clan just returned from a whirlwind trip to NJ. We enjoyed participating in a fabulous wedding in the mountains of Jersey then had a night of fun back in our former home in PPB. Greta took to the beach like a local... She picked up every shell and piece of driftwood in sight and loved making "tracks" in the sand. We had hoped she'd have lots of hugs and smiles for our former parishoners in town. Well, let's just say her favorite refrain from the weekend was "shy!" and she was rather hit or miss with smiles. Maybe she was just a little unsure with many new friends and many new places. Grandma went with us to be Greta's constant companion and helped ease some of her anxieties. All in all, the family had a great visit back and Greta declared that she never wanted to leave New Jersey. That should make her Jersey family proud!

TRICK OR TREAT!

Well, we FINALLY got Greta to try on her pumpkin costume this morning, so we opted to leave her in it for the entire day rather than risk taking it off and never getting it back on! The littlest pumpkin, the cook with a bun in the oven, the flower doctor and the Grampire had a great time trick or treating. She seemed to really like the whole she-bang, except for Grampire's scary teeth. Enjoy some footage from our evening! Boo!

We've got a jack o lantern!

Yeah, we just now got around to carving our jack o lantern, despite having a pumpkin for 2 1/2 weeks now! We spent some time drawing potential faces and daddy did the scooping and carving (I know, what a guy). We decided on a happy face with 3 teeth...and oila! Enjoy a few shots of our pumpkin carving fun.

What a difference 7 days make....

So....LAST weekend we went to a local apple orchard & pumpkin patch for some fall fun. The apples were unreal (mmmm Honeycrisp Apples...a MN original!), we had an awesome ride through the orchard on a tractor, played with chickens, climbed the haystack mountain and enjoyed some seriously tasty apple doughnuts. Delish!

So here's a look at THIS weekend:

Uh, yeah....it snowed last night. Oct 10th. Dear Lord it is true. The leaves haven't even turned on our Ash tree yet.

We haven't bought snow boots for Greta yet so we had to make some "Alabama snowboots" for her (tennis shoes covered with plastic bags fastened with rubber bands). Tyler was mystified. Greta had a great time making tracks- a la "The Very Snowy Day." Mommy made pancakes to warm the little snow bunny up after her backyard excursion.

Hope you are warmer than we are.....

In case you missed the news....

...we may have to change the name of the blog! A new Christiansen will hopefully enter the world sometime around April 21st. So far, Gboo seems to be warming to the idea of a sibling. We're talking alot about how there is a baby in mommy's tummy. She even gave mommy's tummy a kiss the other night, unprompted (I know, who is this kid?). We'll see if the enthusiasm carries over when the baby arrives!

Now you are in the know!

Mooooing the lawn

This morning mommy peeped out her window to spy her little girlie "helping" daddy mow the grass. Daddy used the "loud" mower, Greta used her lawn mooer. What really cracked mommy up was Gboo's lawn mowing method....check it out.

Our Little Pirate goes to the State Fair

Sorry we've been absent for a few weeks...The Preacher and the Preacher's wife spent a goodly portion of August in Scandinavia! We had a great vacation with Granny and Gramps (and my Uncle Ken & Aunt Ann) but we missed our little peanut terribly!

We have done lots of snuggling upon our return and made it to the State Fair...an annual tradition in our house. So I'm posting a few of our favorites from that outing (the bus ride, petting the lamby, riding the rides).

A fun update on our girl...her imagination is really taking off. We find ourselves in the middle of daily melodramas ("quick mama, use your umbrella" as she hands me a drum mallet) and laugh at all the stories she cooks up in her head. One of our recent favorites is Greta the fearsome pirate. Greta loves to play pirates now and thinks the play equipment in the backyard makes an excellent ship. So we go on daily treasure hunts in the ship, get stuck in the sand, row our way to the special island....you know, pirate stuff. Yesterday when the Preacher was playing with Boo they made pirate flags. One now flies above the play equipment (I'm posting a photo) and one is carried by Pirate Greta.

Daddy has capitalized on this little game by inventing "the pirate kiss." It consists of the following parts: Daddy screams out "Pirate Kiss" then the 2 pirates run and face each other, say "arrrrrgh" and then smooch. It has solved the problem of the Daddy kiss drought faster than a scurvy pirate can walk the plank.



Enjoy a few photos of our own little scurvy peanut pirate! Happy fall!