Snow Day!!!!

Last week we had our first accumulation of snow!  Drew and Claire woke up and went running to their windows to look and I think we were outside in less than an hour!

Andy had school unfortunately, however we took advantage of the fresh white powder and had a blast.

This snow was a little extra special for us as it was the "first" for many for Drew and Claire.  We would travel to other places in Europe during the winter months, however it would NEVER snow in accumulation!!!!! 

Some of our firsts were:

Building a snowman

Claire sledding for the first time

Teaching Drew and Claire what snow was safe and not safe to eat

Claire first snow angel

 

Living on the ocean and in tropical conditions most of our career, it's nice to be back with ALL of the seasons.

 

 

Eating snow

Drew was like Buddy off of the Elf and was a machine with making snow balls!!

Mean while Claire took the power wheel for a spin in the snow and LOVED it!

Snow angel...check...

FIRST snowman the kiddos have EVER built!

Claire's FIRST time going sledding!!!!  Drew was so good with her and helper talk her through going down the hill.  Once she did it once, she was hooked!!

 

We tried making a train!!

Bubblicious!!

Claire has been working on learning to blow a bubble ever since Drew learned about a year ago and the other day the BIG day arrived and now all we hear is the snapping of bubbles!!!

(sugar free gum...!!)

 

 

Chewing... chewing... getting ready for the bubble..

I'll give the little gal credit for the age of three to chew a piece of gum forever without swallowing it and knows how to blow a bubble.   I think I was ten before I figured this out!

Christmas Cheer

Our little El on the Shelf arrived here the first of December and the kiddos named him Jo-Jo.  Jo-Jo arrives here early in the morning for the North Pol and is ALWAYS into something!!  When the kiddos wake up they love to run out and see what he got into while they were sleeping!  He then sits on the shelf and watched them and reports back to Santa.

Above Joe-Joe got into our juice container, is holding a cup, and smashed pretzel's all over the floor!

Claire wasn't to sure about this guy at first and now LOVES it!!

 

There are many night when I run out into the living room at 11:30pm and have to put him in a new spot as I've forgotten before I wen to bed!  Only nineteen more days... I can do this!

Putting up Christmas decorations!  This year was a little extra fun as we only took one box of decorations to Spain with us, so it was fun to see everything we had in storage for the past three year for decorations!

Such big helpers

We will be in MN for Christmas, however still put up just a little tree for the kids to enjoy

Sporting matching Christmas pajamas that they've wanted to wear since Sept from my friend Maureen.

Christmas at Mimi and Papa's

This past weekend we went to Iowa to celebrate Christmas a little early at my parents house.  For Christmas we will be in Minnesota at Andy's family as all of his brothers will be home with their families for the first time in years.

 

This Christmas we were missing my dad as he was at my brothers house helping him after he had surgery this past week.  My sister was there with her two cute kiddos who are the same are just a year older than Drew and Claire and it's a BLAST!

 

The weather for December is crazy unseasonably WARM!!!  We were outside as much as we could and loved it!

 

Claire just loves her cousin Lucy!!!  They loved playing dress up together!

My sister Allison is back living in Iowa for this school year before they move.  It's so nice to have her just hours away, she's SO much fun!

Drew opened from his cousins a really fun fishing game.  I'm not sure who was more excited him or Andy..

Claire and Lucy helping each other out

The girls just love their MiMi

My sister needs to open a business as she's an amazing cook and baker!  I have no idea how she does it as everything tastes like it came from a bakery or restaurant!

Claire and Lucy enjoying one of the many treats!

Sat morning we went to the Bass Pro Shop and went bowling.  The kiddos loved it as the lanes looked like ocean water and there were fish hanging everywhere!

More dress up!

Waiting for someone to push them..

Busy breakfast conversations!

We had a wonderful Christmas full of laughter

Oh Claire.....

I can't remember what I was like as I child, however I don't think that I was so into clothes like Claire is at the age of THREE!!!  On a given day I would say she changes her clothes a minimum of five times.  Before tub I have the kiddos put their own clothes in the clothes hamper, so what does Claire do with her clothes during the day after wearing them for ten minutes... puts them in the hamper!!

At first this drove me NUTS!!  I'm now quit use to it, I no longer tell her stop changing her clothes, I let her wear all the mix matched clothes she wants (as long as it's weather appropriate), and now I just take pictures of her and can't wait to show her what she wore when she's older!

 

Claire went on a week straight of only wearing pink clothes after I started reading her the books Pinkalicous

Still Pinkalicious week with pink sweat pants, a dress over that, and a 12-18month old sweater that she's obsessed with!!! (notice how I can't button it all the way down!)  Claire is holding her hands up to show off her pink polish as well!

Oh the daily life of this child....

I told Claire that her room was out of control.  After she told me that an elf messed up her room... I asked her to please clean everything off of her floor.  She did just that a piled it up on her dresser.  How could I be mad at that... she did just what I said and it was off of the floor!

 I remember when I was little I LOVED to play store and it's so fun as Claire could play this all day!!  She empties out the pantry lines everything up, she makes up a new name for me, has me carry one of her purses, then rings all of my grocery's up and bags them!

 

 

I LOVE THIS AGE!!!

Soccer Season

A few weeks ago we rapped up the soccer season here with the local YMCA.  It was the first time that Drew and Claire could be on the same team and it was AWESOME!!!  The advantages to having your kiddos close in age!! 

The season was six weeks long and their team was made up of all employees and their children from the YMCA! (I'm there a lot and working on my aerobics certification, so I was "in" !!!) 

The team was soooo cute and it was great that the kiddos knew each other!  We had such a fun season!

(Drew was not in the mood for a photo as his friends were playing and I had him stop for this photo!)

Claire found one of the many dandelions in the soccer field which she enjoyed!

Our couch Dave held a soccer banquet for the players at the end of the season.  I would have to say it was the best banquet we have been to as everyone received an award, medal, and he talked about each player for at least five minutes!!

Drew walked away with most valuable player and Claire was the toughest player!

Halloween Fun

 

A few weeks ago the kids and I went back to Iowa to spend time with my family.  It's so great to finally have them so close!  Our town had a cute little Halloween festival that we enjoyed, we went to the Des Moines Zoo and went trick or treating, and had cousins come and visit!

 

I think this is how every photo of the kids turned out!!

 

When we arrived down town Carlisle their was a parade going on! We were able to jump on a float and be apart of it!  Only in a small town in the Midwest would this happen!  So much fun!

Lucy and Claire loved being apart of the parade!

A cute train ride for the kiddos

The bank parking lot was set up with Trunk or Treating.  Drew and Claire loved this way of trick or treating as they didn't have to walk far to receive their next item of candy!

We blew up the jump house at my parents, which was a blast with the cousins!  However, to get a photo was a mess!!!! (notice Lucy's legs in the back!)

1..2..3..Snap quick!!!

It's so much fun as the cousins that we grew up with and vacationed with in the summer now have children. It was so great to see all of them and have another jump house day!

We thought it would be a fun idea to have the kids carve pumpkins.  It was really cute for the first three minutes until it turned in to the kiddos demanding what they wanted their pumpkin to look like they running off to play as the parents finished them and they micromanaged us!

My cousin Lindsey and I

Football time with Papa

We then came back to Wisconsin where we carved more pumpkins.  It was a lot of fun as it was the first year Claire would put her hand inside a pumpkin!

Ready to go around the neighborhood