Christmas is almost here!

I cannot BELIEVE that Christmas is almost here!  Poor Jack got the flu yesterday so I am home with him today.  He's been sleeping most of the day away, so I have had time to finally wrap Christmas gifts!  (almost done....just have the kids left!)  It will be nice to have all of those wrapped.  Now if I could only finish up the rest of my handmade gifts....UGH!  Running out of time!!!

We took our Christmas pictures on Sunday.  Sadly, I did not have time to make my own cards this year, so I'm finally biting the bullet and joining the rest of the world with picture-cards. :)  These shots are a couple of our many attempts to get a good picture - - the kids were not always very cooperative.  I loved the one of the kids together, so you'll be seeing that one soon in the mail! (that is, IF I get around to finishing up address labels and buying stamps!)  Yikes - next year I am going to start all this work in August.  (SOOO not kidding!)   I guess this is what one can expect when one's family attends 7 Christmases in 6 days every year.  AHH!  It will be crazy, but it's always a fun time.  

Merry Christmas to everyone!  Enjoy your time with family and friends!!

Halloween

Kate and Jack got to go trick or treating for the first time ever this year.  Kate was a pro by the end, but Jack refused to put on his costume.  We just walked along with him in the stroller and followed Kate as she pointed out which houses had the lights on and were ok to go to. :)  Such a big girl...  We did try the costumes on the kids about a week or two before Halloween b/c Brian needed them for work, so we have a few of Jack in his little monkey costume, at least.  I think Kate is already thinking about what she can be next year and how much candy she will get!  

Joe's Wedding

OK, OK....I'm a tad behind on my blogging.  Sorry!!  

My brother, Joel, got married on Oct 25th.  The wedding was absolutely beautiful and everything was so perfect.  We had such a great time - - Kate ACTUALLY made it down the aisle!  She and her new cousin Ashton were so adorable.  I don't have many pictures, unfortunately, but here are a few from the reception and dance.  Sorry - a couple are sideways!  I'm too tired to go back and fix them. :(  I was at Laurie's house last night making Christmas gifts until 1:45am!!  (we had soooo much fun!)  Hope all is well with everyone!

September 21, 2008

Hello - sorry it's been so long since my last post!  It's harder than I expected to keep this thing going!  Let's see....what's happened recently...?

I guess the biggest thing would be that I turned the big 3-0 on Sept. 2nd.  Brian (with the help of my Mom and Christi) threw me a big surprise party over Labor Day weekend.  It was a blast.  I am still impressed that he pulled off the surprise - I'm typically very good at picking up on secrets.  This time I had no clue.  It was a wine and cheese party and everyone brought a bottle of wine and a block of cheese to share.  I had so much fun - what a great husband, huh!?  It definitely made turning 30 a lot easier for me!  On Sunday of Labor Day weekend we took an hour long 4-wheeler ride through the woods.  Dad lead, followed by Josh Larson and his girlfriend Abby, Me and Brian, and then Joel and Ashley.  It was really neat and we had a great time.  I haven't done that in ages!  Also, I had my first-ever golf outing that weekend.  (yeah, I know - about time, huh?)  Jon, Brian, Christi and I went golfing in Renville and had a blast.  I only golfed a couple holes, but still had a great time.

This past weekend Brian and I sent the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's (Surine) for the weekend and cleaned the garage.  I know it doesn't sound exciting, but it is SOOO nice to finally be able to find everything we need!  There are a few finishing touches (because you KNOW that I will type up all the labels for everything - self declared nerd that I am), but it's pretty much done.  Last weekend I actually cleaned my entire scrap booking closet too!  I thought I should give Jack at least a small amount of space for hanging clothes, being I have 99% taken over his closet. :)  He doesn't seem to mind.

The kids are doing well - Jack is saying more and more every day it seems.  Kate is too smart for her own good.  You should hear some of the vocab that comes out of that girl's mouth - it floors me sometimes how much she already knows!  She's enrolling in round 2 of a tumbling class at day care and is very excited for her first class this Thursday.  

Just to make it more fun, here are a couple of pictures of the kids being silly.  Hope all is well with everyone!

love, Jill

MN Zoo 2

My friend Ashley and I took the kids to the MN Zoo after work on Friday. Despite a few tantrums from little miss 4-year old, we had a great time. It was not very busy at all, so we were able to spend a lot of time with the new Grizzly Bears! Apparently they like to play each day around the time that we were there. Check out the photos below! (For some reason I was not able to get my text properly added in with those pictures below without it trying to act as a link to something, hence the dual post for one event - grr. This blogging stuff takes some getting used to!) Anyway, it was really cool to be so close to a bear. He was pressed up against the glass checking US out! Ashley also bought some dippin' dots to share. Jack wasn't so sure about them at first, but after seeing his big sister gobble it all up, he joined in the fun too.

Happy Birthday today to Gavin Wulf!! We hope you have a great time at your party and are sorry we couldn't be there to celebrate with you. I can't believe you are already turning 2?!?! You're getting so big! Miss you, little guy!

love, Jill

Friday afternoon at the MN Zoo

Kate's Birthday

I can hardly believe it, but our little Kate turned 4 yesterday!  Tina Hansch (the exchange student that stayed with my family while I was in high school) and her boyfriend Torsten are in town visiting from Germany.  They just finished up about a month long vacation hiking all over Canada, and are able to spend a few days in MN.  We are so glad they could fit us in!  Grandma and Boppa (Weidemann) were in town to meet up with them on Wednesday, so we all went to Chuck E Cheese's to celebrate Kate's birthday.  We had so much fun.  We haven't had a chance to get the birthday pics onto our computer yet, so I will post those later.  Kate is quite excited to be four.  She was telling me today on the way home from day care that it is still her birthday because she is still four. :)  Such a cutie.  She's growing up way too fast!!

(Bryan Wulf - check that out - - two posts in one night!  Whattya think about THAT?!?!  HA!)

Our Family Vacation - Summer, 2008

Finally - a real family vacation!  Brian, the kids and I all went up north for a long weekend (July 31-August 3).  We had a great time.  It just so happened that these huge 1800's style tall ships were on a 10 city tour while we were going to be in Duluth, so we checked those out while we were on our way up to our cabin on Thursday.  We stayed in a small two bedroom cabin just south of Two Harbors and right on Lake Superior.  It was so much fun - rustic, but not too rustic.  :)  Kate and Jack loved wading in the water and throwing rocks.  Man, is that water COLD!  We had a cute little fire ring outside and our own private little beach.  It was very nice.  We went into Two Harbors on Friday to check out the train depot and also saw a large ship being loaded with taconite.  We ate supper at The Vanilla Bean Bakery and Cafe.  Delicious food!  On Saturday we went to Split Rock Lighthouse and Gooseberry Falls.  Sunday we had to be out of our cabin by 10am, so we pretty much just packed up and came home after that.  We all had a great time, but it was nice to be back in our own beds - with air conditioning!  

My first Blog post!

Wow - my first Blog post ever.  I'm finally joining the bandwagon and starting a Blog.  Woo!

2008 has proven to be a very busy year for the Surine family.  Let me bring you up to speed, in case you've missed out:

January: Jill's brother Joel got engaged!  He and Ashley Rechtzigel will be married on Oct. 25, 2008.

February: Jack turned 1 and also started walking.

March: Jill attended a scrapbooking retreat weekend with a group of friends AND attended a Bon Jovi/Daughtry concert!  (Good month for Jill!)

April: We travelled to Outing, MN to stay at Julie Maday's (Dad's) cabin.  It snowed almost the entire time and we lost power for a couple of hours, but we still had a great time.

May: Jill's brother Jon got engaged!  He and Christi Dikken will be married on May 9, 2009.  We also travelled to Pierre, SD to stay with Jon and Christi over Memorial Day weekend.  We rented a suburban and went to Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore, the Needles Highway, and through the Badlands.  We had a great time.  Jill's Mom also retired from teaching and received the Teacher of the Year award.  What a way to go out!  

June: Jill's cousin Missy got married to Jason Ditbenner on June 7th.  Welcome to the Weidemann family, Jason!  The following weekend Jill's friend Krista was married to Shane Peterson.  Both weddings were beautiful.  Kate still talks about the "princesses" in the pretty dresses.  Brian also played in a golf tournament in June through work and had a fun time.

July: We went home to the farm over the 4th of July weekend.  We spent some time out at Dikken's gravel pit where Kate got to go fishing!  We had a blast.  Jack proved that he was quite a man when he touched a fish for the first time (the same weekend as his Uncle Jon also finally braved touching the slippery little creatures! ha ha.  Just teasing, Jon).  Brian and Jon also went golfing at Stoney Creek.  Brian's work, Uline, hit 1 Billion dollars in sales last year, so they had a big shin-dig at the Depot in Minneapolis.  It was a semi formal party so we got all dolled up for the event.  We had a really fun time.  The Green Lake Bible Camp had their annual quilt auction this past weekend.  We were lucky enough to be invited by our friends the Kreies to spend some time with them at the Medayto Lodge.  It was a lot of fun to spend the weekend with them and we can't wait for next year!

I'll do my best to keep this blog updated.  Once I figure out how to post pictures and all that fun stuff, I will add some so you can see how big the kiddos are getting!  Hope everyone is doing well!

love, Jill