January 30th, 1954 . . .

     Happy Birthday to Grandpa Randy! 

We hope you had a wonderful birthday.  We are excited to celebrate you as a husband, Dad, Grandpa and overal great man.  Thank you for all you do for our family. 

-Helping us with Tate, picking him up from daycare,

taking him on rides to see the cows,

for adventures outside to see the dogs and

 for the tight shaking squeezes that make Tate giggle.

-For helping us with anything we ask around our home,

rescuing all of your children when they have car troubles,

and changing our oil any chance you get.

You're a wonderful Grandpa and Dad.

Thanks for being you!

We love you!

Appliances

     You may have heard the saying, appliances die in threes, well it appears to be true in this house.  We're just waiting for the third one to pass away. 

# 1: In December, Aaron surprised me with a new refigerator for Christmas, (which in my opinion we needed cause the last one was dying a slow death and hurting our energy bill).
# 2: Last week I was on the hunt for a new washing machine.  Our Maytage Neptune bit the dust after 13 years of service.  I know people that had that washer didn't have great luck with it, but I think 13 years isn't too bad.  Especially when the Lowe's guy said washers these days last an average of 7-9 years.
# 3: By the symptoms our garbage disposal has shown, it may be next.  Recently, when I went to flip the switch to run the disposal, it just didn't turn on.  Luckily, my Dad was visiting and he just had to reset it.  So hopefully it'll hold on for awhile longer.

     I did a lot of research on this washing machine.  I looked at hundreds of reviews, checked consumer reports and got co-workers opinions.  After weighing my options, I decided on a Maytag Maxima and got Lowe's to price match to a lower price than their sales price, plus got the 5% Lowe's card discount.  I am a pretty happy, bargain hunting camper.  Anyway, Tate and his Mom have enjoyed the new washer so far.  He likes to look inside, turn the dial (cause then it beeps) and slam the door shut.  And since the capacity is so much larger than our last one I have found myself looking for things to wash.  Plus it's new, and everyone loves to play with new toys.

  

Someone got their haircut...

*I added a few action pics to this post :)

Tate's new 'do

        After church on the fifteenth, Tate and I headed up to Williams to get his haircut by my Aunt Lanette.  I was a little bit nervous to get his baby hair cut off- cause  that means he's really growing up, which every Mom dreads, and also concerned he wouldn't sit still and be a terror for her.  Amazingly, he sat very still and seemed to actually enjoy his first haircutting experience.  I took a few more action photos of the actual haircut , but haven't made time to upload them yet.  At first we tried to have him sit on my lap which didn't work out, so he just ended up sitting on the counter, beeping the buttons on Lanette's cordless phone and eating fruit snacks.  Once it came time for the buzzer, Tate became less tolerant, but she was still able to give him a really great haircut.  Thank you Lanette!  We had a great first haircut.

Christmas 3/3

      The Reifschneider family Christmas was held on the 26th this year, since we all had the day off and it worked the best, it was pretty perfect.  Aaron, Tate and I headed over in the morning after breakfast to start the festivities.  Both Chad & Brittni and Cami & Josh had other Christmases to attend that afternoon, so we wanted to get a jump on things. 

      We opened gifts, had lunch and had some family fun time.  We also had a couple scavengar hunts.  One for the tv us kids got for our parents, the other being from my Dad to my Mom.  But this was kind of "learn your lesson" scavenger hunt.  My Mom got a new crockpot from my Dad for Christmas, then after all the gifts were opened, she had to go on a hunt. . . to find another crockpot at the end.  I guess the story goes: Dad bought one crockpot for her for Christmas, then decided to get a different he thought was better.  Then a couple weeks before Christmas she told him she bought a crockpot for herself.  But apparently she didn't actually buy one, but here we were with 2 new crockpots for Christmas. 

Tate and Daddy relaxing

New camo jacket from Josh & Cami

Chewy!  Tate got a new ball, and at this point Chewy is begging me for it.

Of course, the boxes were a hit

Tate helping Grandpa open his gift

A new rocking horse from G&G

Test ride

Cami made Tate a magnetic/chalkboard activity board

Christmas 2/3


       Christmas morning came a bit too early for us.  Aaron was up in the night puking, just like Tate did the night before, but his was much much more violent and frequent.  We're not sure what the deal was, but thankfully it only lasted about 18 hours, so Aaron was feeling well enough to go to the Handeland Christmas that evening.
       So Christmas morning at our house wasn't quite so wild since Aaron didn't feel well, but we all unwrapped our gifts and I think everyone loved what they got, I know I did.  Tate got his cozy truck and a few other things. Let me tell you, that truck was a pain in the rear to put together, actually it was a pain in my face, since I smacked myself in the face with one of those yellow pieces as I tried to jam it into place.  Next kid- the grandparents can be responsible for that stuff!  But Tate enjoyed it, so it was worth the pain.
     At my Grandpa & Grandma Handeland's that afternoon we had a great time just snacking and hanging out before supper.  Then after supper Tate was allowed to have his gift early, since it would be past his bedtime when the gift opening would occur.  The Greats got him a slide which was another wonderful gift and Tate totally loved it, as you'll see in the photos below.  Tate also exchanged gifts with cousin Zach, he got a remote control car which he will love, once he figures out how to work it, rather than throw it across the floor. 
     All in all, a successful Christmas: Aaron got to feeling better, we all got great gifts and Tate got his naps in and went to bed well. 

Checking out the new ride



Oh my gosh, it's so cool

The big slide was a BIG hit

Blurry, but you get the point.

And Toby takes his turn

Christmas-palooza 1/3

I know it's a bit late for Christmas stuff, but regardless, here's a ton of pics from our celebrations. . .
         I love Christmas and lucky for me, we had a three day weekend to celebrate.  Friday night after work Aaron, Tate and I headed up to Iowa Falls to start the celebration with a sleepover at Papa and Nan's house.  We had such a great time hanging out, eating Chinese food (Chuong Garden- the best!) and visiting.  The only snafu occurred when we were going out for the tour of lights and Tate started coughing, which then lead to vomiting in his carseat.  Poor baby Tate.  Light tour done, bath #2 on the way.  Once he was out of his puke clothes, life was good again and then it was bedtime for the baby.
       Christmas Eve day we had delicious monkey bread for breakfast, steaks for lunch, snacks all afternoon and sandwiches for supper.  Late morning the Truesdell troop came down to start the Christmas fun.  After lunch we opened gifts and everyone got spoiled.  We all got some great gifts, the highlight being the new iPads for Aaron and Mike T.  Tate got some great stuff-  John Deere tractor to ride on, pirate water table for summer, a Hawkeye pillow pet, and an Elmo doll to name a few.  Lucky kid!  I also got some great gifts, my favorite being a daycare gift card from Mike & Molly.




Drew checking out the goods




Tate stacking his gifts




. . .and about to knock them all off




Tearing off the paper. . . piece by piece




All the kids loving Christmas




Pillow pet!




Safari truck and Papa's yellow socks




Thanks for the tractor T's




I think Claire is explaining to Tate he's too young for the cash register right now




Kinda looks like they're deep in conversation




And it looks like Drew's telling Tate, it's going to be ok. But in all actuality, Tate thought Drew was getting too close for comfort.