A Christmas visit

Uncles Ben and Jon came for their annual Christmas visit in early December. It was a whirlwind weekend with a lot of softball, a little shopping, and missed hockey (thanks to a broken collarbone). 

But we had a great time spending extended time together, shopping, eating, games and more shopping. 

Lincoln decided against most shopping and opted instead for experiences, even with his bum arm. They had a lot of fun at Build-A-Bear and he dragged Ben into the VR experience at the MOA. Building some fun memories for sure. 

Their visit happened to coincide with Lincoln's annual "art" event at school so they got to see Lincoln's self-portrait and hear a few music songs too. It was fun for them to be part of Lincoln's special day at school. And even more exciting as it was Lincoln's first art/music program because all of them previously have been cancelled due to the pandemic. 

He did great and loved having a few extra audience members!

Thanks for a fun visit Uncles Ben and Jon! 

 

Life Lately and Christmas prep

 It's a little challenging to prep for Christmas with all the chasing kids around that we do each week. But we're squeaking in a little cookie baking, tree decorating, present wrapping and just days before Christmas, we finally added lights to the house (perhaps with a lot of begging on my part). You see, these kiddos of ours are in love with their activities and sports, tugging us in every direction 6 (sometimes 7) days/week. We put on at least 150 miles each week driving them to practices, games, lessons and training.  Sometimes I manage to run in/out of stores during their longer 3 hour trainings, or shop online from the comfort of my car during their shorter 1 hour trainings. I search Pinterest for the latest Elf happenings and set reminders on my phone to be sure the sneaky thing has moved when I finally crawl into the house at night, often after 10:30pm. I turned my car into a "carfice", in other words my car office. 

And in between all of those sports and activities, we are sledding and crafting (more like science-kit building) and trying to find a good Hallmark show. 

It doesn't quite feel like Christmas to me yet, maybe it's because I haven't had a chance to slow down. We have one more day of school/work this week, and then we'll take a breather and try to enjoy the season, because at this point, I kind of feel like Ellie our Elf! 

2020 Christmas Holidays

 Christmas 2020 came and went. It felt a little bit like any other day, only with presents. We did all we could to make it memorable and special. Throughout the month of December, we did all sorts of Christmas-y things like decorate the house, look at Christmas lights, build gingerbread houses, bake cookies, family games, and watch all of the Hallmark movies! 

I even had TWO Christmas trees this year :) That fun new tradition actually started pre-pandemic, when I purchased our first artificial tree to place in the living room. The real/original tree will always live in our family room. We all loved the extra twinkling lights felt throughout the house, each and everyday. And since we worked from home, those two trees stayed lit all day/evening, everyday. We all poked fun of our new artificial tree, because it turned out to be a pencil tree, and a little skinny for an oversized space this year. But I still love that extra tree!

We ended up starting holiday break with an extra 4 legged guest for a few days, this due to my friend's urgent surgery. Her new service dog was just what the kids needed to fill their holiday spirits. She is sweet and loving (and oh so full of fur!). 

She sure puts up with a lot of Lincoln's requests too! 

Christmas eve, we did a little Google Meeting with Ryan's parents while we opened gifts. The strangest Christmas eve to date! And for whatever reason, they couldn't hear Ryan's voice on their end, which made all of us giggle. Our very own Christmas ghost. 

The kids made up some reindeer food, plated some cookies for Santa and bid farewell to the mischievous elf and her reindeer. It was certainly the easiest bedtime of the year. And then....magic :) 

We greeted Christmas morning bright and early (Regan even set an alarm at 7:45am, knowing Lincoln and Sidney would be awake much before then and unable to contain their excitement). The kids were in present heaven, spoiled with love from us and Santa. I loved watching their faces as they opened up presents, we sure had some good surprises! 

After lunch, we did a Zoom meeting with my brother/Jon and my mom to open gifts again. There were more gracious gifts and spoiled kiddos, unwrapping creative and unique gifts. Lucky for us, Lincoln scored a high-pitched whistle that lights up (in case he loses it). And Regan received the most annoying squeeky toys, gifted by Ben just to annoy me :) I sure felt the love! #eyeroll

We hope to spend the remainder of the kiddos winter break from school taking advantage of the recent snowfall. We've already ice skated and gone sledding multiple times; despite the snow, I still take daily long walks and occasionally can convince Regan to join me. The kids are getting great use of our newly heated garage for hitting practice and stickhandling work.  The fresh air feels good, and helps the days feel less like the longest Groundhog Day ever. Running into/meeting up with friends at the sledding hills and ice rinks sure help their moods. We'll keep hanging in there and staying safe.  

Skating on Bush Lake might go down as the most memorable moment of winter 2020. Without any snow, the lake froze, allowing crystal clear ice (I could see through the ice!) and the largest skating rink we've ever seen. It was so cool! 

Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday season!

Christmas prep--round 1

I suspect that I will have several rounds of "Christmas prep" the next couple of weeks. But so far, we've trimmed the tree, seen Santa, visited Macy's 8th floor display and celebrated St. Nick's day...it's been a busy couple of weeks! Somehow I managed to mail out our Christmas cards this week as well; what a relief that is. We sure love getting all of the fun cards in the mail and seeing what everyone has been up to!

Sidney trimming the tree 

We managed to only lose 2 glass ornaments this year. Maybe a new record? I still like to remember the time that the entire tree (fully decorated!) tipped over and we lost dozens of ornaments. Ryan got the task of holding up the tree while I ran to Target for a new stand (and maybe a little shopping along the way). He still doesn't think that story is funny.... :)

St. Nick blessed us with some fun treats on the morning of 12/6. Gone are the days that he left a few coins in shoes. Now it's sequin mermaid pillows, toys and snacks! Lucky kiddos.

We are treated with a horse drawn sleigh ride after picking out the best Christmas tree in the lot! Sidney opted out of the ride this year, feeling far too cold and opting for the warmth of the truck.

Sidney swears this is definitely "the real Santa". And you know what, we have to agree. This guy is the BEST! We pick him on purpose, because he's not the typical mall Santa, and he spends time talking to the kiddos instead of just snapping a picture. I love how he picks up on our cues and immediately knew the kids names (I happened to say them as we walked in the room). The eyes on Sidney lit up! I love it.

In a rather hurried decision several weeks ago, I bought tickets to take Lincoln to Disney on Ice on a Friday morning...turns out, it was a day that the girls weren't in school! Opps. But Lincoln had a blast and loves every second of these shows. It's so much fun to experience these things just one more time with the littlest guy :)

Macy's Santaland never seems to disappoint. This year was another special year because Sidney was able to read all of the captions and enjoyed picking up on things she hadn't noticed in prior years. Regan liked finding what might be slightly different, or locating all of the furry friends around each room. And Lincoln was just in awe of it all, so much so that we had to go through it two times!

Here's to our first round of Christmas prep. We all love this season, and although the date never changes, it always seems to sneak up on me! I'm soaking in all of these fun traditions, knowing that it won't be long and our kiddos won't have the same sparkle in their eye this time of year. So I'm hanging on for dear life!

Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving came and went and we're nearly halfway into December already! Although we do prefer to host the holidays (for a plethora of reasons), we opted to travel back to our home town to celebrate with the extended families. The kids enjoyed some playtime and hot tubbing with "cousins" (they don't actually have first cousins sadly), snuggling with Grandma Jan while she recovered from recent surgery, a quick golf cart ride with Papa and eating Thanksgiving meal/s. It was a whirlwind of a weekend but we tried to soak it all in as much as possible!

The 4th, done right

We kinda love the 4th of July around this place. Let's be honest, it's July, and that alone makes me happy! But add to it, family, heat, sun and a celebration of our independence and I'm one happy girl. This year was pretty similar to our years past. Our city celebrates on the 3rd with a whiz bang of a fireworks display and we have a good time with some friends beforehand. That translates into a late night and some tired kiddos the next morning. Ryan skips out and headed golfing with my mom so he doesn't deal with our sleepy heads..... 

This sleepyhead woke up with a note and some cash from the Tooth Fairy having lost her FIFTH tooth the afternoon prior. She popped it right out herself, just like she had wished for. 

So now we've hit Labor Day and the 4th of July with lost teeth from this girl. I think she has a secret wish to lose a tooth on every holiday :)

Our little ones sure clean up well. The out takes of this shot are pretty funny, Lincoln continually spun in circles and then screamed whenever either girl tried to get him to stop and take a picture. I had to act like a clown to get him to stop and smile at the camera. Oh the things that I do for a picture of all three. 

After a round of golf by Ryan and my mom and some food prep from me and the girls, our doorbell started ringing and soon the back yard was filled with outdoor fun. The kids and I found the new water balloons (the ones that fill 40 balloons at a time and a 120 in less than a minute....a new kind of awesome!) and it was time for a water fight! Ryan kept running around yelling "why am I the intended target??" as everyone was going after him :)



Lincoln and Grandma Jan found a cool place in the shade to relax. She taught him how to clink his cup and say "cheers". He's kinda proud of himself with that big boy cup. Ryan on the other hand, is not loving the sticky mess he kept spilling all over the deck because he insisted on something, anything, other than water to drink! 



Ryan's pretty good at doing all sorts of tricks in the pool. Here he's trying to land on the magic carpet and stay standing on it...not as easy as it looks! Took him a few tries but eventually he mastered it and we all cheered for his success!

And teaching Arnie to throw an alley oop....well that was a sight too! The first time he tossed the ball at Ryan's feet and we all got a good chuckle at how impossible that ball was to catch. I'm telling you, it's like having an extra kid with him around sometimes! He sure likes to goof around :) 

Once evening settled in, we took the party out front for a fire works display. Ryan got his hand on some pretty awesome fireworks while we were in Wisconsin last month, and so our 'show' was a little more exciting this year!
Lincoln just kept on drinking and drinking all evening, but at least I knew he wasn't going to get dehydrated in that warm July humidity! 

Check out his curls

For some reason, Grandpa Arnie thought Lincoln was hilarious. I just love this picture of Arnie's expression as he talks to Lincoln, priceless! 

There was simply no way that Regan was going to let us forget that she was going swimming after fireworks. So much so that she wouldn't even change out of her swim suit/cover up! Swimming in the dark might just be her most favorite part of the 4th. 

As for this cutie with her glasses, oh is she our little fire cracker! She was so happy for everything about the day: the food, the swimming, more food, some fireworks and give her some more food. I mean it, she has a wild metabolism as she weighs roughly 45 lbs and eats c.o.n.s.t.a.n.t.l.y! 

With Lincoln in one arm and my camera in the other, we ooed and ahhed as we watched Ryan's display :) 

All the kiddos lit up themselves with glow sticks around every limb and more in their hands! 

At the end of the night, after saying our goodbyes, the 3 oldest of us in the family hopped back in the pool for a quick night swim! It is so peaceful (and super warm!) to swim at night. I know why Regan thinks it's so fun! 

Late at night, as we cleaned up around the pool, Ryan looked at me and said "we do the 4th right: swimming, grilling out, awesome fireworks and pool in the dark. What could be better?". I must say that I have to agree with him :) 

Happy 4th!