This is our first family portrait to include Mara.  It turned out really nice.  It reminds me of the Garth Brooks song “Two of a Kind Working on a Full House.”  Enjoy the music and the next time you hear it, we really will be.

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A few posed photos with me and Mara when she was 1 day old.

Here is a puppy pupdate. Some really cute shots of the puppies cuddling with us and their individual portraits as well. Enjoy, and click the photos to be taken to the gallery with lots more.

Enjoy the photos of our trip downtown with Nick. Some funny shots of Nick and I at the Garmin GPS store. Some cute ones of Hannah and all four of us. Click the photo for a link to the gallery.

Lake Michigan at North Beach in Chicago

Nick, my cousin, hit the pheasant preserve for his first trip with his new gun.  We took Cinder and Nadia and let them do their thing.  Nick dropped three birds with one shot a piece, pretty impressive since he only made it to the trap range once with his new gun.  After a pretty succesful day, 4 birds and only two fly aways, one of which definitely got hit and was going down, but managed to do so out of our reach.  After a day in the field, we hit the lodge up for some beers.  While we were standing around waiting for the birds to be cleaned we ran into the hunters in the field next to us.  They asked, “Who was shooting the cannon?”  To which I replied, “This guy,” while pointing at Nick.  Quite funny at the time.  We were both shooting the same shells but something about his gun just makes it loud.  Enjoy the photos and our video.

Nick with Nadia and his first pheasant.

We spent the day playing with dogs at the annual IKC show at McCormick Place in Chicago. There were lots of Tollers, good friends, and good competition. It was a benched show so we got to show the dogs off all day and it was a lot of fun.

Check out these photos from google maps.  I could not believe the photo of my truck just sitting there and Ashlee’s car from the satellite view.  I tried to read the license plates, but couldn’t.  The resolution is not high enough yet… but it is still a little scary.

I have copied the weather warning for our area and pasted it below.  Currently, it is -16 and feels like it is -30.  When Aaron checked the temperature this morning the actual temp. was -20.  You can not possibly imagine what that feels like until you walk outside, unbelievable.  It literally takes your breath away.  Washington sounds so nice, thankfully we will be there next weekend.  Schools are closed here because it is so cold.  Stay warm

Here are the official temps from weather.com and weather underground.

Issued by The National Weather Service
Chicago, IL
2:47 am CST, Fri., Jan. 16, 2009

… WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON CST /1 PM EST/ TODAY…

WEST WINDS AROUND 10 MPH COMBINED WITH TEMPERATURES WELL BELOW ZERO WILL RESULT IN WIND CHILLS OF 25 TO 45 BELOW ZERO THIS MORNING. TEMPERATURES AND WIND CHILLS WILL SLOWLY MODERATE AFTER SUNUP AND RISE OUT OF WARNING CRITERIA BY NOONTIME.

THESE LOW WIND CHILLS ARE VERY DANGEROUS. IF YOU VENTURE OUTSIDE… MAKE SURE TO COVER ALL EXPOSED SKIN.