The Holidays are Upon Us :)

December is such an exciting month, made even more exciting when the kids just LOVE everything about it!!

The big kids and I went to see Cirque Dreams at Mystic with Grandma Dawn and Grandpa Kevin.  They loved it, and it was cute and fun to get them dressed up for a fancy night!

Holiday Express is always a fun event! 

Mom invited me to a paint night at the Tap Room... we're pretty proud of our creations!

 The Mankato lights show is a holiday tradition now, and the kids just walk around like they own the place!  We found a night that wasn't crazy cold and we had a great time!

Snow!  We finally got a little bit of snow to play in!  Bring it on!

 My cuties!

Grandma Lori made a gingerbread house with them all.  Needless to say, a bunch of candy went missing....

And the preschoolers had a gingerbread making party, and I got a chance to leave school for a while to join her!  It was cute to see her in her element!

Our first Christmas gathering was at mom and Kevin's house.  ALL the cousins, aunts, and uncles came!  It is so fun seeing the kids play together more as they all get older ;)

Cousin pic!  Eight of them at the moment...

The thrill of the holiday season is SO SO much more fun with kids.  They love everything about the prep--the parties, the food, the magic, ALL of it. 

November Fun

The first grade performance was super cute!  Jeremy and I were both able to sneak away from school to watch Cooper perform!!

He did NOT tell us he had a 'solo!'  He was so proud!

Colton, in the Batman robe, and Cooper are pretty good buds.

November was pretty warm, so we got to sneak up to the park a couple times.

After many, many hours in the blind and in the tree stand, Jeremy and Cooper got a deer!  Cooper was SO incredibly excited.  It's an experience he will NEVER forget, and one that he talks about all the time!  He always says it's a 'decent doe.'

 Happy 1st Birthday, Eli!!

During one of the 'hunts' for Jeremy and Cooper, I took Izzy and Carson to the Children's Museum in Mankato.  They always love that place!

So careful!

Painting... imagine that!

Her poses just get me!!

Little goons

I got to see the two Jeremys smile at the Thanksgiving morning turkey trot at Dakotah! It was a sunny morning in the 20's, so it was perfect!!

Fall Photos

The ever-talented Nicole Louise Photography did a great job again this year!  I love our collection of photos from this year at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.  The kids are getting so big and COOPER really looks like a young man!!

Halloween Fun

Happy Halloween from our little superheroes!  My momma heart is just ecstatic that I ACTUALLY got one year of coordinating costumes!  And I didn't really do anything to make it happen other than be really excited when they all started building off each other's ideas :)

Meet: Batman, Wonder Woman, and Spiderman.  The city is safe with them around!!

We enjoyed the annual ECFE costume party. There were lot of super heroes this year, but none quite as cute, of course :)

My little Wonder Woman, inside and out!

Our neighbor boy, Jayce was also Spiderman.  Here, the boys are flexing their spidey muscles.

Pumpking carving was a hit, but surprise, surprise, nobody wanted to touch the guts...

Jeremy had a great time using power tools to carve!

All the designs were uniquely their own!

The weekend before Halloween, we made the rounds to see grandmas and grandpas.

Grandma Lori tried to trick the kids into thinking their Halloween treats were canned veggies!

Halloween evening, we went trick-or-treating downtown to the businesses with hundreds or other kids.  It was really fun, and great way to get A LOT of candy in a short amount of time...

One last visit to Grandma Chris working at the clinic.

...And more more posed picture for mom.  They're starting to get better and more cooperative with this!!

Super Hero poses!

Trick-or-treating was a great time.  A bit chilly, but we went out for about an hour or so... check out the haul!!!!!

They collected more candy than they could ever imagine eating!  It was a great night, and a fun way to start out what would be a loooong week... Halloween on a Monday?!  Crazy!