Tacky Sweater Christmas Party

Saturday Dec 10th, we went over to Allison and Patrick's for a Tacky Christmas Sweater Party with everybody from Lance's class and then some! We had a great time and Ansley had a blast!!!

Ansley in her 'tacky' Christmas sweater

some of the boys

Me, Allison, Ansley, Parker, and Emily

Ansley being silly

Emily and Chad

They are our new neighbors in the duplexes and they are from the SOUTH, Mississippi to be exact!

LOVE this picture....Ansley looks too cute, but we look like dorks! :)

Duluth Ski Trip

We spent Dec. 2-4 weekend in Duluth, MN. It was our second trip to Duluth, but this time there was snow! One of the guys Lance works with had a bunch of free hotel rooms so a lot of the boys from Lance's work went, I think around 15-20 people total. Saturday morning we got up and went to Spirit Mountain (http://www.spiritmt.com/) to ski and snowboard. I was a little skeptical cause MN isn't known to have 'mountains', but Duluth actually has some or one! :) There was one 'blue' run open and it was a beautiful view from the top!

Spirit Mountain

The view that overlooks Lake Superior

Lance and AJ boarding

Some of the group

Cole, Patrick and Lance

Allison and me

Me and Lance had thought about letting Ansley ski, but since Lance was snowboarding, I would have been the one that she would ski with and since I'm not that good, we decided to just take turns. So while one of us was skiing or boarding, the other was in the lodge hanging out. It actually worked out cause Allison and Patrick went with Parker, so they were in the same boat. We all kinda took turns watching the kids so we could all ski and board.

Bri, Ansley, Me and Parker

Allison, Parker, Ansley, and Kimmy

Some of the group

After a fun filled day of skiing we went back to the hotel, took a nap, got ready to go eat dinner and check out Bentleyville. Bentleyville (http://bentleyvilleusa.org/Home.aspx) is nearly 3 million lights illuminating Bayfront Festival Park located on the shores of Lake Superior. It is the largest holiday light show in the Midwest and has the tallest steel animated Christmas tree in the U.S.

After Bentleyville, we meet up with the rest of the group to eat dinner and have a 'white elephant' gift exchange. We ate at Old Chicago, a delicious pizza place! Lance ended up getting a nice knife/leatherman.

Ansley and Parker had a great time at dinner!

Thanksgiving in TN

We got to spend Thanksgiving back home in TN! We had a great time with all our family and love that we got to spend it with them!

Ans did great on the plane to TN (the way back to MN was not as fun)

she loves playing with the buckles

Unfortunately while were home, Ans got a bad ear infection.

sick baby

As soon as she started feeling a little better we went with the rest of the Freeman's to see the lights at Shadrack's in the Smokies Stadium. Ansley rode with Mimi, PJoe, Hannah, Leah, and Chloe while me and Lance rode with Travis and April.

They had a petting zoo and of course Ans had to check out the llamas!

She LOVES 'Llama Llama Red Pajamas'

Hannah, Ans, and Lance feeding the goats

Chloe, Leah, and Hannah riding the camel....Ans didn't wanna ride

Ansley and Lance going down the slide!

Sweet cousins!! They LOVED riding the train together!

Leah jumping and doing flips

Hannah jumping and doing flips!

Ansley cried because I wouldn't let her on the 'jumpy thingy'

While we were home we also got to help decorate Nana's Christmas tree!

We also stopped by to see Harley! (and Granny and Papa Chapman) :)

Giving Harley kisses...i think somebody misses him!

We had a great trip home for Thanksgiving even though Ansley got sick and we had to stay a couple extra days. :)

We CANNOT wait to go back and be home for CHRISTMAS!!!

Lance's 30th Bday and 1st Snow

We had a lot going on these past couple of days! Friday we went to gymnastics. Ansley did great once again and she really enjoys it. Since her last class, all Ansley has been talking about is the star stamp she got. This time she got a turkey stamp!

After gymnastics we went to eat with Lance. We stopped and got him his favorite dessert first, strawberry cheesecake! Ansley also gave Lance her bday present. With help from me, we wrote '30 Reasons Why I Love My Daddy' and framed it so that he can keep it at work and look at it every day!

30 Reasons Why I love my Daddy

"Anyone can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a daddy." – Anonymous

 1. You are my buddy

2. You tell me everyday that you love me

3. You are my hero

4. You explain things to me, even when I ask “what’s that” a million times

5. You are supportive

6. You give me unconditional love

7. You are hard-working

8. You believe in me

9. You are always there for me

10. You protect me

11. You are funny

12. You encourage me

13. You are smart

14. You make me feel safe

15. You are tender

16. You teach me right from wrong in a kind, loving way

17. You are patient

18. You read to me, over and over and over again

19. You are silly

20. You teach me new things like numbers and the ABC’s

21. You are brave and courageous

22. You make a great breakfast

23. You are kind and thoughtful

24. You plan ahead and you are well prepared

25. You are confident

26. You get excited when I learn something new, especially if you taught me

27. You love shopping for shoes and I love new shoes

28. You show me that I’m beautiful on the inside and out

29. You show me how men are supposed to treat women by the way you treat, respect and love my mommy

30. You are a man of God,

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

 Happy 30th Birthday Daddy!

I love you! Love Ansley

She of course fell sound asleep on the way home!

Saturday we drove to Mankato to 'ChiliFest' (http://www.mankatochilifest.com/). One of Lance's trainers at work had entered his chili so a bunch of the guys from Federated went to support him. On the hour trip to Mankato it was raining, but as soon as we pulled into the parking lot it had turned to snow. We enjoyed about 20 or so different types of chili and then we decided to head back to Owatonna. There was over an inch of snow on the ground when we left and it had already stopped snowing. I guess in some places in MN, the roads got pretty bad cause they said on the news that they had about 200 wrecks reported within 3 hours! Crazy! I thought these people knew how to drive up here! :)

Although we weren't able to take Ansley outside to play in the snow,

she did get to enjoy a snowball that AJ made her!

Then she decided to throw the 'ball'

I knew it was a big bday for Lance so I wanted to do something special, but I just didn't know what so I asked Jen and Allison if they had any ideas and Jen suggested a surprise party. She had all these great ideas so I enlisted her to be the party planner and pretty much all I did was get the supplies! She and AJ even volunteered to have it at their house. It worked out great that the ChiliFest was that morning cause it keep us busy til it was time. Boy, was Lance surprised!!! I don't have too many pics right now from the party, but as soon as I get them I will share cause Jen did a great job with everything!!! Since UT was playing, we decided to do a UT orange party, so we had orange foods, orange drinks, and everybody wore a cut-out "T"!

Yes, Jen even made the cake!!! It was awesome and YUMMY!!!

there was orange punch and even "T" water bottles!

"From the lakes of Minnesota...."

I had given pics to Jen of some of Lance's milestones throughout his 30 years

"to the hills of Tennessee..."

there were pics from birth till recent with everything in between

It was really sweet!

A HUGE thank you to Jennifer and AJ for all your help and Patrick and Allison!! I appreciate everything, especially our friendships!!! Without you guys this would not have been possible!!!

Also, thank you to everyone who came to the party and who also helped!

Happy birthday buddy!!! LOVE YOU OLD MAN! :)

 

We can't wait to see everyone for THANKSGIVING!!!

Only 3 more days!

 Pray for us as we travel!