SNOW Much Fun!!

It finally warmed up enough for us to go out and play in ALL of the snow that we have had. We got several inches of fresh snow on Christmas Eve (to add to the large base we have already accumulated) and had a great time building snowmen. This December has definitely been a snowy one... Carter even had his first snow day, I didn't know they cancelled school for snow in Milwaukee. We have nearly broken the record for the snowiest December in recorded history. Looks like we moved here just in time to make history!!

Jared, Carter, and Dane (our neighbor) also worked hard to build a snow cave in the backyard. Jared thought it would be a great idea to sleep in it with Carter... I wasn't so keen on that idea. Mostly I didn't want them to get cold and come crawling into my nice warm bed in the middle of the night. They were pretty proud of the cave and were quite disappointed when the rain came today and washed it away (they never did get a chance to sleep in it... oh well, I'm sure there will be plenty more snow which equals plenty more opportunities to build another one).


And we finally made it to one of the nearby sledding hills yesterday. It was a beautiful day and I even made it down the hill a few times before deciding I wasn't quite ready to knock this baby out of me! There was a little jump that Carter had a blast going over, time and time again. Gage even got brave enough to catch some air all by his lonesome.

Although I am already getting a wee bit tired of the snow, there IS a lot of fun to be had!!!!

Merry Christmas!

HO HO WOOF!

Carter has been asking to go and see Santa at the mall for several weeks now (ever since he came home from school one day and Gage bragged that he had seen Santa at the mall that day). However, he wanted to go at a time that Daddy could go too leaving the window of opportunity very small. Well, on Monday Jared got home from work a little early and we thought a trip to see Santa would be a fun activity for Family Night. It wasn't until we got there that we learned that the night we had chosen was also "Dog Night." What's that you might ask? Well apparently for all of the dog lovers among us they have several nights set aside for dog owners to bring their dog to the mall for a chance to sit on Santa's lap and Monday night happened to be the last night in the series. Is it just me or is this craziness? Okay, so don't get me wrong, I like dogs, but I guess I wouldn't be classified as a "dog lover" because when we get a dog I will NOT be taking it to the mall for a picture with Santa.

When I saw the line I tried begging, pleading, and even resorted to bribery to try to get my boys to come back another night... all to no avail. So, what did we do?? We waited in line for an hour and a half with all of the dogs. I must admit it was entertaining to say the least. At least the dogs kept Carter and Gage entertained while we waited! So Carter's big question and my question for you is, "does Santa speak dog?!?"

Gage had a blast petting all of the dogs while we waited in line, Carter on the other hand was a little more reserved and was more concerned about where they were going to go to the bathroom.

Yes, there were plenty of dogs in costume... This little guy was dressed as one of Santa's elves. (Sometimes I think people with dogs in lou of kids are a wee bit CrAZy!)

It was quite entertaining to see peoples choice in dogs from massive Great Danes that looked more like small horses than dogs (not quite sure how they sat on Santa's lap) to the little nasty Hairless Chinese Crested... the ugliest dog I have ever seen. The funny thing is that I couldn't remember exactly what the name of the dog was so Jared joked that I should google "world's ugliest dog" and lo and behold, the hairless chinese crested came up as the top result.

And then of course the picture we waited in line an hour and a half for!! All so that Carter could tell Santa that he wanted..."a surprise!"

Merry Christmas!!

New Traditions

Since this is our first Christmas on our own we have had the opportunity to establish traditions. We have chosen which traditions we would continue from each of our families and we have been able to start some of our own traditions. One of the new traditions (something we have done before, but decided this year that we should do it every year) is that of getting together with friends to make gingerbread houses. This year Gage decided that we would make a Gingerbread train instead of a house... who says you always have to go with the in crowd. So, we made a train! The thing I love about making Gingerbread houses with kids this age is that WAY more candy makes it into their little tummies than on the gingerbread.

Merry Christmas!

O Tannenbaum

I absolutely LoVe our Christmas tree!! Maybe it's the fact that we didn't put a tree up last year that makes this tree that much better... in our defense it was the first time we didn't put a tree up because we were gone for 3 weeks for Christmas and New Years. It seems as though the last few times we have had a tree we borrowed a fake tree... which just isn't right by my book, I'm all about a real Christmas tree, mess and all!! We wanted to go cut one down at one of the Christmas tree farms around here, but since they are only open on the weekends and Jared was out of town the first two weekends in December and I was gone the weekend before that, so we decided that Home Depot would have to do... hey their price is right!

We were debating between two trees and then it was discovered that one of the trees had a birds nest in it. Apparently, finding a bird's nest in your tree is said to be sign of good luck in Icelandic lore. Who can't use a little good luck? Besides, Carter and Gage were emphatic that we get the tree with the nest so there really wasn't any question.

Thanks Akiko for tagging me, and getting me to make a post about our Christmas tree!

Ice Skating Comedy

Imagine a seven and a half month pregnant woman on ice skates, keeping in mind the compromised balance when you are pregnant... to that picture add a 5 year old who has never been ice skating, on ice skates... now add a 2 year old on ice skates (and no he has never been ice skating either)! Now imagine all of the laughs the other ice skaters and observers had as they watched our little trio make our way around the rink. Okay so Jared was there with us too, he just was just a lot more proficient then the rest of us (do you really think I would go ice skating at an outdoor rink when it was 17 degrees out without some coersion?) All I can say is that I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time... we had a great time!