In Loving Memory

Albert J. Zumbach

10.20.1923 - 12.10.2009

To a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather, you will be truly missed.

We will forever love you and miss you.

The Weather Outside is Frightful!

Winter has finally reared its ugly head in Iowa! Yesterday we were all given warning that a blizzard was on its way! So...break out the heavy winter coats, hats, scarves and mittens!


Alas! The weathermen were actually right this time. We woke up this morning after a never ending snowfall during the night to 10 inches of snow and huge drifts. The winds got stronger and stronger as the day went on with gusts up to 50 miles an hour. Many businesses closed including TrueNorth and European Motors so we were taken by surprise when we all had a SNOW DAY!!!


Mike spent part of the day battling the cold and wind trying to coax the snow out of our driveway. Lila and I played and played all day long! She helped keep me company while I worked and I took breaks to have some snuggle time!

By this afternoon we were all snug in the house enjoying the impromptu family time we were given! We both agree...if it is going to snow and get gross out, it might as well do it so badly that we get these snow days more often!

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas!

Well, it is official...the Eddins household is all decorated for Christmas! Mike put the lights up a few weeks ago and we put up the tree and all of the indoor decorations this week. It is amazing, we had to do it bit by bit...having a little one sure does change things (all for the better of course)!


Lila is simply fascinated by all the lights on the tree! And really enjoys looking out the window at all of the houses on the block with their pretty lights up! We have been listening to a lot of Christmas music to help us get in the spirit as well. Nothing says Christmas like real, live reindeer though!


This weekend was the TrueNorth family Christmas party. Saturday brought a visit by Vixen, the reindeer, an elf and none other than Santa and Mrs. Claus! It was truly magical! Call me a big kid, but there is something about Santa and the reindeer that takes me right back to adolesence and the overwhelming anticipation of the Christmas season! Lila sat right in Santa's lap and smiled big and wide at the camera, stay tuned for those photos! We were relieved that she didn't freak out as so many little ones do. She is such a cheeser!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Lila taking a break in Mommy's office!

We have been a very busy family, trying to wrap up the year at both of our jobs, do all of our Christmas shopping and maintain our sanity! Having a little one adds a little more work, but she truly makes it all worth balancing. We have SO much fun with her! She is growing like a weed and wanting to get her paws on everything in sight, including food! We have started to let her have some of her baby food on her tray before her baths. MESSY is an understatment, but she loves it!

As you can all see she has quite the mane of hair on her head. I am not the Mom that rushes to put bows and barettes in it because I feel like there will be plenty of time for that in the future. Right before bath the other day we were messing around with her hair and both in awe at how long it has gotten, so I decided to throw a barette in it just to see what she looks like. I have to admit, it kind of freaks me out because she looks so old!

I mentioned above that we are really busy right now, but life as we know it is only going to get more and more hectic as we approach the holiday and the new year. I said to Mike the other day, "I can vividly remember this time last year and wanting 2009 to be here so badly so we were that much closer to having our baby." I sit here now and wonder, "where has the time gone?!"

A lot to be thankful for...

Our Thanksgiving celebration started last weekend with a get together with the Eddins side of the family! We spent some good time as a family, eating good food and catching up. Lila enjoyed being passed around, but really enjoyed some super special time with Grandpa Wayne!

Tuesday marked a big event in Miss Lila's life, her first airplane ride! Yes, at 7 months old she flew the friendly skies to Nashville, TN to spend Thanksgiving with her Grammy. Jason, Jen, Celia, Ruby, Mike, Lila and I all packed up and headed south to celebrate the holiday.

Once again, Lila amazed us with how good she did on the plane! She is quite the traveler! Her favorite part of flying was looking out the window at everything going on outside the plane. She is really very inquisitive and always in awe of everything going on around her, so it is pretty easy to keep her busy.

We got to my Mom and Terry's house Tuesday afternoon and spent some time getting settled in. We had 6 adults, 3 kids and 3 dogs...the house is big enough for all of us, but we were cozy! We ordered pizza and got rested up for the next day.

The Three Amigas!

Lila on display!

Wednesday we all got cleaned up and headed to Green Hills Mall (Lindale eat your heart out) for some lunch and shopping. I could have gotten in a lot of trouble there, but with a little one the days of browsing all day are long gone! We got a few good things and managed to get a few things for under the Christmas tree as well. When we finished up shopping we headed to Franklin, a suburb of Nashville, to visit my Uncle Tom and Aunt Genie. We have all been to Nashville several times, but haven't made it to their house and I am so glad we made the trip. Their community is absolutely beautiful and it was wonderful to visit with them!

All tuckered out!

Thanksgiving Day brought all sorts of excitement! It was Lila's first Thanksgiving, it was Jen's birthday and it was all of our first time making a Thanksgiving meal...including cooking a turkey! We all took our part in making the meal. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn casserole, broccoli cheese casserole, bread and salad! Oh, and lets not forget, birthday cake and ice cream! Low and behold, it was a masterpiece!

Baby's 1st Thanksgiving

Martha Stewart eat your heart out!

Happy Birthday Jen!

This Thanksgiving was different, not one like our normal tradition of being home, bouncing from one family celebration to the next. Even though it was different, what we are thankful for remains the same. We are thankful for each other, for our beautiful daughter, for our wonderful family and friends, for our health and for our freedom, geography doesn't change any of that!

Friday was our last full day in Tennessee. We headed to an authentic Mexican restaurant for lunch and then the girls split up from the guys and kids and went shopping at a boutique store called A Thousand Faces and the boys took the little girls to a car show downtown. After we were all done we met up on Broadway at Mike's Ice Cream Shop for a sweet treat!

Enjoying the sunshine!

Saturday we packed up our things and headed back to the airport to begin our travels towards home! We had such a nice time in Nashville, I swear I love that city more and more each time we go. But, Mike and I were discussing the fact that there really is no place like home!

Home at last!

A Baby Shower

This weekend we helped our very good friend Monica celebrate the upcoming arrival of her baby girl! We had been planning this shower for quite some time and none of can believe that it was finally here...that means the baby is fast approaching!

The shower was held on Saturday from 2:00 - 4:00 at Daniel Arthur's. They have a penthouse that worked perfect for the group. We used Baby Hahn's bedding as the theme of the shower. We used it on the invitations, the favors, the banner, we designed the flowers and even the cookies around it as well, all of it turned out cute!

We had a big surprise in store for Monica, we got her the rocking chair for the baby's nursery. This chair color had been kind of a toss-up down to the last minute, so we had to wing it and hope that what we picked was going to be okay. Needless to say, about a week ago she had decided that she did indeed want a pink chair, thank goodness because we already had the pink chair for the shower! She was SO shocked and we were SO happy we were able to pull off the surprise!

No peeking!

Okay, you can look!

The PINK chair!

Lila's special gift for her friend...baby girl Hahn!

It was a beautiful shower and we were so happy to plan it for such a wonderful friend. We are all (im)patiently waiting for the arrival of this special little girl, especially Lila...she hears all the time how they are going to be bestest buds! We are so thrilled that Monica and Brandon will be going through parenthood with us, it will be truly awesome to watch the girls grow up together!

Speaking of little girls...Lila spent Saturday afternoon at home with Mike. She was all decked out in her Hawkeye gear, ready to cheer on the Hawks against Ohio State. Our quarterback still isn't 100% yet, so this was going to be the first time the 2nd string, freshman quarterback would start, needless to say there was a lot of negative opinions on how the game would end up. But wouldn't you know?! The Hawkeyes had it tied up in the 4th quarter and took the game into overtime. Unfortunately it wasn't a victory, but at least we can be proud that they showed up and gave it their all, inspite of all of the negative press and the odds against them. They truly are a good football team. It has been a great season to watch and one we can't wait to relive with Lila when she sees all the pictures from when she was a baby!

Happy Hawkeye!

Lila was also able to show her Hawkeye pride on Thursday when we had pictures taken with her, Celia and Ruby in their Iowa Hawkeye cheerleading uniforms! The pictures turned out great and they will definitely be ones that the guys in our lives cherish! When the girls were all smiling for the camera, Jen looked over and said "I just think about all of the fun things they are going to do together, girls trips, etc. and it makes me smile!" It makes us smile too...and wince a bit because with fun I am sure there will be trouble! We'll take it!