Ice Fishing Fun

The Friday after Christmas we took the kids out ice fishing. A friend of ours has a fish house out on the same lake as the cabin, he allows us to use it if he isn't. I dropped Kevin and the kids off at the fish house to get it set up and so they could catch the start of the evening bite, then I ran to town and got pizza and breadsticks for dinner.

We had a great time fishing as a family. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, especially when the fish were biting. Once Addie caught her first and only fish of the night and she was growing impatient because the fish weren't immediately biting again, she laid down and fell asleep. We brought home some nice sized crappies and enjoyed eating them last week!

Paul seemed to have the best luck with the fishing, he pulled up several nice sized crappies!

Christmas

We had a very relaxing Christmas this year. It's not real often that I can say that, I feel like typically we are running around like crazy and we don't actually get to enjoy the time spent with family. Usually on Christmas Eve, we get together at Kevin and Mary's, then on Christmas Day we are home and Mary and Ron come for the day. This year we got together with Kevin and Mary on the Sunday before Christmas, it was nice to break up the holiday a little bit. We had Christmas with my mom's side at the beginning of December. On Christmas Eve we made homemade pizza for dinner and then went to Mass.. When we got home the kids had discovered that our Elf on the Shelf had left, she usually leaves on Christmas Eve when we go to bed, but she left while we were at Mass. She also left a note and a gift for the whole family. We all got a new pair of pj's, a big box of hot chocolate, 2 bags of marshmallows and the movie Despicable Me 2. The kids quickly changed into their new pj's and we settled in for a movie night. Shortly after I popped popcorn and they had their hot chocolate, they all decided it was time for bed so that Santa could come!

Christmas morning we woke up to very excited kids, or I should say we were woken up by four very excited kids! It was nice to be able to just hang out at home, we let the kids have a pj day all day! They opened their gifts from Santa and the gifts from us.  Mary and Ron came down on Christmas morning for brunch and spent the majority of the day with us. Christmas night we  checked out the Kiwanis Lights display in Mankato. All of the kids loved the light display!



4 of 6 kids having hot chocolate after we checked out all the lights!

Winter time.

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at my Grandparent's house. It was just our family and my Grandparents. It really was a nice weekend just to spend with them. We played games, had a fire in the fire place, had a movie night complete with homemade pizza and popcorn. I truly cherish every moment I get with any of my Grandparents, I think because I know someday I will no longer have them, so I'm soaking in every moment that I can now. This is after our game of Sorry!, in which Paul won, he came in from behind and ended the game in a win. He wasn't so happy in the beginning he was losing, but he sure was happy once he go to the end and had won!



Being crazy cats at Granny and Papa's.

Stella and Addie had a holiday fun night at school for all ECFE and Preschool kids. They enjoyed it, they got to make different crafts and projects, have a snack and they each got a gift to take home, a new book. It was a fun night to spend with them while Kevin spent the night at home with the big kids.

Silly Stella. She loves making tents out of blankets in the living room. 

Adeline in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle obsessed. Who would have thought a show from my own childhood would be so popular for my 4 year old tom boy? Rafael is her favorite!

Stella and her best buddy Ryan finally got their chance to go to Disney on Ice for their birthdays, just like their big sisters get to for their birthdays. 

We attended our last Vikings game at the Metrodome, and Pauly got to attend his first game ever! My dad took us to the game for our birthdays and ended up with an extra ticket, so he called me on Friday night before Sunday's game and asked if Paul would like to go. We had great seats, we were in row 2 on the 30 yard line on the Vikings side. What a great birthday present and I think we may have made a Vikings fan out of Paul, he sure seemed to enjoy himself, or maybe it was the fact that Papa Matt spoiled him at the game!

See how great our seats were? I didn't use zoom to take these pictures at all!

Likely the closest I'll ever be to Jared Allen.

December was a crazy busy month for us and it appears that January will be equally as busy! Here's to hoping that February will be a little calmer!

Fall catch-up.

Fall was very crazy and very fun! The whole family went to the pumpkin patch for Cub Scouts, the girls thought it was fun to tag along to Paul's event and to be able to pick out their own pumpkins too.

During MEA break, we had a lunch date at Dairy Queen!

We had a Sunday night dinner date with friends, 6 adults, 9 kids, yes, we're slightly out numbered. We strategically placed all the kids at one end of the table so that the adults could all visit and the kids could talk with their friends as well.

Halloween

This was the first year each kid picked their own costume, so that was kind of fun, usually we guided the younger ones or picked the costume for them, they enjoyed getting to pick out their own costumes!

I spend the bulk of my days with these two loves. They forever keep me entertained, even on my most trying days. They love to play dress up. 

In mid-October, I took a secretary job at church, it's just one day a week, but it gets me out of the house for a day and the girls get to go to daycare, Addie goes to daycare for the morning and then to preschool in the afternoon. Stella seems to love daycare, this fall was the first time she ever went to daycare. We are very blessed that we were able to have the girls go back to our old daycare, the last time Addie was there, she was 18 months old.