11 Months Old

People are not lying when they say "time goes by fast!" I cannot believe LJ is 11 months old. He is the happiest, squirmiest, and most inquisitive person I have ever met. And he's all ours. Love, love, love him.

Oh You Turkey

JLO cooked his first turkey for Thanksgiving this year. His first 24 lb turkey. For four people (plus a baby). Obviously if JLO made it, it was delicious. And obviously we will be eating turkey F-O-R-E-V-E-R!

Go. Pack. Go.

JLO and I went on a little vacation last weekend. To Green Bay, Wisconsin. Sounds romantic, eh? Well, if you're a die-hard Packers fan like JLO, love was definitely in the air. We meet up with his brother and sister-in-law who hooked us up with a VIP tour of Lambeau Field. Yep, that is us standing in the Packers Locker Room. JLO was speechless as we walked through the secured area, met important Packer people, sat where Rogers plays cards before games and took photos of the Lombardi trophies.

Oh, and then there was the game. We sat 11 rows up from the field. I felt like a big green marshmallow the entire time, but hey--I was warm. I was bummed we didn't see any Lambeau Leaps, but at least we experienced the 10-0 win! Go. Pack. Go.

The Newspaper

Growing up in the Valen family, the newspaper (Star Tribune, of course) was a sacred resource. There were numerous articles read out lout to us (thanks, Dad) and many ads to browse through. There were turkeys to color on Thanksgiving (what to do I mean, were--we still do that!) and horoscopes to be read. Heck, there were even some fights over the Sunday Sport Section. One resulted in a hole in the wall. Seriously. So when I caught LJ the other day with the newspaper, I got a big smile on my face. He's an Olstadt, yes, but he is certainly a Valen, too.