Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We still haven't figured out what we are going to do today but it will be a family affair since it's hard to find a babysitter on Valentine's Day! Anna made treats (with the help from mom) and brought them to school yesterday. She was very proud =). Anna also had a little Valentine's Day party with her cousins Maddie and Olivia.

A little girl's dream : strawberry cake mix, cream cheese, raspberry jam and lots of pink food coloring!

Shaped into hearts of course for V-day =)

Wish I had one of these yummy cupcakes right now!

We were in Minnesota last week visiting Jason's parents and had a blast. The time always goes by so fast. We have too many great photos to post but here are a few:

Grandpa Lee and Anna at the Mall of America's Nick Universe

Anna with her cousin Emma

Jason, Benji and Great-Grandma Bea
They all have the same pretty blue eyes!

Anna with Emma and Uncle Matt on the train at Nick Universe

Benji looking handsome at Grandpa and Grandma Rasmussen's

Anna and Emma -- the party girls!

All Packed Up ....

We're all packed up and ready to head out to Minnesota tomorrow morning! All of the packing went well except that when Anna was being so perfectly quiet she was getting herself into a bit of trouble! She went through our cat toy box and found the cat nail clippers. Her Dora dress fell victim to the nail clippers! Once Anna realized she put holes in her beloved fancy Dora dress she fell apart. Luckily she is resourceful and asked for band-aids to cover the holes with.

Discovering what she did ...

Falling apart ...

Smile is reemerging after fixing her dress!

We are looking forward to traveling to Minnesota but we know we will probably be in shock because of the vast difference in weather. We have been spoiled here with temperatures in the high 60's!

Helping daddy in the yard

Benji has a favorite cupboard now. He takes everything out and bangs on the floor =). I think he has animal crackers stuck all over his face in these pics. There isn't much time during the day when he has a clean face =).

Back to herself again ....

I jinxed myself last week by telling someone it had been a year since Anna had the stomach flu. As soon as I said it I could have kicked myself but it was too late, Anna came down with the stomach flu on Wednesday. Luckily she was only sick for about a day and made a full recovery!

Before she was sick ....

Business as usual, having a debate with Kitty.

During ...

I think there should be a developmental milestone for when kids start using a bowl when they throw up. It was so nice that she lugged this bowl around with her everywhere she went!

and after ...

After a speedy recovery she was partying with her friends at family pizza night for her preschool!

This is from yesterday when we went to visit Grandpa Jim while Grandma Lana was sunbathing in Southern California =)

Most of our photos of Ben look like this so we have far less photos of our little Benji bear!

I think 2/30 photos came out clear. He's always on the go!

Last week at the park after climbing up some steps.

I lucked out this morning and caught this photo of Ben when I was taking a shot of Anna!

Sleepless in Sacramento

This past week has been very interesting because we haven't been sleeping well at all and it's not because of Ben it's Anna! She seems to need much less sleep that all other humans! Our nights lately have consisted of getting up three or four times because of our precious little girl =). You would think she would at least take a nice long nap to make up for her sleepless nights but not our super human Anna.

On the nights when she won't go back to bed we watch Dora. Our TV is too bright for Anna's eyes at night so she started wearing her sunglasses to watch TV!

When we were chopping up onions for dinner Anna's eyes started to burn and she went and put on her sunglasses then too!

Ben has been hard to photograph because he is such a moving target but I've managed to snap a few:

Breaking News .....

We received a surprising phone call from Lee (Jason's dad) this week notifying us that a woman named Debbie Soto had contacted a reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune stating that she has had Jason's baby book for 20 years! We were blown away to say the least and were baffled as to why she had Jason's baby book. It turns out Jason's baby book was lost most likely during a move and was probably donated to the Goodwill by mistake. Debbie received the baby book as a gag gift in 1988 because of it's outdated parenting advice from the '60's. Her sister picked it up at a thrift shop in Oakland, CA. Debbie didn't realize at first that it belonged to a child until she flipped to the back and saw Jason's information.

Debbie began searching for Jason about seven years ago by doing a web search with his name. There are quite a few Jason Rasmussen's out there but a story about a lost hiker caught Debbie's attention and the age of the hiker matched the age of the Jason from the baby book she had been holding on to. Even with that information Debbie wasn't certain how to find Jason and she put the baby book back on her bookshelf.

A couple of weeks ago Debbie re-visited the baby book again and did another web search for Jason. This time she found information with a reporter's name that had written a story on Jason and she decided to contact that reporter at the Star Tribune who was able to put her in contact with Jason's parents within hours! The big kicker to this entire story was when we found out that Debbie Soto lives here in Sacramento about two miles away from us! It also turns out that Debbie's daughter attended the same preschool that Anna attends. We were very touched by this story to say the least. It would have been so easy for Debbie to toss Jason's baby book but she has a big heart and felt it was important to get the baby book back to the person it belongs to. Today we met Debbie and her lovely family and Jason now has his baby book =). The local news station was quite interested in this story and they were there for the reunion. Here are some photos and the news clip:

Jason with Mike Teselles from KCRA 3, Sacramento

Anna put on her fancy Dorothy shoes for the special occassion =).

Jason and Debbie (we think the baby on the front of the book looks like Ben!)

Debbie's daughter Julie, Jason, Debbie and Debbie's husband Steve.


My sister Devona and our nieces Maddie and Olivia were there, too!!



Check out the clip from the news:
http://www.kcra.com/video/18407077/index.html

Merry Christmas!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! Here are some photos from the past few days:

Christmas Eve at my sister Devona's house

Grandpa Jim and Benji

Grandma Lana and Benji. Benji passes out on my mom whenever she holds him. He looks like he is sliding off of her but he seemed quite comfy by the way he was snoozing!All of the kids together for a shot: my sister Devona's kids, my sister Angie's kids, and my brother-in-law Freddie's nieces and nephews.

The kids opening up their presents from Santa! Santa knocked on the garage door after they cracked open the pinata and said "ho, ho, ho!". He dropped off all of the toys in big bags on the front porch for all of the children. Santa was in a hurry and had to dash but most of the kids said they spotted him in the sky with his reindeer =).

The best puzzle ever according to Anna since she and Dora are together in it!

Christmas Day at my parents house. Ben had fun playing in a box while the kids opened their presents!

The day after Christmas back at my sister Devona's house. Maddie and Ben cruising around on a cool new toy Santa brought to their house.

Anna's turn! Notice, she has her party dress back on!