Thanksgiving Celebrations

Our 1st Thanksgiving together as a family!

We had a very nice holiday weekend. We went to my Mom and Dad's Wednesday evening. We met them in Mankato and went to Church Wed. night. Then Thursday Mom made a delicious TURKEY and all the fixings! Homemade food is always the best. Darrin was home from Washington DC so it was a pleasure to see him and visit. Wendy/Jason and family were there as well and Grandma/pa Sohre. The rest of the clan (Shelly/Jesse, Christy/Ted) had the stomach flu... so they stayed at there own houses! Didn't want to get everyone sick! We were sure THANKFUL for that!

Friday/Saturday/Sunday we were back home at our house and Marty's family were visiting. His sister Lisa was home from Pittsburgh.. which is always a pleasure. Jim/Denise/Rochelle were visiting as well. We very much enjoyed seeing everyone and hanging out.

Now it is Monday and back to work!! Back to daycare for Gracie!

It sure is hard to have to leave her after spending 5 whole days with her!

Auntie Denise, Cousin Rochelle, and Gracie

Gracie and Grandma Betty

Auntie Lisa and Gracie match... they are both wearing green long sleeve shirts!


Time for pumpkin pie... yummy!!!

Uncle Darrin, Cousin Margoe, and Gracie


Auntie Wendy and Gracie

Gracie has learned how to clap and she is showing Great-Grandpa Sohre


Gracie's favorite place is under anything... this particular picture is under the couch.

She squirmed under there herself. She also likes to be under the coffee table, chairs, you name it... if she can wiggle her little bootie under it, she will!

We have pig-tails!!!

Gracie has a load of hair on the top of her head... so I thought I would try two ponies, aka pig-tailes, instead of one... and it worked. She is soo cute. It is like playing with dolls all over again! (except my dolls never moved around so much!!)

Gracie sure likes playing with her Grandpa Joe! I think he likes her too!

We look forward to seeing our families over the Thanksgiving weekend. We have much to be thankful for... family, health, home, food, pets, jobs...

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

More Events of the Summer...Grandparents and Families

These first few photos were taken at the Bridal Shower we had for Shelly before her wedding. At such a nice event it was a great time to get those cherished photos of Gracie with her Great-Grandmas and Grandma.

Picture: Gracie's Great-Grandma Sohre and Gracie

I am so fortunate to still have among me, both my Grandmas, and one Grandpa. My entire life has been blessed with the presence of these wonderful people. I grew up living next door to my Dad's parents, as I call them Grandpa and Grandma Sohre. As I am now older I realize how GREAT this was. Many hours I spent with Grandma Sohre learning how to make homemade cinnamon rolls and her famous Monster Roll (very very good), baking apple pies, baking Christmas cookies. Grandma always had cookies in her freezer!! And my siblings and I always new Grandma would offer us some (of course just before we were to go home to eat supper!) She also was the first person to teach me how to sew and how to crochet. She is an amazing person! Then of course if we (my siblings and I) were not in the house with Grandma we were outside with Grandpa, who is also an amazing person, who today at Age 92 still mows his lawn and goes out in that big tractor in the fall to chisel plow. Boy, has he seen some changes in farming... With Grandpa we spent more time just following him around the farm and pestering him I think. He calls me, still to this day, "Trouble #1" and then my sister Shelly is "Trouble #2." I can't imagine what we did to get those names!! We would follow him around the farm constantly taking his hat off and messing up his hair, putting grass in the hole in his cap and in his shirt pocket... anything to get him to laugh and us to laugh as well. We helped him shingle the "pump house" and many painting projects too. Since my Mom's Dad died before I was born I think I have an extra-special bond with Grandpa Sohre... he is my only Grandpa... he has to do the job of two Grandpas. I think he has and still does a terrific job.

Picture: 4 generations
My Mom's Mom, my mom, me, and my daughter



















My Mom's Mom, Grandma Maas and later Grandma Summers, is as the other two above, a blessing to have as a Grandma. My Grandpa Maas died of cancer before I was born and after being widowed for many years Grandma found a wonderful man to marry and spend her retirement years with, who we called Grandpa Don. Growing up, Grandma Summers lived in Mankato, so I didn't see her quite as often, but the special bond we had with her was she would in the summer take 5 or 6 of her grandkids at a time and have us stay over night at her house. She would take us to the park, go swimming, go out to eat, play in her backyard, put the sprinkler on in her back yard and us cousins would just play, play, play. One time Grandma took us to Arnold's park in Okabojia in Spencer Iowa.... we again had so much fun. I grew up on farm... so spending a few days in town was a big deal. At my farm we didn't have a park with swing sets down the road or a bike path with TAR (we had gravel)... so it was always a treat to be able to spend time at Grandma's enjoying the privileges of "city" life. Grandma was always "on the go." Going on trips, going to card parties, going gambling, going visiting. She has taught me about the importance of enjoying life and treasuring the moments you have to do recreational activities and visiting with friends and families.

These Grandparents I have spoken of are still in my life... therefore my darling Gracie has the privalege of having them in her life as well. We never know when these treasured people will leave us on earth, these pictures of Gracie with her Great-Grandparents are keepsakes! Gracie may someday not remember her Great-Grandmas... but I'll be able to share with her the wonderful memories I have of them and hopefully she will treasure these precious pictures.

The younger generation of girls at the bridal shower, who are to be the newest gang of Sohre GIRLS: (cousins)... Left to right: Margoe (6), Maesee (5), Gracie (5 mo.), and Maddy (3 1/2) (missing one girl cousin, Paige 1 1/2)

Now to flip sides of the family... these are the current Malecek Girls. These are pictures from this summer when the Mekkelsen's came from Pittsburgh for a vacatin to MN.

Grandma Betty holding Gracie, Terri, Denise with Rochelle in front, Debbie, Lisa, and Bridgette.
Denise, Debbie, and Lisa are Marty's sisters. Rochelle (5) belongs to Denise and Bridgette belongs to Lisa (her husbands daughter).

To go along with my thoughts of Grandparents... Gracie has the fortune, as I did, of living right next door to one set of her Grandparents! It is such a blessing!

Grandpa Joe and Grandma Betty with all there grandkids! Miller, Rochelle, Gracie, and Bridgette. A pretty good looking group.

Events of the Summer: Shelly's Bachlorette Party

In August we had a Bachlorette Party for Shelly. I haven't passed on any of the pictures to anyone... so I thought I would share them here.

We started out at Wendy's house having food and drink. The guest each brought a bottle of wine for the group to taste. Each guest also had to share some insight about the wine... such as where it came from, why they choose it, and why Shelly should choose it for her wedding night. It provided many laughs and great entertainment.

One of the games we played was "put the condom on the cucumber." This also provided many laughs for the group... we had the two mothers do the event with Shelly!!!

I think her we are embarrasing Shelly with the game "How well does Shelly know her Groom?"

It could also be the wine kicking in.

After the wine tasting we headed to the bars....

4 sisters and a Mom at the bars: Terri, Christy, Shelly, Mom (Myra), and Wendy.

What are we doing here? It can't be good.

Shelly and some of her friends.

We certiainly had a wonderful evening!!! It was lots and lots of fun!

The Beginning of The Blog...

This is an attempt at starting a blog... to keep you all updated with our life and the changes we see everyday in our beautiful baby girl. Amazingly she doesn't seem like such a "baby" anymore. She has learned how, what Marty calls, to do the "worm".... this is not crawling. It is using her elbows and feet to "worm" across the floor... which believe me she can get everywhere, as the pictures will show. She now has two bottom teeth, one just came through, and the other has been through for awhile. She is a champ at eating solid food. We have even tried Cherrios a few times.













I ran in the Twin City 10 Mile race at the beginning of October with Marty's two older sisters Denise and Lisa. Start line was at the Metrodome and the Finish line was at the State Capital in St. Paul. It was a muggy, humid morning, even at 7am. We all finished the 10 miles. Gracie, Marty, and Marty's parents were there to cheer us on.


Gracie has found Willie's dog dish a few times.... so again Willie looses the battle and has to have his dog dish moved. That darn Gracie gets her way all the time.

Out for an afternoon hike on a beautiful October afternoon down below our house. Gracie loves being outside and in the carrier. I think she would stay outside with us all day.




Hopefully I will keep the blog updated... hope you all enjoy..

Terri, Marty, and Gracie