the wee's love the wii!

Santa was good to us this year...we left him cookies and our wishes for the Wii and low and behold there was one under the tree this year.


In less than 2 days, Gabe has taken Pro status at bowling. He reminds us regularly that he's the only one in the family that's a pro.


Ava can kick anyone's butt in boxing though. She runs in place as fast as she's punching. She had multiple knock outs on Christmas night. She played until her stomach hurt and her cheeks were bright red.

I am not a video gamer, and I am not coordinated at all. I've found I can barely break 100 at bowling, can't catch a fish in fishing, hit a ball in base ball...I was nowhere near as good as Ava in boxing, but it did get my heart rate up. Tennis seems to be my game so far, but I'm far from an expert. Here's me attempting to box (note the sweet headband since I never got around to showering...nice!).

Joe is coordinated. He can't beat Gabe at bowling, but is quite the shooter. He also kicks butt on cow racing, and he'll out fish any of us. I think it may be the hat...

Wii aside, we had a wonderful Christmas! We attended a lovely Holiday party on Tuesday night at my friend Carla's. I've been waiting for over 10 years to re-gift this sweet white elephant and finally got my chance. Who doesn't need pink satin pillow shams? Needless to say, it was a hit.

My parents arrived on Christmas Eve. We visited and ate...then headed to Silver Bay for dinner with Joe's family. The kids went sledding until they were absolutely frozen. Fun!

Christmas day was actually relaxing (ha! my mom cooked, lucky me!!!) The kids were really good and patient waiting for the Wii to be setup. I got out to cross-country ski with my friend Robin. A 45 min ski and Blue Moon later, life was good. Dinner was fabulous followed by a visit from Tara and Charlie and more Wii action.

Now we're getting ready for down hill lessons for the kids today. Mom and Dad are heading home. It's been a nice wrap up to 2008. Thanks for a wonderful Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

birthday wishes

It's Christmas Eve, almost 11:00 and I'm dog ass dead tired...we've had back to back holiday get- togethers, and you just know that my kids will be up at 5:30 AM tomorrow. Regardless, I couldn't possibly call it a night without wishing my very dear friend Amy a happy birthday. Amy, I'd like to say the card is in the mail, but you know you typically get screwed having your birthday on Christmas. I'll be picking out an extra special one, and you'll get it on a surprise date yet to be determined.

I met Amy at UWEC many moons ago. She lived one floor below us in the dorms when we met and it wasn't long before she became one of our roommates. Many fun times, some that I remember, others not so much, that I've had with the greatest story teller in the world. Love you dear, have a wonderful birthday! Cheers!!!

All my really "good" pictures of Amy are the old fashion kind...too bad I'm too tired to scan them in. I was thinking the one where she had road rash on her face after a nasty fall during Eelpout Fest in Walker...

tagged

A few days ago my friend Gina tagged me...the game is to take the sixth folder from the pictures file on your computer and pull up the sixth picture and post it. Of course the 6th folder only had 5 pictures in it...why do I even have that folder? So here's a picture from folder number 7. Appropriately one from Christmas, 2005. This was taken at Bentleyville which was a wonderful tour of lights setup by a local family on their property. Literally, there are over a million Christmas lights not to mention hot chocolate, s'mores and Santa. It was really fun and I kinda forgot about it. Thanks for tagging me, Gina.

If you look closely you'll see that Ava is wearing her sweet running shoes and neither have snow pants...nice job, mom. I hope it was a warm December in 2005.

I tag Amy and Katie if you want to play!

o'christmas tree

If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing one of our Christmas trees, you're in for a treat when I get around to taking a picture of this one. When we moved into this house 11 years ago, Joe & I started a tradition of cutting our own tree, typically on our property. I've been putting off the tree hunt this year because truthfully, I'm a little tired of the Charlie Brown look. I want the full, perfect, beautiful tree, but who am I to break a self-imposed tradition? So, Saturday afternoon the 4, yes 4, of us jumped on the (1) snowmobile and trekked into the woods. We stopped on the trail and hiked in. Joe commented on his love/hate of this process. Love being out in the woods in the winter, hate trying to find a decent tree. We walked for a good half an hour. Well walked, and waited for Ava to catch up. She can't resist eating snow and it really slows her down. Nothing. Back to the trail. I spied a little twig of a tree, maybe six feet high, but several branches (a plus). How about it? Joe says sure, Ava says it's cute, Gabe says no way. OK, we'll ride up the trail a little further and see what we see. Joe and Gabe went to get the sled. Ava and I started up the trail. I asked her again about the twig tree and got the same it's cute response. Let's cut it I said. Mind you the cutting of the tree is typically a big picture taking production with all gathered round while Joe crawls under the thing. Girl Power! Ava and I sawed the twig tree down and started dragging it back down the trail toward the boys. They laughed (well, Gabe cried because it was so ugly). Four+ tree on snowmobile and once again it's a Charlie Brown Christmas.

We decorated the thing tonight. As Joe predicted, it did fall down. The headless angel is sitting on the counter now waiting for some good glue or her replacement. I guess life's never dull in the backwoods.

fancy nancy

If you are not already familiar, there is a series of books by Jane O'Connor based on a character named Fancy Nancy. Ava has tendencies that are so much like Nancy, that I couldn't help but persuade her just a bit to be Fancy Nancy for Character Day at school today. She chose 'Bonjour, Butterfly' as her inspiration. She picked out most everything herself and came up with a stunning outfit...picture below is minus the wings - she did find blue ones - and extremely poor lighting, but you get the idea. It's hard for me to come to terms with the fact that my baby is no longer a baby or even a toddler anymore. Watching her grow is truly bittersweet. I know it won't be long and she'll too cool to be dressing fancy and silly. For now, I am really enjoying this time of mis-matched fanciness and her ability to pull it off.

c is for cookie!

I really love making cookies this time of year. The kids and I made chai tea shortbread cookies today. A new recipe, and pretty good I'd say based on the 6 I've had so far today. I was pleasantly surprised at how really helpful the kids were. Typically cookie making is a drawn out, we're never going to get this done, kind of project. But this year, Gabe read the recipe while Ava attempted to find the ingredients...she took out everything she thought should go in cookies (vanilla, baking soda, sprinkles), then when I told her no, we're looking for pumpkin pie spice, I got this look:


Ah, but we're oh so happy when we find the right thing (rabbit on the bottle was a very helpful clue)

Now we're off to the mall, Christmas lists in hand. The kids brainstormed all morning about what they really, really wanted. We'll see how we do. Just the 4 of us, dinner out on a slightly snowy evening and an attempt to make a dent in the shopping...I think it should be pretty fun even if we don't accomplish a lot.

'tis the season

I've been thinking about getting ready for Christmas. It really hasn't gone much beyond "thinking" because I've been too busy cleaning up other people's garbage (see previous post) to actually do any doing. We're going to Joe's brother's for Thanksgiving. Thank goodness for small favors. No need to clean the house quite yet. Maybe somebody out there can help me with a couple major questions to kick off the dreaded season?

1) Any good Christmas card making websites? I have the picture. I was hoping to find a cool website to create the card, but haven't had time to look around (maybe I should do that instead of blogging...) I can go the old slim line route as a last ditch effort of course, but I was hoping for something unique. Anyone?
2) What should I get my kids? I know, I should know better than anyone else what to get them, but they have so much. I think I'm really starting to fear clutter (again, see previous post). We're toying with the Wii idea. I haven't even started to investigate though, and I truly am clueless. What is the bare minimum I need to get to avoid a war between 2 kids on Christmas morning? Can I even get one still and where? Will my 5 year old girl enjoy it? Or would Santa be really ripping her off this year?

I'm sure I have more questions, but my brain is ready to shutdown. I found a few pictures from previous years Christmas cards that I thought worth sharing. My how they have grown. Don't ask me what happened to 2004 though?

2003 - look at that fat and crabby face (no, this wasn't our Christ mas card)

2003


2005

2006

2007

please de-clutter

I spent the better part of the day sifting through garbage. And not my garbage. Somehow Joe scored himself a job cleaning out a house that is no longer inhabited. The previous occupant is now in a nursing home, and the house has been empty for over five years. I have never seen anything quite so sad. I have never walked from room to room on piles of trash. I have never opened bag after bag of brand new clothes and shoes with the original receipt still intact. I have never seen so many books unopened, notebooks untouched, nor shoes unworn. As I helped haul out bag after bag of garbage, filling dumpster after dumpster, I couldn't help but think how lucky I am that my whole life will never be thrown in the trash. We are strangers to this woman, rummaging through, shoveling out her garbage, her life. She has to pay someone to clean out what she's accumulated her entire life because she either has nobody, or the somebody she has doesn't want deal with this kind of mess. So sad...

Not a very exciting post. I guess I needed a way to process this crazy day. Joe tossed a book to me this morning that he found in the pile, "How to De-clutter Your Life". Guess she never got around to reading that one...

baby boy!

My friend Gina just had a baby boy tonight! I know he was 7 lbs 12 oz and that's about it. I'm so happy for you Gina, good job!!! Congrats you guys, can't wait to meet him (I hope he likes me...)

is anybody out there?

I admit to what my husband reminds me on a regular basis, I have no patience. I want to instantly be good at everything I attempt. So as I spend my somewhat limited free time adding posts to my blog, I can't help but wonder (average 0 comments per post, average 21 seconds per visit) am I just talking to myself? I would expect to have hundreds of regular readers and thousands of comments on each of my posts by now. I started this way back in September and, after all, I'm wildly entertaining, and why would you not want to read about my daily life and see dozens of pictures of my kids, comment on each post and include a link to my blog on your blog so people from all over the world will come read about my life...???

Ok, that was really ridiculous. Seriously, just like most everyone else, I do this to keep my friends and family up to date and let them catch a glimpse of what's going on in our crazy little world. It makes sense to me since they can't all be here with me where I feel they belong. For those of my friends and family that actually access the internet, it has worked out well. But, sigh, there are many that sadly do not, leaving me here talking to myself.

Like every problem in the world, this can be Googled. I found that it is suggested you gain loyal readers by having contests, starting lists, writing witty, opinionated posts and calling for comments with inquisitive questions, or by adding value to your post with links to other cool stuff.

Here you go. Value added, TA DA!!! Some kind of cool stuff I came across, and despite potentially decreasing my odds of winning, I will share with you - createdbymom.com (some really cute stuff and a great concept) by just adding a comment to her blog (and to your blog), you could win one of these sweet handmade pendants...there were only about 10 comments when I visited, so that's a pretty good chance of winning. Drawing's on Saturday, check it out!
I'm sure my friend Carla, who is a skilled stained glass artist, is dying to make me a cute little star like this. But I could never ask her to stop her late night studying, so I'll try to win one of my very own, you can too, go here and add a comment :)

Sorry, Mom, no new pix of the grand kids in this post. But for the rest of you, how's that for value added? Finding giveaways just may be my new obsession! I love free stuff, who doesn't? You never know when I may add tips, tricks, or other interesting, potentially useful information to my blog. Come back soon!!!

more treats than tricks

Ooops....got a little behind on the Happy Halloween post.

Once again we attended Ava's pres-school Halloween party/carnival. We were there for 2 hours and the kids loved every minute of it. In summary, controlled chaos. Kids of all ages, all in costume and many adults did partake also. Gabe got to work some of the games, so he was feeling pretty cool. Let me just say that Ava's teachers are crazy...Ms. Patty in particular. She began coming to school in costume about 2 weeks ago. A different costume each day. While Patty made a pretty cute chicken, hands down, the best costume goes to Ms. Renee. She was a baby on a grandma's back, and the picture doesn't even begin to do it justice, but I tried. Tell me that you don't want to wear this costume?! It is awesome! I nearly dropped to my knees laughing when I saw her.



Two hours and two thousand grams of sugar later, I took the kids trick or treating. The best part of the carnival was they were completely content after an hour of door to door and so was I. They were home and in bed relatively on time...yeah! Do you recognize Ava? Several people said no...who knew she could pull off anything besides a princess?!

weekend recap

Thanks to my brother and his wife for a nice weekend. We celebrated my niece's second birthday and enjoyed our time catching up. The kids had a blast! How could they not when it was 70 degrees and sunny?! Made it hard to come back home. I hope everyone has recovered from the chocolate cake overdose...it was delicious! I'll go in reverse order and get back with the Halloween post once I have time to get through the pictures. Thanks again Trevor and Cathy!

Ava and Sophia

Sophia with Grandma and Grandpa

This dress is about the most adorable thing I've ever seen!

birthday wishes

Happy birthday to my little brother! Crazy how the years have flown by, isn't it? Seems like just yesterday I was beating the crap out of you - HAHA.

Trevor is married and has a lovely little family, with one more on the way. He is a personal trainer and owns his own business . He keeps busy with all kinds of physical activity, not an ounce of fat on this boy...it's making me tired and reaching for the M&M's just thinking about it. Trevor works hard and plays hard. He has done well for himself. I am proud of you little bro, even if you are a pain in the butt sometimes! Have a great b-day! love you -h

Trevor doing one of he many things he does so well !

bad auntie

Happy belated birthday to my sweet little niece, Sophia. She just turned 2, I thought today, yesterday. Hope your day was extra good little girl. Can't wait to see you!!!

uss freedom

that's Gabe in the front row with his arms up in the air...nice

I desperately tried to discourage Gabe from joining Cub Scouts. Why? Because it requires a ton of parent involvement, which frankly I was not sure I could handle. I've come to accept my "bad mom" status when it comes to activities. Running every night and weekend is something we've tried to avoid with the "one activity" rule. With any luck, that activity will not put me in the concession stand or working a carnival booth. When Gabe said no to every other activity offered as a Cub Scout alternative, we sucked it up and committed ourselves to weekly pack/den meetings and an onslaught of activities on top of that. I begrudgingly signed up as "secretary" to avoid being chief popcorn sales girl, pine derby officiant and all star decorator at the plethora of awards banquets. You see, secretary gets you off the hook for all other volunteer duties. As it should be, since I've spent hours making spreadsheets and emailing people about dues and forms. That said, the "bad" part hasn't been that bad.

Now for the good. My little boy is really quite good at walking up to strangers doors and requesting a contribution to his pack by way of buying overpriced popcorn (note, he only got 3 "no thank you's"). He politely requested we stay in the car on delivery day, "I can handle it". When duty calls, aka there's a meeting, he proudly and quickly (which is impressive for Gabe) dons his uniform, "ready to go". Last night at 5:15 I got a voice mail message (I don't check my voice mail much) that if I could get Gabe into town by 6:00, in uniform, he could tour the USS Freedom The ship is not doing public tours while docked here, so what a great opportunity. He loved it! Especially when he got to announce to the entire ship, "Commander, please dial 3003". HA!

Moral of the story perhaps, don't knock it until you try it? More importantly, lessons learned... appreciate the little things and learn to laugh more and complain less. That can help make life oh so good :) Happy Monday!!!

fancy footwork

Today Ava attended a b-day party for her friend, Kasey and Kasey's sister, Charlotte. I invited myself to stay and take pictures. Too many came out fuzzy :( I did manage to come up with a couple keepers. The party was at a local dance studio...so creative and so fun. I believe the girls had a rockin' birthday! Happy Birthday Kasey and Charlotte! Thanks for having us!!!

check out this sweet cake Carla made!

Kasey

Charlotte

Kasey and Ava...the drama queens...they are quite the pair


yes, her hair is real

party's over...36 tired feet tromp home...

cold weather recipe

Amy asked me to forward her my recipe for chicken noodle soup , so why not blog it? Then I only have to type it once! It is delicious, if I do say so myself. I stole it off the back of a bag of noodles many years ago.

Chicken & Kluski Noodle Soup
(what is Kluski you ask...a generic Polish name for all kinds of dumplings without a filling...I learn something every day)

4 C cubed cooked chicken or turkey
1.5 C chopped celery
1.5 C chopped onion
3 T margarine or butter
12 C water
1.4 C diced carrots
.5 t pepper
3 - 4 T chicken - flavor instant bouillon
1 t dried basil or marjoram leaves
12 oz package of Creamette Kluski Egg Noodles (uncooked)*

In 6 quart Dutch oven or large kettle, over medium heat, cook celery and onion in butter until tender; add water, chicken, carrots, pepper, bouillon, and marjoram. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium and cook covered 15 minutes. Add noodles: cook 15 minutes longer or until noodles are tender.

*Note - I do not use the Creamette brand, but a local brand, Alberto's, of noodles that comes in a clear bag with green and red writing. They are wonderful!

It's going to be a cold weekend! Make some soup and bundle up!

taking pictures

I have been messing around with photography for about 8 years now. Joe bought me my first Nikon SLR (film) camera. I took some classes, got in the dark room, then got pregnant and set the thing down, reaching for the digital point and shoot instead. Since then I've upgraded to digital SLR and tried to refresh my knowledge of general concepts of photography, exposure, etc. I'm proud to say I'm back in the "M" mode on my camera. I so want to be good at taking pictures! It's not easy, but if you take enough pictures, you're bound to get one or two good ones. At least in theory.

Getting your shooting done in the right light is huge. If you wait until it's warm out and catch the noon sun, you are screwed. So I forced my kids to shower on a Saturday morning, change into clothes they didn't pick themselves (this is just asking for a meltdown), and trek out to the middle of a field across the road from us. Camera, lenses, tripod, blanket in hand out the door into the 45 degree morning we went. I was so disappointed when the golf cart (yes, we have a golf cart) wouldn't start...cold hands, runny noses, 2 hours and 200 shots later we were done. They were actually great sports. Taking pictures of your kids isn't always easy because you get frustrated with them a lot easier than any other subject. For example, "put the stick down, Gabe, put the stick down, PUT THE G#@D#@# STICK DOWN!" Yeah, it's super fun going out shooting with Mommy! Anyway, here's a sample of what I came up with.

The expressions just crack me up on this one. How did he know what her face looked like?

Here's what happens if you don't get the "good light". Nothing you can do to get rid of the tree shadows.

No passing zone

And check out all the pumpkins!