M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!

The night of the performance went SOOO well! Asher was so cute. That day at school, he explained that the teachers had made a poster, with everyone's names on stickers, and you could put your sticker wherever you were "feeling" ... excited or nervous .... about the upcoming performance. Asher's had always been at excited. But he told me that the day of the performance, he was feeling "BOTH!" It was adorable to see the kids all dressed up and singing their hearts out. They did SUCH a fantastic job!

Asher and his buddy, Isaac Measel

Waiting in line to get makeup!

Asher gets makeup from his teacher, Mrs. Young.

Me and Nate wait it out in the crowded auditorium/gym!

Quite the bold pirate, ready to go!

New Role: Set Designer!

In early March, Asher was part of a group of students at Christ Lutheran, who performed a Mickey Mouse spectacular! The kids sang about a dozen songs from as many different Walt Disney films. I got to work on the set, with my good friend Jill Measel. The two of us, and a few other ladies, met three or four times to give the stage a fairy tale look. She did the awesome Cinderella castle in the middle. I drew and painted the Rapunzel tower and the Snow White mirror. We had SO much fun! And the kids LOVED it! Whenever we'd work on it, and kids would come into the gym for recess, we'd have throngs of kiddos all watching us and asking questions. And of course, Rhylah had lots of fun playing with Jill's daughter, Karissa.

Rielle is Here!

Rielle Kate Jameson, 2-21-13

Random February

Eating Chili with the Measel kiddos

Valentine's Day breakfast for the kiddos!

SNOW ... Finally!!

Well, it took us until the end of January to get some significant snow this year! Of course, it happened just as Nate left for a two-week work trip, so I was the one stuck shoveling over, and over, and over again. Oh well! It was beautiful to get up early one morning when a snow day had been called, and greet the sunrise with my shovel!

Lucca in the snow. He HATES it, and won't go potty until I've shoveled him a tidy little path into the grass.

A pretty sunrise on a snowy morning.

The view down Niles Avenue.

Our snug house in the cold, blue morning.

More from Gabe's Big Day

Nate was out of town on a work trip for Gabe's birthday, so we ended up celebrating over several days! We did his big dinner and big present (the drums) while Nate was still here, and then his sleepover the following weekend, the day before Nate left! Then, on his actual day, he had a few more small gifts from us and Grandma and Papa Staude, to open up!

Aragorn's Quest, for the wii, from grandma and papa

The Hobbit Hole lego set, also from grandma and papa!

Gabe's 11th Birthday

Gabe turned 11 at the end of January! ELEVEN!! We got him a "new" drum set we scored off of Craigslist. We stored it in the basement, all the while, telling him the sewer had leaked downstairs and he wasn't allowed down. For his gift, he opened the key to one of the drum heads. He just looked at it, confused, before telling us he already had two keys! I said "Are you sure it goes to your old drum set?" "Yeah!" he insisted. "Let's go downstairs," I suggested. We headed down. He froze when he saw the drums, then spun around and yelled "There was no sewer leak!!!" He was SOOOOO happy! It was really sweet!

We gave him the drum key, all wrapped up. He was so confused!

Here is his OLD drum set, so you can see the difference!

Bike Addiction

I like to joke with Nate that he has a biking addiction. I think these photos prove it. Ha! (Actually, he was hauling one bike to the bike repair shop on his way to work, so I guess I can cut him a little slack.)

Fresh Bread Kick

I've been making a lot of sourdough bread lately. This is what the finished product looks like. Five minutes later, it's gone.

Tea for 2!

JANUARY: This is the cute little teapot that Nate bought me for no reason. I love all Bodum products, and I've really been into tea lately, so I LOVE it!

Basketball

Gabe's basketball team did really well at Christ Lutheran this year. It was a combined 5th and 6th grade team. They extended the season for a few tournaments, to give the boys even more experience playing together. It was a fun time!

Not sure why I'm frowning here .... maybe they were losing. But here we are at the game!

Gabe is number 25 for Christ Lutheran.

Chillin' with the Dogs

Rhylah snuggles with Lucca in January.

Asher gets some snuggle time in as well!

My sweet little fur baby! Love this dog!