The right way to start off the work week...

Last night we were lucky enough to get our friends Bruce and Kristina out for dinner. They recently celebrated the birth of their second baby... Leila. She is so sweet and snugly, I'm sure it was hard to leave her at home with Grandma while we feasted on sushi at our new favorite restaurant!!

We found that on Mondays and Tuesdays Osaka in Apple Valley has 1/2 price sushi. Their food is amazing and this was such a fun way to start our the work week!! Plus, if it is your birthday they will sing you their version of "Happy Birthday" including lights and drums!! Bruce and Kristina are both pretty pumped to travel to Cumberland next August... Bruce is Best Man in our wedding and we can't wait to show them the sights :)

A family that plays together, stays together

So not only was this past weekend spent opening presents, singing Christmas carols, and eating endless amounts of cookies, it was also filled with a little something I would like to call... family fun.

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a couple of games of Casino Yatzee and a flashback to our younger years by putting together a Disney puzzle... but in this time under 30 minutes.

Even Alli's dog, Duke, enjoyed having the entire family around!!

The family around the completed puzzle. Classic shot!!

Meanwhile, we watched White Christmas that was showing on AMC on repeat all of Christmas Eve... what a classic!!!

On Saturday we headed to Turtle Lake for a little family competition.

Bowling!!!

Sisters!!!

John going in for the strike...

Like they say... a family that plays together, stays together...

Christmas 2009

Due to the blizzard of '09 we decided to head back to Wisconsin a little early to celebrate x-mas with my family. Typically I don't get too stressed out about buying gifts for others... it is actually something I really enjoy doing. The next best thing is when you capture the reaction on film... here are a few pictures showing the "typical" Olson/Pherson Christmas.

Kevin's only wish this Christmas was to get a pop-up ice fishing house. Thanks Ardisam for making his dream come true!!

And Mom opened a new TV for the kitchen!!

And Alli is excited to take guitar lessons... R to the E to the T... okay, I know it is inappropriate but I am still laughing and it is like 5 days after the fact. Sorry Al.

Brother opened a GPS for his car... now he can yell at the lady like I do when she tells you to take some ridiculous side road that takes longer than the highway.

This is how we celebrate!! Mimosas!!

Merry Christmas!! We hope you all had as much fun over the holidays as we did!!

Uncle

This past weekend was a little bittersweet. It was great having the family in town visiting but sadly Uncle couldn't partake in the fun... he was in the hospital having surgery :( But, it sounds like everything went very well and "c" word is no longer in his body.

Kinda scary how alike they look...

While Uncle laid in his hospital bed recovering, my aunt, cousin, mom, sister, brother, Kevin and myself enjoyed a few beers and a little holiday shopping. Hey, hey... Uncle said he didn't want us there staring at him all day. So instead we decided to go Macys and burn a little hard earned cash. We then hit up Byerly's flower department and showered Uncle with a Christmas cactus, crosswords, and candy treats.

"Cousins don't shake hands!! Cousins gotta' hug!!"

Auntie and Jeff stayed at our place in Burnsville and we were so happy to have the company!! It gave me an excuse to make lots of cookies and banana bread and not see it go to waste. Thanks Uncle for giving us a reason to get together and we are so happy that you are feeling better!! Can't wait to see you at Christmas!!!

Good Luck Santa

With these two guarding the presents... Santa better watch it!

They'll lick and sniff him to death!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Finally we are getting in the holiday spirit!!

The Christmas cards are all mailed out, the stockings are hung, and most of the presents are wrapped. Tonight we spent a little time cleaning up the house and doing a little baking. I even attempted a couple of recipes from my Grandma's old cookbook.

Everyone did their part...

Kevin helped hang a couple pictures and vacuum up the dog hair.

I baked...

I really should have read the recipe better though... a person just doesn't need 11 dozen peanut butter kisses :)

I learned the paper bag trick from Kels... the true domestic goddess.

And we all hope this is caramel in the morning :)

And Boomer and Willy cleaned the crumbs off the kitchen floor. Okay, okay, they may have licked a spoon or two clean. Come on... a little peanut butter never hurt any dog...

All in the all it is finally starting to feel like Christmas!! We are really looking forward to spending the holidays with our family and friends!!

Eye Doctor

Um... did you realize that when you go to the eye doctor they put drops in your eyes that dilate your pupils? I didn't. It really screws with your vision... I know from experience. You may want to read this before your next visit to the optometrist. http://vision.about.com/od/eyeexaminations/f/dilation.htm

Personally, I am going on 10 hours and counting... and I thought the dentist was bad.

A weekend of celebrating...

Kevin and I have not been able to spend too many weekends in the Cities. Fortunately, this weekend we did!! We spent Friday night making cookies and drinking beer with Nick (our neighbor), Sarah and Grayson. A very relaxing and stress-free evening. It was fun to catch up with everybody!! We are trying to plan our New Year's Eve evening... any ideas would be appreciated!!

On Saturday night Kevin and I met up with my old college posse!! After a century of dating Angie and Eric are FINALLY getting married in Mexico over New Years!! We had so much fun celebrating with them on Saturday... we may be a little older but we all still know how to party!

We spent most of Sunday afternoon with Kevin's family... his niece Lilly was baptized and Kevin is the Godfather. Being that she is 1 1/2 years old... she may not have understood exactly what was going on but she sure knew that she does NOT like having water put on her head!! Once again, we'll let the pictures do the talking...

She was a little trooper though!! I learned the secret to getting her to look at the camera was to sing the Winnie the Pooh song. I don't think any appreciated the singing except for Lilly :)

Family...

Parents and Sponsors...

Thanks Kim!!

As you can probably tell from the changes in our blog... we got our engagement pictures back!! I have been anxiously awaiting the email from Kim letting me know the editing is done!! We appreciate the referral from Graham and Kellsey and so look forward to Kim capturing our wedding day. She made us feel so comfortable and her creative eye is amazing!!