1/27/09-This week is Catholic Schools Week. Today's theme was dress like a career person...what Madison wants to be when she grows up. She picked a teacher. I put her in nice clothes and a pair of my old glasses. Then we sent her with a ruler, a notebook, an apple, and a "sound bag". Her teacher does a sound bag for each letter of the alphabet. She loads a bag full of items that start with the letter they are working on. We picked several items that started with the letter M. Madison’s teacher Mrs. Rynearson loved it. They even went through Madison’s bag and looked at everything! What a hoot!!! Madison was so excited to go to school this morning and I think she really enjoyed wearing my glasses for a little bit (hopefully she'll never have to really have them).

The last picture is of Ethan in his paper hat he made at school. It's hilarious because it's so big on him. Him and I had some fun playing with it when we came home from school. I think he thought it was funny because it fit me. How blessed am I to be a mom to these great kids?!

My Grandpa Burt has said for years, "This world would be a sad old place without little kids in it." He is so right!

Christmas 2008

Another great Christmas! The first 4 pictures were taken Christmas Eve night. We let them open one present before we headed to Papa Joe's. This Christmas was so much fun because Ethan was so excited for it. He loved the whole idea of Santa and having the tree and lights up. Too bad we forgot to put the milk and cookies out...Santa still came, thank goodness. I don't think they could name a favorite item because they loved everything they received. We had a lot of places to go, but we are so blessed to be surrounded by so many people we love!

The Kids

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

SNOW DAY!

12/19/08-We had our first snow day! The kids wanted to go out and play in the snow sooooo bad. I think I may have to invest in some snow pants and boots because I froze my tush off out there with them. They wanted to make snowballs, but all we ended up with was snowslabs. The snow from earlier in the week was a light snow and then we ended up getting ice/rain last night. It didn't make for good snowball weather.

As you can see Ethan found a branch that he instantly bonded with. He carried it everywhere. I was glad he didn't ask to bring it in! They both started eating the snow and thought that was pretty neat. Luckily we don't have to worry about yellow snow in our yard.

It was a great time and they can't wait to do it again tomorrow!

Gingerbread House

Our very first gingerbread house. The kids liked it, but the frosting dried really fast so they had to hurry and there was a lot of candy. The kids had the most fun after I was done using the frosting. Then they had fun piping it on a cutting board. After the house was done we put it in the front window. Ethan checks on it every morning. Next year I think we'll try the gingerbread men.

My first homemade video (with the help of Nick for the music).

December 1st-I got the tree set up in the morning and then after supper Madison and Ethan decorated it. They did ALL the ornaments themselves and I didn't move a single one. Last year, I let them put the ornaments on, but then I moved them around so they were spaced better. They did a really good job and only the very top is without ornaments. Madison can reach pretty high up this year and Ethan didn't put all his ornaments on one branch.

As you can see from the photos they were so excited to do the ornaments. I was able to get a lot of great pictures because they were so hyper and acting so goofy. Afterwards they played around the tree and kept looking at it.

The last pictures are of the kids posing for the Christmas picture for our Christmas cards. They did pretty good. I didn't add the actual pose that will be sent out, but I thought you'd enjoy the outakes.