We Got A...

Fish! Or more specifically, a piranha. Craig had a "pet" piranha when I met him. It lived for 10 years before an unfortunate power outage ended his long life. So we still had the tank, filter, and heater and Craig had been talking it up with the kids. We were watching fish stores in the Milwaukee area for piranha deliveries but they apparently go fast once in the store. Over the holiday break we were in Manitowoc and Craig decided to stop in at the original fish store where he bought his first piranha and sure enough, they had 5 of them! Kelsey and Drew were very excited to pick one out and buy feeder guppies for him right away. He is obviously the most active when he's hungry and loves getting treats at night before the kids go to bed.

Got her hair cut!

Going to the mall when it is too cold outside to do anything else...

And getting to ride the odd-ish mall games!

2016 - Sledding and the Zoo

We didn't make any plans for New Year's Day and planned on recovering from all the holiday traveling. Our friends called and said that her husband needed to expend some energy and invited us to meet them at the Zoo. We had let our Zoo pass lapse but it was free on New Year's Day! We spent almost 2 hours there and saw almost everything we could. A lot of the animals were inside but they were so much more active! The kids were loving it - big ones and little ones:)

Then we took the kids sledding at the school down the road. We usually have the hill to ourselves and it's close enough that when the kids want to go home after 30 min, no one puts up a fight. It was a bright sunny day and just cold enough not to get too warm in all your winter gear.

I didn't realize til now that the large building through the trees is my hospital

Racing down the hill

Christmas time was here!

Of course we did lots of traveling to see all the family for the holidays. It starts on Christmas Eve and ends the day after Christmas. We started festivities Christmas Eve morning, when Santa came to our house. Then we headed up to my sister's and did Christmas with my dad's side. That is my "big" family that now has multiple other little people running around so the kids have their own kind of fun with second(? or would it be twice removed?) cousins. Christmas morning, Santa came to my sister's house and then we headed to my mom's. And finally, the day after we made the trek to Manitowoc to visit Craig's extended family. We've done it this way for a long time and the kids roll with it pretty well. This was the first year, I believe, that the kids actually understood the timeframe of Christmas. Being in school obviously helps. Kelsey knew it was on a Friday. I could explain to them how Santa has lots of houses to get to so he came to ours early but he was also going to Auntie Tara's. For as much traveling as we did, the days were very low key and unrushed and relaxing. We may have even started new traditions!!

Christmas Eve morning at our house!

Christmas Morning at Tara and Matt's

After presents and before breakfast, the boys went pheasant hunting! It only took 30 min. Drew thought it was SO COOL that Uncle Matt shot twice and got the bird. (that giant dog scares the kids but he really just wants to love everyone and play.)

Craig won tickets through his school to see "Charlie Brown Christmas" at the Todd Wehr Theater downtown. The actors, except Snoopy, were all kids under 16. I took Kelsey because it was football Sunday and the boys wanted to stay home. We LOVED it and hope to do it again; Kelsey says we should bring Drew!
(the only picture I could get before it started - no photography)

Cabin Christmas

We began our Christmas celebration with Craig's family the weekend before Christmas. This year, we all met in the Dells at one of the big resorts private cabins. It was definitely big enough to hold 3 families comfortably and we were able to use the water park as well! We had the pleasure of watching quite of few deer move in and out of the woods throughout the weekend. We also took time to get some updated family photos. It was a great way to start off our holiday season!

Light saber fight, of course

His first fishing pole

Pink and purple unicorn

Watching the deer from the patio

Ella and Kelsey

Beautiful family photos by Casey Hein of Chasing Lilies Photography

We Got It

So you know that real neat GI bug that has been going around...oh yea, it hit us too. Drew was a mess last Saturday; woke up with blood shot eyes and runny nose. I thought he was just starting a cold - awesome, let's get it out before the holidays. Sunday was their church Christmas program and we dropped them off for rehearsal at 9:30 and at 9:50 they called us to pick up Drew because he vomited. SUPER. So we headed home and Drew was sick until 3. He rallied pretty good, even went to school Monday but when I picked him up it seemed a fever had found him. He spent Tuesday at the sitter's for a day of rest. Wednesday I had worked until 10:45 pm only to be woken up by Drew at 2 am because he had diarrhea. And at 6 am Kelsey was up with diarrhea and vomiting. Drew seemed to have recovered from his 2 am mishap and was out the door to school with dad while Kelsey bought some couch time with mom. Craig texted me from school around noon saying he wasn't feeling the greatest...oh no! It sucks when the parents go down and the children aren't at 100% either. Kelsey spent the day vomiting and then ate a full dinner at 5:30. Craig was down for the count as soon as he got home Thursday. Friday everyone went to school and now mom is praying (and washing her hands incessantly) that I don't get it too! (And we are out the door right after school/work for the annual weekend-before-Christmas Bonin Christmas!)

~Totally unrelated photos. We went downtown for their tree lighting and then caught the holiday train going over the river.

Santa! I know him!

So I was waiting for some good photos before I posted again...I know it's a little bit my fault for not taking any since the beginning of November. Last month whooshed by and now here it is almost Christmas! We had pretty low key Thanksgiving with family and picked up our Christmas tree that same weekend. The kids have been very involved with the holidays this year. They helped decorate the tree and some of the house. They are sure to turn on the Christmas lights when they get home from school. We attended the annual pancake breakfast with Santa at my step-dad's fire station in rural Beechwood. Last year, Kelsey was not on board but she did pretty good this time. Both kids were pretty shy when it came to actually talking to Santa but he knew just what to say to them!

This past weekend was a welcomed break at home before our holiday travelling really picks up. Friday night we celebrated my brother's birthday. Saturday, the kids helped me wrapped all the presents; very picky about who had which wrapping paper and gift tag! Sunday, today, was supposed to be their church Christmas program but Drew got sick during rehearsal and we had to leave :( The preschoolers were just doing a song and a poem but their Sunday school teacher said Drew and Kelsey were her strongest "performers". There's always next year.

Next weekend we head to the Dells to celebrate the Bonin Christmas in a cozy, wooded cabin. We're diligently washing our hands and disinfecting to keep everyone healthy for the holidays!

Sweet girl

Just a little shy ;)

Mr. Benson, not so sure about Santa

Oh, Hello November

November just sneaks right up on you once you've finished Halloween! Thankfully (re: sarcasm) the kids both changed their mind about Halloween costumes about mid-month. I was all set to make Drew into a monster truck driver and convert his powerwheels truck into the Gravedigger. And then he drops on me that he wants to be Mario, actually Mario Kart Wii. (He was Luigi last year). I was gonna tell him, "hey this is life and you made a decision already and I bought stuff for it," but then I remembered our friend's kids LOVE to dress up and she has basically EVERY boy costume you can think of. Sure enough, they actually had 2 Mario costumes. So he still drove his powerwheels, which I think he thought was still part of his costume because of the Wii game. He did not trick-or-treat Saturday night with our friends because he was getting over an icky stomach bug.

Kelsey had originally told me she wanted to be Molly, from the Bubble Guppies so I bought some fabric for my mom to create the costume. She would have to spray her hair pink, all very exciting things for a little girl. Then our sitter gives Kelsey a couple cute princess dresses to play dress-up in and she tells me that she wants to be one of those for Halloween. Seriously. I told her since we were going to 2 days, she could be on of each. She totally rocked each outfit!

Kelsey with some neighborhood kids - she's all the way over to right,
in pink, of course! This was Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon  by my mom; much better weather than Saturday.
Drew and his cousin, Benson

Someone was handing out candy canes!

Seriously, this kid is cute!

She's wearing a "fin" skirt, rocking some sparkly pink shoes - Kelsey heaven.

The view on our last leg of trick-or-treating in Beechwood