Pictures from Minnesoah-ta (that's supposed to be written like the accent...)

My and my grandma, Fran Jones.

My and my dad. A note to my sister: Becky, I experimented with using a hair straightener: Do you like the way my hair looks?

A funny Amelia story:
This morning we woke up to some pretty snow (that later turned to rain, but I digress...) When Amelia and I were cuddling on the couch Tom said, "Amelia have you seen the snow outside?!" To which she responded, complete with a loud sigh, "No. Later."

Guess who's back...

Mommy returned from her big trip to Minnesota and was able to spend some fun time with Amelia before her bedtime. Amelia and Daddy had a wonderful time together and Amelia did not ignore me when I got home, like she did the last time I went away for a few days. She was really excited to see me and just asked to "cuddle" on the couch. I also brought her a lot of presents, which always helps... Not pictured is the Curious George sticker book which we hope occupies her for many hours to come...

Amelia plays in her (messy) room. She has started to really enjoy playing alone in her bedroom. We keep talking about making it 100% child proof (it's not there yet because she has never played alone in there) and bringing some of her toys up there and letting her go at it.

Amelia helped open Daddy's birthday presents from the Mall of America. Mommy is pretty proud of herself for the wide variety gifts: A mini-burger maker, one of stainless steel things you rub on your hands to get the garlic smell off, a superman t-shirt, a book called "Strong Fathers; Strong Daughters," and a Twilight book mark of boys with no shirts on. I told him that none of the gifts were related to each other in anyway; they just jumped out at me on the shelf of their respective stores!

Amelia's present from her Grandpa Jones and Heath was a ballerina outfit complete with headband (which was the big hit) and then a matching outfit for her doll, Emma. All were purchased at the American Girl store. She calls the head band "band" and wanted to take it to bed but we convinced her to leave it on the counter where it could "rest" until tomorrow after the long trip home...

Mommy dresses Emma in her ballerina outfit while Amelia watches...

Amelia and Emma in their ballerina outfits.

Many thanks to everyone for supporting my trip to visit my grandma who I love so much:
1. To Tom for encouraging me and having such fun with Amelia in my absence (and realizing that I clean up the bath toys...that might be the only thing I consistently clean up.)
2. To my dad for helping make the trip possible and for sharing in a surreal bedside experience with my grandma that we are both still processing.
3. To my aunt and uncle for hosting me, providing me with diabetic food, and not holding it against me for taking 31 years to visit Minneapolis...
4. To my Uncle Scott for giving me the shove I needed at Thanksgiving to go visit.
5. And to my grandma who is one of the most amazing women I'll ever have the privilege of saying I"m related to (fun fact for blog followers: She used to be a flight attendant. IN THE 1930s. How cool is that?)

Hello Videos

These are almost the same but I think you will enjoy them. They are 1 minute each.

(if you aren't figuring this out--click on these and same.)

Also--I want to officially thank my wife for being the one that cleans up all the toys from the bathtub. I have been showering with about 50 toys under foot and only this weekend realized that it was Heidi--not a magical elf--that has been picking them up for the last 8 months.

YAY!!!!!

Grammie Perkins got me a new camera for my birthday. She also took Becky, Amelia and I out to lunch at my favorite restaurant--Moritomo!!!




Here is one of the first videos I took.

In honor of our non snow snow day....

...I thought I'd post some pictures of Amelia having fun in the snow at school. School was cancelled at 5:30 this morning (along with every other district in the state) and so far we've had about 1/25" of an inch of snow. We are having fun family time nonetheless...and know we'll be making this one up in June anyway!

Amelia plays with Michael in the outdoor train... she calls Michael "Goggle" and he calls her "Hy-ee" (as in Heidi, her mommy's name :))





She really likes eating snow...

Even if it's on a snowman...

Mmmmm... tasty!

Good News and a cute story.

Amelia loves being outside ("side" as she calls it) and we think she needs some more snow so she can go back to sledding every day at school...

We wonder why she has chapped lips...

Just too cute...

So, we got good news from the doctor today. The blood work I had done last week to test the baby for spinal cord defects (a concern for babies of diabetic mothers, including gestational diabetics) came back negative. We are very relieved even though we weren't overly worried to begin with. We have a level 2 (3-d) ultrasound in 3 weeks and are excited to learn more and see this baby who will be coming before we know it!

Today when I picked up Amelia at school, they told us that when they asked her "Who do you love?" for their "Love List" for Valentine's Day, Amelia responded, "Yoey." All the other kids said mommy/daddy. Amelia loves Yoey. She loves us, too, but we love that she thinks of Yoey during the day, too :)

It finally is uploading...

I have been trying to get this video to upload FOR A WEEK. Hope it's worth the effort...

just so you know...

I've been trying to upload videos for the past few days but we're having connection problems. We are not dropping off the blog face of the earth! :)