EZ RIDER

A few months ago I was offered the opportunity to participate in a fundraiser for Grin & Grow Daycare. We received a unfinished wood rocking horse to "decorate" as we wished, the horses are going to be in a "derby" at the February fundraiser, auctioned off to raise money. With the help of so many wonderful people at Nagle Signs we were able to create this:

Here it is in our front office waiting to be picked up:

And the photos I took of Chandler trying it out:

YEAR IN REVIEW

In the spirit of the new year I made layouts for the kids' baby books. I'm eager for my lil nephew to arrive this spring, it'll be so nice to have a baby around.

WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Here's to Health

I'm sure 99.9% of all New Years resolutions revolve around getting rid of "a few extra pounds" but I'm resolving to eat heathier (which will force Mark and the children to as well... since I am the main cook).

And, if Little Debby not being a guest in our home results in my pants being the least bit baggy it'll be PROOF that I deserve new jeans ;) You can track my progress on the ticker @ the top of the page... wish me luck!

FUZZ BALLS

Mark helped his sister Jenny move into a new apartment today- she "took in" a stray cat earlier this year and it proceeded to produce 3 bundles of joy.

Our friends adopted one, the other 2 are currently residing with us. 1 of them will be going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa White when it gets a little warmer.

Will update with OFFICIAL NAMES later.

GLEASON FAMILY CHRISTMAS '08

Last Saturday we had a wonderful Gleason Family Christmas get together in Charles City. It was so wonderful to have everyone together in the unique Shermann House Bed & Breakfast

It was so beautifully decorated it felt like home. I'm so glad that Aunt Julie was able to make it. It was a day of good food and good times.

http://iabedandbreakfast.com/IBBIA/charlescity.htm

FRESH SNOW

BEAUTIFUL DETAILS

KIDS ENJOYING THE FURNITURE

EVERYONE SITTING DOWN TOGETHER TO EAT

KATELYN & THE BIGGEST TREE SHE'S EVER SEEN

KATELYN CHECKING ON THE BABY

6 PACK OF GLEASON KIDS

GLEASON GREAT-GRANDKIDS

CHASE & GODMOTHER BETH

CATCHING UP
A FEW GOOD MEN

OUR FAMILY

Christmas Updates

Our internet has been really hit or miss the last few days so I haven't been able to post any photos from Christmas.... hopefully I'll have them up soon.

TIME TO SHOVEL

What I woke up to last Friday....

After a little manual labor...

Create Your Own GushyGram
Visit MushyGushy.com

YUM

Tonight before bedtime I was reading Katelyn a delightful little book, and there on page 2 was a TINY little deer peeking out of the bush.

She said LOOK MOM A DEER LIKE DADDY'S! I asked her what happened to it (I honestly wasn't sure if she even knew about where it went) - she answered IT'S GONE - WHEN IT COMES BACK WE WILL EAT IT WITH A FORK.

Apparently she and Mark had a talk.

WELCOME EMERY!

Congratulations to Cousin Teresa, her husband Ian and

new BIG brother Corbin on the arrival of Emery Nicolas yesterday!

Can't wait to hear more about the newest addition to the family!

He joins the ranks with all the other " White cousins' boys"-

Corbin
Alex
Asher
Chase
Baby Boy Mask (due April)

Looks like Katelyn is going to be playing Barbies alone ;)

SLUG-NOSED SNOWMAN

Katelyn and I decided to try and construct a big wonderful snowman in our front yard today. Unfortunately, the snow was frozen solid (I realized this as I saw her walking over top a drift)

Luckily for her, I'm not a quiter.

With the help of our handy-dandy garden planting shovel, I hacked away 4 little squares and proudly stacked them up. We didn't have a carrots or coal (not a big fan of vegetables and we are loyal gas grillers) so we improvised, by using rocks for the eyes/mouth and one of Mark's deer slugs for the nose.

SNEEZY

I cut up a KIWI for Katelyn and Chase last night and Katelyn said " I can't eat it - it makes me AHHHHH CHOOO!"

*she thought the seeds were pepper

LOOK WHO SAT STILL!

LOST AND FOUND

After repeatedly interrogating Katelyn and making her clean her room - looking for my lost memory card. I gave up and decided it would eventually turn up.

Early this morning I thought, what if she wasn't last night when she pointed to my computer and told me she put it back. So I busted out a flashlight and sure enough, there it was crammed in the back of my floppy drive. Right idea - wrong slot.

HONESTY

This morning my digital camera's memory card was noticably missing from the front of my computer. I asked Katelyn if she knew where it was, she smiled her signature smile and said NO.

I asked "KATELYN ARE YOU LYING" she made a mad face, growled at me, clawed at the air and said "YES MOM I AM LION" - the card is still missing :(

HERE KITTY KITTY ...

CO. CHRISTMAS PARTY

Sunday was my company Christmas Party and as always we had a wonderful time. A big thank you to John and Jan for providing such a great party for the kids - it doesn't get much better than pizza, cake, presents, a magician and SANTA!

Chase & his Girlfriend Chandler looking for SANTA

Katelyn Found Him!

Chase Contemplating Pulling Santa's Beard

Shy Katelyn

Katelyn Figuring out this guy is OK

mini-VACATION

We arrived home safe and sound yesterday afternoon from the twin-cities.Looks like we made it just in time, it started snowing last night and we've gotten quite a bit this morning - my chore today will be finding the ice-scrapers in the garage... joy.

The kids had a blast at the hotel, and enjoyed going downtown to see the Holidazzle parade and "A Day in the Life of an Elf" @ Macy's. Chase slept through most of the Mall of America, but we woke him up to see Katelyn go on a couple rides @ Nickelodeon Universe... this was the highlight of her 3yrs of existance, we may skip Disney for the next few years and keep taking her there until she gets bored ;)

FUN @ THE HOTEL

GETTING READY TO HEAD DOWNTOWN

WATCHING THE HOLIDAZZLE PARADE

THE TALKING TREES @ MACY'S

KATELYN'S DREAM COME TRUE

RIDING AZUL THE LITTLE BLUE TRAIN

TWIN CITIES OR BUST

Mark has been wanting to take Katelyn swimming at the waterpark in Dubuque for the last couple weeks, but there's not to much to "take-in" around town. So we're going to head up to my old turf and take the kids to the Mall of America, then we're going to head downtown to see the Macy's Christmas display and the Holidazzle Parade. I'm so excited!!! And Sunday is my Co. Christmas party, it's going to be a great kick-off to a wonderful holiday season. IKEA HERE I COME

Christmas Comes Early...

I just couldn't wait to put my Christmas tree up, so I busted it out of the box Saturday a.m. while Mark was at work. Katelyn said "MOM! You made that tree for me!?!" maybe next year we'll cut one down so she understands that trees actually "GROW".

We were "scheduled" for our anual Christmas photo for my mom's cards later that day, so we decided to just take them in our living room, here are a few of the thousands we took:

THE WHOLE GANG:

KATELYN & CHASE

OUR FAMILY

And I took these for our cards... I scored a beautiful piece of blue awning material that was left over from our company inventory. It's amazing how well a 5' chunk of canvas photographs.

BUSY BUSY!

Just wanted to add a quick post since it's been almost 2wks :( The kids got sick Halloween weekend and it lasted an entire week, so I worked from home most of the week. We're gearing up for Christmas, I've started shopping and pushed the couch over to make room for the Christmas tree... hopefully I'll find time to post new photos of the kids, we took some Christmas photos for our cards and a whopping 3 out of a million turned out. I guess that's pretty good odds with them being 1 & 3!

Everytime we go for a walk we pass this wonderful old car... and everytime I see it I think- next time I'm going to bring my camera and take a picture of Katelyn with it. After months of walking by it, I finally took a photo:

These were taken @ the neighbors:

And on Main St.: