Saturday, December 27, 2008

Merry Christmas Vacation!

Apparently, when you don't work, Christmas vacation just goes on and on. It's really kind of nice! Abby's been off of school since, well, for nine days now since she had a snow day the Friday before Christmas break actually began. So, we had snow day, Saturday, Sunday, two days of work for Dave (with no work for me on Monday the 22nd), Christmas Eve, Christmas, day after Christmas, and now Saturday. To come is Sunday, two days of vacation at the Dells with my family, half day or work for Dave on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Day after New Year's Day, Saturday, Sunday. (And then we won't talk about the "real life" after that, where it's back to school and work, and where Dave's telling me he's going to have to travel even more than usual. Ugh.)

But anyway, Christmas was really great here. We barely got out of our pjs, and in fact, I don't think the kids actually did. They got up at 5:50, and I'm not sure how they coordinated it, but Max got up at 5:50, too. Nolan was literally bouncing down the stairs asking, "Did Santa come? Did Santa come?" They were so excited. We did stockings and presents, and it's really interesting to watch the differences between kids. Abby goes through her presents in an instant, barely looking at everything before she moves on to the next, and the next, and the next. Nolan, on the other hand, looks at everything he opens. I think he would actually put everything together, put in batteries, and play with it for an hour or two before he moved onto the next gift if we let him. And then there's Max... he just wants every present that everyone else is opening!

I think the kids really liked all their presents, though. Abby got an iPod (an ebay, old school version... cheap!) that she really liked, along with an iPod player and a Patrick Star (from SpongeBob) stuffed animal she asked Santa for (among other things, of course!). Nolan got a Star Wars lego ship, and Indiana Jones whip, and the shovel he asked Santa for (yes, a shovel, and he loved it). Max got what everyone else got. :)

I haven't taken any pictures off the camera yet, and I'm not inclined to do that tonight, so I'll have to post pictures later, and leave you with these pictures that I downloaded the other day...

Dave and Max... Duke fans forever!


The kids at the hotel two weeks ago with Dave's sister and family... Presents!


The kids at the waterpark. Perfect sized, with a regular swimming pool, a little kid pool and a big water slide.


Abby's Christmas program... She's third row up, just left of middle. Good luck finding her! Although, she's one of the only ones without Christmas clothes on. Not sure what I was thinking that morning. She came down in a sweatshirt and I didn't think twice about it. Oh well.


Here she is reading her part in the play. It was very cute. And at least the girl next to her (who I believe is Nevaeh (or Heaven backwards)) doesn't have Christmas clothes on either!


Nolan's little Christmas program... Do you like his sweats? It was not a good day for getting dressed that day.


Back to the pool. I'm too lazy to switch the pictures around tonight!






Ready? Set? Jump!


More presents!


Ok, these are the snacks I brought for Nolan's class the other week. They were supposed to look like ornaments originally, but didn't really. They're crescent rolls in circles with cream cheese and veggies. They were really cute, until I left them in the porch and the veggies froze. And the kids didn't like them so much anyway. Oh well. What's a girl to do?


These are the moments... Max dumped out the entire box of Cheerios, and Nolan decided to eat them off the floor. Who's children are these?!?


AND... Back to the pool! Max loved jumping in, but needed his goggles on!


Abby on the slide


And that's it! I hope you had a great Christmas, and, since I may not get back to the computer until after new year's, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Cowboys and Indians

For anyone who knows Dave, he's famous for making up stories and tries to make the kids believe them. There's a little hut thing outside the Pick 'N Save by us with a clock, and Dave has them convinced that it's a kangaroo house. We can't let them out because they wind the clock, and they'll jump on our heads. Well, tonight Nolan asked if we clean up after they go to bed. Without thinking, Dave starts in on a story, telling him that we don't clean up, instead we dress up in cowboy and indian costumes after they go to bed. What?!? Then to further convince Abby, he said yeah, we just pow wow down here after they go to bed. Abby was still a little skeptical so Dave asked why she didn't believe him, to which she replied, "I never hear you down here pounding after we go to bed." I almost lost it! GEEZ, Dave!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I will cry every time

Today was Christmas program day for both Abby and Nolan. Abby's was first thing in the morning after I dropped her off at school, so Max and Nolan and I braved the bitter cold, got second row seats, and watched 80 first-graders file onto the stage to sing songs. Last year I cried and I thought I'd be better this year. Apparently not. I thought I was ready, but as soon as they start singing, BAM! it starts. And not just little "Awww, aren't they cute?" tears, but full out, I could just lay down and weep kind of tears. I wonder how many years, pageants, plays, sporting games and other events that will last? I have an image to protect here!

Anyway, we actually had quite a busy weekend. Well, Nolan, Abby, Max and I did. We met Dave's sister and family in Marshfield at a hotel to celebrate Christmas while Dave stayed home to recover from his pneumonia. The kids were GREAT, and we had a great time. And Dave feels better, too, which is good. I have some great pics, but can't locate my camera cord at the moment, and so those will have to wait. I'll have to share these pics that I got off of Dave's camera instead.

First, our tree. It is such a kid tree, isn't it? We didn't dare put any of the breakable ornaments on there with Max running around, so we went all out, paper chains and everything.


Ok, then, Dave taught the kids to play pool. I think they really started getting the hang of it all!







Wait, who are they? And what is Abby holding?


Oh, don't worry. Just a little Jack Daniels.



Two toughies

Abby's tough, but Nolan? He's got sweetness under all that.


I think Nolan had a few too many here.



And that's it! Hmmm, quite the interesting pics from Dave's camera. Anyway, Thursday night is supposed to bring another snow dump on us. They moved Abby's Christmas party up to tomorrow just in case... planning on Friday being the third snow day already this year! Wow! But, it'll be a nice jumpstart to the holidays. After Friday, no more school for anyone until next year! It'll be here quick, but for now, I'm really looking forward to the break.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

A lot, and yet nothing at all

I feel like I haven't updated in so long... a week, I guess. We've still been under the weather here. Last week Dave went to the doctor, and it turns out he has pneumonia. Yuck. And then he went back today, and it's not getting any better. If he can't figure out how to relax and get better, he's going to be in the hospital with antibiotics through an IV. But, relaxing at home isn't as easy as it sounds. With the kids home all the time now, it's difficult to be here and not be engaged in some way with them, even when I'm home too. And even though I don't have pneumonia, I now have a cold for over two weeks, too. Yesterday it turned into a horrible sinus headache, and every time I coughed (which was often!) I felt like my brain was going to pop up out of my head. It's lovely in our house, really! But, hopefully, we'll get all the junk out by Christmas.

Anyway, back to life on the ranch. I still amaze myself that I'm so willing to let the kids do some messy things. Here's Max with his painting smock. We did handprint rudolphs, but we didn't have any brown paint, so we used black. Close enough!

The boys hard at work.


Mmmmm!


Nice lipstick.


Does anyone know this boy? This is his favorite look lately, and I'm not at all sure where he got it from. It looks a little evil!


On Saturday, my company had its Christmas party. It's a very large event, with about 1600 people total, and 800 kids. It goes from 11:00-3:00, is somewhat formal (some people wear very fancy outfits!), open bar, sit down dinner, santa, presents, band, crafts. It's all very odd, but very nice of them to host it. I'd been talking about the toys and Santa all week, and so when Dave was too sick to go, I took the kiddos by myself. The picture below is before we went... when I still had a little of my sanity left!


Nolan told Santa he wants a shovel.


And Abby wants a Patrick stuffed animal (from SpongeBob). Of course, after that she wrote a letter to Santa telling him she wanted two other things. When I said I thought she wanted the Patrick stuffed animal, she said she already told him that, so she asked for other things. Smart! I wonder how much longer she'll believe. It's hard when they're in school. Maybe, for my sake, once she finds out she'll keep it a secret and we can just keep pretending.


Here's my Rudolph after his face was painted. There was a whole craft table with about 10 different things to do, including decorating giant cookies shaped like Christmas trees.


I didn't get to eat at the party, and it's stressful with all those people, but it is fun to see the kids running around.
That morning before the party, the kids came down to see the St. Nick's stuff that was left for them. They put out bowls, but St. Nick put them away and left these Bilibos. I'm really not sure what they are, other than things they can sit on, play with, put in water, and make a myriad of various games with them. They're pretty fun imaginative toys. Here they all sitting in theirs.


And when we got home from the party, my mom was here. She had some vacation time so was spending the first half of the week with me and the second half with my sister. The kids had fun, especially wrestling her!


Abby likes to show off her reading skills.


And then on Tuesday, when mom was supposed to go to Jen's, we got a snow day! The second one this year already. This doesn't bode well for the rest of the year! Abby forgot her snowpants at school so we had to be imaginative when they went outside. here she is with three pairs of pants on, the outer ones are Dave's wind pants! At least they kept her dry!


And then I thought I'd share this. It's a picture Nolan drew for preschool when asked to bring in a picture of what he's thankful for. He's thankful for grandma and grandpa's pool, Megan and Jake (cousins), Santa and toaster strudels. Who can blame him?


And I'll sign off with one more Nolan story. We were in the car the other day and Nolan told me I was driving faster than a frog's tongue. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff!
We're heading this weekend to Marshfield for Christmas with Dave's sister and family. It should be fun... except Dave hasn't decided if he's going to go yet. I'm torn. It would really be nice to have him there, but I also don't want him to get worse. I guess we'll see!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Shopping!

Ok, I know the season isn't about shopping, but every year, Dave and I have a shopping day together. We take off work (ahem, Dave takes off work), we drop the kids off at daycare, and off we go to finish whatever it is that needs finishing. I think this was the third year we've done this now. It was a little more difficult logistically (we don't usually have daycare on Wednesday anymore!), we were both a little under the weather, and the snow was a bit of a hinderance (another 4 inches yesterday on top of the 8 inches we got Monday), but it was still a lot of fun. After dropping the kiddos off, we headed to Kohl's, Costco, Milwaukee Ale House to eat (and drink!), Toys R Us and Fleet Farm. I wanted to hit Target too, but just couldn't pack it in and still pick up the kids on time. I guess I'll have to do that one on my own. Anyway, we spent too much money, of course, but finished our shopping and, most importantly, got to spend some time together. It's fun to shop for the kids because you can just picture them and how much they'll enjoy each thing you pick out. And during the week when there's fewer crowds? I'm all for it! Hopefully this is a tradition that will carry on!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Back to School

After three days off for Thanksgiving, two days for a weekend, and one day yesterday for a snow day, Abby finally goes back to school today! But only for 14 days, and then she's off for two weeks for Christmas. I told her yesterday that she should just stay home with me all the time. She looked at me and said she thought Mrs. Pelky (her teacher) would miss her. True enough. But it was fun to have a snow day, even though I wasn't quite ready for 10 inches this early in December. The kids played outside for just a little bit (too windy!) and then we made sugar cookies, brownies and chocolate chip cookies, played some Wii, did some crafts, and all around had a good day. I might look at the snow differently from now on!