Happy Turkey weekend

Well the weekend of Turkey heaven is over. That's right-turkey heaven (feel free to use it again if you want to). We here in DuFrene-world spent Thanksgiving weekend in many different spots, doing the traditional thing, and a few non-traditional things.

Thanksgiving day we headed to Maplewood to spend time with Mike's parents. It was so nice to sit and relax and play with the toys (i.e. Malachi). We watched the Macy's day parade on 2 different channels to be sure we caught everything. Walked around with the dogs and allowed Thiessen to eat up whatever he found (we think rabbit poo...gross!). Mike's mom made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner! Oh man it was outstanding-fresh rolls, turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, everything was outstanding! Thiessen thoroughly enjoyed it as well, we found him with half the pumpkin pie licked up off the counter, he downed a stick of butter (paper and all), and then finished off the pumpkin pie that was left on the table. He was very calm the rest of the weekend maybe pumpkin pie is his "version" of a turkey-coma. Malachi was not having turkey dinner though-his 2 eye teeth are making their way down, meaning most food was pushed aside-he enjoyed a lot of pineapple and some bread though! **We knew his teeth were really bothering him when we gave him a cookie and he threw it to Thiessen. We arrived back in Hutchinson about 7p.m. to see the lines formed outside a few stores! Malachi spent his first night in a big-boy bed!

Friday was our time away from each other. Mike had to work at 4:30a.m.! Wow that is really early-3a.m. was a huge wake-up call when that alarm went off. Luckily, since we had come home at an early hour to get Malachi's first night in a big-boy bed, Mike did get a decent night sleep before the 3a.m. wake-up call. I (Amy) got up at about 5:30 to get the Friday chaos started for Malachi and me. I went shopping in St. Cloud with my sister and mom. That was actually pretty relaxing considering it was Black Friday. Most of the crazy people were already in bed by 7:30 when we got there, so the lines were decent (except Khols-Tami waited for an hour and a half to checkout!), we had carts available to us, it wasn't too stressful at all! Malachi spent the morning with our friend Calli. Calli loves kids and is great with them. Then my cousin, Shelby, came and spent the afternoon with him. She treated him to Burger King-what a lucky guy to get chicken nuggets and fries!

Saturday! Wow, I did warn you it was a packed weekend right? Well Saturday is the Gelschus/Anderson Thanksgiving. We dress in Ugly Christmas Sweaters, exchange Christmas cookies, eat more turkey and play games. This year was a little different as it was also Hutchinson Wrestling's 65th anniversary. Our brother-in-law (Andy) was one of the few from Hutch to win State-so he was being honored. This took him, William and Tami away off and on throughout the day, and a few more of us for the "award" ceremony. It was fun to see some of the older guys who also wrestled. A guy from Mike and my church was on the first team-so that was extra special for us to see him! But we had a Wii bowling tournament (I-Amy) won! We played 3-13 a card game, the kids ran around and played until they were completely worn out! And we still had more turkey for dinner or we had tacos-it was a shmorgasboard of delicious food!

Sunday-now the day of rest. I, Amy, am in charge of the Christmas program this year. It is a new challenge I am facing. Please pray for that-I get pulled in a lot of different directions for it and by the end of church each Sunday I am almost super crabby since I am exhausted by doing it (this whole pregnancy wears you out!). Mike helped clean the house for me while I rested then after church. Yes I was that emotional wreck that you see on tv shows. So he is such a brave soul to put up with me during those swings of emotion. We watched the Vikings lose and enjoyed Home Alone 2: Lost in New York while dining over home-made pizza (my 1 contribution to the house that day).

If you are the praying type we would love prayers as we are quickly approaching DuBabe #2's entrance into the world. If he is like his big-brother we are less than 40 days away! And for this Christmas program. The program is on the 16th so a few more weeks of working on it. And of course the Christmas weekend. Mike works on Christmas eve until 5p.m. and so is unable to attend services at Oak Heights. We are hoping to go straight to his parents' house after he is off that night-but there are a lot of people on the road. We are always excited about this time of year on what it truly means both in our lives and the lives of those we encounter. Blessings to you as you celebrate this season! Advent-anticipating Christ's return!

Following HIM,
The DuFrenes!

Three Years!

Wow it is quite amazing how fast time flies. 3 years ago today I was sitting at Faith Lutheran Church. We would have just finished our group pictures. I was in a beautiful white dress, I had friends and close family surrounding me. We had an outstanding photographer capturing each moment. Yes, it was 3 years ago and about 2 hours away (from when I am writing this post) that Mike and I exchanged our vows to be man and wife for the rest of our lives. We were beginning on a journey that at the time I never knew how it would be completed. Or how it would go. Now 3 years later we have owned our home for 3 years, have a really great little guy (Malachi) with another little boy on the way. We are blessed to have wonderful family and friends join us on this journey. We are blessed by our church family (Oak Heights Covenant) where I happen to work. Mike has wonderful co-workers at Menards. We are truly blessed as we look back at these 3 years. Being that it is falling on a Wednesday-we will not be celebrating tonight, but tomorrow. THANKS AUNTIE TAMI FOR BABYSITTING MALACHI!

AWE a Dragon!

Well Baton Rouge was a blast. It was great seeing my sister and brother-in-law....oh and of course baby Liam. It was a great time celebrating his birthday. We also got to witness the wonderful change of the carseat! He was so much happier facing forward. Here he is eating!

Last night was also Halloween! We had a dragon on the loose! We ran for our lives from this cute dragon that roamed the house. He got to go trick-or-treating at MeMaw's house. He was such a trooper and then came to church for our Creation Celebration. There he met up with a buddy who happened to be a dinosaur.

Much Love from the DuFrenes!