Wow It's Been a Long Time!

The holidays definitely kept us busy - and me away from the computer!  I'll try to condense the last several weeks into a short post before I go to bed...

You've gotta check out 'Jasperisms' on the left sidebar with a bunch of funny things Jasper's said recently...

Josh turned 30 on December 12.  As a surprise, I took him to the Blue Chip casino and entered him in a poker tournament.  His parents chipped in the money for the buy-in as his gift.  He came in 4th out of 25 and won a little over $200!  We stayed the night at the hotel there and also went Christmas shopping.

Jasper's birthday party was on December 19 at McDonalds.  There were 7 kids and they enjoyed playing in the playland, eating happy meals and cake.  Jasper had a great time, and I loved having the party somewhere else - what a great deal!

We celebrated Christmas and Jasper's birthday with Josh's mom and husband and family after Jasper's party. Jasper was showered with an enormous amount of gifts.  His favorites were his camera (which really takes pictures which can be downloaded!!)  and his sled.

Christmas Eve morning Jasper got to open some birthday presents from Mommy and Daddy.  Then we went to my parents to celebrate Christmas.  Jasper was most interested in the cardboard that Josh's sawhorses came in and wanted to turn it into a rocket.  That evening, we went to the Balsbaugh extended family Christmas where Jasper got to play with several of his little cousins.  He had a blast!  That night we drove home so we could spend Christmas morning at our house.

Christmas morning, we had to wake Jasper up (I admit, it was with the flash of the camera) and then we read the Christmas story before opening gifts.  I got the complete set of Twilight books and Josh got an I-pod.  Jasper got a backpack, a basketball, and I can't even remember what all!!

Then we headed to the Rochester truck stop for our traditional Christmas Day Truck Stop Breakfast.  We went all out and had CARBS!!!  As Jasper was eating his blueberry pancakes, he said, "There's nothin' better than pancakes!"

After breakfast, we went to Jack and Judy's to celebrate Christmas with them and Judy's kids and parents.  Jasper got to meet his new cousin Xander for the first time.  He was so generous and gave one of his favorite stuffed animals to the baby.  He's never looked back and whined about it either!  MORE GIFTS...Jasper got a bike!!

I was off the week between Christmas and New Years, which was wonderful.  I got a lot of projects done and just enjoyed spending time with Jasper.  We went shopping one day and went to get his pictures taken (and go to Chuck E Cheese afterward as a bribe,  I mean reward.)  We got to see Derek and his fiancee, Katie during that week as well.  Josh, Jasper and I all will be in their wedding in May!

We've gone sledding a couple of times and Jasper loves it!  But he doesn't love the cold.  It takes almost more time to get bundled up than it does for him to get too cold and ready to come in for hot chocolate!  Josh and I had just as much fun as he did, I think.  We bought our own sled (well two since I broke the first one...)

Last week was back to work for me, and last Wednesday was Josh's last day at work.  He started a new job this past Monday and we are very grateful for the new opportunity.  2010 is looking good!

Well - that's most of December thru today in a nutshell!

I'm too tired to post pictures, but click here to see the ones posted thru Jasper's birthday.