Happy Holiday Memories

Christmas was fabulous as usual. Christmas eve was spent at Joe's parents and Hannah was a petition reader this year at the Christmas Eve mass. We are so proud that she was willing to step out of her comfort zone and do those things. After Santa came on Christmas day we headed over to Joe's parents again for chicken and shrimp dinner. YUM YUM! Joe's mom is the best cook! We spent the night playing our new games then headed home.


The next day Joe and I spent 3 hours making Avril a fort. We had a good time being children while ours were all gone. Parents don't really have to wait for them to have fun right???? The best part of the day though was while Avril and I were making our snow girl. I was rolling the final part of the head and low and behold I rolled up Joe's VAN key!!! It had been missing for about a week and sure enough there it was.

Finally our Christmas celebrations ended with us going up to my parents on Saturday. Mom and dad sent Sam, Stoney, Joe, Hannah , Isaac and me to a tubing hill not far from their house. What a blast!!! This hill his was mamoth compaired to the one I have been to in Maple Grove. Isaac took one look at it and said "no way" so we had to coax him quite a bit to get him to go. As a matter of fact he cried the entire way up the hill the 1st time around. He was fine once he went down. After tubing we went back to my parents and had yet another wonderful feast. Then we all played gutar hero and a few board games before heading to bed kindof early.

Sam woke me up at 2 in the morning with Avril puking. Not fun. I figured it was all the junk she ate but I was wrong because, Braeden then puked all over the kitchen floor in the morning and I was sick the next night. Hannah's friends mom just called and said Hannah was sick last night also. Watch out everyone it seems to be going around.

Aside from all the sickness it's been the Happiest of Holidays. I can't wait to see what the new year brings our family. Heres the part where I have decided to make some predictions for next year... Let's see if they happen.

Joe: He is going to put his mind to rest on weather or not he will have a job. I am guessing he will get 3 offers at one time.
Hannah: She is going to place in one of the top 3 in a swim meet.
Isaac: He is going to realize this year that there is no use in fighting with Avril anymore and he is going to learn to just walk away. Yep that's what he is going to do.
Avril: She is going to stop butting heads with Joe and I and become the best girl ever.:)
Owen: He is going to slow down a bit. I can't imagine there is much more for him to do. Unless he starts talking I guess I predict he will start talking this next year.
& Me: I am going to get 2 A's in my first ever college courses.

I would love to hear everyone else's predictions. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Owen's 1st Steps

Part of me is excited and part of me is extremely sad. Our little boy is growing up. Watch the video to see Owen's 1st steps.

Little Stinker

I can hardly get Owen to eat his baby food anymore. Last night at dinner Joe made some egg rolls and I thought that would be to greasy for his little belly so I tried to feed him a baby food chicken dinner. Well NO! Owen screamed in between every bite until I gave in and gave him some rice. He somehow knew that our dinner was different and he demanded to eat the same. He does that for everything, if Avril is eating a bowl of cereal and he has baby food he will turn his head away until he gets some Cheerios. 10 months old and already telling me what he wants.

No Title

I think what I have is writers block. When I sit down here to tell you all about our lives nothing comes to me. I know something must have happened since last Monday...

So I think I am getting somewhere with Avril and her attitude. When she throws a fit I just ask her if she can please find mommy's nice girl and for the most part she does. Ha isn't it funny what works sometimes with kids. I realized after picking up the Strong Willed Child book that the program is going to be way to hard for me to follow. She is almost 3 so I should be able to reason with her a little bit better and we have had a really good couple of weeks. So wish me luck.
Avril and I also decorated the house for Christmas last Friday. I had no idea how much she loved this holiday. When I set the tree up she started jumping up and down chanting "I love this trick-or-tree". I know trick-or tree! There is no correcting her though I have tried. So how the whole day went was I would put something up somewhere and she would turn around and take it down. This was good for Avril to do just with mommy because when Hannah and Isaac came home she was so proud to show them all that she had done. We did save decorating the Christmas tree for everyone though.Isaac is really coming out of his shell for wrestling. A few weeks ago he was unsure about the sport but, last night he really got into it. Funny Story...So when we were walking down the hall to go to wrestling this little boy started walking with us. I asked Isaac if he knew him and he said "no". The little boy chimed in that he did too know him! The little boy said he saw him at his sisters swimming meet. So obviously because they have seen each other somewhere they are bonded. I then asked the little boy if they have ever talked and he said "well no but we have the same shoes". This is why I have 4 kids. Don't ya just love what they say!

Oh yea, Thanksgiving was fabulous! We spent the entire day at Joe's parents and had a great time. I just love being around our family.

Sorry that I haven't updated anything for like EVER! I took on the volunteer job of Crow River Service Unit cookie manager so I have had pretty much no time for much else. I am really excited to have the big meeting over with tomorrow night because I have noticed that the more speaking I do in a public setting the worse I get at it. My heart starts beating like a million miles per minute, I forget things and I loose my voice so tomorrow night should be interesting considering the fact that I have to speak for an entire hour. I guess I never thought of all this before I took on the position. Oh well.. N-E-Ways enough about me..

Hannah had her 1st ever competition on Friday for swimming and she ROCKED! She competed 1st in the 25 yard freestyle race and got 4th only because she didn't know that she had to touch the wall. She would have been 1st or 2nd if it weren't for that. Then her 2nd race was the 50 yard backstroke and she placed 4th of 7 against 9-12 year olds. 3rd race was the 25 yard backstroke and she placed 2nd of 5. Then she was in a 100 yard freestyle relay and her team placed 4th of 5. I am one of those dumb emotional moms who tears up over everything. When she jumped in I tear up, when she touches the wall I cry, and especially when there is one kid that can barely finish the race so everyone cheers super loud until they make it I really cry! UGH! I really hope I can get over this and no I am not pregnant- its just how I am lately. Just overjoyed I guess. But, Joe and I are extremely proud of her she did great and had such confidence in herself and really gave it her all.


Little Braeden turned 2 on Friday. I just can't believe he's that old already. He's just a bundle of energy and a little sassy but it's cute because he's not mine. Sam had his birthday party on Saturday and we all had a great time. Sam did a good job preparing food for everyone. Her 1st family gathering didn't go that well and she didn't have enough food to feed everyone so this time she really pulled though. Sorry Sam but 1 cup of gravy for 15+ people does not cut it. ;)
Then when that was over my mom came back to our house and watched the kids while Joe and I went Bowling with Tony, Jamie and her dad. Joe didn't bring his A-game but I did manage to get my 1st ever Turkey (3 strikes in a row). YEA ME!

Well that's all this Zoo has to report. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!

It's been an exhausting week and a half. Owen has yet another ear infection and had a fever for 3 days over the weekend. He insists on being held and won't let Joe or I get more then a foot away from him. Well with Owen requiring so much attention, Avril goes into one of her moods and is extremely needy too. I have decided to go get a book I heard about for Avril. It's called 'Parenting the Strong Willed Child'. My hairdresser suggested it and I am to the point that I will try anything. Just yesterday she decided to go into one of her fits for like 15 minutes while I was making lunch so I set her out on the deck for a second and when I let her back in she was back to normal. Well enough about our little problems.
Isaac started wrestling last week and I am a little frightened because Isaac isn't an aggressive child. So we have to see how it goes. Hannah also has her 1st swim meet this Friday!!!

Halloween was super great this year with weather you just couldn't beat in Minnesota. As the kids get older you can see how competitive they get.

Hannah hit every house in our neighborhood in less then 2 hours. Isaac gave up at about 7 and went home with his friends. Avril and her cousin Hazel made it 2 cul-de-sacs. Not too bad for little ones.

We have almost a full paper grocery bag full of candy that will probably last until next Halloween. (Ugh!)