Christmas Break Days 2-3

It has been lots of fun having everyone home together for the past few days. There is plenty to do outside so the boys have not had issues with cabin fever and that makes everybody happy. The boys decided to build a wall of snow at the bottom of the slide on the swing set and took turns crashing into it. It looked like fun!

John has been enjoying pulling the kids around the yard on their sled behind his four wheeler. The boys are becoming more adventurous and don't get upset when they fall off anymore. Jonah and Sam even built a ramp for John to pull them over and they had a blast testing it out. 

It is such an adventure living in Wisconsin. While we were out shoveling and plowing off the driveway the other day we watched snowmobiles drive down our street! One lady even drove by with her dog on her lap!

This morning the boys frosted sugar cookies. Shane frosted graham crackers because he couldn't eat the cookies since they contained milk and eggs, but he didn't seem to mind. He loved adding sprinkles to his crackers and ended up with more sprinkles than frosting when all was said and done!

Tonight we went to church and then sprinkled our reindeer food all around the house. We let the boys open one gift before bed and they were thrilled. Then they got their plate of cookies ready for Santa and we sent them to bed with strict instructions about what time is an acceptable wake up time. I hope that they were all listening because all of this quality time with the boys is really tiring us out!

Christmas Break Day 1

This was the first day of Christmas break and everyone had a ball!!!!!!

The Best Morning EVER!!!!

Christmas came a little early this year..........

It's Starting to Feel A Lot Like Christmas

We have enjoyed all of the sights and sounds of the Christmas season so far this year. We visited Santa, shoveled snow, went sledding and checked out some big Christmas light displays. It is so much fun to enjoy this Christmas season with little kids...they are so full of enthusiasm and excitement that it is contagious!

My Two Front Teeth....

All I want for Christmas is........

Halloween 2012

In August the kids asked me what they were going to be for Halloween. They still don't realize that they could pick something out themselves and not match their brothers. So I took advantage of their innocence and dressed them alike. I am positive that this will be the last year that that flies. I made the costumes and they turned out great. I even made ones for John and I! I think that the kids even ended up getting more candy because they were dressed alike. Score. 

It was cold, but they had a blast!

Halloween Prep

We have been busy getting ready for Halloween. Even though it was chilly on Saturday morning we turned on the garage heater and carved our pumpkins in complete comfort. By the time we were finished it had warmed up a bit outside and the kids enjoyed finding the perfect spot to display their masterpieces.

For Sale

How could you not buy?!?!?

7 Years Old!

Now that we have a seven-year-old living here things are totally different....

Seven-year-olds can hold the whole world in their hands!

They own their own cameras!

They pick out AWESOME double brownie explosion Culvers ice cream cakes!

Seven-year-olds are amazing!

First Day of School 2012

Everybody started school this week. Things were a bit rocky. On the positive side, everybody likes their teachers. They love riding the bus. They come home full of excitement and enthusiasm. On the negative side, Wyatt went to school 1 day this week and has been home sick with a fever ever since. Shane is still a little clingy and cries when he gets dropped off. Jonah and Sam got in trouble for standing and walking around on the bus and I still hardly had any time to myself this week!

It can only get better right?

The Ledges

 We visited the Fossil Ledges on Drummond Island today. It was the first time that any of us had visited the ledges, but it definitely will not be the last! The rocks, full of fossils, were amazing and beautiful and we could barely make ourselves go home. All I can say is wow!

Teddy Bear Club v. 2.0

When I was a kid we went to Drummond Island every summer. We always made friends with any kids that came and stayed at the resort next door. One summer we met two sisters... Doris and Heidi. They were great and we all became inseparable. We decided to form a club and named it the Teddy Bear Club. The Teddy Bear Club needed a headquarters, so we stole some wood from the neighbor next door, went out into the woods, and built a fort. It was pretty sweet! Especially since it was built by 4 girls!

This week we are up on Drummond Island and I decided to take the boys out into the woods to see if our old fort was still standing. It was still there...in rough shape, but I could still picture what it looked like when we were kids. We found an old slingshot that Grandpa made for us, a marker, a toolbox with some toilet paper, an old cooking pot, and a no trespassing sign. The kids were fascinated with my old fort and wanted to fix it back up so that they could use it. But there were broken boards everywhere, rusty nails on the ground, and one of the trees from the original fort was dead.

So we decided to build a new fort. We decided that, for the sake of history, we should build it close enough to the original fort that you can see the old one from the new one. In the picture below you can see the old fort in the background to the right.

We spent $30 on wood this time instead of stealing our materials. We also built it up in a tree this time and our design was a little more sophisticated than our first one. It was a lot of fun to build and the kids are super excited. I am hoping that they make some great memories in their new fort and look back on them fondly

thirty years from now....just like I do!