Christmas Day in Pine Island

We spent the day in Pine Island with Mike's family. His sisters were both there (even Wanda and Sean from Wisconsin were here - YEAH!). The kids were crazy yet again, although you can't blame them. The kids opened stockings first, then went to the big stuff.

Everyone had fun and it was great to be together with everyone, including Great Grandma Bea!

Andrew was excited to get an orange in his stocking. He wanted to eat it right away...he also wanted to eat the candy that was in his stocking as well right away.

Buster and Bullitt (the two goldens) had fun too - they were busy unwrapping presents and eating the paper inbetween stealing things from people (mainly the puppy, Bullitt)

Next....

We celebrated with my (Karen's) side of the family on Christmas Eve. The kids were WOUND UP that's for sure. Mom brought the two exchange students that are staying with her this year and they enjoyed seeing the kids running mad. The kids each got a piano keyboard, so they were giving us a show before the night was over.

The kids were actually excited to go to bed, knowing Santa was coming after they went to sleep.

Andrew with one of his new Thomas the Tank Engine movies.

Cailin, holding the new kitten, Smokey.

Santa arrived and the kids opened up their presents from Santa which included GeoTrax trains and sets. The kids loved that. Cailin was amazed when looking at the empty plate of cookies and empty glass of milk. It's really cool to see the wonder in their eyes. Cailin got a Dora Bike and Andrew got a big wheel, which he calls his Diego Bike. So the house is destroyed and there is stuff everywhere. But everyone is finally healthy, happy and content. The house will clean itself soon I'm sure....

In this shot, Andrew is playing on Cailin's keyboard. Not sure what he's doing with the thing on his head, but I'm sure he had a plan in mind....

Then, after changing and cleaning up just a little bit, we packed up to head to Pine Island to spend the day with Mike's family.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas - round 1

We are very blessed to have a larger family. Not huge, but a pretty good sized group. So this year, as with other years, we attend a few Christmas gatherings. The first one was with Mike's side of the family on Saturday the 20th. For those of you who live here, you will remember that day as the day of snow, ice and blowing snow. For those of you who live elsewhere....feel grateful you did not have to drive that day here. (the drive was a bit tough, but with 4wheel drive, it helped that's for sure).
Andrew in his new Wild hat - he loves that hat!

Andrew was excited to get a new Lacrosse stick from his cousin Joey. Joey was showing Andrew how to use it. Thankfully, the ball is very soft and we didn't break anything.

We had a great time seeing everyone and the kids were excited to pass out presents and open them. Cailin has been unofficially appointed (or self-appointed) as the present hander outter person. (ok, so that's not gramatically correct, but it works)

Christopher (Choppy), being a ham-bone.

Joey and Choppy showing off their new ornaments.

Andrew's big thing that we heard at each Christmas was "look mom, it's a box!" when he got the paper off. He soon realized that each present was more than just a 'box'.

Andrew enjoyed reading the new books he got from Auntie Rhonda and Uncle Gary. He wanted to read every one as soon as he opened them.

Inside Days

We have had a fair amount of ilness in our house in the recent few weeks. And you can always tell when kids are getting better, because they want to run around and be crazy for a few minutes or the get into mischief. Since both kids have been under the weather (and parent too) we've spent a lot of time in the house trying to keep busy.

Here, we were just finishing up dinner and Andrew had disappeared down the hall to do 'something' as he said, which usually means he doesn't know why he's going but will figure it out when he gets there. He ended up in the bathroom and made quite a mess with the soap. (Incidentally, he loves to put his hood up if he has a sweatshirt on, not quite sure why, but he loves doing that, which is shown in this shot as well).

Cailin has been practicing her sign language, she's spelling her name in this one ('l').

The kids also were trying on their glasses they made at daycare a few months back.

And finally, in this video clip, Cailin was busy cooking things for us and Andrew was mowing the lawn with his lawnmower.

Painting

I had started some painting last winter and never quite got around to finishing things with the busy summer and fall. So it was time to finish up. Mike had lugged in a foldable ladder to help with the high spots and Andrew found it very interesting to 'help' me paint.

In these pictures, he had just woken up from a long winter's nap and still had his "fire" in his mouth. Silly guy! He would paint the windows and I'd steer him clear of the wet paint.

New Family Member

We did get a new family member over Thanksgiving weekend. We left the house with the intention of 'visiting' the humane society on the way to pick up our Christmas tree. We came home with a 14 week old kitten and no tree. Oh well.

The kids named him 'Smokey' and he's really nice.

Now, we have to work on the kids not to pick him up all the time. He's so easy going and friendly that he doesn't seem to care, but we don't want him getting hurt with over zealous hands.