Happy New Year!

Here's to a year ahead filled with dancing, rocking, laughing, and loving.

Happy 2009!

1. Hold it right there, pal. These Cheerios are for kids, not dogs.

2. Um, excuse me? Does this milk come with cookies?

3. Easy on the salsa people! I'm going to have heartburn for sure.

Party central

Grandpa Jake's birthday is December 26th. With Christmas, New Year's, and all of our birthdays falling around the same time, it seems like the end and beginning of the year is one long party.

For Grandpa's birthday we had dinner at our local Mexican restaurant where they clapped and sang and gave the birthday boy a tequila shot. Unfortunately, Scott, Jacob and I left right before dessert and missed it. We got to see the pics - apparently it was hilarious.

The next day we threw a surprise party at Jake's Pizza in Fairmont. Many family members, former employees, and friends were able to stop by and wish Jake a happy 60th! Grandpa even got to put on the apron again and bake a few pies. Jacob got some tips on baking the perfect pizza.

Jacob's "OMG" Face

It's always a mystery where new facial expressions come from, and this one is no less a mystery. This is Jake's latest new face and as you can see in the middle photo it is often accompanied by a tiny finger pointing in the direction of whatever amazing inanimate object he thinks he needs to go see. There are several things which are almost guaranteed to inspire this face, including Christmas trees, vacuum cleaners, balloons, cats & dogs, Cheerios, and swimming pools.

Christmas in Hastings

Merry Christmas from Hastings! As you can see, Jacob's name ended up on the nice list and Santa spoiled him with some great gifts. Grandma & Grandpa Jacobson drove down from Bemidji with Aunt Becky and Uncle Ernie (the hound) and we enjoyed a quiet Christmas in our humble Hastings abode.

Jacob learned how to play Snow Bird before he turned in on Christmas Eve, and we opened presents Christmas morning. His favorite present is his new vacuum cleaner from Auntie Sarah, but everyone else's favorite was his lounge chair from Grandma Jacobson. As you can see, it's the perfect chair for eating a few Cheerios and watching everyone else open gifts. He also has a new friend, Elmo, who has eyes which are just perfect for poking.

We hope you all enjoyed a blessed and merry Christmas!

The Big Sinclair Christmas

We spent last weekend at Uncle Robert and Aunt Rebecca's house in Omaha which was tons of fun. Jacob got to hang out with his cousins and play with the puppies, and Mom & Dad got to hang out with the whole family for a couple days. We had a blast catching up, playing games, and enjoying yummy holiday treats. Jacob was spoiled with great gifts including his favorite his favorite new toy car, some snuggly pajamas, a great Leap Frog farm animal game, and some cute duds as well. It was great having everyone together for the weekend, which is getting harder to coordinate as families keep growing. We're looking forward to our next Sinclair rendezvous up North this summer.

Believe

The faces of Janus, er, Jacob.

We are ceaselessly amazed at how quickly our little Jacob changes every week and every day, and in this case, every second. Tonight we captured his passionate fake-out cry, which he broke out when Dad told him his carrots and oatmeal were all finished (he is VERY passionate about food). Laughably, it took no more than half a second for him to snap out of his feigned sadness and start laughing along with us as we chuckled about his theatrical performance.

These photos were shot literally 2 seconds apart. Isn't it amazing what a difference 2 seconds can make for an 11-month old? I am amazed, amused, and inspired all at once. The next time I find myself pouting about something silly I will try to think of Jacob and not linger too long on my sad face.

These shoes were made for squeaking.

As you can see, Jacob has been practicing his walking and is getting close to going it alone. He especially likes walking in his squeaky shoes which always make him smile. As you can see at the end of the video, he's also really into the vacuum cleaner which is another object which always gets him excited (Christmas trees, airplanes, Cheerios, and swimming pools have a similar effect). He MUST touch it every times he sees it, and he's been known to lunge out at the closet doors to try to get us to open them so he can see the magic vacuum stored inside. He's a real hoot!

Tree!

We got our tree up last weekend. Our Christmas tree expert, Jacob, supervised while Dad placed the ornaments. Although they didn't coordinate their outfits, I thought the red and green was a nice touch.

We're excited for our trip to Omaha next weekend to celebrate with the Sinclair family. Upon our return, Mark, Sue, and Becky will be arriving to celebrate here in Hastings.

This Christmas is a bit more exciting...seeing it through your child's eyes. It is amazing how Jacob's eyes light up when he looks at the tree.

Speaking of Jake, he's been a busy boy lately. He has progressed to his hands and knees and can actually move about with his head up. It still isn't quite the traditional crawl, but closer. He's punched through his third tooth on the bottom and I am guessing working on the fourth. He also thinks it is a lot of fun to stand on his own and is getting good at moving from place to place while hanging on to something.

It is also amazing how much he understands. I was feeding him his fruit and cereal yesterday and I heard an airplane fly overhead. I said "airplane" and he looked out the window into the sky. When we say certain words such as music, dancing, tree, Melly, Luna, hug...he knows what we are talking about. Pretty cool!

Jacob's calling. I am pretty sure he is trying to set the record for the shortest nap. Thanks for checking in and we'll update again soon!

Just a few pics...

1. Playin with Mom

2. "Hey Buddy, these are cool shoes. Mind if I borrow them?"

3. Walking in my squeaky shoes.

4. A day at the Como Zoo with Mom.

5. Jacob + food = happy boy.

Is this how you crawl?

We've been thinking that Jacob might learn to walk before he learns to crawl, but he's recently been practicing his crawling more so who knows. We're not sure if you can call this crawling, but it does involve hands and knees. It just happens to also include the creative use of a prominent forehead. All we know is that it resembles crawling more than his typical log rolls around the room, so we're happy with it. More importantly, it gets Jacob from point A to point B and that's all that he cares about. It will probably get easier as his smallish arms grow into better proportion with his giant head. Hehe. Crawl on Jacob, crawl on!

Gobble Gait 2008

In an effort to work off our turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie BEFORE we ate it, Mike and I decided at the last minute to run in the 11th annual Gobble Gait 8K in Hastings. It was a hasty last minute decision the night before the race, and one which we both expected the strongly regret, but it was for charity and Mike was a sponsor so we decided to give it a go. So at 8:30am on a beautiful Thanksgiving Day, and with little or no training, we joined about 3000 people for a 5 mile run.

It was a fun race and we were both pleasantly surprised to finish in less than an hour (quite honestly, I was surprised that I finished at all). Mike bested me by about 10 seconds (he's local so I didn't want to embarass him by flying past him at the end) and we finished in just over 46 minutes. The way I figure it, that's 46 minutes of work to justify an extra helping of stuffing and one more slice of pie, and in my book that's smart math. All in all, it was a great way to start a Thanksgiving Day and I hope to make this an annual tradition for many years to come.

Jakey Likes It

Jacob has become VERY passionate about eating food.

God shed His grace on thee

A very special tribute to our Veterans past and present. We have a list of family members that hold a special place in our hearts for their service.

Scott Sinclair - Air Force, Civil Engineer Officer, 2001-2007

Mark Jacobson - Army, Speck 4, Vietnam, 1968-1969

Paul Jacobson - Army, Sargent, Vietnam, 1970-1971

Bobby Jacobson - Air Force

Mike Landon - Navy, USS Thomaston LSD-28, 1970-1974

Greg Nordstrom - Navy, Petty Officer 3rd Class, USS Constellation aircraft carrier, 1968-1970

Larry Ahrens - Army, Captain, South Korea, 1970-1973

Ed Spiegeler - Navy, Storekeeper, DD693 Morale, 1951-1954

Adam Stauffer - Army Reserve, Drill Sargent, E7 / Marksman, 1992-current

Rusty Litterer - Air Force, Airman, 2001-2004, Army National Guard - Current

Les Landon - Marines, Sargent, Guadalcanal, 1942-1946

Army 1948-1950

Suzanne Landon - Navy, Wave, Yeoman E3, 1944-1946

EK Jacobson - Navy, Cook

Harry Spiegeler - Navy, WW1

To all of the service men and women across the nation - thank you for your sacrifice, dedication, and service to our country. We do not take our freedom for granted. God bless America!

Apples to Apples

Saturday, November 1st was a fun day for the 3 Sinclairs. Scott was reunited with his extended family, Jacob got to meet some cousins for the first time, and Nikki got to take part in the restart of what was once a Stauffer biennial tradition. Grandmas & grandpas, great aunts & uncles, and cousins galore all gathered together at Scott's Aunt Lois's farm in Allison for an old fashioned cider pressing.

For the few of you reading this who have not yet experienced the fun of pressing apple cider, we'll break it down for you...a wide variety of apples are collected (the more variety the better the cider tastes) and stored. The apples are then mixed up and washed and then sent to the cutting table. They're then quartered and all the soft spots and bad parts are cut out. Then it's off to the press to be squeezed down into two open sided cylinders. As the apples are compressed, the juice runs out the sides and down to the spout where it runs into a container. From there the juice is handed over to the strainers (Nikki's favorite part of cider pressing it turned out) who pour the juice through dish towels to strain out the solids. And lastly, the filtered juice is then bottled and ready to enjoy.

If it sounds like a lot of work, it's probably because it IS a lot of work. This year it took about 25 people almost 5 hours to get 75 or so gallons of cider. Of course, with a crew of Stauffers there's always plenty of gabbing going on throughout the day, so time really flew by. And there's nothing quite like a tall glass of freshly pressed cider to reward a day of hard work.

Photo recap of the day is above...

funny foto shoot

1. "ehhhh guys....do you see that squirrel tap dancing over there?"

2. "alright. here's your framer. ready, set, cheese!"

3. "hey uncle tom, wanna smell my cheerios breath?"

4. "quick aunt sarah, give me a kiss...uncle tom's not looking."

5. "umm...mom...do you realize that i am laying in a pile of scratchy leaves?"

6. "duude. like....the leaves are crunchy, man...."

North Shore trip

Scott and I had a fantastic trip to Two Harbors. After 10 months of being quite busy it was a strange but much welcomed feeling to be able to sleep in, read, relax, and reconnect with 7 meals (completely uninterrupted other than the server attending to our needs) and plenty of time for hiking, walking along the beach, and searching for agates. We were only away for two nights, but it is amazing how recharged we felt after just a short amount of time.

Jacob had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Jacobson. I'm not even sure he realized that we were away.

We're back to the regular routine but already looking forward to our next getaway!

Pumpkin carving party