Mia's 1st Birthday

Mia turns 1 on Wednesday but we had a party for her on Saturday. I think this picture proves it was a success! Thank you to everyone!

Mia's many faces when talking about the aquarium

Strey Christmas

After recovering from so much Christmas fun we loaded up the car and headed down to St. Peter for the Strey Christmas.
Great-Grandma Jo was ready and waiting to feed Mia her nighttime bottle.

The next morning Mia was ready and rarin' for the festivities to begin. It was an action packed morning. And, as all good mornings do, it started with a trip for coffee and everyone came!

While there Grandma taught my dad a thing or two about technology - and Grandpa and I thought about joining Mia in a nap!

Tida loved her coffee and was totally ready to go ;)

Hanging out at home was a blast. Betsy got to show off her 7 month preggers belly... We are so excited to meet Baby Gherkin!

Finally it came time for presents. Mia was shocked but totally excited to learn that Santa sometimes goes to Grandpa Howie and Grandma Janet's house with a stocking for her too...

Opening presents was so much fun with the whole Strey-Clan! Often people start wearing their presents even before we are done...

Dan C sure loves his snow globes! I am unsure if he is in awe by the shiny glitter or by the fact that we get up at 3AM every year to get one of these tiny things...

Our classic, yet still awesome, picture stylings!

This cake pan fascinated Mia for about 20 minutes. What a great Christmas!

And then my camera died. We did many other fun things including a shower for Betsy, a night in a hotel, and seeing all Jessi's side of the family! What a great holiday Season!

January

After all the crazy awesome of the christmas season getting back to normal is a ... well... "challenge". Therefore, no blogs for a while. Here is a little summary of the big events in January.

A family of Deer continues to bed in our backyard.

Mia played outside in the snow and was OK with it...

But Tahoe liked it WAYYY more!

Our curling team of Myself, Megan, Judy, and Eve got 2nd place in the ladies "80's" Bonspiel!

Mia chilled in her chair...

then the food came and Mia wigged out in her chair.

Eve had a Birthday so we all went out to eat at a Hibachi grill. Mia wasn't so sure about the noise and flames but seemed to enjoy it.

The rest of us really liked it. Eve even got to wear a hand crafted birthday balloon hat!

Mia drank lots of milk...

And crawled ALL over the place!

Jamie had a BIG birthday and we all went to the skating rink.

Dan had never been on skates before and turned out to be a ...

Prodigy?

Mia got a fo-hawk for the occasion!

And us girls... Well we just hokey pokey'd on down... like usual!

Linde Rule: Sick people wear socks

Linde Rule (revised) : Sick people wear socks unless you are sick with double ear infections and pneumonia, then you have to wear a ridiculous hat as well to keep heat in as we don't have a hat quite large enough to fit your head. (oh and then it is ok to eat the table)

And last, but definately not least... Dan wore this shirt.

The End

Christmas Break 2010 in Duluth

In this picture, Betsy is 7 months preggers and is not loving the smell of Mia's peas...

which is just some weird and foreign concept to Mia as they are amazingly delicious...

Dan to the rescue! He loves the peas... but not Mia just wants to chomp on the spoon.

In the meantime, everyone else is busy Wii curling! Now that's a party :)

Lily was up for all the energy but at the end of the night has had just enough of these people.

A few candid but fun pics without captions because we are in a rush out the door!

Christmas Morning 2010

Christmas morning in Hermantown and this is the dialogue I woke up to...

"Santa stopped by!!!" -Tahoe

"Shhh Tahoe... he's gonna be mad and I dont wanna make the

naughty list" - Lily

"Santa! Santa! Santa! Santa! Santa! Santa! Santa! Santa! Santa!" - Tahoe

Santa did come and brought a great stocking for Mia! Enough of pics... lets see what this is!

What a great book!

Thanks Santa!

"Did you say Santa?!"

Christmas Eve Continued 2010

After Christmas Eve service we headed down to Bentlyville to look at the lights... It was a little chilly so we made some great time!

Then home for a little bedtime snack
Too tired to party, Dad and Mia fell alseep...

Oh, and by the way, it was only 7:45pm.

It's ok... you know you have to be asleep for Santa to come!
Merry Christmas!