Brrrr.....it's cold outside

Holy cow it is cold outside. Doesn't she look sad? She wanted to play in that snow stuff outside and then she realized it wasn't all that great. My mom took this picture of her a week or two ago, it wasn't even zero on the day she went out to play and she still wasn't up for it.

She is much happier snuggling Miley and Lucky in the warm house!

Just chillin' in Grandpa's chair.

We went to Grandma Rita's for Christmas on Sunday, it was good to see all of my cousins and other family members. You don't realize how much the family is growing until we all try to squish into Grandma's house now. It used to be the adults in the kitchen and the kids at a card table in the living room and now the entire house is full of tables and chairs! I was looking forward to the yummy desert she always makes, oh yeah, I had 2 pieces. MMmm Good!

Merry Christmas!!!

Santa's got a Harley!

Saturday we visited Santa at St. Paul Harley. Peyton froze solid when we tried to put her on Santa's lap, so all of us girls got in on the fun. We went to the Mall afterwards and boy was that packed. For the way the economy is "falling apart" people sure are shopping!

Sunday we went to the Berg Family Christmas in Frontenac. Peyton was really good all day, it was nice to see some of the family members that have never met Peyton. We missed Christmas last year, we spent the day in the ER with RSV, Croup, Ear Infection and a 103 temp! This year we made it, whew!

Great Uncle Tony bundled Peyton up in the blanket she got for Christmas.

Have a good week!

Oh Christmas Tree - Oh Christmas Tree

A week ago Sunday we cut down the tree at Hampton Hills.

We had fun finding the "right" tree. Peyton wasn't too sure what to think. She wasn't too interested in decorating the tree, but after the tree was decorated, she became very interested in removing the ornaments. She takes them off of the tree and hands them to me as if she is helping me out, needless to say, most of the ornaments are half way up the tree now.

Out of reach!

Thank goodness she hasn't figured out that there is water under the tree, that would be a whole new battle for me. She loves playing in the dog dish so I could just imagine her excitement if she figures out what is under the tree! Of course I haven't put gifts under there yet either, last Saturday she started unwrapping gifts at Lois' house!

Stinker! She was interested in what Tracie was getting for Christmas.

My mom sent me this picture last week, she is wearing my Uncle Danny's hat. My goodness look at those eyes!

This past weekend we delivered the gifts to our families we helped out. They were very thankful. It always feels good to make a difference in a person's day. Of course the day did not go off without the old saying "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished", I slipped and fell down the stairs of one of the houses. My Tailbone is killing me today!

And my neck and my wrist and my arm. I could go on and on.........

I am sure it looked hilarious.

Where's Peyton??

Is she in the cupboard or what?

Gotcha!!

Did St. Nick come to any of your houses Saturday night?

Christmas is only 3 weeks away

Ok, every single year it seems to sneak up on me. I always say I will be better prepared and then I find myself saying the same thing I was saying last year!

We cut down our Christmas tree last Sunday, I have pictures, of course. I was planning on posting them in this message and realized the pic's are on the other computer, ugh! So I was looking for my latest and greatest pic's on this computer and came across some older ones that brought back memories. Holy cow, I am reminded once again how incredibly lucky I am to still have my husband around!

These first 2 pictures were of Cam at the Shell Rotella Show in Grand Island, NE back in 2004 (I think, time flies it was 04, I think). Anyway the pictures were taken by an Australian Magazine, these two pictures were published in that magazine, I paid $26 USD per copy for the magazine he was in!!

And then I found these pictures, October 4, 2004 (our first wedding anniversary) he didn't get me anything and to distract me he rolled the truck 2 1/2 times by Johnson Creek, WI! Oh what a night, I will never forget that phone call! Thank God he was okay, I am not sure how he made it, but Thank God he did!

Peyton is becoming her own person more and more. Wow! She said her first fragment this week, I was a little bit over excited. It was "Hi, Da Da"!! I was pretty happy even though I wish it would have been Hi Ma Ma!!!

So where do you suppose she learns stuff like this?

Sitting at the computer like a big girl!

Okay, I have a couple of great pic's my mom took and the pic's of the Christmas Tree adventure. They will be posted next time around, I promise.

This weekend - baking cookies with the Berg gang of women! Looking forward to it.

Sunday, delivering gifts to the families we are sponsoring this year.

Monday - start year end and budget planning for 2009! The next 4 weeks are going to fly by!

Till Next Time!

Happy Thanksgiving to All

Peyton and Grandpa Doc, just hangin' out.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Now the kick off for Christmas has begun! Oh yes, I admit, I did a little shopping on Black Friday, however, Friday was Black for many of us without the kick off of the shopping season......oops I mean Christmas Season. Most of my shopping was for the families that Cam & I sponsor for Christmas, we are helping out 2 families that are less fortunate this season.

So Wednesday while the guys were getting Jake's trucks ready to go, they had them all lined up outside the shop and a Bald Eagle flew over head. He was there! Tuesday night Cam and I were driving home, in seperate vehicles, from dinner at Oscars and we both seen the same falling star. He was there! The night of the wake a few things happened at the church as well, all of us who know what I am talking about would agree, he WAS there! He will be with all of us, forever.

Now I would just like to mention that we waited in line at the wake for 2 hours! Some of the people behind us said they waited 3 hours. People were there to show thier respects to the entire family from every side of the United States. How impressive is that. One person touched so many lives and he was only 27! Like Yaggy said during the service, you would have swore the Stones were in town.

~ Jake Eilen ~

The Legend Will Live Forever

We miss you and promise to do whatever it takes to help Anne, Jaden, Tom, Julie & your siblings through the rough times that will approach over the days, months and years to come.

The Eilen Family is in our Thoughts & Prayers

Jake made a difference in many people's lives.

This is his first show truck, he took it across the country, from show to show,

sweeping the circuit, making his mark.

Tom & Julie ~ you should be so proud of the accomplishments this young man made during his short time here with us.

It has only been a day and we all learn how many lives this young man touched.

We all miss him and wish we had one last chance to tell him how we feel.

Please take the time to make a comment to show your support for the Eilen family, we will be sure they see it.

Tom, Julie, Anne, Jaden, Pat, Jonathon and Jodie we are all here for you.

Nobody can explain "why", so I guess we press on and become stronger as a group.

The entire Eilen Family is in our thoughts and prayers.

We love you and miss you Jake!

Why! Why! Why!

The call came in around 10:20 pm.

I swore it had to be a joke.

It wasn't a joke.

I am having a hard time understanding WHY on earth does He pick the people He does?

I don't get it.

Jake Eilen, why now?

WHY!

If anyone out there can explain this to me, I would really appreciate it.

We just seen him Friday!

It can't be real.

Anne and Jaden you are in our prayers.

Please God take care of Anne and Jaden, let them know that you knew what you were doing when you chose Jake. Because I sure as heck do not know what you were doing.

Forever in our hearts

~Jake Eilen~

We will miss you dearly.

With Love and Sympathy:

Cam, Erica & Peyton

Theres Something Women like 'bout a Pull Truck Man!

~Happy Birthday Cam~

Here is a pic of 3 decades of my pull truck man. As a kid on his pedal tractor with the pipes, pulling the sled. As a teen at the Truck Pull in Faribault (1994), he took first place, this is the Daily News in Faribault picture. As an adult, in the same pull truck!

He took the Championship for the 2008 season in Pro Stock!!

Way To Go!

We won't mention your age, since you want to still be the young whipper snapper tickin' off the ol' guy at the pull! Ha ha!

Peyton helped him open up the Ass last night. This is his reaction to the Ass.

Happy Birthday Cam - I couldn't think of a better person to share my years with.
PS: Sorry I didn't make you dinner for your entire Birthday week.......sorry you had to do the laundry too......sorry I didn't rub your shoulders when you asked this morning too......sorry you spent your days off from work doing work around the house.......oh yeah, thanks for fabricating the star to add to our outdoor Christmas Display too!
Oh yeah, if I can't find time to make your Birthday Cake tonight, I promise, I will make one this weekend.
It is tough to be Cam!!

I love you!
Happy Birthday Smedly!

These Boots Were Made For Walkin'

Been Awhile ~

New Boots - PJ's - Belly Out - Lovin' it!

Honey ~ take me for a spin

I have yet to see her in this car seat without her legs crossed!

Just hangin' out with mom & dad going to Fleet Farm.

We bought Peyton snow wear this past weekend. She loves the boots! They are a size too big (the smallest I could find) but she loves them! She take itty bitty steps, like a tap dancer or something. She wore them around the house for a couple hours and I finally took them off of her. After I took them off, she put them on her hands like gloves. What a dork!

Peyton can do Patty Cake pretty good now - thanks Mom! It is pretty cute to watch her. She knows where her eyes are - thanks Mom! She started saying "Uh Oh" last week, it is too funny. She will purposely drop something and say Uh Oh. She repeats a lot of what you say, it just doesn't come out as clear as we would hope. She is definitely trying though!

Thanksgiving is next week already! Holy Crap!

Stole Grandpa Doc's hat!

Helping Dad light the pumpkins for Halloween.

Halloween Pics

Here are some pictures of Peyton on Halloween night. We just visited the Grandparents Nicolai and Berg. She had fun but she was wiped out after just 2 houses! In the picture above, she got out of the truck and walked right up to my Mom & Dad's door, candy bucket in hand and all. It was too cute for words. This is the pumpkin my mom carved.

She didn't know what to think of that wig, she took it off of me within 1 minute.

Check out Mom's new tile floor!!

Check out this laugh, I tried and tried to get a good one on tape and this is the best I could get. She does a pretty good devil laugh.

Think SNOW! I am ready for it!!!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Last Saturday Gina and I took Peyton to the church costume party. Peyton had a pretty good time. Here are a couple pictures of her in her Witch costume. They decorated cookies, Peyton didn't care much about decorating, she just wanted to eat the cookies.

The kids gathered together to do a Mad Libs game and Peyton just dances around to the scary music and picked on the other kids. In this picture she is messing with the girls face painting that she just had done, the poor girl went to her mom to check on her face painting, Peyton wrecked it!! The lady doing face painting was busy all night.

We carved pumpkins last night, Peyton wasn't as into it and Cam and I were hoping.

She still enjoyed it though.

Addition to the Family

Well, isn't this fun. Helping mom scrub the floors was a hightlight for Peyton on Saturday. She likes to dust too!! Not sure where that came from, everyone know that I simply do not dust!

Scrubbing the floor with the towel.


This is how mommy does it!

Boring! I am putting my hands in that water instead of that rag!


Ooh! The floor is all wet and slippery. Wiping with my hands feels kind of neat!

Yee Haw, this is fun. I am just going to scrub the floor with my clothes, screw the rag!

Ok - It has been awhile since I actually took some time to write something useful in this blog. So here I am, at work, swamped, but I am going to take the time.

Last weekend Peyton helped me scrub the kitchen floors. I rung her clothes out when I was done, but doesn't she look proud!!

This morning I took Peyton in for the first of two flu shots and a finger prick for a lead level and hemoglobin test. The finger prick was not fun. Peyton was so confused about this red stuff coming out of her finger, she seemed scared. She would look at me with a look of what the heck is going on here! Hemoglobin tested fine, waiting on the lead test. If she has lead in her body it will all go to her feet, knowing this family, she will have a lead foot. Ha ha, okay, desperate attempt at a laugh.

So we got a new puppy last night. Peyton's cousin, Brittany, got the puppy a week ago and now she has no home for him to stay so we adopted him. He is a Rot with a mix of something unknown. Doesn't matter, he is cute and fun. Peyton loves him, till he jumps up to get that toy (Nuk) out of her mouth. She isn't too hot on that. He is around 6 weeks old.

Petie wasn't too sure what to think when he played the macho dog and then the puppy jumped back at him! Petie was afraid of him!!

Sniff, sniff - ooh, I gotta let this little guy know that I am bigger than him and I AM the boss around here.

Oh - he wants to play! Well, I am much bigger than he is, I know he will back off.

Crap! He bit my nose! Sometimes size doesn't matter!!

We call him "The Bandit"! Petie and the Bandit!

I hope this goes well, we wanted to get Peyton a puppy but we wanted her to be old enough to pick out her own and help take care of it.

You just never know what life will bring you! Now Brittany might visit us more often too, we all win in this one. Except Petie, poor guy may get beat up by a puppy! AND Peyton may lose a couple of shoes in this adventure.

35 Years! Congratulations!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

35 years!

We love you!

Ride Em Cowgirl!

Yee Ha. Grandma Rita bought this rocking horse for Peyton at a garage sale a month ago and she loves it!

Playing in the rain puddles. Taking after her Dad!!

Here is a picture at the Renaissance Festival a couple of weeks ago. It was a really hot day, but we still had a good time. I still can't believe I finally got Cam to actually go!! Grandma Lois and Peyton were playing in the water. Of course when I tried to play I got yelled at! Huh, just my luck.

The hog roast went well. We had a pretty good turnout. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and Thank You for stopping by!

Jo and Peyton kept sneaking off, I caught them in the act.

Ooh, nice butt!! Again, taking after her Dad!