Christmas in Iowa

Ani & Cousin Ava on Christmas morning

Grandpa & Ani

Laughing at Monte's gift to Mark & Kathy... Bic lighters. Because they need more. :)

We haven't had a new family photo in awhile!

Tara's 1st time meeting Ani, whose "Mom Rocks"

Grandma & Ani

The crew at the Brew

In the Paper

This ad ran Christmas Eve in the "Baby's 1st Christmas" section of the Muscatine Journal and on the Journal online, thanks to Jaime! My mom ended up running a similar ad with a different photo of Ani, so she was in the print edition twice. Famous girl.

Party On

Happy Birthday, Monte! The big 3-4. We both have the day off so I think we'll just hang out with our daughter and enjoy not being in the car for 5+ hours like yesterday's drive home from IA. :) 

Bread Making

After one failed attempt (something to do with the yeast portion of the recipe), Monte successfully made us some very tasty whole wheat bread from scratch! No bread-making machine involved. :) The oven will be busy these next couple days as well, since I plan on baking stuff to take back for Christmas. We're so excited to see everyone in the Pearl!

It's hard to believe this is the 1st official day of winter since we've had a lot of cold, snowy days already. If you're a "glass is half full" type person like I usually am, this means that each day from here on out (well until summer hits), just gets longer and stays light later, which is a wonderful thing.

Let It Snow

My normal 20 minute commute home today took extra long - 45 minutes - because of the snow and icy conditions. I could have ran faster down 494! Oh well. Ani slept the whole time so it was OK.

We finally got a Christmas tree last night. Monte calls it the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree but I think it's just perfect! And Ani opened a couple more gifts. I've said it before, but she just loves any type of paper.

Santa is Coming

Here's our girl getting in the Christmas spirit! Since we'll be with my family for the holiday, Ani already opened a couple gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Dirks last night... a cute hat/mitten set and also a new pair of pajamas. The best part was watching her tear open the presents and rip apart the tissue paper. She was so focused and intent on it.

We have a play date on Friday afternoon with some friends from the childbirth prep class and we are hoping to make it a monthly or bi-monthly occasion. I think this will be especially fun when the kids get older.

Night Out

On Friday, we had a night out with Cory & Tara. Dinner at the Town Talk Diner, then off to the British Television Advertising Awards show at the Walker. Highly recommended! They were great - most were hilarious, while others had a powerful message. 

Here's the overall winner.  

6 Months

Ani is now 6 months old, half a year - I can't believe how quick it has gone! She had a routine checkup today and she has only gained 4 oz. since the last time (4 mos.)! But other than that, she is right on track for length and head growth. Her new favorite thing is playing with paper as you can tell...

I am also back to work - I found a different company that needed someone for a part-time marketing/graphics position. It's only 20 hrs/wk, which is perfect. I've been there about 6 weeks now and so far so good. Ani is doing well at her daycare too. She paints a lot with her hands and feet and makes cute artwork for our fridge already! 

My Wife Can Ride

Highlights from our Thanksgiving holiday in Omaha.....

Monte and I on the tandem! With good, consistent communication from Monte, we were able to successfully ride around the old neighborhood. And I had fun! As long as I looked straight ahead and just had trust, I did OK. Monte is now looking into buying our own tandem and would love talking me into riding it w/ him in RAGBRAI some summer.... we'll see. :)

Meanwhile, Ani enjoyed time with Grandpa & Grandma Dirks and also meeting Great-Grandma Vrbas for the first time. Here is a four-generation picture.

What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Ani has big plans this holiday - she will be meeting many family members from the Vrbas side (Monte's mom) for the 1st time!

Stuff your face this Thanksgiving - just like our daughter does now.  :)

State CX

Why do people cyclo-cross? Rumor has it that it's because road cyclists can stay in shape for the winter months. I am neither a roadie, nor am I in shape. Why do I race cyclo-cross? Because of the crowds we saw at the State Cyclo-cross Championship.

The race was held at Bassett Creek Park and it was a long, 2-mile course with lots of long, flat sections that favored the road cyclists. One of the highlights was Ray handing out $1 bills in the tree section. It was good to have a bunch of friends there watching, good to have Newman riding, and good to have Peace Coffee as well.

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And now.... who has the better beard??? I still think it's mine. Let us know by posting a comment.

Three Years

Three years ago this past Wednesday, Monte and I were having the time of our lives in the Bahamas getting married! We looked through all of our wedding photos and reminisced. Wish we could relive those days! 

We celebrated by having Steph come over to babysit Ani and we went to dinner at Cue, part of the new Guthrie Theatre downtown. Got some cool night pics.

NO racing NO way

I've had a sore throat since Thursday spent the cold wet weekend inside with tea, coffee,and cayenne pepper gargle(kinda works). Next weekend state CX race.

Beard Man

My beard is definitely better than yours.....

Taylor's Falls & Milaca

This past weekend's CX races were in Taylor's Falls on Saturday and Milaca on Sunday. Both days were beautiful weather-wise and both races were fun.

TAYLOR'S FALLS

Saturday's race: Got out with the lead group at the start and then settled into 7th place. Was able to keep up the pace for 2 solid laps before I got passed by 3 riders. Roadies are way too fast on the flats but have zero bike handling skills. Ended up passing a guy that flatted and another guy that crashed in front of me. Very fast laps. The winner was a Category 1 single-speeder. I finished 8th overall. Good news was the free PBR waiting for me at the end of the race.

MILACA

Sunday's race brought out our St. Cloud friends - Mondloch, Newman, Mike & Charlie all rode with me while Mia, Ani, Mollie and Holly handed us water bottles throughout the race. It was a well-laid out course with varying terrain. Couldn't hold off the feather-weight roadies again... got 5th place. Vegetarian hot dogs were at the end (aka ketchup on a bun).

5 Months

Ani is 5 months old now - here are some recent pictures of her just enjoying life.... (except for the one of her 1st swing experience on the playground today!)

Gotta love the baby Smart Wools!

This was the 1st time I fed her rice cereal - talk about messy.

Halloween Bunny

Happy Halloween!

Moms & Babies from our childbirth prep class: Robin & Colette, Kara & Selah, Kelsey & Tate, Kelley & Shannon, Mia & Ani

Cold Snow Wind Rain

Can you say COLD SNOW RAIN WIND... I think there were other 4 letter words uttered like pain and hurt but it was an awesome course at Green Acres tubing hill in Lake Elmo. The course included a sand crossing, epic hill climb, fast descents, muddy switchbacks and a great bunch of spectators to brave the 37 degree 58 MPH winds. There were 35 men in the cat 4 race poised to push each other to their limits. The race started by sending the group to the first climb of the day. I was caught behind a group that quickly dismounted and slowed the pace. I managed to weave my way through the bunch and made my up the lung busting hill. With my heart rate maxed out I settled in to ride with the lead group. Too many over achievers in the group and 3 riders got away after the first set of barriers.

I remained on the hunt the entire race hoping my mountain bike skills would help me catch the roadies that broke away early. I had one slight mishap when a rider went down in the sand crossing directly in front of me and tested my bike handling skills. I cleared the sand section without hitting a fellow rider and keeping myself up right. The near accident gave me a rush of adrenaline that enabled me to actually stay on the bike for the next accent(I ran up the hill 2 of 5 laps).

With the help of the cowbell crew (more cow) and my mother handing off water bottles to me each lap I finished 7th overall. Mark representing the House of Pizza improved from the previous day to finish a respectable 12th place. Still no sign of Ray........ there must have been a warm pot of coffee and gooey pastries nearby.

Beard Contest

Who's beard is better? http://checkoutmybeard.blogspot.com

Afton CX

Monte raced cyclo-cross at Afton on Saturday and his parents were up for the weekend as well. It was a sunny but cold autumn day. Hagen's came out to show their support too. This climb looked pretty grueling! Monte took 10th place on his class and Mondloch took 16th. 

The Wrong Way

Monte competed in a cyclo-cross race held at the Devil's Glen Park in Bettendorf, IA on Sunday. My parents came and thoroughly enjoyed watching Monte jump over hurdles with his bike. They had never seen anything like it before. Anyway, there were maybe 20-25 participants in the race. Monte started off great, he was right up front... then all of a sudden we hear "Wrong way! You're going the wrong way!" Yep - Monte veered off-course in a poorly marked area, therefore losing his nice lead. Needless to say, this really irked him and gave him plenty of motivation and adrenaline to catch up with the leaders....

And catch up he did! Most exciting race I've seen him do so far - by the time the last lap came around, he had shortened the gap between himself and the leader, Will, by only 10 seconds. Everyone was going nuts. And in the course of that last lap, Monte passed Will on the running-up-hill-with-your-bike part and never looked back! He won - even though he lost time and went off-course at the beginning!

Will was a cool guy - he and Monte shook hands after the race and Will said he just "bonked" on that last lap. And I think he was surprised to hear that Monte was the guy who had gone off-course... and still won! (yes, I'm proud)

What a Payne

Vanessa is now a Payne! :) She and Josh got married this past Saturday in Iowa. What a fun wedding! Congrats and hope everyone was feeling OK on Sunday morning.... the keg beer, Dos Eqius, and Tecate were free-flowing most of the evening!