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!

Easter

We had a pretty low-key Easter. We went to Mass as a family, Kevin read at Mass. After church we went to Mary and Ron's for dinner. We had a nice relaxing day at their house. The kids were excited about the Easter Bunny coming and bringing them swimsuits and lake toys. Now if only our snow would melt (again), so that they'll get a chance to use their goodies from the Easter Bunny!

Family Vacation {08.2012}

We went on vacation the last part of July/beginning of August, it was the first time Kevin we've ever gone on vacation for an entire week, actually we were gone for 9 days. So a little over a week. I think I did a pretty good job packing for 6 people for 9 days.

We started out our vacation by spending two nights at my mom and Tim's. While we were there we went to see my step-sister Alison's house and the kids thought it was pretty cool that their cousin Emma has pigs.

The kids checking out Emma's pigs.

                           

We spent an entire week at my Grandparent's cabin this summer. It was the best family vacation we've had yet. I forgot my camera at home, so I didn't get it until Friday morning when our friends Ryan and Katie came up, so some of these pictures are from my cell phone. 

The week was pure bliss, the weather was gorgeous up until Friday night, we had heavy rain and thunderstorms and then Saturday was cool and gloomy until the afternoon. We were able to spend a lot of quality time as a family. It was a much needed vacation!

I over packed our bags, as we mostly wore swimsuits all day long. The exception was one day when the girls and my cousin Courtney and myself went and met my Grandma Gregg for lunch, so we had to put real clothes on, that day Kevin and Paul had a picnic on the pontoon while they went out fishing.

The first morning at the cabin the kids enjoyed "Vacation Hot Chocolate"

When Kevin and I grocery shopped we bought "special hot coco" it had colored mini marshmallows with the packets and we told them you could only have it on vacation. It worked for now...at least until they notice it at the grocery store.

First pontoon ride of vacation...thanks dad for letting us use your pontoon! 

A trip up north isn't complete without a visit to Granny's Pantry!

This was a childhood favorite of mine and when we lived in Battle Lake,

my friends and I would frequent it at least 1x a week. Love, love Heath Bar Crunch Frozen Yogurt in a Granny Cone (homeade waffle cone). Yum! Amelia, Courtney and I had ice cream, the little ladies opted for a less messy item and chose a few gummy dinosaurs and even brought a small bag of candy back for Paul!

One of our most favorite things from the week was the time we spent cruising on my dad's pontoon! Still miss my Grandparents old pontoon, but we sure love the upgraded model! 

Early on in the week we worked on cleaning out some of the weeds to make the swimming area  a little bigger as well as to help the weed roller move a little more smoothly. All of the kids sure loved the swimming area and spent plenty of time in it!

My Grandpa turned 70 on August 8th, so Saturday night before that we had a fish fry at the cabin to celebrate. Kevin and Paul caught sunnies all week long, Kevin cleaned them every night and froze them to save for the end of the week. My grandma had picked up some extra fish just in case and we used a small amount of that. I think Kevin had almost 100 sunnies from the entire week. Paul loved catching the fish, but not eating them! I'm not a fish person, but it sure tasted good!

Paul and Clare

Celebrating August Birthdays

Kevin (30), Papa Dave (70), Uncle Ronnie (49)

Going worm hunting!

My Grandparents. Neither look a day over 60. 

I hope I look that good when I'm 70 or almost 70!

Uncle Ronnie is one of Amelia's most favorite people! 

He's always had a special place in his heart for her too and calls her "Blue Eyes".

We had a GREAT  vacation, not sure how we'll ever top it! Someday I hope we can own a cabin of our own for our children and grandchildren to use. What a special place to make memories! The kids love going to the cabin and I'm thankful that my Grandparents (and my cousin Luke) are willing to share it with us!

Mother's Day picnic

In our house, we have an unwritten rule of sorts for Mother's Day, okay, let's be real, it's more than 1 rule. And by we, I mean my rule(s). 1. No cooking, cleaning, or housework. 2. I don't have to decide what we're going to do. 3. I get to spend the entire day with my husband and kids. Simply enough and my husband follows these rules and I love that. I'm selfish and I like Mother's Day to be all about me, but really, what mom doesn't?! He always does a great job with Mother's Day, last year we spent Mother's Day weekend in Duluth, but usually we go on what I like to call a "Mystery Trip". Back in the days when we could all fit in his 442, we'd go for a drive in that and always end up in a surprise location, usually the Coach outlet at Albertville. Then along came Stella and we no longer had enough room for all of us to ride in the 442.

This year for Mother's Day, the kids brought me breakfast in bed, which consisted of a brownie and a cup of coffee. Kevin successfully got all four kids ready for church himself so I could stay in bed as long as possible. When I was getting out of bed to take a shower and get ready myself, Adeline said "Get back in bed mom! It's Mother's Day, you can't get up yet!" I wish I could have listened to her and stayed in bed a little longer. Paul thought we should cancel church for Mother's Day. Then again, he thinks we should "cancel church" pretty much every Sunday, I think this is just a phase he's going through, at least I hope so, because 5-1/2 is too darn young to not want to go to church. He  is fine once we get to church, just doesn't want to go, because it "takes too long." Kevin keeps trying to remind him, that God has time for us, we need to have time for him too. Boys.

Amelia and Paul enjoying their lunch!

My beautiful girls!

Even Vinny was allowed to come along for the ride!

Mr. Serious

Kicking back and relaxing!

We let the kids play for a bit on the playground after we had lunch and then we got back in the Yukon and continued to head south to Kellogg and we stopped at the LARK Toy, if you've never been there, I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you have kids. The coolest thing about LARK is the carousel, all of the animals on the carousel are hand carved. They also have a small toy museum in the hallways, I think this was Paul's favorite thing, he is still talking about it today and about all the cool old toys. It was fun to see toys that my mom and aunt had that we use to play with at my Grandparent's house when my sister and I were young.

We can through Red Wing on our way home and decided to stop in Faribault at this great little Mexican joint and had dinner before we headed home. It was a great Mother's Day.