A GREAT Sunday

We spent yesterday up in Fort Wayne and Columbia City to see Kari and Bryce's great grandparents.  Great Grammy turned 80 yesterday  and we went up to celebrate the day in style.  It was so great to visit with family.  Notice Bryce conked out in the bottom left corner of the picture. 

We also stopped in to visit Great Grand Pappy, who absolutely adored holding his only great grandson.

Both kids were absolutely on their best behavior and we couldn't have been more pleased.  It was a big day with little time to rest, but well worth it!

Merry Christmas... HO HO HO

This is what we've been listening to Kari say the past few hours as her second Christmas nears its end. It's been quite an eventful last 24 hours, for sure.

Kari is telling friends and family when they call that she got toothpaste. It just happens to be the first thing she pulled out of her stocking this morning. Hard to believe she remembers that over her first American Girl doll or some of the games and toys she acquired. Overall, she was a pretty good girl today despite the overwhelming features that encompass Christmas.

Our Christmas Eve included a nice children's service at church. Both Kari and Bryce behaved wonderfully and enjoyed the time in church. Kari tried to hum along to some of the carols we sang, while Bryce gnawed on his favorite fingers du jour.

Watching a little Nemo in bed 

waiting for Daddy to come home.

This morning started early with a 6 a.m. wake up call for Kevin to assist the neighboring township with a fully involved 2-story structure fire. I ended up driving our water tanker back and forth and dropped off 15,000 gallons of water in 2 hours. I made it home by 8:30 when we began opening gifts as a family. Mommy got some spiffy new brown boots, I got a great outdoor firepit and Bryce ended up getting the short end of the stick with the portable CD player Santa dropped off. It apparently didn't make the A-list in terms of quality and might be getting returned.

A traditional Haugstad picture sitting and waiting at the 

top of the stairs to find out if Santa had brought gifts. 

 

Our Christmas dinner included a ham loaf (complete with cherry and pineapple sauce), noodles (mainly for Kari), green beans and some rosemary french bread. Tonight we've begun playing some of Kari's new games and made phone calls to grandparents and aunts/uncles to wish them all a Merry Christmas Ho Ho Ho. We hope all of you had a blessed and wonderful time with your loved ones on Christmas. We'll talk with you soon.

The Best Gift Under The Tree

Kari and Daddy are out at the store gathering up supplies for our Christmas dinner- ham loaf.  He's also in search of some Norwegian potato lefse, which I think we'll have a hard time finding around here.

A Christmas Tradition, Perhaps?

Kari had an absolute blast decorating a gingerbread house this morning.  It was all she could talk about; I could barely get her to finish her breakfast, she was so excited to work on it.  I envision taking a picture of her next to her creation each year to see how her sense of style, creativity and decorating develops over the years.  To that end, please allow me to introduce Year 1:

Yes, those are elephant animal crackers donned atop the roof.  When she ran out of gum drops and Starlites, I scrambled and started digging through the pantry.  And no, donating Joe Joe's  to the project were not even a remote option.

We also enjoyed some Indiana wildlife while eating lunch.  Apparently we were the only birdfeeder serving lunch today.

Bean Bag Chairs and Joe Joe's

So, while Kevin was away this week in Tampa for a conference, Pam, our good friend Pam from pharmacy school Pam, stayed overnight one night to help hold down the fort.  Although Kari was not on her best beahavior, we did manage to spend a little bit of quality time together.  Pam also arrived bearing Christmas gifts.

She found these fabulous bean bag chairs- updated and so much sturdier than the pleather yellow and brown ones Mark and I had growing up.  (I can't remember who, but one of us jumped on the yellow one a little too hard and, poof, went the little Styrofoam balls all over the room.)  Pam thought it was a bit silly getting one for Bryce, but ever the pragmatic shopper, she did anyway, and no worries; I am making sure both are getting put to good use.

                               Catching a few minutes of Madagascar before bed.

 Pam also stopped by Trader Joe's and picked up an embarrassingly large supply of  Peppermint Joe Joe's, affectionately nicknamed Crack Cookies.  Pam was nothing short of a((n) illegal) drug dealer populating the neighborhood with these addictive, round little pleasures.  My pantry is stocked, Natalie's is stocked, and poor Clawson's have only one box.  Natalie's pantry is stocked only because I, too, made an embarrassingly large purchase of cookies for her while at home two weekends ago.  I was able to take the cost of the Joe Joe's off my weekly daycare bill.  Who'd have ever thought you could barter cookies for daycare?  So, my cart was filled only with Joe Joe's and Kari when a lady walked up to me and proclaimed, "My, you must have some little cookie monsters at home!"  I asked her if she would believe me if I told her they weren't for me.  She looked at me square in the face, deadpan, and said, "No, I wouldn't."

Sigh.  But what do I care?  I've got Joe Joe's that perhaps will last me to Valentine's Day.

Accessories

Nope, this is not about Kari's must-haves around her neck and on her wrists.  I've always adored babies in hats.  This one is my all-time favorite.  I'm just glad it's gender neutral so I can have another round of fantastic photo ops.

Baby B, I hope you're ready; you'll be sporting this hat a lot in the coming months.

What's In A Name?

Undoubtedly you've noticed that both Kari and Bryce have the distinction of carrying rather unusual middle names.

Even before Kari was born, I knew this firstborn child would inherit the Witherspoon name. As my mom's maiden name, and coming from a family of four girls, she knew the name would die with her generation. In her attempt to keep the name going, I inherited Witherspoon as my middle name. Let me tell you, growing up (and even now) I never met another Holly Witherspoon, but I loved it so much that even after I got married I kept Witherspoon as my middle name rather than going to Holly Haugstad Keckler. I hope Kari will be as proud to carry the Witherspoon name as I have been. The Witherspoon name is rich with American, Scottish and Presbyterian history. We chose the variation of spelling of Kari to represent her Scandinavian heritage.

Uncle Ronald with Mark and me with Uncle Lee.

Bryce's middle name also has a story to tell. Bryce Leland, quite simply, is named after my favorite uncle. Uncle Ronald and Uncle Lee, brothers and lifelong bachelors, remained on the family farm their whole lives. They were actually my dad's uncles, my great uncles, Bryce's great-great uncles.

I know I can say with unwavering certainty that all the Milwaukee cousins and family also have similar fond memories of Uncle Ronald and Lee and the farm. Spending time on the farm was an important part of everyone's childhood, and for those who were lucky enough, into adulthood.

I have so many fond memories of my summers spent there. Exploring all around the barns and outbuildings was probably a favorite pastime of most of the cousins. Playing in the corn crib and having corn cob "fights" against Mark or any other cousin who might have been visiting at the same time was a timeless favorite. It was always fun to climb to the top of the pile when the crib was full. Although by the time I was old enough to remember Uncle Ronald and Lee had retired from milking cows so the barn was usually empty, less a few barn cats or a cow or two, but it was still always fun to run through the stalls. Above was a huge hay loft and although I always wanted to go up and play among the huge rectangular bales, kids were never allowed up there. Uncle Lee was very protective of all the kids and was always afraid one of us would fall through a chute. Mark, in particular it seems, loved driving the yellow riding lawn mower, working on his driving skills years before he would be ready to take his drivers test.

Uncle Lee and Uncle Ronald.  This was NOT Mike the dog.

The resident canine, Mike, was not your typical farm Collie. He was nothing short of a mean mut. Forget about petting his coarse and wiry black fur. He would greet any vehicle coming up to the house nipping at the wheels and then as soon as the car was parked would mark his territory on all four tires.

Uncle Lee was remembered for his sugar cookies and growing gladiolas. I don't think there was ever a time I walked through the kitchen door and was not offered a sugar cookie from a tin. Uncle Lee had a pretty good green thumb and every July you could find the side of the barn almost overcome with stalks of glads. I still smile and think of him when I see a bucket of glads at the farmers market or grocery store.

But probably what he is most remembered for was his love for horses.  All the kids learned about horses with Buck Touhey.  Buck was old and lame even when I was little, but was such a gentle and patient horse.  I always thought of him as my horse, but I'm sure probably most of the cousins did too.  I spent many hours leading Buck around the yard, practicing taking on and off his halter and feeding him carrots, apples and clover.


As a city kid growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, spending time out at the farm was such a unique experience for me and one I will always cherish.  I still don't claim to know much about life on a farm, but I do possess the experiences of riding a horse, feeling the wet, slobbery nose of a cow, the smell of manure, and roaming over acres and acres of pasture as far as the eye could see.  Even though the farmhouse and land have long since been sold, I hope Bryce, and Kari too, will somehow have an opportunity to experience a small sliver of farm life, just like me.

Clearly, we've been remiss

and negligent in our updates.  To appease those who visit regularly, I have a few pictures to share.  More updates to come very soon.