Friday, January 31, 2014

Gingerbread...

Every year on the weekend 
following St. Lucia day,
we make Gingerbread houses.
It is a special little thing
that Daddy does with the kids.
We always get a little kit so the pieces 
just have to be glued together 
{with the glue gun...way easier!}
then the kids decorate away!
The making of the gingerbread houses
in a big deal at our house...
Our hope and goal with all the little traditions we
celebrate every year,
is that someday when our children have 
their own families,
they will continue with these traditions.
~
Love all these special moments and memories...

Thursday, January 30, 2014

St. Lucia Day!

Every year one the biggest 
highlights of the Christmas season,
is celebrating
St. Lucia day...
 
We celebrate with a big fancy 
breakfast in bed!
Elsie wears a white dress and a shiny crown 
on her head...
{she wants candles, but probably not for 
quite a few years yet!}
James was the
Star Boy..
but refused to wear the star boy hat...
and refused to let me take his picture at all! 
But he did help carry all the food into the
bedroom...
and did a perfect job!
This is my favorite part of 
the breakfast in bed!
We started this tradition of breakfast in bed when
Elsie was Angelina's age...
and she made just as big of a mess as 
Angelina did this year!
Such great memories...
Our "fancy" breakfast was 
buttered toast,
mandarin oranges,
jello,
and snowman peeps.
The kids loved the breakfast...
the buttered toast was their favorite since 
we never ever have toast!
And we ate it all on the fancy china plates 
with the china cups.
~
Such a great little holiday memory...

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Christmas Crafts...

I'm just so darn slow with posting lately!
Anyhow, 
back to Christmas...
for the entire month before Christmas we
did Holiday projects...
one night it was 8:00 at night and
the kids were still up 
painting their little projects!
  James has gotten so patient and into projects...
he is very creative and does whatever he feels is right.
 Elsie has become the opposite...
she is SO into Pinterest and striving to make 
her project look 
"just like the ones in the picture!"
Love to watch them both create their own,
unique masterpieces...

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Enjoying the Holidays...

Several times during the Christmas season,
I loaded the kids up in the car,
took along a bedtime snack and 
 drove around looking at all the 
Christmas lights!
They never tire of looking at the magical lights!
One house in town even had a fun little 
cutout to go stand behind...
So it was only natural that we pulled over,
climbed over the knee deep snow pile and 
pose behind the cutout for a picture!
Basically, we do about anything for a 
good memory!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Outside Play...

I swear,
this winter has been the coldest winter ever!
We have had the very few days that have been 
above zero!
Yes, we do live in northern Minnesota,
but we typically only have a few 
super cold days...
not several in a row...
and by super cold I mean,
almost -30 for a high!
basically we have spent this winter inside keeping warm!
When we do have a rare day of 
being nice enough to go out and play,
we take advantage!
Angelina loves to be outside...
she can hardly contain herself and just 
smiles and babbles the whole time!
Jon was home for a whole week during 
Christmas...
and we had big plans to go sledding and
ice skating..
But, Elsie could hardly walk outside due to her 
hurting nose, dizzy spells and headaches!
We did have her go out for a little bit to get 
some fresh air and sunshine!
James could live outside if we let him!
As soon as it snows out a little,
he is begging to go out and 
shovel the sidewalk off!
His "job" this year is to
"help" papa Wayne with the snow plowing...
I guess he works the 
"blade" as he calls it,
and he takes the job pretty seriously!
Angelina is so easily entertained outside.
One day,
I simply stuck her in a pile of snow up to her waist...
and she squealed with delight and simply 
ate some snow!


As soon as the weather warms up
and Elsie's concussion/whip lash is better,
we have big plans for this winter...
some ice skating on the little rink 
daddy made in the yard 
and at Grandma B's house...
and some sledding on a couple different hills...
and tubing down the big ski hill
a few towns over...
big plans for this cold winter!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Christmas Magic...

Christmas is by far,
my most favorite holiday...
There is just something so magical about the 
entire season!
We sleep by the light of the
twinkly Christmas lights from the 
day after thanksgiving till after new years!
We only listen to Christmas music...
we try to watch only Christmas shows...
but Little Chuck and Duggars usually win out!
We wear Christmas clothes...
Christmas hairbows...
Eat Christmas cookies for breakfast...
{okay,only a few times!}
Its almost a little sad when the Christmas season comes
to an end...

Friday, January 17, 2014

St. Nicolas

Every year we celebrate 
St. Nicolas day...
The kids love celebrating some of the feast days!
The night before St. Nicolas day,
the kids put a shoe out so 
St. Nicolas can fill it with little treats!
This year they chose to go with a 
cowboy boot theme!
St. Nicolas filled the boots full of fun little candies...
which they ate for breakfast as soon as they
saw the shoes!
Fun little memories...

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Not a Baby Anymore!

Lately baby seems to be in a big rush to grow up!
She watches the kids and tries to be 
like them!
Lately she has been whining because she wants to sit on a
stool next to the counter like the kids!
Clearly she missed the memo on
staying my little baby forever!
~
She is at a fun age now though.
She loves to wear crowns,
lots of sparkly necklaces and bracelets,brushing her own hair.
she loves her baby doll and 
giving her babies bottles.
And she loves to play cars with her brother!
~
These past 2 weeks though,
have been a nightmare with her...
she is working on her eye teeth...
and good heavens they have altered her personality 
like no other...
she has major
"throw yourself on the floor and scream fits"
and she hits and throws.
Not an ideal personality!
With any luck these eye teeth will
pop through soon and our 
sweet natured little girl will return!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Thanksgiving...

I'm going way back to 
Thanksgiving..
just because I want to document this in 
our Life Journal.
~
Every year Ted and Ceara host 
Thanksgiving at their house.
And its always a fun time!
This year Grandma B and Patrick were supposed to come,
but couldn't at the last minute...
but Patrick still took all the guys 
grouse hunting...
sounded like they had fun!
 

Every year we are on 
Pie Duty!
The kids and I mix up a double 
batch of homemade pie crust.
We use Grandma B's recipe...
with lard!
{the only time of the year we use lard!}
We make Apple, Pumpkin, blueberry and Strawberry.
The kind we don't make is the 
pecan...
we don't do anything with nuts...
so we make the crust for that pie and 
have someone else make that one!

Ceara assured me she loved
Hummus so much that we should get it from Costco... 
She was slightly surprised by the size when 
I brought it in the house!

Ceara loves Thanksgiving...
but not the traditional thanksgiving meal...
besides the normal fixings,
this years specialty was 
Corn Chowder and Fried Pickles!
Both were very yummy and
with any luck will be served again next year!

Wearing the traditional 
Thanksgiving Bib.
I made that bib for Elsie when she was Angelina's age...
and all 3 of the kids wore it for their 2nd Thanksgivings...
love those special little things like that!
This year my Grandparents were able to
join us for dinner too!
Because this year was such a small group of people
for Dinner,
we all went bowling for a little added fun!
The bowling alley had a little arcade,
and good grief,
we spent a small fortune there!
That was James first experience with an arcade,
and he is quite hooked now!



I never bowl anymore due to my back...
just watch.
This time was so fun and relaxing to watch because 
baby was sleeping the whole time!
We stayed up late.
We love having a good time as a big ol family!
Then we went home and planned our big 
black Friday shopping adventure.
Then we cancelled it all and just shopped online 
and stayed in our pjs till noon!
Then we went to the Fish House parade...
then decorated for Christmas...
then kept an eye on Marissa and Emma while 
Grammie brought Papa Wayne to the ER
for stitches on his finger...
{he got it cut with the chain saw}
Then we ate left over pie and watched 
Elf by the light of the Christmas tree!
~
After all Thanksgiving is the kickoff
to the Christmas season!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

...New Year...

I'm a little slow with my
"happy New Year...its 2014" post.
We've had a rough start to the new year...
in the first few days we dealt with,
colds, teething, loosing teeth and concussions.
Now that all of that is on its way behind us,
this year is on its way to being a 
fantastic year...
 
Here's to a year of 
adventure, laughter, memories, learning,
exploring, love...
We have grand plans, dreams and goals...
welcome 
2014...

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Broken Nose...

We had quite an exciting 
Christmas Holiday this year...
The weekend before Christmas,
Elsie fell outside on the frozen cement and 
broke her nose!
Within 2 hours of her breaking it,
is had swelled up so much she couldn't even 
breath out of it!
We brought her to the ER for xrays
to make sure all was okay.
 
The day after she broke her nose,
she looked tough, but not too bad.
The day after that,
wowza...
2 black and blue eyes, 
 black and blue and swollen nose,
eyes so swollen they looked like slits.
She was in rough shape!
~
For the first week Elsie had a 
head ache daily.
Then loss of appetite, insomnia, change of moods...
so she was also diagnosed with a 
concussion!
we are now at 3 weeks since she broke her nose...
and she is still dealing with all the
concussion symptoms.
The Doctor said it still could be several 
months before all the symptoms go away completely!
She is one tough little cookie! 
~
The hardest part for her is that she cannot 
do kick boxing or sledding or 
any rough or physical activity
until all the symptoms go away.
Poor girl...
this might be a very, very long winter!
Just remember...
Never ever,
under any circumstances,
run over cold icy ground,
with hands in pockets! 

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