Early December

wanted to post some photos we have taken this month. We have a good amount of snow, decorated our Christmas tree...and as always, Rowan is up to her daily antics!

Can you spot my favorite ornament?

Rowan's Musical Debut

Thanksgiving Feast

This year we hosted the Allord family Thanksgiving dinner. Each family arrived on that Thursday and brought food with them. Most of the cousins participated in crafts such as hand print turkeys and decorated gingerbread people. Grandpa Allord led the family in prayer before dinner. Lauren requested that each family member write what they were thankful for and put it in a turkey bucket. At dinnertime, she and Elijah read each slip of paper. It was a very special moment. Before dessert, we tried to get some family shots in the living room. As you can see some of them turned out pretty good. The Jolly family departed that evening and the Allords stayed overnight. It was a good time and we were glad to have everyone with us for the holiday. One more month and we will be busy with Christmas travel.
Hope to see some snow by then!
~Janea, Andy & Rowan

Florida Vacation

We recently returned from our trip to Daytona, Florida. On the 15th we took two flights down with Andy's parents. Rowan slept on one flight and was pretty content on the other. When we arrived in Daytona, we visited with Andy's sister, Anne Marie, for a short time. Rowan got to meet her cousin Katie since she was born in June. Rowan did well, but seemed to be more interested in Katie's toys and Katie's cats. Because of space limitations we stayed at a condo rather than the Cummings residence. Dennis and Darlene rented a beachfront condo, our rooms on the 8th floor. We had quite a bit of nice space with a full kitchen, two bedrooms, two baths and a balcony. Our bedroom had a nice walk-in closet that was re-named "Rowan's Bedroom". She stayed in her "room" happily. While in Florida we walked the beach a lot, went to the Farmers/Flea Market, climbed a light house, saw a movie (Stranger Than Fiction) and had a Thanksgiving meal with the Cummings Family in our condo.

On the 20th we returned to Chicago and met up with Grandma and Grandpa Allord, who lovingly watched our dog, Maverick. He was very excited to see us again. We drove home that night and had smooth traffic....making it home before 8:00 PM. Yay! We look forward to seeing the rest of our family later this week for Thanksgiving. Hope you all have safe travels!
~Janea

End of October

Hi there! October is quickly coming to an end and I thought I'd post some pictures. We had a lot going on.
Rowan and Janea took a day to visit the Allords in Stevens Point. There were some snow flurries, but the drive was pleasant and safe. Rowan had a great time playing with Maylie. We tried to get them to take a nap, but the two of them decided they would rather "sing" a duet instead. I guess sleep was not on their agenda. Rowan also got to see her cousin Elijah after he came home from school, and her Uncle Doug. He came home from work for lunch. We had a blast!

On October 21st, Janea threw a surprise party for Andy and Rowan. Andy turned 30 and Rowan turned 1. It was a complete surprise to Andy, so I guess Janea was successful in planning. Andy was taken to Milwaukee to play paintball with 4 of his friends. 2 of the friends drove down from Green Bay. I hear that they had a great time even though some looked battered and bruised. When they returned, they were greeted by Jack and Donna, Dennis and Darlene, Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Don, and Lisa & Morgan Wiercinski. Janea had the three main rooms decorated with balloons and crepe paper streamers (orange and green). We had a lot of pizza, snacks and soda. Andy and Rowan opened presents and got a lot of very nice gifts. Rowan will have a lot of clothing for a while (which is a good thing). We ended the night with some carrot cake provided by Dennis and Darlene. Rowan thought it was yummy!


On Sunday, October 29, Watertown held trick or treating. Rowan was dressed as a performing monkey this year. Janea made the costume and was quite happy with how it turned out. She was afraid that her sewing skills would not be up to par for this project. Rowan, Janea, Andy and Maverick walked around 2 blocks in our neighborhood. We met some of our nicest neighbors and got a lot of compliments on Rowan's monkey suit. We also got a nice little stash of candy that Rowan will happily share with her Mom and Dad. She was able to eat one little pouch of Goldfish crackers. Rowan walked about 1/3 of the route and rode in her new wagon for the rest. Once again, she behaved like a little angel. Some people held out a candle bowl and tried to persuade her to take a piece on her own. She just stared at them in an unsure way. She would not take her own piece. How polite of her :)
After we returned home, we watched the second half of the Packers/Cardinals game. Needless to say, we were very happy to see that they won. Hopefully, the can keep it up!

We hope you had a good October and we look forward to November. There will be much to post next month!

Recent Photo

Rowan is growing so fast. Here is a recent photo.

New Look

We took down the old blog for various reasons. Sorry about that. Here is the new blog site. We hope to keep this one up indefinitely. Thanks for visiting!