New Year's Day Fun - Before AND After

We had a pretty quiet New Year's Eve, after the kids went to bed the 'adults' (scary to say that) kept up the family tradition of Fondue. Otherwise, no clubbing or watching balls drop or anything crazy like that.


Then on New Year's Day, it was pretty casual as well. The kiddos of course love to be home. And what we're finding these days is that if the two of them are together, and it's quiet - there is probably some type of trouble brewing. Well, this was one of those days.





The other important fact in this story is that when we moved into this house, we didn't have any towel bars, toilet paper holders, shelves, anything really in the bathrooms. So that was one of our first tasks, only to realize that toilet paper ON the roll is BIG fun for toddlers. So we've been storing items up on the sink vanity - trying to keep it out of reach. Well, our kids are resourcesful, and this is what happened.

Notice how Andrew is just watching from a distance and WHO the real instigator was on this?? Yes, that is how it is most of the time....

Then soon after, we headed to Lowe's to pick out a cabinet that could be hung high up on the wall. It won't stop them, but hopefully it will slow them down at least. for now.

Christmas

We had several Christmas celebrations this year. The first was on Sunday the 23rd with a trip to Pine Island. We were at Grandma and Grandpa's place with Katrine and Tony, Wanda and Sean, Grandma Bea and Grandpa Norm as well. It was a ton of fun! The kids slowly got into the spirit by ripping the paper, but wanted to play for extended periods of time with each item they received, so they didn't want to move on to the next item. But overall, they had a blast! The drive home wasn't as much fun as we had gotten a few inches of new snow during the day and it was blowing and drifting quite a bit. But, with taking our time, we eventually made it back home for #2.

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house with Oma, Uncle and Uncle Chris over. The kids loved running around the house and Cailin kept looking at the tree with all the 'loot' under it and wanting to open presents. She played "santa" this year by delivering presents to everyone throughout the night.

Then of course Santa came Christmas Eve at our house. So when the kids got up, Cailin was very curious to see what this meant. She had been somewhat scared of Santa before, so this was interesting now. When she got into the living room she said "mom, Santa really did come AND he left presents!" She was so excited. So we spent most of the rest of the day opening presents and stockings and then Mike was putting toys together and then playing with them. Mike said his favorite toy was one of Andrew's car track presents. Funny!

We are truly blessed and had a wonderful Christmas, healthy and happy!

Nick and Vanessa's Wedding

We were invited to Daddy's cousin's wedding, which was held on December 22nd. It was a very nice affair. The kids had a blast and it was nice to see the whole family. Usually the family gets together at Nick's dad's place - Gary and Lee's for the annual Christmas gathering. But since Nick and Vanessa were getting married that day, the annual Christmas gathering changed a bit to a wedding with all the family there!! Uncle Sean and Aunt Wanda even made the 12 hour journey to attend it!! (thanks to an overturned papaya truck, yes papaya on the highway, it made for a very, very long journey for them).
Anyway, the wedding was beautiful and Cailin was so excited to see everyone, especially her buddy Jessie (the groom's little sister). They had fun playing and Cailin liked looking at everyone's pretty dresses.

At the reception, we sat with Uncle Dan, Auntie Buzzy, Kayla, Joey and Christopher as well as Wanda and Sean. It was a very fun time. Cailin's favorite part was the cake and insisted that we not leave until cake was had. She also liked the dancing, although we didn't get to do too much of that since the dancing started just as we were leaving. But it certainly was a lot of fun!!

Congratuations Nick and Vanessa!!

Setting Up the Christmas Tree

We had a night out (thanks to our daycare person, she watched the kiddos for us as a Christmas present for the evening) and went for a nice dinner and then got our Christmas tree. We even had time to set up at home in the stand before picking up the kids.

The next morning, we got the tree all decorated with the help of the kids. Cailin did her annual duty by putting the angel on top of the tree when it was all done.
Andrew LOVES having the lights up. He wants to have them on all the time, he'll just keep saying 'light, on' over and over and over.

No nap day

There are several days at day care when the kids don't sleep for whatever reason. This day was one of those days. Usually when I pick them up and they haven't slept, it's been a long day for everyone. We were eating dinner and I noticed that Andrew was nodding off in his high chair, which I don't think I've ever seen him do at home. So I pointed it out to daddy and we tried briefly to keep him awake, but no luck.

He fell asleep mid-dessert with a cookie still in his hand. He had a nice, short power nap and woke up pretty cheery and upbeat!!!

Must have been a long day at the office!

Cailin and the Glasses

Cailin likes to do pretend stuff a lot. She loves to put on mommy's work ID badge and pretend like she is going to work with her briefcase. She also has recently found mom's glasses and put those on as well. She looks kind of cute, although they are a bit large on her.

A few weekends ago, Daddy was hanging some items in Cailin and Drew's rooms, so he had his cordless electric drill out. In the kit, there were a pair of eye protection glasses and Cailin had to try and put those on too. She loved those because everything looked red when she had those babies on.

Read, Read, Read..

As many of you know, Cailin has been an avid reader for some time. Drew however, has not until recently wanted to sit still long enough to enjoy a complete book. This has changed recently though and now the boy wants to read all the time!! Usually, he will want you to read the SAME book over and over and over and over.

Halloween

We went trick-or-treating with both monsters this year. Last year, Drew stayed home with mom to hand out candy, but this year, everyone was interested. Drew was a fireman and Cailin was a Lion - shocker. So, we were invited to trick-or-treat with Christopher and Uncle Dan, so we had dinner, loaded up and headed over to their place to visit and trick or treat. It was a bit chilly, but only when the wind was blowing, (which was kind of strong when it did) but otherwise kiddos stayed fairly warm. No snowsuits needed this year!

Cailin wasn't so sure at first, but then would say "on to the next house right mommy?" So she got the hang of it. We brought the stroller, but that was only good to carry 'stuff', no kiddos. So mommy carried one kiddo between houses and daddy carried the other one. Drew was sort of overwhelmed by it all - he was quiet and still, watching everything!

They both made quite a haul and had fun too!! Then when we came home, Cailin wanted to go across the street and see her friends, Caleb and Dawson for a quick 'hello' and a trick-or-treat there. Busy night!

Carving the Pumpkins

We made our pre-Halloween trip to Chanhassen to carve up some pumpkins with the Lechelts. The kids had a blast, although I don't know if either of them actually touched a pumpkin or not. Drew likes to look at the pumpkin and say "ball", then we say "no, it's a pumpkin". This goes on several times, then he laughs and then says 'pumpkin'. Or some version of it. Cailin was happy to play with Milo, play the piano and everything else in the house, but would come over to check in every once in a while. The Lechelts have a bunch of fun toys in the basement, so Cailin and Drew LOVE to go down there to play as well.

Daddy even made a Lion Bear pumpkin for Cailin - not that she's spoiled at all. Well, needless to say, that was her favorite.

Multi-tasking

Drew likes to multi-task. He will do many, many different things at once. Like this photo for example where Drew was holding his most favorite puppy (he carries it everywhere, kinda like his big sister carries a lion), carrying his cup of milk, carrying a toy in one hand (which is obstructed) and a small snack in another (also obstructed). He's quite the character. Usually one of the tasks in the multi-tasking is food-related.

Computer Time

Cailin loves to do what mommy and/or daddy do. She thought it would be nice to spend a little time on the computer. And we definately were monitoring her time while on the computer. She also likes to spin around in circles on the office chair.

Brusha, Brusha, Brusha

For some reason, brushing your teeth is BIG fun in our house. We have accumulated a toothbrush for everyone in each of our three bathrooms. So, whenever we go in the bathroom, that usually inspires us to brush our teeth. In this photo, Cailin and Drew took a seat on the edge of the shower to do their business.What you don't see is that in about 5 minutes after the photo was taken, the two kids decided it would be fun to yank on the curtain - and then you can guess what happened after that. Kind of funny, no one got hurt when the curtain fell, but then they thought it was great to play in the curtain that was on the floor.

We really do own toys, we don't just force them to play with shower curtains and such.....

Funny boy

Drew found the old baby bouncer that we had and decided he had to try it out - of course he figured this out after watching big sis do it - what fun!

Seems every time I try and put the 'baby' toys away, Cailin digs them out, because then she plays 'mom' with her bears and the baby toys. I guess I just have to hide them deeper in the storage closet - at least it may take her a little longer to find.

Andrew likes to play ball

He LOVES to play ball. We'll be in a store and he'll see a ball up on the highest, top shelf and he'll want it. So needless to say, since we are such push-overs, we have about 20 balls rolling around the house. One night, we had gone to the store and found a Nerf Football and he loved it, we got it and then the next morning, he insisted on having it with him in the highchair for breakfast.

Cailin and daddy were hanging out - Daddy was out of town on business for a few days, so when he got home Cailin reported that she needed 'extra snuggles' from Daddy. Please forgive the cheesy grin from her on this one...

:)

Pig Tails

Lately, Cailin has wanted to have us put pigtails in her hair. Not sure why now she's decided to do so, but who knows right? The only bummer is that daddy has a hard time putting them in. Her hair is still pretty fine, so it's a little tricky. Although, she does look pretty cute.

The funny thing is that lately, she's been the ham bone every time the camera comes out - She gives you this really cheesy smile. Kind of a goof ball. Of course when the camera comes out, Drew needs to join in the action too! Maybe we have a couple of ham bones....

Apple Orchard

This past weekend we hit Nickle Dickel Days in Waconia. We spent the day with the Lechelts and had a blast! The weather could not have been more perfect. It was around 70 degrees and just a perfect fall day. We went to the fair they had in Waconia - saw fire trucks, old cars, had some snacks at the fair. Then afterwards, we went to an apple orchard - Deardorf's, which is somewhere between Victoria and Waconia. We didn't bring the camera, but had my telephone which we took a few pictures with. It's not the best by any means, but did capture a few good ones. We enjoyed running around and playing on the haybales. Kayla was kind enough to share her apple with Cailin too. Cailin and Drew had fun playing with Kayla and Christopher on the haystack. At the orchard, they had bunnies, sheep and horses that we visited with as well. It was big fun!

Grandma Betty's Birthday Party in Pine Island

We spent the second half of Labor Day weekend in Pine Island for the birthday party of Grandma Betty Pipho. It was held at their farm and we had a potluck lunch and lots of play time.
The kids mingled together playing with tractors, balloons, picking raspberries, playing with the walnuts as they fell off of the tree. We also played badmitten, volleyball and chatted. Everyone seemed to have a great time. The whole family was together and Grandma Betty seemed to really enjoy seeing everyone.

After the party we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa's house and spent the night. The kids raided the raspberry bushes there as well, Andrew getting the hang of finding berries and picking them himself. Since the bees were out in force, he needed a bit of help.

Cailin liked to basically keep busy. She had Grandma running around, they seemed to enjoy one another's company quite a bit. Cailin and bear rode the tractor a lot, pushed by Grandma around the circle.

Family Time at the Farm

Since Uncle John, Auntie Melissa and cousin Michael were in town, we made a trip down to Nelson to visit with everyone for the first part of the Labor Day weekend. We stayed at a hotel in Wabasha for the night as Oma's house was full-up with family! The hotel was nice, had a pool and hot tub and it was a lot of fun to run in the halls as well.

We played at Oma's house, playing with the puppies, including a new black lab puppy named Emma. (Andrew likes to give out kisses to the puppies...) We played with the chickens, went to Carousel Toys in Kellogg (of course to ride the Carousel) ran around outside and generally had a great time.

The Tichlins Visit........again!

Karen's brother John, his wife Melissa and their baby Michael came for a visit this past week. They were here for a whole week, visited in the cities for a few days, then headed down to the farm in Nelson, WI where Oma is to spend the rest of the week.

The three kids seemed to have a very fun time, although Drew was very jealous of mommy paying any attention to 'other' babies. Every time mommy would talk to Michael, Drew would complain and then plop himself down on top of mommy. Cailin, on the other hand, seemed to love being a cousin. She played with Michael, gave him toys and chatted with him. Cailin also took quite a shine to Auntie Melissa. She followed Melissa around quite a bit. Probably didn't hurt that Melissa was willing to read some books with Cailin. She always seems to love that. Melissa also sends postcards and notes to Cailin throughout the year, which she proudly displays in her room. Those two are buddies!