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!

Christmas time is here...

Our house is fully decorated for Christmas. First time I've had it done by December 1st since we've had kids. Feels good to have it all done, I remember a time when it'd take me up to 2 weeks to get all the decorations up, but that was when I was working full time too and my time at home was very limited.

Our tree in our dining room

I just love our stockings that my mom made last year!

Tree on our front porch

Our house is lit once again! Kevin spent the afternoon putting the lights on the house. We never got to it last winter.

Christmas morning

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning and after Mass on Christmas Day. I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of the 6 of us all dressed up after church, everyone looked so cute in their Christmas outfits! Oh well, maybe next year!

Snowy day fun

Since we got stuck inside today, we had to have a little fun. The kids went for a swim in the bathtub! The sure seemed to enjoy it!

More snow...

These are pictures from outside our house this afternoon. My van had only been parked in that spot from noon until 4 when I took the picture and the snow is quite piled around it.

Can hardly see down to the Station which is a block away!

Snow day!

Amelia had a snow day today because we got another 6-8 inches dumped on us. So Paul enjoyed having her home and they had a great time playing outside in all the snow in the backyard! It's getting mighty deep back there!

First Snow Fall...

We woke up to our first snow fall of the season this morning. The kids were super excited about it and just couldn't wait to get out there and play in it. Paul was ready to go out at 8am. We ended up with about 6 inches. It looks pretty, but it's way too early for this!

Winter Blues...

We have a bad case of the winter blues. Wishing for spring! Seems like we've been cooped up an awful lot for the last month and decided it was time to get the kids out of the house, especially after they were all sick two weeks ago for an entire week. We took them on a kid date! We picked up Grandma Mary and went out for lunch and to the zoo. Amelia claims Red Robin is her favorite place to eat (the last time we ate there, Paul was a baby!), we had a nice lunch, but our service was horrible and we suspect our waiter was hungover! Then we went to the MN Zoo. This was the first time we had ever been there in the winter. We've really gotten a lot of use out of our membership and its more than paid for itself, we'll definitely be renewing it in May! We walked the inside of the zoo and road the monorail, it was a great way to get out of the house and the kids really enjoyed it. Even Adeline! The last time we went to the zoo she was 7 months old and didn't really care much about the animals and she typically slept through the zoo. This time she really got into watching the animals, it was so much fun to watch!

Addie was very interested in the snow monkeys.

This dolphin came to say hi to Adeline. It came right up to the glass right by her face right after I snapped this picture. She was enjoying it until this point, then she started crying and backing up and she almost fell off the ledge she was standing on. (Grandma was standing right by her when I stepped back to take the picture!)

Kevin and Paul checking out the dolphins up close. We walked upstairs to view the dolphins from above in Dolphin Stadium, they no longer do dolphin shows at the zoo due to the age of the dolphins, but they dolphins had no problem showing off!

Amelia and Addie checking out the flamingos!

The zoo from Addie's point of view.

Watching the otters---one of Paul's favorite things to do!

Sounds like Amelia wants to go back to the zoo on her birthday, so that may be where we end up!