On Christmas day in the morning!

We spent Christmas Eve and morning in Madison with my family and then the afternoon and evening with Bryan's family in Milwaukee. I makes for a busy day but it is such a blessing that we are able to see all of our family on Christmas. It was a wonderful day but started very early with the kids, Joseph of all people was the first one up this year! It was nice though, I was able to feed him by the light of the Christmas tree while it was still quiet and peaceful, a very special time that I will treasure. Shortly after Olivia was up and in her stocking and Eileen was not far behind.
Joseph not sure what to make of this Christmas stuff!
Olivia getting her bop bag
Eileen got a lap harp, something for her to do in her quiet time. Notice the cowboy boots, she got them from Olivia and did not take them off all day! She also told us that she knows a REAL cowboy, Uncle Jonathan.

Round Two!
Joseph loved his new tool bench from Grandma and Grandpa

Olivia with Uncle Eric showing off her new book

Eileen and Nathan playing Eileen's new My Little Pony game with Daddy

What a wonderful day we all had, it is so special that we have such great family to create these memories with.

Christmas break is here!

On Thursday Eileen had her last day of school prior to Christmas break, I got to be the room mom for the holiday party as well. It really was a lot of fun and they had very cute projects to complete that day. Each child decorated a gingerbread cookie, made a place mat and napkin ring!
As you can see Eileen decided to take some extra toppings for a little snack with her cookie!
Eileen waiting to eat her cookie, so patient when it is not her mother asking her to wait!

Today we went to visit Lisa in her classroom and drop off her Christmas gift from Olivia (Lisa is Olivia's Godmother). Lisa is such a kind person she had gifts for all 3 kids! Each of the girls received a Christmas purse/muff and the ever popular Lip Smacker! By the time we got home Olivia had eaten half of hers, she was so funny every time I told her to get it out of her mouth she told me she was just giving it a kiss!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Getting ready for Christmas!

Last weekend Joseph and I went to Madison to make Christmas cookies with Nana. We stared as soon as I got there at 10:30 and finished around 5:30, that's a long time to be working with sugar and chocolate for a couple of ladies who don't enjoy the sweet stuff so much! One batch of sugar cookies grew together, but we thought they came out looking rather interesting.
Papa, who does enjoy the sweets, helped us too. He watched Joseph, sugared our sugar cookies and watched the timer.

After the cookies were made we did get to have some fun too. I went to watch the Xavier game with Brian, not a victory for XU, Nana and Papa played with Joseph, and Papa did and amazing job decorating the tree while Nana, Brian and I kept him company and pointed out places to hang the ornaments.

Nana taking Joseph for a little walk, it will be a while before he is up on his own!Look at Papa's hard work! The beautiful tree and the amazing wrapping job he did on all those gifts, what a gift of himself he gives us every year!

Another Busy Weekend!

On Saturday we went bowling for Brenden's 7th Birthday (I can not believe how old he is!). The kids had so much fun bowling and running around the bowling alley with their shoes off! After bowling we went back to Krista and Carl's house for pizza dinner-(Cranky Al's) so good!















On Sunday we got our Christmas Tree! We all drove out to Jackson to get our tree, we found a really great one that is just the right size for our living room (we had to get a smaller one this year now that we have furniture). Joseph hung the first ornament on the tree this year and the girls each followed by age. Eileen was really into hanging the ornaments this year which made it fun for us too. We concluded with Eileen putting the star (or as she likes to call it "The Star of Jesus") on top of the tree.
The kids posing with Santa and Mrs. Clause for a picture at the tree farm.

Bryan and the kids showing off our tree.

Joseph hanging his first ornament from St. Nick (via Grandma and Grandpa).

Olivia hanging her first ornament of the night, surprise surprise it looked like candy!

Eileen hanging her first choice for the night a Boots the Monkey ornament from Nana and Papa last year.

Eileen topping the tree, with a little help from Dad.

School Holiday Party!

On St. Nick Eileen's school had a holiday party, though I am not sure why they didn't just come out and call it a Christmas party since that is obviously what it was! The girls had a great time, they got to wear their pajamas to school at night, there was a craft, snack, play and even Santa!
The girls made Christmas trees out of paper plates and decorated them with stickers, fuzzy balls, and glitter (Olivia did like hers she just wanted to move on to the next station rather than have her picture taken).

Every kid there got to decorate their own cookie with frosting and more toppings than you would find at the store, it was too much even for Olivia she took one bite of her cookie and told me she was done!

Here is a shot of Joseph trying to steel Daddy's cookie (that Daddy stole).

The last station we went to was Santa, all of the kids wrote Santa a letter and put it in his box and then Santa read a story to all of the kids. Some families had there picture taken with Santa but Eileen did not want to have anything to do with that!

It really was a fun night the kids had such a blast getting out of the house at night in their pajamas and seeing all of their friends. The event ran well with the four stations but by the end of the night we were all ready to go home and brush our teeth and go to bed!

Happy St. Nick!

St. Nick came to our house during the night, of course Eileen woke us up in the middle of the night to let us know St. Nick had filled her shoe! When Olivia woke up she forgot to check her shoe so she was very surprised to see it filled. Joseph couldn't care less but he was very very happy to see his favorite puffs again!
Joseph enjoying the only taste of a candy cane he will have this year, he did eat quite a few sweet potato puffs before breakfast though!

Olivia with her St. Nick treats, m&ms, a candy cane, an orange and a new Dora Christmas book, she was happy to eat her orange for breakfast.

Eileen showing off her St. Nick goodies, an orange, m&ms, a candy cane and a book she can read all by herself. She was so amazed that St. Nick knew she could read and decided that it must be magic!

Other News
Last night after dinner when Joseph was having his treat of Cheerios he did the sign for more!! We were all so excited that we gave him a ton of Cheerios every time he did the sign.

Pictures from our snow day!

Getting Joseph ready to go out, if only he knew what he was in for!

The girls venturing out on their own, staying close to the house where the snow wasn't too deep.

It took forever just to get all of us over by the tree to take this picture and still the wind was blowing so hard both Joseph and Olivia went down! Check out Joseph's wink.

Back inside warming up with a nice mug of special hot chocolate from Papa.

Joseph warming up by the fire.

That night the girls had their first bowl of snow ice cream, a favorite from my childhood, the girls loved it and had a blast making it!

It really was fun having a snow day with the kids. This was Eileen's first official and I have to say she was disappointed that she couldn't go to school but felt better when she realized that NOBODY was going to school not even the big kids at the school across the street. Even with all of the shoveling we did have fun playing in the snow, collecting snow for our "special treat", hot chocolate, a fire in the fireplace and spending the whole day focused on one another rather than what we had to get done or get to since there was no where else to go and no one else to be with. This was the most important time, the kids were the most important people and being together was the most important thing (thank you Nana and Papa for The Three Questions).

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

On Sunday afternoon we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for pizza to celebrate Grandma's (I think we agreed it was her 22) birthday. It was so nice to get together again (we missed you Krista), it had been too long, Lori and I think the last time we all got together with the kids was fathers day weekend!

The girls were helping Grandma open her Birthday present.

All the grandkids (those that could walk) wanted to help Grandma with the candles and cake, and of course take a little taste just to make sure it was good enough for all of us.

Olivia and Grandpa sharing a moment over birthday cake, is there any better way?

Welcome December!!

As of 9:30 this morning we had 6 inches of snow and it is still coming! The kids and I got out for a bit. We bundled Joseph up and took some pictures of him in the snow, it was too cold for him to stay out very long so then we put him down for his nap. The girls and I stayed out and played and shoveled, and shoveled, and shoveled! It took forever to clear the driveway and I only did enough for about 1.5 cars, oh well.

After I put Joseph down for his nap I took this picture of the girls out the kitchen window, Eileen is in pink and Olivia is in red.

Olivia on her way over to the neighbors.

Eileen joining Olivia to see if the neighbors want to play. These are the nicest kids, they are 9 year old triplets and they are always so kind to the girls, we are so lucky!

Olivia after her attempt at shoveling!

Eileen striking a pose while shoveling, notice the foot on the shovel (what a camera ham!).

It has been fun having all of this snow but it is only 10:45 and we have already watched Sesame Street, played outside, and had hot chocolate, I think it is going to be a long day!
By the way the reason the pictures of Joseph are not here is I took them with the real camera because the digital camera has been funky recently and I wanted to make sure they came out, I will post them when I get the pictures back.

We have entered the Cheerios stage!

Joseph is at the age where he can not put enough Cheerios in his mouth fast enough! It is amazing, it does not matter how much he has just eaten of his real food he always has room for Cheerios!
The girls had their dentist appointments yesterday and they did great! Both of them sat in the chair without a tear and let the dentist check their teeth, Eileen even had x-rays done! The dentist we go to is amazing, the girls left singing about how much they love the dentist and asking when they could go again. Going to this guy is like taking the kids to a controlled birthday party, they sing songs, wear props and leave with a goody bag!

Photo Update!

Ok, I think I figured out the computer, I just put the memory card in the tower (how simple). By the way I am loving having a c and x again (Cherub I have cap. c again!)

This is a picture from Eileen's Pow Wow, held the Friday prior to Thanksgiving. Can you find our little brave among her tribe? (She is directly behind the "fire").


A picture of the girls enjoying Chinese food at the breakfast bar. Notice the different forms of eating, Eileen using chopsticks and Olivia pouring sweet and sour sauce over all of her food.

Another beautiful table set by Papa, nice work!

Jonathan picking from another perfect turkey made by Nana, thank you for another amazing Thanksgiving feast everything was perfect!

Eileen in her Thanksgiving outfit, she could not wait to put it on.

Eileen and Olivia waiting to sit down for our Thanksgiving feast.

Olivia and her Godfather Uncle Jonathan on Thanksgiving day.