Christmas time

Working in healthcare, we don't have many perks around the holidays. 

We work while everyone else gets to spend the day with loved ones. I heard friends talking about how they were spending Christmas eve and it made me sad to think I was heading into work.

But that's what we do in the mission to "Make Lives Work" at Courage Kenny. 

So I put on my smile and drove in bright and early. I managed to get a lot accomplished in just the first few hours of the day and had more than one "thank you so much for your help" from my patients and families. Thankfully I was able to sneak out a few hours early and in an effort to make up for lost time with the family on Christmas eve, I made a pit-stop for coffee frappes on my way home :)

Let's just say I was greeted with some really big THANK YOU's! from the girls.

The best I could do was get the three kids together for a photo on Christmas eve. Regan refused to change into something other than comfy clothes, Sidney put on her Santa Vineyard Vines shirt and claimed to be festive, and Lincoln wouldn't let go of the reindeer that accompanied Ellie since it was the only day of the season he could touch her. 

I'll take what I can get. 

Yes, the reindeer and Ellie even made the family picture. 

Whatever. We're all looking at the camera and we're all smiling. It's a win in my book!

I didn't even pull out my camera on Christmas eve. I guess that means we enjoyed some family time instead. We ate, shared gifts with Ryan's parents and Lincoln opened this gigantic tiger that roars and had me take his photo in action. Isn't he scary!?

Before they climbed into bed for the night, I insisted on my traditional photo of the kids in front of the tree. It's so magical to see Christmas through the eyes of a child. Lincoln is so delighted in the excitement and wonder. And I love to listen to him as we drove through the neighborhood, telling  me how beautiful each house was with all of the lights. 

Bright and early Christmas morning we woke up to presents from Santa. He ate our cookies, the reindeer ate our carrots, and Ellie disappeared through the frosted glass on the sliding door. Magical and glee was all around us. 

Lincoln scored big with hockey skates and a helmet, which he proceeded to wear while opening the remainder of his gifts :) 

Sidney had begged for an Alexa from Santa, and was disappointed in that she didn't think it would be gifted. Her face was priceless upon opening! 

We shared the rest of the day with Hope and my mom with a sprinkle of facetime with Ben out east. Some of us wore ugly sweaters, but mom insists her Bon Jovi sweater was most certainly not ugly!

And looking at this photo below, I'm pretty sure Sidney is holding one of Papa Leo's favorite holiday toy....the Santa that toots! 

Thanks for the memories, it was a wonderful holiday season 

Santa and Ellie

We slid into Santa's lap just in time this year. Actually, I make a reservation months in advance because this Santa is the real deal I tell you. He's simply amazing and gives us time to sit and chat and have a real conversation. We love him to pieces! He's the only real Santa!

 

 

Our silly Ellie the elf is keeping us on our toes with her tricks and hiding spots. She's had a lemonade stand (ie: sitting on cups peeing), turds in my wine glasses (sitting on a glass with a Hershey poop inside), taking cotton candy baths and mountain climbing the cupboards.

 

Lincoln hurries down the stairs each morning, so excited to find Ellie and her reindeer.  This morning she arrived under the tree with gingerbread houses for the kids! Each one got busy, two of them at 7:30am :) Their masterpieces are adorable and it was so fun to watch them in their creative spirits. 

Tubing...forced fun

Growing up, my parents had a thing we called "forced fun". In other words, we did things that they thought we might like, whether or not we wanted to. Once it was a WWE wrestling match, another time it was a gigantic rollercoaster. They were almost always right, we liked whatever fun was thrown our way. I've adopted this "forced fun" mentality with the kiddos and for the most part, it's always fun! Last week we headed to a nearby ski hill and took the family tubing. A fun time was had by all! (well, Sidney may have gotten bored without her "screen time" for a few hours, but we'll call it a win).

 

I knew Lincoln would probably love it the most. Ryan was on the track next to him for the first run and he worried slightly that it might be too fast for him.
Nope.

This no fear kiddo had a complete blast! And made us promise to come back another day.

 

 Ryan and I are not ones to miss out on something like this, we were right there for the fun. And the weather was perfect! 30+ degrees on a winter day in Minnesota....I'll take it!

 

For a couple of fun videos, click HERE and HERE.



Preschool Christmas Program

We are blessed that Lincoln attends a preschool with teachers who love him and take good care of him. He has made close friendships and is learning all he needs before Kindergarten. This past week they held a short Christmas program for the families and Lincoln was so excited for us to watch him on stage. 

His most favorite song was Hippopotamus for Christmas and his subtle dance moves on stage were adorable! Click to watch a (super long but worth every second) video. 

Lincoln couldn't wait to find his best buddy after the show, along with the Big Guy himself :) I may have to gift this photo to these two friends on their 18th birthday or senior graduation! 

Christmas Round #1

Every year, sometime between Christmas and Thanksgiving, my brother and Jon return to MN for a Christmas celebration. This year it happened to fall on their birthday weekend, and we did all we could to pack some fun and celebrating into our time together. 

We started off with a big Christmas ham dinner at our place the night they arrived. The meal was yummy but the time together was even better. I sat at the table extra long that night, taking it all in and enjoying the moment rather than rushing to clean up. I can tell that Regan is getting older, because she too sat around the table, catching up, listening to stories and simply conversing with the family. 

My mom and Lincoln had a mean game of Laser Tag going on, and I came around the corner only to catch this quick photo of my mom :) 

Go mom go! 

Early the next morning we ventured to the big Mall of America where my brother was waiting with his "Birthday outfit". I had no idea what to expect when he let us know the night prior that he had a special gift for all of us....look at him! 

I may have given him grief more than once as he showed up multiple places (all day!) in that silly outfit. Apparently this is what you can wear when you don't care at all what anyone thinks of you :) 

It was a day of "yes", and very little "no". Instead of buying Christmas gifts, Ben and Jon requested to take the kids on a shopping spree. Oh they loved it! The only request was for the kids to pick out things that they wouldn't normally purchase. And we did just that! Sidney found a stupidly expensive squishy and their reply "SURE!". 

Although we didn't come home with these ride-on toys, the kids sure had fun scooting around the toy store, which was packed with people....

Both girls wanted to check out some make up stores so we went into more than one of them. Ryan and Sidney had us all buckled over in laughter when they came across this fun mirror allowing the buyer to test lip colors before buying. 

Ryan looks like he's done this before! 

This is the result of not wanting to try on clothes, and then in putting back on your own sweatshirt, you do so backwards. We made her pose for us with the hood up. 

After a full day at the Mall, both girls had double header dome ball games so we spent the evening cheering them on and entertaining Lincoln while dodging foul balls.
Can't get enough of watching them play. 

They're both continuing to work on their skills in this "off season" and I'm proud of how hard they are working. It was fun to have a little bigger fan club this weekend. 

The next day we went back to MOA and spent the morning at Crayola Experience thanks to some gifted tickets by a dear family friend. The kids played to their heart's content, as did the adults :) We crafted and molded and created for close to two hours. Eventually we walked over to the attached hotel and the kids took advantage of the swimming pool in hopes of wearing out Lincoln for a nice afternoon nap. 

It worked! And when he woke up, he was a TIGER! 

Ha! 

This cutie cracks us up. Whenever we take a picture, we always have to do one of just him. Acting like a tiger. 

It was a delightfully wonderful weekend where memories were built and good times were had. Just what Christmas celebrations should be. 

I'm sad that Hope had to work the night of this family picture.....I might have to figure out how to crop her in! 

Lake Life 2018

warning! heavy photo post follows

As we have nearly every Labor Day weekend for the past 15 years, we headed to a resort with my dad's brother and his family for the long weekend. 

We ventured to a new resort this year, one that had more water activities for the kids than even they could've dreamed! It was certainly the most entertained they have ever been at the lake (in the water)....and we all loved every second of it! 

One of Lincoln's (and Regan's) favorite parts of this annual event, is to go fishing. From the boat or from the dock, they just like to fish. 

Regan found a nice spot to perch on the pontoon and her/Hope laid there for over an hour one day just chatting the day away. 

One of the many fun water activities: a water bike! 

They looked mildly ridiculous pedaling around on this thing, but we could hear their giggles on shore and I loved hearing the memories being made. 

These kayaks were awesome. See that island out there in the distance? There's another one a bit further over on the left. Hope and Regan decided to go for a l-o-n-g excursion one day and ventured out around BOTH islands. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell us just how far they planned to go.....We watched as they went further and further away from the resort. We watched as we assumed they were lost (it's a very long way and can be hard to remember exactly where you started from when you get so far away). Ben had to eventually drive the boat out to see if they needed to be rescued. Nope. They were just taking their time on the lake and enjoying the beautiful warm sunny day. 

Shhhh, don't tell anyone that Uncle Ben lets his nieces and nephews take the wheel and drive us around. By the end of the weekend, Lincoln was driving it solo (Ben was sitting beside him). We laughed as Lincoln would repeat over and over that we were "full rottle" (aka: Full Throttle).....keeping in mind it goes maybe 4 mph :) 

He liked to shift it from idle into gear. He channeled his inner Titanic movie self and hollered "Full Speed Ahead!" as he shifted into gear!
Love that boy. 

Huge Thanks to my brother for giving these kiddos this awesome memory. I remember being a little tyke sitting on my own dad's lap "driving" the boat.

I have no idea what type of lesson she was getting, but she adored driving the boat just as much as Lincoln. 

Regan was content at the front of the boat anytime we were anchored. I have to admit, it's a nice spot to catch some rays. 

More fishing. 

Bless my mom's heart (and Ben and my cousin's husband) for worming, re-worming and de-fishing all weekend long.
Ick, not my favorite part of lake life. 

Getting ready to go "Full Rottle!"

At one point, I looked over at Lincoln and honestly flashed back to my 4 year old self. I can actually remember leaning over the back of our boat growing up, watching the wake as we slowly made our way.
There's just something peaceful about seeing the water rush through the propeller as we sped away. 

Some of these most beautiful sunsets happened out over the lake that weekend. The colors were stunning and I probably have a total of 500 sunset pictures between my phone and my camera.

She enjoyed her lake life, and I suspect she would live on the water if it were possible. 

A trip to the lake isn't complete without several rounds of tubing. Lincoln joined in the fun this year, taking a turn sitting at the bottom of the tube. He was pretty apprehensive, not sure he wanted to go. Smart boy went his first round with Sidney and Olivia (neither who want a rough ride), but eventually jumped over to ride with the wild ones! 

We had to take him out at one point because these two were itching to be flipped...boy did they get close! 

I was spotter one afternoon and could not believe these two silly girls. I went tubing for probably 20 years of my life, and never once did I think to actually turn around!? They disliked the water spraying in their faces so they rode their entire ride backwards.
Goof balls. 

This crew makes my heart full. 

I have no fewer than 10 pictures on my camera of Lincoln making a tiger face. He cooperates for any picture, but then says "let me do a tiger" and proceeds to tell me to take his picture. 

The sandy beach area was well used by our group. The kids spent a good chunk of everyday jumping around from lillypads to water trampolines to slides to floating docks. None of them terribly bothered by the fact that it was a lake...with fish, and weeds underfoot. 

Regan was trying to do a handstand on the lilly pad and I snapped a picture at just the right right. She looks like she's levitating!

The fun moments and memories made were plentiful. 

We've moved through several lakes, experienced a lot of Labor Day fun, and I'm so glad to have these 4 by my side each year. 

More tiger Lincoln....

An extra special place for my mom who keeps this tradition going for us (and her) even though we're missing a key person in our lives. Miss having dad around at the lake, giving his brother grief, watching him venture out for early morning fishing and always knowing how to fix something like a boat or a circuit board or a heater. 

More tiger Lincoln. 

He had no clue his sisters were behind him making tiger faces too :) 

We all are counting down the days until next year, knowing it is always a favorite for all of us. 

It's always bittersweet, and Sidney picked up on that this year "I love going to the lake, but I don't like that it means summer is over". 

Got that right kiddo. 

Now, onto school....