Cousin Fun

 It's so fun to live close to cousins! We enjoy meeting up at museums, gyms, each others homes, and swapping kids for sleepovers!! Here are some pictures from some of the things we've done over the past couple months:

 We enjoy meeting up at an indoor gym that is about half way between our houses. Here are the kids playing ball

 Wyatt and Jane playing on our trampoline during one of their sleepovers

Lucy and Lydia - best friends making hot chocolate after sledding

I met up with Alisa at our children's museum.

It's kind of hard to see but olivia was having so much fun watching the kids out on our deck playing in the snow. Everytime they'd throw snow at the door she would laugh hysterically. It was so funny!!

Jane and Wyatt playing in the snow

Happy Valentine's Day

 We had a fun Valentine's Day! Every holiday is fun with kids in the house. they look forward to and get so excited about any holiday - big or small. the kids were surprised to wake up to hearts everywhere and a fun breakfast. After they headed for school Jan and Lucas and I drove to Andy's work to break into his car and filled his car with balloons and treats. We did have a slight issue with the security guard (I didn't know they had one for the parking lot) but I think once he approaced and saw the car I was "breaking" into and saw that I used keys to get into it he had no problem with what I was doing. 
For dinner we decided to skip bball practice so we could enjoy a fun dinner together as a family. We had a nice evening together and Andy brought home flowers for all of his girls (me lucy and Jane)

  Jane was so excited after her valentine party at Joy school! Here she is showing me her valentine's

 

 Lucas and Jane - my partners in crime ready to fill Andy's car with balloons. They thought it was pretty cool and note to self : Never tell a 3 year old your surprise for someone else the day before you do it. She kept trying to tell  we Andy were going to do something for him. I had to shut her down each time or at least just change the subject!!

Happy Birthday Ethan

 Ethan turned 9!! So hard to believe that my kids are getting so BIG! Ethan had a fun day and spent most of his day building all the new legos he got.

Our neighbors, sam and Gabby came over for cake and ice cream

Cold

These are not very good pictures but I had to post them because by this time of year we are all feeling like we need to get OUT of the house. The kids were so desperate to go swing and be outside one day after school Ethan went out with Jane and pushed her on the swing. They had to clear off the snow and push it off the slide but they had fun!

Happy Birthday to ME!

 So I am now closer to 40 than 30 - sigh! Oh well. Every day I look at my kids I am reminded that I am getting old. Today was a GREAT day! My friend took Jane for me this afternoon so I could go out to lunch with Andy and enjoy an afternoon to myself doing whatever I want. I went shopping  and then home to catch up on my blog and watch Anne of Green Gables with Lucy (she was home sick from school). I was showered with love from my kids, husband, extended family and friends. I loved getting phone calls and texts from people all day including some of my young women. I didn't have to cook. We had pizza and salad and a yummy desert I made yesterday. It's been an all around wonderful relaxing day


This cracks me up! This was one of the gifts Andy gave me. Can you guess what it is? Yes, they are hand warmers. This is what his family would call and ice crusher gift (long story but a gift the giver wants or will benefit as much or more the the person receiving) I think andy is tired of my icy hands every night when we go to bed hence the hand warmers as a gift. Who knew a product like this existed? Funny how ever since moving here I get a gift each year that has to do with keeping warm. Last year it was a heating pad for the bottom of the bed for our feet!

I was planning to meet up with Alisa and Camie at an indoor gym so the kids could play for a while. As it turns out Wyatt ended up sick and I had some kids home sick too. They had planned to surprise me with lunch and chocolate cake to celebrate my birthday. Due to sick kids everything got put on hold and we didn't meet for another week or so but here are the pictures of us celebrating my birthday at Eagle's nest! I love living close to family. We had an awesome lunch and the cake was to die for!!

Thanks to everyone who made it such a great day!!!

Our Kindergartener!

Lucas loves kindergarten and is really excited about reading. This is a darling pillow case his teacher gave him for christmas. It has a bunch of site words he practices each night before bed.

This is how it's done in Minnesota!

 Ice skating and hockey are a big deal here....you can probably guess why. People have skating rinks in their own back yard over the winter. Our neighbors decided to set up a rink in their yard this year. Our kids have had fun on it.

Lucy

When you aren't skating on the ice you might as well eat it! Here is Lucas taking a break

 Our neighbor charlie is helping Lucas learn how to hold and shoot with a hockey stick

  
Lucas, Gabby, and Jane

Jane

No more babies in nursery!!

After ten years of having kids move in and out of nursery we are now done!! Jane didn't really realize that leaving nursery and becoming a big girl as a sunbeam meant no more snacks and no more toys. However she was one happy girl after her first day as a big girl in primary!

Happy Birthday Lucas!!

Lucas' birthday always sneaks up on me and takes me by surprise as it is right after Christmas. This year Lucas turned 6! Holy cow! My kids are growing up way too fast! We threw a fun sport birthday party for him and he had a great time. Andy did a fabulous job of planning and running all the games. That's how it usually turns out in our house. Thank goodness for an awesome husband who is willing to be involved!!

Happy 2013

Happy New Year!! So after failing miserably to keep up on my blog last year and becoming so overwhelmed in trying to play catch up I just stopped all together!  Perhaps one day I will be able to finish out 2012 as a lot of great things happened but for now it is easiest to just start from the beginning of 2013 and am determined to keep up on my blog but as you can see I am already behind! So here I am already playing catch up but at least it is only 1 months worth of stuff and not 8 months! Fingers crossed I won't get behind anymore!!