Allie's New Hobby

Allie was getting a little restless during the program at the Plaza. I gave her my camera. After taking several pictures of herself I told her to go and take pictures of other people. I have over 100 photos that she took. I must say they are very "artsy" and "creative". I have multiple pictures of the carpet, items on the table tops, arm pits, shoes, bodies without heads, faces so close you cannot even identify who they are, etc. (I think you get the point.) Here are a few of her "better" shots. Sit back & enjoy!

Celebrating at the Plaza

Saturday the 26th we loaded Allie into our pickup and we headed cross country from Rochester to Nelson. Unfortunately we listened to our GPS and ended up taking curvy Hwy 60 back to Wabasha. There had been rain/ice the day before and the trees were frosty & beautiful. The roads, however, were not beautiful. It was a slow, slippery trip. We stopped in Nelson and had a wonderful visit with Grandma Bonnie. I was sorry we had to cut it short. We were a bit tardy getting to the Plaza for dinner at 1:00. Allie loves to spend time with Abz, Morgan & Emily (she was really missing Emily on this day)
I wouldn't let anyone have any goodies at Grandma Bonnie's house so they would eat a good dinner. Allie told me her favorite part of the meal was the cottage cheese. (She did eat lots of other things besides cottage cheese.)

Abby (or Abz as we call her)

Austin & Andrew

Kids waiting for the program to be over so they can hit the pool.

Girls don't hang with the boys.

Robert played for Morgan when she shared a song.

Paul & Amanda let carols.

Allie & Abby sang along. (Notice the multiple necklaces.)

Pat enjoying the singing.

Jeremy & Kara were able to arrange their work schedules to spend the day with family.

Paul, Tara, Nicole & Chad

Amy & Don

Don & Hunter :)

Sondra, Alaina & Bev

Robert, Paul, Damara & Amanda sang a number upon request

(Oops....what happened to Amanda....hmmm.....Allie might have taken this picture!)

Sweet little Brennen - the newest member of the family.

Morgan & Allie enjoying some goodies and trying out the new stitching boards. I guess I only took video of time in the pool. I will try to upload that later on. (I haven't had much success uploading videos to Blogger lately.)

Christmas Day

Christmas Day proved to be a bit stormy. Travel was not advised in our area, but you know us! We packed up the pickup and late morning we left for Rochester. Once we got out onto the interstate the weather/roads were fine. Paul drove the speed limit (yeah right) the whole way.

We got to Jeremy, Kara & Allie's house in time for a wonderful meal of prime rib. Yum yum.

After waiting patiently all day long & then having to wait until after supper Allie finally got to open her gifts from us. She got a new jewelry box and plenty of "jewels" from us.

She told me she couldn't decide which necklace to wear so she was going to wear three at one time. "However, grandma, the cupcake one is my favorite".

Grandpa Denny & Grandma Pat drove over from Nelson to spend the evening with us. (They are home from Florida for approx. 1 month. )

Oops....I forgot to rotate this photo....too late, I am not changing it now...sorry!

Grandpa put Allie inside this huge Christmas stocking - what a silly little girl!

Grandpa Denny does his own shopping & did well this year. Allie got a "Littlest Pet Shop" critter from him and hauled it everywhere that weekend.

This is what my dear little granddaughter does everytime I tell her to smile for the camera.

I have better luck when she doesn't know the camera is on.

Shoot...more sideways pics....oh well!

I helped Allie get ready for bed. Looks like she didn't get the one thing she really needed.... bigger jammies!!!

We laughed hysterically at them and told her to go tell Grandpa Paul that she needed some money to get new pajamas....what a poor little orphan!

She had bigger pj's in her drawer, but was too busy playing to let me put them on her.

(Note the box - Kara got a dishwasher for Christmas - it just wasn't installed yet.)

Yup....Grandpa needs to get that girl some bigger jammies. Allie you are so cute, thanks for giving us such a good laugh!

Christmas Eve

Time for some overdue shots from the holidays......

Emily & Grandpa Rog

Yes Zac.....I plan to take your picture even if you scowl at me.

Heather giving me her best "ho ho ho".

Bella happy for all the attention & treats.

Steph & Matt

Jordan & Ty

Tim was quite uncooperative for the camera...as usual.

Sheila will be so thrilled that this picture is on here.

Tim & Paul

Zac

Ty wasn't interested in the presents at all. He found Grampie's new little vasectomy van and spent the majority of the gift opening time playing with it.

I think we eventually took it away from him to entice him to show some interest in the wrapped gifts. (It didn't work. He crawled over the Christmas tree and found some little old fashioned toys under it and played with them for a while.)

Matt & Steph

Sheila & Wes

Rog, Kay, Morgan & Em

Tim, Paul, Jordan & Zac

Sheila & Wes (tasty drink??)

Rog & Kay admiring Ty's original artwork

Ty decided that the big package wasn't going to stop him from getting to Grandpa Rog. He climbed right up it to get to him.

Ty eventually opened his gifts. It was a long process because once each one was opened he wanted it out of the box immediately to play with and then had no interested in opening another. What a fun little guy!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas Eve and we are currently in the midst of a winter storm. We are unsure of our travel plans for tomorrow, but we will make every attempt to travel if at all possible.

This is Morgan the night of her recital. Isn't she beautiful!

She got to pick out her Christmas gift this year. She has only had 1 lesson so far, but we are hoping that by this time next year she will be accompanying herself when she sings.

Jordan is here with us and we are planning to spend the evening at the Borowski's house. I am sure between Heather & Sheila there will be blog posts later tonight if I don't get one done.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Recital

Morgan has been taking private voice lessons for a couple months. The students had a concert/recital at A Center for the Arts on Thursday. She had two solos and did a wonderful job!

(Please excuse my shaky video & the sound quality of my camera.)

I had to split her 2nd song into two video clips because it exceeded the size limit.