Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Friday, December 28

Dashing Through the Snow...One more Stop

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Irv's Christmas Day

Drew looking through all his loot from Derek and Cassandra

Uncle Derek helping Drew put his matchbox car track together

Table and Chairs from grandma and grandpa!

With their names painted on the chairs


Oh yes, a smart phone!

Talking books from Aunt Tara. Kelsey also got her first "baby" from Tara,
a cabbage patch doll. I'll have to get a picture of her with it!

Thursday, December 27

Over The Fields We Go...To Another Christmas!

Stahl Christmas Eve


(Pardon the glare - his shoes are reflective! And they are not the shoes
he was supposed to wear but there are battles you just don't fight with toddlers!)

Showing my cousin Nick the play house!

Where'd he go?


All the snow up by my dad's.

Wednesday, December 26

Oh What Fun It Was

Bonin family - Manitowoc Christmas 2012!


Watching TV with cousin Braden



Kelsey interested in Ella's gift


Playing with one of the many new gifts from grandma and grandpa!

Friday, December 21

And It Begins

We are getting ready to head out and travel around the state to visit family for the holidays, starting tomorrow and ending Tuesday night. I'm making lots of lists and packing clothes, hoping I don't forget anything. We are excited for the kids to understand a little more about Christmas this year.

My sister was essentially snowed-in at our place the last 2 days. She lives an hour away and works in Milwaukee. Because of all the snow they were going to get/got at her place, it was safer for her to stay here and know she would get to work and not have to drive. We only have about an inch of snow; it was mostly rain. But that gave my sister and I some quality time drinking wine and hanging out, like old times.

Drew helping dad

They have recently started pulling the toys out of the toybox so
they can sit in it.

This is a "selfie" of Drew. He has figured out the buttons on the camera
and knows the red light means a picture will be taken. This was the best one!

 
Another pic of the family Christmas basement. My sister made the
banner and pretty snowflakes on the right.
 

Sunday, December 16

9 Days Til Christmas

Sometimes I think the good thing about winter is that you won't be awaken to the tweeting of birds at the crack of dawn. On the weekend. When you are *trying* to sleep in. BUT...if you live in a fairly wooded area, you might be woken up to the HOOTING OF OWLS! What the...is right. It was about 6 this morning. I actually thought it was Drew because he's been making this "Ooo Ooo" noise. Then I got up to go to the bathroom and the ooo's got louder. Weird, I thought. Then I started to wake up some more and realized there was a rhythm and pattern... and it was TWO owls hooting at each other! Well, now I was up and I listened to them for about 40 min. That's all I have to say about it - I thought it was pretty cool.

I don't have a lot of pictures of the kids...we've been incredibly busy and everytime I bring the camera out I get pictures like this:

 
The kids just want to play with the camera and are too distracted when they see it to "let" me take a nice picture of them! The rest of the pics are of Kelsey. I took her along with me to decorate my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas. The 3 traumatic and tragic deaths this year are all from the same family so we decided to do "backwards" Christmas (that's not actually the name, but I decided to make it "G" rated for the sake of the younger readers), take their favorite "colors" and use them to decorate the place we celebrate with that side of the family. 

Coloring

Holding mom's wine glass

Playing with baby Archar and Auntie Cassandra
 
And the finale - backwards Christmas could not be celebrated
without having an upside down tree! It is truly screwed
into the ceiling of their basement - decorated in purple for Sabrina,
red for Tom, and orange for my dad.






It will be a different Christmas where we all try to find a new "normal" without our loved ones. As we are still processing our own grief, I can't even begin to feel what is going on at the school and community in CT.



And here's my buddy eating a sandwich! He bummed around all day
with dad when Kelsey was with me. So smiley - he says "cheese" now
when he sees a camera.

Tuesday, December 4

We're Back

Of course it's been a long two weeks but Kelsey and Drew have been the bright spots in all of this. They have been champs as we spent a week up in my hometown by my dad's and the constant back and forth these past and upcoming weekends.


Couch potatoes


Lovin' the piano at my dad's. They were actually respectful and didn't pound on it.




This "toy" was a hit! My dad was going to give it to the twins at Christmas.
Early present for them - they spent hours in front of it. (It's a bunch of fish that
"swim" around.) Sad that my dad couldn't see how much they enjoyed it.

Another "toy" my dad was going to give the kids. This cool little trike has
a basket on the back so both kids can partake! (Late nights up at my dad's turned
into early mornings with toddlers which equals pj's for the kids until we were
awake enough to start the day.)