Happy New Year!

We had such a great Christmas this year!  It was sooooooo nice to be able to hang out with family for a couple of days and just relax.  Thank you all for the great gifts, we were thrilled with them all!  We will have pictures up soon, and Kelsi took a ton as well, so soon we will get her set up with her own photostream for you all to see...but for now, Happy New Year!

Winter Fun

All the snow we've gotten actually has a benefit or two.  One of which being I had Kelsi home for a couple of days to help me with Christmas goodie-making!  She had tons of fun helping me dip pretzels... go figure lol.  The three of us sat around the table dipping pretzles and listening to Christmas music, and Kelsi got a little carried away when "Little Drummer Boy" came on.  And of course, here are some pictures (don't worry, Kelsi had to wash her hands frequently).



Today we got some chain things for our tires (hopefully we can make it down the street now!).  While Daniel was outside putting them on, Matthias and I played in the snow...he especially liked using the snow shovel =)

Snowed In!

As I'm sure you all have noticed...we got just a tad bit of snow ;)  We've all been shut indoors yesterday and today watching movies and making Christmas goodies!  Kelsi and Matthias were very helpful, although Kelsi kept sneaking bites here and there.  I have pictures (of course), but we've lost our little cord thing so it will be a while until I can get them posted.  And now, a word from Kelsi...

CHRISTMAS IS HERE!!!

And from Matthias...

Or not, he's too busy singing songs from "The Toy That Saved Christmas".

Christmas Lights Fun

Last night we went on a trolley ride downtown to look at the Christmas lights.  Matthias thought he was pretty cool riding in a "train" and Kelsi had a blast too.  It wasn't all that exciting for us adults, although Daniel and I won the only two raffle prizes (of course we were nice enough to let someone else have the second one), so now we have a little bundle of coupons and vouchers for some of the places at Riverstone...sadly not for Cold Stone though =(

Happy Birthday, K-lou!

Today my little girl is 9...yikes!  We don't have much planned for today since we have church and all that.  Tomorrow though, is the big party day!  We're planning a big breakfast celebration complete with french toast (it would have been waffles, but sadly we're all out of Grandma's famous mix!), a gift or two, and then we're going to finish the Egypt documentary we've been watching.  Kelsi requested that we finish it lol.  Later in the afternoon we're going to go see Narnia and then the pizza party!  We're going to have a busy day!  

After we got home from getting Kelsi from school, we had a bit of fun in the leaves.  Sadly, it was too cold for us to stay out there too long (Matthias was not dressed for it!) so now we're huddled under some blankets watching Veggie Tales.  Here are some pictures of our fun...just ignore the peanut butter on Little Man's face ;)

Coloring Goodness

After Matthias decided I needed a few additions to the dinner menu I was working on, I got him set up with his crayons and some paper (all the coloring books were MIA).  So he's been sitting at the table for the last half hour or so coloring and saying "very pretty" continually =)

Halloween Goodness

Here are some pictures of our fun last night!

Just What Every Little Girl Needs!

So I was at Micheal's last night, and saw some fun yarn on clearance. So I bought some and made Kelsi some slippers for her birtday.

Aww, aren't they cute? But this yarn has a little secret. Turn off the lights and you get this:

Now she will be the envy of all her friends at her next sleepover! Ok, so the picture is not that great...it's a lot harder than you would think to take a picture of glow-in-the-dark stuff while it's glowing in the dark...but you get the idea =)

Carver's Farm

This past Saturday we took a trip to Carver's Farm. Other than the fact that most of the pumpkins were rotten or smashed, we had a good time! Matthias loved the hayride, and Kelsi ran around like crazy trying to find the perfect mini-pumpkin =) Matthias managed to find a mini-pumpkin right away and would not let go of it for the rest of the day!

Early Birthday Goodness

I'm totally slacking, Kelsi asked me to post about her early birthday gifts...and I forgot until now! Oops! Anyway, we decided to give Kelsi a few of her birthday gifts early since it was getting so cold.


The hat is a Pokéball, and apparently the envy of many of her friends.  The gloves, however, are by far her favorite.  She even wore them to bed the first night!  I was a bit worried that she might be kinda bummed about getting handmade stuff like that, but she's hardly taken the stuff off!

Just Playin'

We decided to take advantage of some of the last semi-warmth of the year and play a bit outside yesterday. Here are some pics of Kelsi trying out her new skates that she recently purchased from the thrift store with her own money! And of course Matthias sporting his homeless look and riding in his car (we decided he looked homeless because of his randomly pieced together outfit and his fingerless gloves he won't take off because they are like Kelsi's...who won't take hers off either!).

Storm vs. The Thing

Storm unleashes her battle cry to summon The Thing to combat.



Unable to resist, The Thing jumps in the Fantasicar to face Storm.



While keeping his eye on the road...



The Thing is unprepared for Storm's sudden attack.



An epic battle is then fought, one so fierce there has never been it's like.



Wait...what's this?  Storm's costume is malfunctioning.



The Thing, realizing that he and Storm are so closely matched they would likely destroy each other if the battle continued, takes advantage of Storm's distraction and makes his escape.



Storm, realizing what happened, chases after The Thing...but is she too late, will she ever find him?



She's spotted him!



Storm hops in the van as well.



After a long discussion, Storm and The Thing decide to join forces in order to rescue Wolverine (a.k.a. Daniel) from the Dreaded Bus Ride of Doom...



Will they succeed?  Find out next time!

Starring:

Kelsi

Matthias

Photography:

Jessy

Script:

Jessy

Costume Design (it's a work in progress):

Jessy

Goodwill

Hair Stylist:

Goodwill (we're working on that one!)

Like Mother Like Son?

So, I know it's supposed to be cute when you kids try to copy you, but, well....



...I don't know how cute that giant knot of yarn is!  Fortunately, he picked my giant, monster sized crochet hook to play with, and that doesn't really fit up his nose =)

District Track Meet and The Thing

Here are some pictures of Kelsi's track meet today =) We don't know yet what place she was in, other than she wasn't in the top 10. Although she did get to take home a pretty "participant" ribbon.

The last ones are of Matthias in his new costume we found today at Goodwill. He is The Thing from the Fantastic 4. He was going to be an X-Men character along with the rest of us, but this costume was really cheap lol.

Why We Love Thrift Stores...

...because Kelsi can pick out her own clothes and make her own style (and we don't have to pay much for it!).



And in case you couldn't see, here is a close-up of her leggings:



She's very proud of her "colorful" outfit today =)

Track Meet Fun

We just got home from Kelsi's track meet and of course have pictures to share!



The last pictures are of Matthias getting acquainted with Henry, Grandma's new puppy =)

And we finally have some details on the district track meet...whoo-hoo! It will be Tuesday, Oct. 7 at Lake City High School. The meet itself starts at 4:30, but Kelsi's grade doesn't actually run until 5:20. We were also informed that there will be other events going on at the school at the same time, so the parking lots will be full. If anyone wants to come, let us know beforehand and we'll try to save some spots =)

Track Meet Today!

That's right, today is Kelsi's cross-country track meet!  After a whole two weeks of training, Kelsi is going to attempt to run around the field at school multiple times, faster than everyone else.  Wearing her cool cross-country shirt of course =)  I'm sure I'll have pictures posted by tomorrow!

Reading is Hard Work

Need I say more?

Hands to Art

Last week Kelsi, Robyn and I went to Hands to Art (yes, it's "to" not "on") and used up a gift certificate Kelsi had. We got to go pick up our stuff yesterday, and Kelsi is very proud of her artwork! So of course we have to show them off ;) Sadly, Kelsi is at school, otherwise I'd have her do the post. Just in case the pictures need a little interpretation, the items are:

• Dragon statue with polka dots and speckled paint


• Kitty statue with polka dots and a fish collar


• Cat Magnet with a face that really didn't show up

And of course there's a picture of Matthias in there because he was sitting there saying "cheese" the whole time I was taking pictures =)

Big Boy Bed

Matthias is officially in a toddler bed! He thinks he's pretty cool to have a bed like everyone else, but doesn't quite like the fact that he has to stay on it. It hasn't been too bad, he stays in his bed just fine for his nap... but he makes sure I know he's not happy about it! Bedtime, however, is a bit different. Fortunately, when we hear his little feet heading across his room, Daddy goes up and gets after him, and then he stays in bed after that. Each night so far, we've woken up to him screaming because he'd fallen off his bed, rolled under it and had gotten stuck. Hopefully he soon learns to avoid the whole two foot portion of bed that doesn't have a barrier, I don't like waking up at 4 am! And of course we have pictures to document the event (getting a bed, not getting stuck under it in the middle of the night =P).

Yep... we have a blog

Since it would appear that everyone and their brother has a "family" blog, we decided to jump on the bandwagon and make one too! And to start us off on the right foot, I'm posting some pictures of the kids... really, what else would I do?




We went to "Mudgy and Millie Day" downtown where we got to follow Mudgy and Millie as they played hide-and-seek all around downtown, complete with a parade, moose statues, and "special water and cookies". And of course we got the stylish moose antlers to wear ;)