Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Kyle’s Holiday Concert

Can you find him??? 

I will give you a clue…he is on the right side, wearing a white shirt, standing to the left of a boy in blue.

Puggle Puppies!

My sister’s dog had 7 puppies over Thanksgiving. Unfortunately they lost one of the little girls. So now they have 5 boys and 1 girl.  Over the weekend we were finally able to go down and see them.  They are SOOOO cute and as you can see Ava was in love!

Leslie with all her babies!

Preparing for the Holidays

I am so excited for Christmas this year….I just can’t wait to see my kids open their gifts and just be together.  Over the past weekend we decorated Christmas cookies and prepared for Allicia’s Girl Scout Christmas party and our annual Schmitz cookie bake. Our kitchen was a disaster when we were done, but it was so much fun!

As you can see the men helped out a lot! 

I thought this was too cute not to share....

Click  to see Our Christmas Dance

Messages from Santa....

Click on the links below to see this years messages from Santa for each of my kids. 

Message for Kyle

Message for Allicia

Message for Ava

So what do you do when you’re snowed in??

Stay in your pajamas all day, watch movies, sip on something warm, and snuggle together….in a bed made on the living room floor.

Here is Ava pulling the blankets off our bed and dragging them into the living room to join Allicia making a bed.

Once the bed was finished it wouldn’t be complete with out the  dog.

As you can see Ava wanted to make sure Maddie was warm in the bed too.

 

BTW….can anyone find Allicia in that pile of blankets and pillows??

Wild Winter in Minnesota

 

We spent this last weekend nuzzled in the house while it snowed like crazy outside.  We had somewhere between 16-20 inches of snow and blizzard conditions.  Thankfully Dave just bought a new snow blower…so it saved us from HOURS of brutal shoveling.

After the storm…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a drift out Allicia’s window.  She thought it was pretty cool.

Ava Watching Tangled in 3D

Over the past weekend I took the girls to the movie theatre to see Tangled in 3D.  It is the cutest movie and definitely a movie we will buy when it comes out on DVD.  Here she is sporting her 3D glasses.

At first she was unsure about wearing them…but after she got started eating her popcorn she forgot they were on her head and just enjoyed the movie.  It was funny to see her jump when things would fly at us.

Ava!

She isn’t even two yet but she sure does act much older than she is.  She seems to be talking like crazy and putting together longer sentences everyday.  Some of the things that come out of her mouth we are all so surprised with. 

The other night Kyle said…”Sure dat” at the supper table….sure enough the next thing out of her mouth was…sure, dat!  I tell you, nothing gets past that girl.

That same night she was stomping her foot (which is something she does when she isn’t getting her way) because she wanted Dave to turn on her TV show (Sprout).  He told her she had to say please.  Well, our stubborn little girl refused to say it.  She ended up in her room in a time out…45 minutes later after checking on her numerous times.  She still refused to say it.  We continued to just leave her in her room to “think” and before we knew it she was singing and screaming (as if she wanted us to know she was having fun) in her room.  The little stinker knew full well what she was doing and was just pushing out buttons.  We definitely have our hands full already and I am not looking forward to her teenage years.

Rochester’s Version of The Christmas Market

Last year downtown Rochester started hosting their version of the German Christmas market. I was never able to get down there last year, but this year we made a point to get down there before the weather turned too bad.  Below are some pictures of Rochester’s Christmas market….complete with Gluhwein.  This is for you Martin!

And here I am at a REAL German Christmas Market, back in 2005, drinking Gluhwein with my dear friend Martin.

   

The Christmas Season is here!

And here we are decorating the tree and putting lights on the house. 

I can’t believe it is Christmas time already…and another year is coming to a close.