Christmas, Christmas and More Christmas

Our Christmas was one filled with with day after day of presents...with a little love and joy to go with it (and good food too). Since we were running from family to family, our Christmas started on Tuesday night with opening presents at our house. The next day, Tom went to work and I got ready for the rest of the weekend. We left as soon as he got home and headed to Litchfield to spend Christmas Eve with the Manning's. We got home very late that evening, but still got up early enough to enjoy presents from Santa. Then we got ready and headed to the farm to spend Christmas with the Halloran's. It's a good thing we had 3 days after that to recover (and clean)! Here are some pictures highlighting our weekend.

It took Tori a couple of presents, but she caught on to the whole gift opening thing! Here are the kids in their mound of paper and toys checking it all out.

Christmas with the Manning's. Do you think Nolan needed a chocolate bar that big???

Christmas morning. Tori was confused at first by the whole stocking/present thing, but she put down her pacifier long enough to make phone call.

Nolan with his remote control monster truck from Santa...just what he wanted!

You should have heard Tori squeal with delight when Uncle Ryan presented her with her new pony. It was the best gift of the day (from Uncle Ryan of course).

Big Girl Bed

Well, we made the big move this weekend. Ryan came over on Saturday and helped dismantle the bunk beds in Nolan's room so Tori could move in with him. It was an extremely challenging evening to say the least. Tori was as giddy as a school girl and couldn't contain herself. Nolan was the perfect big brother offering to sleep with her in her bed, or vise-versa. We finally had to lay Tori in her crib until she was just about asleep and then move her back into her big girl bed just before she was out for the count. The two shortly fell asleep and slept through the night. Last night went a little more smoothly as they at least stayed in their room. They chatted and giggled for about an hour (with us only having to go in a couple of times). Nolan finally fell asleep at 9:30 or so, but Tori was up until well after 10:00. I think she just wasn't used to it. Getting up for Anne's house this morning was a chore, but they were in pretty good spirits. 2 nights down...thousands more to go!

Sit...

This seems to be the only way we can get Jack to sit on Tori's lap, and make him stay. She was more than happy to sit in the laundry basket as long as Jack was in there with her (I don't think Jack felt quite the same way)!

Nolan's Last Day of Skating Lessons

Yes, that's Nolan skating all by himself. Big improvement from the first day. Tom had the day off so he was able to go with Nolan. We now have him enrolled in Mound Hockey starting in January. He might need a little more practice before then!

Holiday Concert and Cookies

Last Tuesday, Nolan had his preschool Holiday Concert with cookies after. I wasn't sure what to expect, and in my mind he was the kid in the back bugging his neighbor and eventually falling off the risers. But, turns out he was the exact opposite. It took him awhile to find us in the crowd, but after he did it was nothing but smiles and waving. You could tell he really practiced because he knew most of the words and all of the actions that went with the songs. I was so proud! After we had cookies in the cafeteria. It was a great Holiday concert!

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

Christmas Cookie Memories

Today reminded me of a day a long time ago. One Christmas my Dad and I were in charge of icing the Christmas sugar cookies. We made the basic powdered sugar frosting with the food coloring. The best part of icing the cookies with my Dad was licking the knife after each cookie (that's each cookie, not each color). I'm not sure why this memory sticks in my mind, but both my Dad and I got a kick out of giving a little something "extra" to each cookie.

While the kids and I didn't make frosted cut-out cookies, we did have to sugar the molasses crinkles. I was in charge of rolling the balls and dipping in water. Tori was in charge of dipping in the white sugar. And Nolan was in charge of adding the green/red sugar to the top and putting them on the cookie sheet. The icing memory came flooding back as the kids taste tested the sugar between each cookie. It was their way of adding a little something "extra" to this years cookies. Enjoy!

Here is our assembly line.

Which (Bad) Picture Shall I Choose???

Some great shots from our Christmas picture photo session today. So many to choose from...

Not bad, but check out Nolan's smile/eyebrows.

Can you say "cheese"? Tori can.

My personal favorite.

This was getting towards the end...can you tell?

This is how I felt after the photo session. Ugh.

A Very Bunko Christmas

Every second Thursday of the month, a group of women in the neighborhood gather to play Bunko. This past Thursday was our annual Christmas party, and also my one year Anniversary of joining the Bunko group. I co-hosted with my neighbor Jennifer, and we had a wonderful turkey meal with all of the fixings. Below are some pictures of the group.

Santa and Our Tree

Saturday we went to get our Christmas tree and say "hi" to Santa. We went to "Z's Trees" just outside of Waconia. We get to take a hay ride pulled by a tractor out to the trees and then they swing back around and bring you back after you cut your tree down.

Here's me, Nolan and Tori riding on the wagon.

Nolan is cutting down the tree.

Tom & Nolan trimming the branches.

No, Tori did not push Nolan over. He collapsed from pure exhaustion after chopping down the tree.

Santa & Mrs. Claus are always at the tree farm to visit with the kids after getting the tree. You may notice that Tori is absent from this picture. That's because she was deathly afraid of Santa who made her cry. So, Nolan toughed it out on his own to let Santa know that he would like a remote control monster truck for Christmas.

Dinner Out

Me, Tom, Marsha, Jim, Gina, Brandon, Lisa, Bill, Julie & Dan

The Friday after Thanksgiving we spent the day in Mankato doing a little shopping. Why Mankato you ask? Well, we had dinner plans with Tom's high school friends and their wives/girlfriends. We ate at "The Neighbors" (delicious Italian food) and then stopped at a local St. Peter bar after. It's tough to find the time to get everyone together, but when we do we have such a great time.

Happy Thanksgiving

Our first stop on Thanksgiving Day was to my sister Dianne's house, where we enjoyed a meal of turkey and ham and all of the fixings.

Here is a picture of the boys.

Shelly, Dianne, Me and Tori

Our second stop was the farm for a cool hayride and a second helping of turkey, ham and all of the fixings.

Here we are getting ready for our ride.

We have a lot to be thankful for, especially our families. To those that couldn't make it (Dad, Shirley, Rick, Kay, Chris & Amy), hope you had a wonderful holiday!

The Wild

We kicked off our long weekend Wednesday night by taking Nolan and his friend Ryan to their first Wild game. While Ryan (who has brothers that play hockey so he is used to sitting thru a game) was a model child and actually watched the game, Nolan bounced off the walls the entire time! First, he refused to wear the jersey we got him, and later only put it on for a minute because he thought it would get him a ride on the Zamboni. By the time we left (which was sometime before the game ended), Nolan was crabby and moody and did not want to cooperate. We thought the boys would give way to sleep on the way home, but Nolan decided he would keep everyone up instead with his constant chatter. Ugh...we won't be doing that again for quite awhile!

Here are the boys enjoying some goodies.

Here's Nolan being ever so cooperative for a picture before we left.

The only picture we got of Nolan facing the camera with his jersey on.

Let it Snow?

So, it was barely a snow, but we still got out there and played in it. Well...Nolan did anyway. Tori spent most of her time sitting in the wagon, waiting to go in the house. It didn't last the whole day, so it was a good thing we went out in the morning. I'm sure we will have an abundance of snow soon, so I'm not complaining!

Happy Birthday Tom!

Tom turned 34 on the 20th, and we celebrated with dinner out at Osaka with presents at home after. Nolan was very excited that Daddy got a new ipod. In fact, Tom hasn't been able to use it yet because Nolan is always listening to it.

A Long Weekend

You would think after a nice long, cold, first snowy weekend that I would have a ton of pictures to show and stories to tell. Well, I don't. Granted, yes it was all of those things, but it was also deer hunting opener and Tom was away for the whole weekend. While 2 days shouldn't seem like much, it felt more like 4.

Friday, Margaret was over to watch the kids. She stayed for supper and a little while longer, which was nice. Kept me company for awhile and I know the kids love to have her around. Saturday, Nolan had his first Birthday party that he went to on his own. The neighbor picked him up and they went bowling. It sounds like he had a really good time. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out, and went to Target for "fun" that evening. Sunday, we got ready right away and met Mary Jean, Heather, Luke, Logan, Margaret, Maureen and Zander at Southdale for shopping and lunch. It was nice to get together with the girls, but we didn't get much shopping done. There tends to be a lot more chasing then shopping, and I was tuckered by the time we left the mall.

A busy week lies ahead and it sure is nice to have Tom home now, although the roles will be reversed later this week as I will be in Vegas for work. At least my trip will be short and we will back to "full power" by Friday evening!

All in a Day's Work

We spent our Saturday shopping for the kids for Christmas and their Birthday's. In the very large bags are numerous toys that the kids don't need, yet apparently we thought they did! Actually, Tom and I have a lot of fun shopping for the kids and we have done the Fleet Farm/Toys R Us run for about 3 years in a row now, well before Thanksgiving.

Thanks to Jim & Mary Jean, who have taken the kids the last 3 years overnight at the farm, it also gives us an evening to hang out and have adult time. We met our friends Chad and Tasha at Buca for dinner and had a great night eating and chatting.

And so "Tis the Season" begins.

Trick or Treat

I'm not sure why, but Halloween always seems a little more hectic than it should be. We rush to get the kids home, rush to eat dinner, rush to put on our costumes and then rush to get pictures before going out trick or treating. This year the kids seemed quite resistant to the whole process. Nolan was in a funk and didn't want to get dressed, Tori didn't want to take pictures, and the actual trick-or-treating was no treat. Nolan asked to play at nearly every house and didn't quite get that we were only there to get candy, not go in and play. Tori caught on very quickly to the whole candy thing and rather enjoyed the trick-or-treating part. We finally gave up after about 2 blocks and went home to dig in to the candy. When it was all said and done, the kids were exhausted and hit the hay late, but also slept in late the next day. Maybe next year will be a different story.

Here's the best picture we could get with Tori's lion hood up. She wouldn't leave it on for anything.

Here's our cowboy.

Tori was very proud of her bucket of treats.

Nolan's First Day on the Ice

Nolan started ice skating lessons today. He spent a lot of time on the ice (and not on his feet), but I can see it will only take him a little time to get used to the skates and he will be on his way.

That's Nolan's friend Ryan on the left that he goes to daycare and school with. Ryan's mom has been generous enough to take Nolan with them to skating too.

Nolan spent a lot of "one-on-one" time with his teacher (whether she wanted to or not). However, by the end of the half hour, Nolan was getting up from the ice on his own and doing some independent standing as well.

On a side note...Nolan passed his swimming lessons tonight. Some of the teacher's comments were "Super student" and "Awesome kicker". Puddle Jumpers 2, here we come.

Thanks for the Cupcakes Amy

I think their faces say it all!

Thanks Amy!!

The Corn Maze

A couple of weekends ago, Heather took Nolan and Logan to the Corn Maze in Shakopee. Here are a few pictures from their adventure.

Best Buddies

Nothing runs like a John Deere (built for 2)

Hey...is swimming around in corn really that safe?

Birthday Fun and a Bon Voyage

On Saturday we celebrated Birthday's and said Bon Voyage to Chris and Amy as they left for England on Sunday.

Dad relaxing and having some coffee before he rips into his gifts. Looking mighty thin Dad...you look great!

Well Shirley, it's no surprise that it's your Birthday too!

While they may look cute and happy, I know half of them was extremely nervous about the trip. We should hear something in the next day or two about how it all went.

We had a busy day on Sunday too. We stopped by Chris and Amy's to pick up some stuff, then headed to Bloomington to get Nolan some ice skates (he starts lessons this week). Then we went to Burnsville to have dinner with Mom & Dad H. and Jon, Heather, Logan and Luke. It really felt like winter yesterday, so it was nice to get home to a warm house and relax for the rest of the evening.