Winter Nights & Lights Parade

It is snowing out today and looks just beautiful for this time of year so I decided to post something that had to do with the holiday season. Two weeks ago, the company I work for participated in St. Cloud's "Winter Nights & Lights Parade" for the first time. Since I work for a power company we had to make sure that our trucks were all lit up with lights. The theme this year was "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and let me tell you it was just that! That day, the high was 17 degrees and when the sun went down it got bitter cold, but we braved the elements and trudged on! This was our fearless leader, Lori. She did such a great job organizing this whole event.

This is Paul and his oldest son and Lori all waiting patiently. I was a wuss and sat in the warm truck until the parade started. I am surely not a huge fan of winter. I much prefer 80 degrees and sunny with a margarita in hand! Dream on, right!

This is my good friend, Suzi. She's a bad-a** chick that has her CDL so she was able to drive one of the big Gas Dept trucks.

And since Suzi was driving, we were able to bring along a few of Santa's helpers. This is Suzi with her son, Hunter.

Hunter brought along a couple of his friends for the ride. Bryce is on the left and Jake is in the middle. All I can say is what a bunch of nice and well behaved boys. A true pleasure to have each of them with.

And who it this? Why it is the Little Punk himself! Grant was so excited to be able to ride in a big truck and hang out with the big boys!

We had to wait in line for about an hour before the parade started so the big boys were entertained by Grant the entire time. He is such a ham and loves to be the center of attention. Shortly before the parade was set to start the boys spotted something in the parking lot to the right...

Why, it was Donner and Blitzen pulling Santa's sleigh!

Of course, the boys wanted to get out and get a closer look. Grant even got to go up and pet on of the reindeer.

AND THEN...they got to sit in the sleigh! What a great photo op! I had just got my new camera the day before so I was the designated "photographer"!

Here are all 4 boys piled in the sleigh. By this time they were getting cold because they were just wearing sweatshirts inside the cab of the truck and of course couldn't take the time to bundle back up in their jackets before they ran out to see the reindeer. Just look at Grant's face. You can almost hear his teeth chattering!

After only a couple of minutes of freezing, we piled the boys back into the truck and it was time for the parade to begin! This is the Gas truck that Suzi and all of the boys were in.
And this is the Electric truck that Paul and his youngest son Tanner rode in.

This is just another picture of the gas truck coming down the street during the parade. I just though it was a cool picture with the sunset in the background and all of the lights. What a bunch of crazy people standing outside for and hour to watch a parade in freezing conditions! Only in MN!

Grant got to sit on Suzi's lap the entire parade. He was going to "help" her drive but became engrossed with waving at everyone. After the parade, Suzi told me that he was so cute because he had a perma-grin on the entire time and kept saying, "Look at everyone waving at me!" He thought they were all there just to see him! TOO CUTE! I wish I could have seen and heard it for myself, but I can just imagine how adorable it all was :)

After the parade, we were treated to a pizza party. The kids had a great time together. Of course, Grant had to sit next to his "new best friend, Rice" aka Bryce. He just adored Bryce because he pretty much doted on Grant the entire time.

While the big boys were busy having a spit-ball fight in the booths behind us, Grant was busy blowing bubbles in his milk. Little stinker! But I had to take a picture before I explained that it was not polite to blow bubbles in your milk. Oh well...kids gotta be kids sometimes, right? As long as no one is getting hurt, you just have to let them go.

I am a little worried and sad today, though. This is my beloved kitty, Gabby aka Gibber Gabbers.

I have noticed that she has been drinking A LOT of water lately and peeing like crazy, among a couple of other subtle symptoms. She had been sick with a kidney infection earlier this year so I decided to do a little of my Internet research. I am now convinced that she either has kidney disease or diabetes so I called the vet and made an appt for her to be checked out Mon morning. I have almost lost her twice now and I am NOT ready to lose her now. She is only 6 and has a lot more life left in her. Plus Grant just adores her and would be very sad to lose her. Cross your fingers that everything turns out okay and at the most all she needs is another round of antibiotics to clear up an infection. This cat is soon to be deemed "The Million Dollar Cat" for sure!

Blessings to all!!

Rock'm Sock'm Fun

Last night, our dear friends, Keith and Kris Dierkes came over for a late dinner and a few toddies. Audrey was in bed by 7:30 and our night owl, Grant, was in our room watching PBS Kids instead of sleeping so we figured we would play a friendly game of Wii bowling. Of course, Ms. Pro Bowler, Kris, creamed all of us! But fun was had by all. Well, after we had bowled two or three games and polished off 2 or 3 drinks, Grant decided to come out to see what all the commotion was about. Of course, he wanted to get in on the action so he challenged his dad to a game of "punchin"! Well here is a picture montage of how the match went down...
Alright, Dad...I'm ready to ROCK!

ding, ding, ding...FIGHT!

Grant gave Duke the one-two kablooie. Look at the fear in Duke's eyes as he tries to block the beating!

Ooohh, and now he's gonna fight dirty!

Oh, yeah. Take that you filthy animal!

KaPOW! 1-2-3-4-5...

...6-7...you're gonna looooose, you're gonna looooose!...-8-9-10!

KNOCK OUT! Just look at that smug look on Duke's face! He was so proud he just beat a 3 1/2 year old! Hasn't he ever heard of letting the little kid win so he feels good about himself? Guess not!

Grant had a blast, but ended up staying up WAYYYYY too late and getting up MUCH too early this morning. He was quite crabby today and we had a funeral in Brainerd so it did not make for a fun day today. Lesson learned.

Can't post without sharing a few of my little Toots! I got my new Canon camera so I have been playing around with it all week thus not having much time to sit on the computer. Anyhoo...these are just a couple of Audrey playing before bed time last night. Just climbing around, enjoying her nukie.

Uh oh! Mom just snagged my nukie!

You better hand it over of someone's gonna lose a finger!

Ahhh, I was just foolin'!

Speaking of losing a finger. Today we were wrestling around and I was tickling her and thought I saw a glimpse of something in her mouth. Lately I have been thinking it is weird that she had her 4 front teeth for so long, then she got her 5th one on the top next to her two front teeth about 3 weeks ago and nothing else. Well, I stuck my finger in her mouth to feel around and to my surprise, she has 3 molars and is working on a 4th! Holy cow! Not sure how I missed that. In the process of feeling around, she chomped down on my finger with her front teeth and almost brought tears to my eyes. Little stinker! Maybe her teething is part of the reason she has had such a runny nose lately! It has been 3 weeks of non-stop boogers! All I can say is ISH!

Just want to remind everyone to hug their kids tight and give them an extra smooch tonight. The funeral we attended today was for Duke's cousin's wife who suddenly passed away on Monday. She was only 31 and left behind a very loving husband and 4 beautiful children, one only 12 days old. Such a terribly sad story, but also one that makes a person realize that although times are sometimes tough, things can always be much worse. My heart goes out to the entire Long family. My thoughts and prayers are with you tonight and always. God bless.

Toilet Talk

Okay, I suppose you are wondering why in the world I would want to talk toilet. Well...because I want to brag. NO, not about myself on the toilet. Can you guess who???? And I am certainly not talking about my husbands bathroom manner. Nope, not Grant either, although I do wish he would gain some nocturnal bladder control. So who does that leave??????? I'll give you one more guess...

Yep, you got it! My Little Miss Toot went POTTY on the BIG GIRL POTTY tonight!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe less than a month ago I was posting her 1st Birthday pictures. Crazy! She has been learning so much this month and really beginning to show her personality.
She has also started responding to questions. I have noticed that if I asked her if she is hungry, she now nods "yes" and goes over to her high chair or if I ask her if she needs a diaper change she nods "yes" and walks into her room to be changed. So, the other day, Grant was going potty and I asked Audrey if she had to go. She nodded yes so I figured, "Why not?" and set her on the toilet with the little seat. She wasn't sure what to think and just sat a few seconds. Then tonight she did the same thing but sat there a little longer. Then, after dinner, I was telling Duke about her progress and I said, "Tootie, did you tell Daddy what you did tonight? Did you tell him you sat on the big girl potty?" Then I asked her if she needed to try to go potty again. She nodded and walked into the bathroom so I followed along and decided that if she was willing to sit it was worth a try. So she sat on there and was giggling and swinging her legs and acting all cute. Then all of the sudden I heard a tinkle tinkle!! Yippee! I was so excited and she thought she was the Queen of all Queens!
Duke and his siblings are each 15 mos apart and were all potty trained before the other one was born so I guess it is possible. Lets just keep our fingers crossed! Here is another picture showing how independent she is becoming...

Yes, she now eats with a spoon...or at least she tries. She actually did really well on Sunday with Mac & Cheese. Oh, and did you know that Tootie goes to school already? I enrolled her in a toddler ECFE class (4 sessions) so that she and I can have come special one on one time. She really enjoyed the first night and even got to see Claire, her neighbor/BFF (okay OFSF...only friend so far!). I brought my camera, but the battery died after 2 pictures (BAD MOMMY) so this is the best picture I got of here at school.

This is just a cute picture of her playing with and egg carton. Not sure why I bother buying the kids toys when they would rather play with trash!

Oooh, and check out the serious curls she is getting. This picture was taken after her bath last night. It is so cute and curly right away, but then it flattens out after she sleeps on it. Nothing a little mousse can't fix!

And last but not least, I figured I would treat you to a little video of Crazy Head Daisy playing in the laundry room. She loves to make noise and she figured out that if she beats on the washer it makes all kines of noise!

This is another video of her playing in the laundry room and just being her cute self!

Hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into what Tooters has been up to lately. I better get to bed. Big day tomorrow, training in the Cities and Lori Line Concert tomorrow night. Yeah for a short week!