last monday marked 4 weeks with winnie and she turned 12 weeks old. she also had her best night of sleep to date. 10pm - 6:30am (when our alarms went off). so nice! she's come so far in 4 weeks. i went to the gym in the morning and then took our subaru in for service because we've been smelling gas/exhaust almost every time we drive it for weeks (or even months?!). of course when i drove it there i didn't smell it. then i bused back in 12 degrees and grabbed a gingerbread latte from the coffee shop in our neighborhood. yum.
when i tried to put my right glove back on after taking this picture, i spilled over a third of my drink all over my coat. oops! winnie was very happy to see me when i got back and curled up on my lap and fell asleep.
the guys at the shop couldn't find anything wrong with our car. siiiigh. they asked to keep it overnight and try again in the morning. in the evening we got a fresh 1-2 inches of snow. thatcher and i went out to shovel and took winnie and saw some neighbors. i love nights like that. then she fell asleep on my chest like a newborn. she is the absolute sweetest.
tuesday it was just winnie and me for most of the day. we started getting heavy snow in the afternoon. i left her in her crate to bus to the auto shop to get our car. i even wore snowpants. ha! i was driving back around the time azalea gets out of school, so i offered to pick her up because she wasn't exactly dressed for the snow. we stopped at turtle bread on the way back for a treat :) it snowed the rest of the afternoon and evening.
the rest of the night, the kids and winnie played in the snow, thatcher did some baking, and i did a little reading.
wednesday we woke up to a lot more snow than i was expecting, probably another 5 inches on top of what we already had. it looked really pretty!
in the afternoon durant and cheryl came over to hang out with winnie while i went shopping (it's become a weekly date). the roads were pretty messy while the plows tried to keep up.
durant gets the best pictures of winnie when he comes over.
we hung out at home the rest of the day and i prepped for our new jersey visitors. ashford started telling us he was feeling rundown/sick. siiiiigh.
thursday morning ashford woke up sick and we decided to keep him home from school and sadly from his first ever band concert that was supposed to be that night. such a bummer. my cousin jaclyn landed at msp airport around 12:30 and i went to pick her up. i was so happy to see her! i hadn't seen her since 2021 and she hadn't been to minnesota since our wedding in 2007. we stopped at 'turtle bread' for some lunch before coming back to the house.
jaclyn and winnie were very excited to meet. we hung out at the house for a while and also took winnie on a short walk.
then we headed to my mom's where jaclyn was going to actually stay (someday we will have a useable guest room here). the three of us picked up azalea from her babysitting gig and then drove out to my brother's for the evening. we picked up chinese take-out and hung out with him for a couple hours.
friday morning ashford went back to school as he had improved a lot. i picked up my mom and jaclyn in the late morning and we went to church to see my dad's plaque in the columbarium. jaclyn was not able to come to my dad's funeral in 2015, so she requested we go. i hadn't been there in probably 8 years.
then we headed over to a pop-up christmas bakery in my neighborhood that i've been wanting to check out. whenever i drive by on a weekend, there is a line down the block. it wasn't that busy, but still pretty crowded. jaclyn and i got mochas to go because there was nowhere to sit.
we dropped off my mom, and jaclyn and i went back to my house to hang out with winnie. soon it was time to pick up my aunt lea from the airport. lea is my dad's younger sister and she was last here in summer 2024. jaclyn is her niece, not her daughter. we came to show her the house and introduce her to winnie. in the evening my brother came over and everyone except thatcher and the kids went out for birthday dinner for jaclyn who turns 40 on 12/21 (same bday as ashford!). we went to hazelwood, which is a great cozy place. we got lots of food and drinks and had a really nice time.
saturday morning thatcher, the kids, brandon and i met the rest of the group at 'norway house' for a gingerbread showcase. my mom went a couple years ago and loved it. it was super cool, and the gingerbread structures were really creative.
then most of us headed to nico's tacos for lunch. they deck out the restaurant for christmas and it was so festive!
jaclyn and i watched "christmas vacation" in the afternoon and ran a couple errands. then everyone met back up at my house for a cozy appetizer night. jaclyn even bought us matching christmas jammies. she really knows the way to my heart. we ate, drank, sat by the fire and played christmas bingo and left-right-center.
sunday morning i took jaclyn to the airport at 6:45 am with a temp of -10. woof! my car was not happy. i was sad to say goodbye to her, she is just the best. thatcher made biscuits and eggs when i got back.
i decided i didn't have enough pics of my tree during the day :)
we hung around the house for the morning then the kids and i met my mom and lea over at my aunt cindy and uncle corey's house to visit. they hadn't seen lea since my dad's funeral.
this is how she felt about the cold. ha!
thatcher and ashford took winnie to puppy class number 2. this was before they left:
then everyone met back up again at our house for pizza for dinner.
the prettiest sunset that my camera could not do justice
both lea and jaclyn loooooved winnie and it was so nice to have extra helpers for a few days.
we said goodbye to lea at the end of the night as my mom was taking her to the airport early monday morning. i'm sad that a weekend we were looking forward to for a couple months is behind us now, but we still have ashford's birthday, our nephew jack coming in town, and christmas gatherings to look forward to. the best time of year!
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