Michele & Paul: brian

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Sunday, January 04, 2009

I'll have a uke Christmas without you...

We celebrated Christmas with Paul's family in the Twin Cities the day after Brian & Vanessa's New Years Day wedding. Sammy had a fun time with the family.

The theme for this year's Christmas turned out to be ukuleles. After Michele bought Paul a ukulele, we thought about it and figured it would be a fun gift for other family members. We found a maker of affordable ukuleles which has them painted in various colors (Mahalo). The strings which come with them are pretty bad, so you need to replace them with better strings.

Some of the painted ukuleles available...

Chris has a friend in Woody...

We video-conferenced-in Anne's grandson Tommy...
Grant, Chris, and Brian provided necessary technical support...

Opening their ukuleles...
Chris (orange ukulele) and Molly (light powder blue ukulele)...

Vanessa with her pink ukulele...

Brian with his yellow ukulele...

Wearing an orange shirt...
...Chris entertains us with his orange ukulele...

Sammy helps with clean up...

Sammy...

Chris shows Sammy how to set up and topple dominoes...

Saturday, January 03, 2009

A New Years Wedding...

We started off 2009 with a New Years day wedding of Paul's nephew Brian and Vanessa.

The night before the wedding (New Years Eve), we stayed overnight at the hotel where the wedding was. Paul managed to get Diane a teeny-bit-tipsy on Yukon Jack (a family tradition of sorts).

We are very happy to welcome Vanessa into the family. She is a very nice young lady and she certainly makes Brian happy.

Here are some of the photos we took at the wedding...

Grant helps Brian get ready...

Vanessa and Ashlynn sharing a moment together before the wedding...

Diane, Grant, and the Minneapolis skyline...

Paul's nephew Chris and Molly...

Sammy bits a big bagel...

Brian and Vanessa during the ceremony...

Mr. and Mrs. Brian S...

Friday, April 18, 2008

Surprise Party for Michele...

Last Saturday we gave Michele a surprise birthday party (Paul's sister Diane did most of the planning). We had family and close friends over. We can't say how old Michele is (to protect the innocent)...but we can say it was a milestone birthday. Happy Birthday Michele!

Roses pale in comparison to Michele...

The table & cake...
we had to edit out the numeral candles...

Playing "Cranium Wow", Chris sculpted with clay what looked like a "male appendage"...

Diane tears up with pride over Chris's sculpture...
...then we realized it was an umbilical cord...
...notice Michele's birthday girl head wear...

Molly, Johanna, and the 2oz bottle of Heinz 57 Ketchup...
...Johann promised to take the bottle through airport security....
...to Uruguay...
...and take a photo of her, her mother, and the ketchup...

We had "n" balloons...one for each year of Michele's life...
...so we can't say how many, but one can speculate...

Chris ties up Sammy to the balloons...
...moments before he lifts off the floor...

Sammy loves balloons a lot...
...and a lot of balloons he loves even more...

After some helium escaped from the balloons...
....Sammy touched down...

Ashlynn gives Sammy a hug...

Sammy instructs Ashlynn on how to be a rock star...

Playing Apples to Apples...

Vanessa, Brian, Jaime, Molly, and Chris...

Chris...
...the man of 1,000 faces...

Brian gives the camera his serious look...

Chris and Veto...

Saturday, March 08, 2008

The February Birthdays Party...

When we were up at Grants we had a big meal and birthday cake. Meatballs and (home-made) spaghetti of course. Desert featured a cake decorated by Sammy himself (with help from Grant & Diane).

The multi-person birthday cake...
...each candle represents 7.76 years...

Anne, Mike, Jayd, Paul, Vanessa, Brian...
...and what's left of dinner...

Chris serving dinner...

Some of the February birthday people blow out candles...

Sammy gets his birthday tickling from Grant, Diane, and Anne...

Vanessa and Brian (he really is smiling)...

Chris and Molly...

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Good-bye old bed...

We had this bed for a long, long time. Since Sammy was born, we had to change one of our guest rooms into the nursery, so we no longer needed this bed. Paul's sister Diane needed a one for her son Chris when he finishes school in Texas, so it only made sense to give it to her. So tonight Diane, Brian, Chris, and a friend (his name escapes us now) stopped by to pick up the bed.

Years ago, when we were purchasing this bed, Paul wanted a full-size bed instead of a queen size because "it would be cheaper." But the salesman handled it perfectly. He had both Michele and Paul lay down on the full size bed, get comfy, and then said, "Oh, sure a full size is fine. But if you are pregnant it gets awfully small fast." So we got the queen-size.

Chris, Brian, a friend, the bed,
200 square yards of plastic, 100 feet of nylon rope,
and 1 whole role of duct tape...

Notice how Chris has tied the doors shut...

Hanging on for dear life...

Monday, December 25, 2006

Christmas Eve...2006

For Christmas eve, Paul's sisters Anne & Diane came down. Also, his two nephews Brian & Chris came (along with Chris' Xbox 360). We opened up most of the presents that night since we were all together. In addition to the usual themes of Moose and Elvis...this year was flavored by Anne's visit to the King Tut exhibit.

Brian models a new sweater...