How much fun is Christmas...

Our backyard Christmas Eve

Christmas was wonderful this year! Christmas Eve we went to our friends house (thanks D for letting us invade your home this year). They just had their 3rd baby and she adorable! Kate is lucky to have a little friend to play with :).

Auntie Nicole with the girls & Kate and Erica close up...go to sleep Erica or Santa won't come..

Then we headed home around 11:30 and made sure their was milk and cookies for Santa and the kids were asleep within minutes. The next morning (at 5:30 am) I heard the kids come running to wake us up. We were all up and the opening of the presents began! That was done by 6 and Jared & Kate headed back to bed :). We then headed out to Papa & Yaya's for Christmas with them. Honey even got some bones out there that she opened by herself. Saturday we went out to my sisters house for Christmas with my mom (Nana) and Sarah's family. As usual the kids had a blast playing with their cousins all day. Then my dad's side of the family all got out to Sarah's house around lunch time and we all caught up with laughter and funny stories and games (if you haven't played the game "Things" you should check it out...very fun). Some favorite gifts this year were an electric drum kit for Jack (actually it is for everyone but he uses it the most right now), webkinz for Grace, and a Bumbo chair & ocean playmat for Kate. Jared and I had gotten our Christmas presents early so we didn't have anything on Christmas but I was happy to get a Cricut Expression (a die cutting machine for my scrapbooking) and a Garmin GPS (for my lack of direction). Jared got some music equipment & hunting gear he was really wanting.

The drums....at least we can plug in headphones :)

All this Christmas stuff is making her tired...

Playing Rock Band and opening gifts at Sarah's (Josh is quite the singer!)

Opening gifts at Yaya & Papa's

So now that Christmas is over it is time to get back to reality and focus on our goal of 2009.....Get out of debt! We have our house on the market...if you know anyone that would like to move the Verona area and live on the only lake Verona has to offer please let me know! I will be doing my next post about our house and why we are making this decision.

Merry Christmas....

We didn't get around to sending out cards this year...wasn't it just Halloween a couple days ago? Anyways...here is our Christmas card for this year. I will try to get some out in the mail in the next couple days but for those of you who stop by to check on our little part of the world you get a preview :). I was thrilled to finally get a picture of all 3 kids smiling their great smiles and looking at the camera. That was my final goal of the year....onto 2009.....Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May your 2009 be filled with blessings and may you find peace and happiness in Christ Jesus our Lord :)

A post for the boys....

The Great White Hunter and his sidekick Jabber Jaws

So this year was the first time Jared ever bow hunted. He found a very nice bow on Craigslist and of course had to get a target to practice on. Jack and Jared spent many nights in the backyard practicing their shots. Jack can actually hit the target every time (so can Jared). I tried a couple times with Jacks bow and never came close....didn't we have a lesson on bow practice in high school...I am pretty sure I wasn't one of the people that would clear the target and send my arrow towards the people on the track :). Then bow season opened and the Mighty hunter decided it was a great idea to take his side kick out in the woods with him (and a deer call). They came back empty handed and the Mighty Hunter said that his side kick was very good at using the deer call and all the deer knew their exact location :). They went out a total of 10-15 times in the bow season and it resulted in Mighty Hunter-0, Deer-15. The Mighty Hunter was discouraged....the sidekick, ready for the next hunt :).

The Great White Hunter & Jabber Jaws decided to take the other sidekick "Boss" out with them on one of the final bow hunts...She wasn't impressed.

Then the gun season opened. The Mighty Hunter was all ready. He had shot deer before this way so he knew it could be done. We went up to my mom's house where my sister and brother-in-law have many many many acres of prime deer hunting land (along with all the necessary toys: 4 wheelers). The first morning out he went solo...no sidekick for added support. He came home empty handed. Then they went out that evening. The sidekick was all for going with and sitting up in the new huge triangle deer stand Jeff had built. Off into the sunset they road...glowing a brilliant orange up over the hill. We waiting so patiently for them to come back and when they did. Jack....aka Jabber Jaws...came bursting through the door yelling "WE GOT ONE". We all got our coats on and went out to see it. Grace wanted to poke it's eyes...I don't know why but she likes to poke their eyes (she does this with fish that we catch too)...not my child. Jack didn't stop talking about how it all happened for days.

The Great White Hunter and his sidekick Jabber Jaws ready to go and with the reward!

Then the Mighty Deer hunter went out with his best friend on some public hunting land around Madison and was soooo excited to come home with a pretty nice size doe. He says it is the biggest he has shot.

The Great White Hunter and his best friend Bud

Then the following weekend we traveled back to my mom's and the prime deer hunting land to put some deer stands up that were bought so Jack could sit in a stand with Jared (they are the nice 2 man stands that look like a ski lift chair). Jeff wouldn't be up there until late Saturday night, so it was up to me to help the Mighty Deer Hunter with the stands. He got them all put together in the dining room and the next day he strapped them on the 4-wheeler and off we went. This is the 1st time EVER I have driven a 4 wheeler. It would have been ok but we were driving it in snow through fields (and my 4 wheel drive was broken). I was terrified and I had the side kick on my 4 wheeler asking to get off and he would walk :)...he didn't really trust my driving skills at this point. When Jared realized my 4 wheel drive was not working we traded 4-wheelers and it was great from then on. We got the 1st stand in the tree with no problems. Jack didn't like the tree Jared selected and kept saying it was too skinny and it wasn't safe but we had it all hooked up and that's where it stayed...for now :). We headed back to Nana's and Jack complimented me on not "whining so much" on the way home....thanks Buddy! I fed the baby while Jared hooked the 2nd tree stand onto the 4 wheeler and this time we only took the good 4 wheeler. We finally found the perfect tree and got it all attached. I even climbed up into it and it was pretty comfy and the view was GREAT. We then decided that the 1st stand had to be moved to a better location. We found a huge pine tree that was at the base of hundreds of deer tracks! PERFECT LOCATION! We unhooked it from tree A and carried it down a path to tree B. Not too hard and it worked much better on that tree. The view again was great! That night Jared went out with Jack to hunt from the pine tree (we call that stand the Naughty Pine). They were so excited to come home with another doe!

Looking for the perfect tree. The 1st tree it went in and Jack not looking to sure it was safe:

Jack was able to be with Jared for 2 out of 3 kills. It was a great year for both the Great White Hunter and his sidekick Jabber Jaws :) Sorry I don't have any pictures of the last deer or me in any stands...kind of hard to take my picture when I always have the camera and there were no deer around to ask for help :)

Christmas Cards....

Of course I wanted to get our Christmas cards out by the 1st week of December. We have a new member of the family we want to show off. Have I gotten a decent picture of the kids yet...nope. I am still working on it. Here are some of the out takes from today at Nana's. Why are the older kids the hard ones most of the time? So, if you don't get a Christmas card don't worry....no one did! I am thinking about being different and doing Valentines Day cards this year :). At least we have the blog :)

Then I got some of Kate by the window because she can't run away from me and my camera...yet :).

I am working on the final deer hunting post. Jared and Jack had a great year and deserve their own blog story all about it so check back...I will try to get it all posted in the next couple days.

Happy 3 months sweet Kate :)

Yes, Kate is already 3 months old and has been a HUGE blessing for our family. She makes us all smile..even if we are crabby at 3:30 in the morning and don't want to smile. Actually I can't complain at all about her sleeping....she usually sleeps from 9 pm to 3:30 or 4:30 am. She has learned to YELL....just like Jack did. We used to call him a Teradactile (sp?)...you know..the dinasaur bird :). Here are some pictures I took of Kate last week....she is soooo sweet :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, has life gotten crazy! We spent Turkey Day at Nana's so the guys could all go hunting. Jack was in paradise (so was Jared!). Jack was soooo excited when he was invited to go sit in the big triangle deer stand with Jared...and even more excited when Jared actually shot a doe! He is still talking about it (I won't post the picture of Jack with the dead deer unless I get enough requests). Grace even got to take a tour of the land on the 4 wheelers with Jared and Uncle Jeff and help put daddy's tree stand up in a tree. Kate and I snuggled inside the entire time :).

On Thanksgiving Day we were blessed to have almost the entire family join us at Nana's. I really wanted to get a group picture but it never happened :(. We ate far too much food and it all tasted soooo good! Nothing like good food and good company! Great-Grandma had her hands full with rocking baby Kate....now if we could get her to stop calling Kate a HE.

Then I found out that one of my best friends was going to be induced & have her baby on Friday...Black Friday...don't doctors know that people shop. I was honored to be asked to be in the delivery room and even gave up Black Friday shopping to be there! Jack and Grace went to Yaya & Papa's (thank you!) and Kate joined us in the labor/delivery room for a while until our friends Shawn and Lorraine picked her up (thank you!). Dionne rocked and delivered a healthy baby girl, Erica Marie (9 lbs 4 oz). Then Dionne decided to scare us all and have LOW blood pressure that they couldn't get up. She is now ok and feeling much better...she is happy to be able to walk around without seeing stars.

I picked up the kids and got home around 11:30 pm and then was promptly woken up at 1 am to Grace informing me that she puked on her bed. NOT COOL. She has been sick ever since and is finally sleeping as I type this. Poor baby...she just sits on her little stool in front of the toilet crying. I also found out that 2 other people that were at Thanksgiving are also now throwing up....NOT COOL. Say a prayer that the puking stops with Grace and that I didn't somehow spread that to Dionne and the new baby. We were all healthy when I went up there :(....or so I thought. So that has been our week....here's hoping for a dull week ahead! Oh, here are some pictures I just took of Kate (and Jack)....She is too cute :)....

Fall...

The weather here has been wonderful (until today...we could get some flurries). The kids wanted to jump in a leaf pile so Jared being the smart daddy that he is got out the leaf blower and blew them a leaf pile instead of using the rake :). They had a great time! Kate didn't care for the leaves too much, but she tolerated a picture of two for me.

Grace is still loving ballet and is excited to have her recital...too bad that isn't until March! Jack can't wait to out hunting again with Jared. I hope they get a deer! I actually went out with Jared one night and "helped" watch for the illusive deer....we didn't see any. It is so peaceful just sitting in the woods, listening to wind in the leaves, the birds and other animals. I know why Jared loves it so much. You get a lot of praying done while you sit there. Jared said his prayers have turned into a little begging for the deer to come to him :).

Kate turned 2 months on Nov 3rd and I can't wait to take her to her checkup next week so we can see how much she has grown. I am guessing she is about 14 pounds and 24 1/2 inches. We will see how close I am :). Here is her 1 month and 2 month pictures on the couch...

A little bit of change! She is smiling all the time now and trying to coo. She is so close to laughing- I can't wait! This is one of my favorite pictures that I have taken...

Here is the picture we chose when we took her to Sears for her 2 month pictures.

Trick or Treat and Happy Birthday!

What an exciting day we had! I hope everyone else enjoyed Halloween as much as we did! We didn't get home from our neighborhood Halloween party until after midnight. Grace is still sleeping and it is 9:00...she NEVER sleeps in! Here is how our day went (at least the good parts)....

First, it was Honey's 2nd birthday so Jack and Grace made her a "cake"....she LOVED it!

Then Yaya came over with treat bags for the kids....Kate was actually awake to see her this time!

All day the kids were asking if it was time to get into their costumes....finally I could say YES- Get your costumes on! Kate was the only one not to impressed with that idea. Jack is a football player, Grace was a caterpillar and Kate is a pea pod.

Then, in the evening we went to our neighbors house for dinner and trick or treating. In our neighborhood all the families with kids get together and the kids travel as a pack ahead of the adults. As soon as the pack gets treats from a house they know they can turn out the lights and relax the rest of the night because that is it for Trick or Treaters :). Here is this years pack....

And, the stash at the end of the night......