Here They Come a Caroling!

Now you can pretend the kids are Christmas Caroling at your house!!

Merry Christmas!

We had some extra time to play in the snow today since our plans changed a bit. The kids were pretty bummed that Grandpa and Grandma O. did not come down today because of the snow, but playing in the snowfort always cheers them up.


We'll be headed to church late in the afternoon and we're excited that Ella and James are singing a special song tonight with their choir. Merry Christmas to family and friends near and far!

A Santa Stop!

Santa stopped by our house tonight to check in on the kids. They were, of course, being extra good! Claranna was a little shy at first, having recently awoken from her nap. She warmed up to Santa once he opened up his sack and handed her a little present. James was quiet certain that a red light we saw up the street after Santa left must have been Rudolph's nose glowing. Ella informed us that it wasn't the real Santa, but quickly added in a matter-of-fact voice that it was one of his helper Santa's. Thanks for the visit and gifts, Santa! We are now even more excited for Christmas Eve to arrive. It will be fun to celebrate with family over the next few days. Happy Birthday, Jesus and Merry Christmas to All!

Visiting Santa

We were fortunate to get in a visit with Santa before the big blizzard. It's so fun to watch the kids prep for the big visit and listen to their chatter on the way to the mall. James was very serious in his conversation with Santa, but he remembered and thoughtfully listed three things he is hoping to get and Santa listened very carefully. Santa told Ella that he knows she's been pretty good this year, so now she's quite hopeful about what she might receive on Christmas morning. Claranna didn't cry, but she didn't smile either. She sat on Santa's lap and James and Ella told Santa what they think their little sister would like to see under the tree. Only one more week!! The kids are counting down for us!

Just sharing a little holiday cheer! Enjoy!!

The Big Blizzard of 2010

We had a real Minnesota blizzard this weekend. The grand, “official” total for the storm in our town was 16.0″. This weekend’s storm was the 2nd biggest snow storm in our city's recorded weather history. Our monthly snow total for December is already at 25.5″. I am quite certain that we'll have a white Christmas.

The storm canceled many of our plans and made getting Ella home from the Nutcracker performances she as part of on Saturday really quite scary. We intended to watch Saturday's final ballet performance, but decided to just bring Ella home after her part was finished and attempt not to be one of the many people stuck in the middle of the road.

We made a big pot of soup on Saturday night and listened to the snow blow. In the morning, we were literally snowed in. Our deck patio door was covered with a big drift all the way to the top.

To compare, this is what our house looked like after the nine inches of snow we received the previous Saturday.

Poor James

James had his five year old shots today. He got two sticks in each leg and was not very happy at all. He has spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on the couch trying to recuperate. I think he might take a little after his daddy when it comes to shots...

Ella came home from school and was excited to continue working on the snow fort that she and James have been building. She asked James if he wanted to come outside to play with her in the snow. His response, "You know, I got shot today and I can't walk." Hopefully he'll feel better soon!

Laughter

Claranna and Daddy can be pretty silly sometimes!

To Honor a Great Grandma

This past Sunday, much of my family gathered at the tiny little church where my Grandma was a life long member. Grandma Ruth passed away nearly eleven months ago and we gathered on the first Sunday of Advent at her former church to celebrate her life by dedicating to the church a banner holder purchased as a memorial for my Grandma.

Grandma's little church has a small congregation and doesn't have its own choir, so my aunt thought it would be nice to provide a little special music at the service. It was pretty easy to convince the little cousins that they could form a small choir and sing for Grandma Ruth at her church. I served as the director to Trenton (age 7), Bryce (age 7), Ella (age 7), Brennen (age 5), James (age 5), Trista (almost age 4), and Claranna (age 1.5) who made a most lovely children's choir. The kids were great! Claranna was all business during our practices at home, but was a bit more social at the church. She went out to mingle and giggle with the congregation a bit. We were so proud of all of the kids and we received many compliments on our little choir after the service. It was a wonderful way to honor Grandma Ruth as she loved music and she and my grandpa loved their church.

It's hard to believe it's been almost a year without Grandma. She is still close in our thoughts and in our hearts. Tonight as we hung "handmade by Grandma Ruth" ornaments on our tree Ella said it for me, "I still really miss Grandma Ruth." I miss her too and I suspect I always will. I was so fortunate to have loving relationships with all four of my grandparents. Each one had a special role in my life and a very special place remains for each of them in my heart. I'll openly admit when I think of them a smile comes to my face, but a few tears often moisten my eyes.

Ella and James still talk about Grandma Ruth a lot. They remember her when we walk or drive by her house at the farm. They will look up at the stars at night to find the brightest one and declare it to be Grandma Ruth's star. Ella misses her hugs and treats and James occasionally worries about the toys that he misses that are still in Grandma's toy closet. Claranna always smiles when she sees a picture of Grandma Ruth, so I think she remembers getting Great Grandma's hugs, too.

I know that Grandma Ruth was listening to this little choir from above:

Tis the Season....

for Christmas Cards!!!

Christmas is just around the corner. Thanksgiving was wonderfully busy at our house and now it seems that the days will fly by until Christmas Eve has arrived. My kids are really anxious to get out the annual countdown calendars. Once those calendars are out, the excitement just builds each day. The kids have their calendars, but one of the things that I look forward to is the arrival of the first Christmas card. We haven't received any yet, but I am certain we'll start opening them any day now.

I aspire to be one of those people that gets their cards sent out at the very beginning of December, but as a mom of three kids, that just may be an unattainable aspiration. My cards aren't made yet, but I have already started searching for the perfect photo card. I couldn't help but get really excited about the great Christmas cards at Shutterfly. Many of the cards are printed on beautiful stationary and some of the folded card designs even have space for a little note inside. This would mean I wouldn't have to tuck an extra Christmas letter in some of the cards--what a huge time saver! I haven't picked a card design yet, but I've narrowed down my choices to several of the cards that allow me to use multiple pictures. You all know that I love to share many pictures of my sweet kids and there are several holiday cards on this page that I could happily use with some of the family pictures that we had taken this fall.

Here's another fun little thing I discovered while browsing on Shutterfly: Desk Calendars. If you are in need of a cute Christmas gift idea, check out these adorable self-standing calendars that would be perfect placed near any workspace. Like many of the cards, you can showcase multiple pictures on each calendar page. My head is just spinning with ideas!

Shutterfly's site is so easy to use... Maybe I'll leave the link open on my computer and see if Mark will create a little surprise for me--hint, hint! Happy Christmas card creating and sending everyone!!

Cutest Little Lamp

Take 2

Here's another version of the same song...

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Let Us Entertain You!

James learned a very cute song in preschool this year. My intent was to record him singing it by himself, but little sister had other ideas and every time I turned on the camera, she was was there to sing and dance along.

The words to the song are something like this:
I'm an acorn small and round,
Lying on the cold cold ground.
People come and step on me,
That is why I'm cracked you see.
I'm a nut!
I'm a nut!
I'm a nut!

Gopher's Football

Our friends, Mike and Erin, kindly invited us to join them at a U of M football game this past weekend. We always have a great time when we get a chance to get together with those two and this time was no different. We met up for a very late lunch at Granite City Brewery so that we could hangout and chat where it was warm. Then we did some tailgating with some of their friends. It was chilly, but we had some good drinks to warm us up. I really like the festive atmosphere at college football games...so fun! There was maroon and gold everywhere along with a fair amount of red and white, too. In fact, there were some very dedicated Ohio fans sitting right behind us. At the end of the night, the Gopher's didn't get to celebrate a win, but we were able to celebrate a great day with great friends and that's what matters most!

There was some added entertainment at the game since it was Halloween weekend.

Halloween Fun!

We had busy weekend and we were glad to have lots of time for Halloween fun today! We were able to visit some special family members in the late afternoon and join some great friends for a festive Halloween dinner and trick-or-treating in a large group tonight. Ella chose to be a dairy princess, so she was a perfect escort for our cute little cow, Claranna. James was a very handsome race car driver. Mark and I wore our best farm hats and clothes to complete our mainly farm theme. It was a fun time!

The kids collected lots of treats and Mark and I can't wait to eat them up for them. Shh....don't tell the kids! It was really fun for all of us to get to hang out with our friends. By the end of the evening, Claranna figured out that people were giving her candy and she was not so happy that we were taking it away from her. We walked a total of eight blocks, which was plenty since the temperature dropped pretty quickly and someone had to carry Claranna nearly the entire way. Thanks to our early start, the kids were wore out and settled in for bed by 8 p.m.. It was a perfect ending to a great day!

I'm also going to share a couple of pumpkin pictures. This year, Ella carved her pumpkin by herself. She really impressed us! James and Mark created a fancy skull pattern while Claranna and I made a more traditional "kitty" pumpkin. The pictures are a little out of order tonight, but I'm too tired to fix them!

Poor Claranna

Claranna has had a rough week. She came down with a fever on Sunday afternoon and a terrible cough quickly developed. She's spent the entire week trying to recover. When you find your normally hyper-busy baby crashed like this on the floor in the middle of the day, then you know something's up.

Farm Friends

It's a long weekend for Ella, so she's having a friend sleep over tonight. Her friend has to leave pretty early in the morning, so she came today in the middle of the afternoon. We took her over to the farm for some fun. Ella had a lot of fun showing her around the farm. They played with the calves, picked corn, rode a tractor with Grandpa and hunted for a pumpkins in the garden. Ella's friend said the farm was, "Soooo Awesome!"

Fall Fun

We just had to go find a big pile of leaves to play in. Since we really don't have any big trees in our yard, we took a trip to a local park. It has become an annual tradition and I am sure we will go there again next year.