We met Mike and Charlie at the zoo today. It was Charlie's first time there and boy did he like it. He squealed and squawked and sat wide-eyed. Kennedy and Easton loved having him along and also loved being spoiled by Uncle Mike.

OK, he liked it as long as a 7 month old could like it.....and then....not so much.

Happy Christmas!

The spirit of Christmas fulfills the greatest need of mankind; love. May your cup runneth over.

That's blasphemy!

Sean's dad came last weekend and we celebrated Christmas early with him. Papa and Gramma were very generous with gifts for the kids and it created quite the excitement at our house. Thanks Kathy and Ron!

Easton loves his Batmobile!
Kennedy adores her new Baby Alive. She named her Lila and takes her EVERYWHERE. Up to this point she has never been a baby doll kind of girl. But, something about this doll that really pees, poops and giggles has entranced her. She is taking her new role as a Mommy very seriously and does not overlook any detail; always buckling Lila in her car seat, making sure she has 3 naps a day, finding a sitter for her while she's gone out (usually Tinkerbell and the fairies are the sitters). In fact, she is so serious about being Lila's mommy that she has taken to calling me Grandma. Huh?? Ask anyone, I love attention to detail... but, that's just not cool.

Merry!

Some of the reasons I love December....

Happy little elves in Santa hats.
Homemade snowflakes.

Gingerbread cookies made at school. Holiday love notes to teachers.
Festive outfits for parties at school.

An innie and an outie

I have one child that absolutely loves the outdoors. She would stay out all day long if I let her.I have another child that loves the outdoors (in moderation). He is all revved up to go and likes all the activities but.....

Shick Boom! He's done.

An aside. I had a very Martha Stewart'esque moment in the midst of building a snow fort. I made these cute little luminaries along our driveway and walkway. They serve no purpose and I will probably never light them (except this one for this picture). The picture doesn't really capture how cool they look...kind of like glowing snow when lit. They sure would be cute if I was having a holiday party or something.

Mukluks

On a zero degree day this little girl stayed cozy warm.

Blizzard!

"She'll see it later honey. Her eyes are frozen."
~Christmas Vacation, 1989

Please Mommy, can I have a friend over?

Easton is bored. Probably of me toting him on errands and scurrying around the house doing domestics. He asks every day to have a friend over. He SO needs preschool. We then talk about being able to go to preschool when you go on the potty and the dialogue goes as follows:

East - "Mommy, sitting on the potty is so boring."
Me - "If you made something happen like pee or poop it would be really exciting! So exciting that I would call all your friends to come over, we'd have a candy party, we'd run wild through the house and sword fight all day long!"
East - "OK Mommy, I'll go on the potty in 3 minutes."

Later in the morning....

East - "Hey Mommy!! I made poop in the potty, come see!!"
Me - "Ummmm East, putting a pine cone in the potty to float is not really going potty."
East - "That IS my poop. Now let's play swords and eat M&M's"

Oy Vey!!

PJ Mondays

Kennedy got to wear footy PJ's to school today. Her school asked kids to donate a pair of new jammies and in return they could wear their own jams on Mondays in December. Couldn't pass that up!

Frasier Fir

Love is the only true adventure. ~Nikki Giovanni

Ten. Ten Spot. 10. Alexander Hamilton. Diez. 10 o’clock. Decade. Perfect 10. Mount Ten. Tennessee. Channel 10. Sum of the first three prime numbers. Ten Four good buddy. Decagon. X. Ten Commandments. Atomic number of neon. Dime. Pearl Jam album. Ten pin bowling. F10. Highway 10.

However you look at it or say it, 10 is a significant number. For me, on this day, it is as well. Today Sean and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.

Things I remember about the day we got married…

• It was cold, really cold. Maybe even below zero.
• My brother and Uncle Booney ran the Lake Harriet Reindeer Run that morning.
• I ran 5 miles on the treadmill before heading to my updo.
• The wedding party shoveled down SUBWAY sandwiches about 30 minutes before the ceremony.
• I was amazingly calm. Probably because I had triple checked my spread sheet .
• I was excited and happy and in love.
• We celebrated, laughed and had fun with lots of people we like and love.
• Sean’s frat buddies got too rowdy and yelled a few expletives on the dance floor – within earshot of my Grams.
• After the reception ended at midnight, a chauffeur drove us around in a retro Mercedes to look at Christmas lights in Rice Park.
• I enjoyed the entire day. No glitches. No tears. No snafus.

My husband will be the first to tell you I am not a romantic. But, on my tenth anniversary, I’ll be a little sappy. I feel lucky and blessed to have a husband that I still love very much. He sees in me the good when I can’t see it, he off-sets my quirks, he overlooks my faults, he compliments me daily, he laughs at my oddities, he appreciates my orderliness, he ignores my irrational words and behaviors, he forgives my mistakes.

Happy happy 10th anniversary Sean! I love you!

Recap

We had a great Thanksgiving in Green Bay this year. My pictures are basically non-existent. Sometimes the burden of documenting things slows me down. So, I chose to skip the ceaseless quest for the perfect pictures and relax and enjoy instead. Highlights of the trip included great food, numerous games of Bingo including fun prizes (see our Bingo caller below), the chance to spend time with Sean's family and a visit with our friends and their adorable triplets.
Alas, with Thanksgiving over......comes the anticipation of and preparations for Christmas. The kids decorated their elf house and are waiting for its occupants to arrive in December.

Fairies trust pixie dust

Kennedy was in Tinkerbelle panache today. She has these moments where she is consumed with one particular role that she is playing. In all her Tink gear and glory she revisited the hope of taking flight. She sprinkled pixie dust on herself and once again launched herself through the air in hopes of levitation.

Sconies (an endearing term for Wisconsin-ites)

Sundays are a football day at our house. Sean hangs the Packer flag. Everyone dons their Packer shirts (with the exception of me). There's usually a big spread of food. I've never been much of a football fan myself. But, after many years of living with a man that bleeds green and gold I have actually learned the rules of the game which makes it a bit more fun to watch. Sean is priming the kids to wear cheese heads and chant the ever familiar, "go Pack go!" cheer. When Easton walked in to his preschool class on Friday his teacher said hi to him. In a most serious looking way and with his husky little voice he skips hello altogether and yells, "Go Packers!"

Cheers to St. Louis!

Today I toast a mother in St. Louis that gave the ultimate gift to my mother. Life. This unknown woman donated the cord blood from her daughter and unknowingly changed our family forever. To her, I give unending gratitude. Cheers!

One year post-transplant I asked my mom what lessons she had learned form her experience. Here is what she said:

"I can’t say that I learned any profound lessons, but the experience I’ve been through this last year has confirmed many of my beliefs: a positive attitude is very important; here today gone tomorrow; everyone has their down times; having a community of friends sure does help; having hope, gratitude, and joy are essential towards healing; there is no use worrying about dying everybody does it; denial is a wonderful coping mechanism; worry isn’t helpful, so I don’t do much; sh… happens; getting dressed and putting on your makeup makes you feel better; don’t say why me, there are always people worse off than you; look around and you will see beauty everywhere; I am surrounded by love. All the gifts we have come from God, it is our job to return them."

We spent Saturday night celebrating another year together.

What's in your backpack??

Since starting kindergarten Kennedy is little miss joiner. I am thinking she is probably the only kindergartner who entered the year book cover drawing contest. She comes up with these wildly creative ideas that revolve around rainbows and trapezoids. One classroom assignment was to disguise a turkey so it could not be found for Thanksgiving dinner. Her pink and purple cupcake was spot-on for this project. It is so fun to see her enthusiasm for learning and her spunk intersect.

Speaking of classroom projects…there is so much stuff that comes home each week I cannot begin to save it all. So, I have decided to make an on-line folder so that I can pitch the actual project into recycling but save a copy on-line so we can look back and see all the things she did.
I love this one. In school they have begun to draw things and put words to their drawings. At conferences her teacher said correct spelling was not a concern she was just wanting kids to sound things out phonetically and spell it how they think it sounds. Ball :)