Jamaica...Here We Come!

I was beginning to wonder what we were thinking going on vacation this soon after the holidays?!  I had been going through the "holiday let-down, my house is feeling crowded, we ran all through Christmas break, awwwww!!!" mode for a good week.  And vacation was quickly approaching.  Thank goodness for wonderful hubby who stuck by my side all day on Sunday...we are now feeling ready!

We returned from church, and proceeded to take down and pack away every piece of Christmas decor in the house.  This was followed by folding, washing, putting away, more folding, and more putting away of 8+ loads of laundry.  Then it was FINALLY time to pull out the luggage!

Of course we had little ones crawling all around, and over, and IN the luggage....but we managed!

I wonder if they would notice a little person packed inside this suitcase? :)

We literally spent the entire afternoon/evening packing.  It's not just the 2 of us anymore to pack up....It's a lot of work to pack up 2 little ones for a week, also!  Clothes, shoes, winter boots, snowpants, coats, mittens, hats, books, games, toys, dolls, the list goes on and on!

But FINALLY- We are ready, we have been waiting for this for a long time.  This trip has been much anticipated, and man, it's going to be a blast!!!  We are going with some great friends.  Great friends that are getting married in September!  Great friends that asked both of us to stand up in their wedding!  Great friends who have also asked both of our littles to stand up in their wedding! (how fun is that going to be!?!?)  We love these 2, and you know what....I'm excited to spend some quality, adult time with them.  They are wonderful, they are awesome....and we hang out a lot.  But, they love our kids so much that most of the time we hang out it's us 4 and them.  This is fun, and this is great, and we sure do enjoy having friends to hang out with that love hanging out with our kids too- especially since they do not have any of their own yet- but we are ready for this time with them!  We are ready to sit back, and relax, and chat, and laugh, and dine, and enjoy each other....

But- We sure are going to miss these 2...

They played with Adi's dolly toys forever while we packed.  It was cute, my friends, so cute!

He had to check if froggy had a 'febur'-(fever).

And then had to use the booger-sucker on froggy.  After a little medicine, froggy was feeling much better!

And Beanie- well, she's Ms. Organized, and did a great job of packing her suitcase for Papa and Grandma's house.  Everything she needs is in here....That's what she says:)

It's going to be hard for this Mommy and Daddy to walk away from Grandpa and Grandma's house and leave them behind for a few days.   But- we know they will be loved, we know they will be well taken care of , and oh my- Are these 2 excited to go to Papa Neal's, or what?!?!  They have been asking for a week now hoping today is the day!!!!  They are going to have fun, and I'm sure they will stay so busy that they may not even notice we are gone.

But, when we return....oh, those hugs are going to feel good!

Enjoy your week, friends....Pretty sure we will!  :)

(Jamaica photos are from http://couples.com/tower-isle/photos.php)

Happy New Year!!...one week late:)

2011 was good to us.  Nothing extreme, but an overall great year where we grew as a family, spent time together, and loved one another.  We are thankful for so many of the blessings in our lives.

We rang in the New Year with our kids and great friends that we have spent lots of time with this past year.  We love being together, and how appropriate to close down one year with them, and open up a new one!  We headed down to Ramsey to hang out with all of our friends from the cabin.  I've posted about them before...many times...we truly enjoy them.  We all gathered together and brought lots of yummy treats.  The kids played toys together, played wii together, and then snuggled up together and watched a movie before FINALLY falling asleep.

Kathy had some fun little party favors for the kids.

They got a little loud and obnoxious, so we finally had to say "enough" :)

Eli loves this little puppy named Favre.  He says "silly Favre" is his friend.

Adi was loving the new puppy named Bailey.

These are some cute, silly, little buds!

Kids all sat down for a yummy little dinner at the picnic table in the kitchen.

Cute Belle has such a fun sense of humor!  She and Adi are little buddies....I love that these kids are all so close in age.

When the kids were finally down, we had a fun game to play.

All snuggled up ready for Cars 2.

I love these girls!

The night was perfect.  Kids were all tucked in nicely, I was spending time with the one I love, and we rang the new year in with friends that we enjoy!  Couldn't have asked for a better group to spend the night with, and I think the kids agree....they had a blast, also!  
We are ready for what 2012 has in store for us....first up- A fun little getaway with some besties- a first for us and we are pumped!!!

Christmas Break...Family Time

Christmas break came and went just as fast as it does every year.  We tried our best to pack in as much fun as we could....I think we succeeded, but it made for a slow-moving Tuesday morning when it was time to return to reality!

Daddy took lots of time off to be with us, also.  We only had 2 days at home without him.  Those 2 days were filled with lots of package-opening, assembling, and then finding new homes for all kinds of fun new toys.  This also means it was time to dig into the storage room, and start packing away some of our out-grown toys.  A 2-day process, for sure!

Adi is loving all of her new toys.  She has been quite busy baking cupcakes, feeding babies, and checking their temperatures!

She wears this oven mitt like a pro!

She's been doing all kinds of grocery-shopping, and has talked big brother into being the 'checkout person' on many occasions lately!

And, yes, when we are home for the day, jammies are generally worn for the entire day:)

We love playing board games here.  Adi is just about old enough now to join us for an entire game.  Christmas brought lots of new choices to our game closet!  We were excited about that!  Some of our old favorites are Toy Story Yatzee Jr., Hi-Ho Cheery-O, and anything with fish!  Some new favorites now that our collection has grown are Cootie, and Zingo!. 
What are some board games that you enjoy playing that are appropriate for ones these ages?

Eli was excited to win, and then had to hug his very cute Cootie!

 Playdough is another HUGE hit around here!  Adi is loving her new ice cream shop, and Eliott has been playing this Cars set pretty much every day since Christmas.  This keeps them busy for quite a while!

Grandma-Great is Adi's go-to for having her nails painted!  Every time she sees her, she thinks she needs them done.  Grandma-Great and Grandpa Great stopped over last week to visit, and check out our tree and gifts, and she was put right to work!

And Eli had to show Grandpa Great how to play his new game!

 One day last week when Daddy was home he wanted to take Eli ice-fishing.  The boys went to the lake, and the girls went shopping!  Our vacation is very quickly approaching, so there were a few things to pick up.  We also needed to deliver a fun Christmas package to the best dentist in the whole world!!!!  Chad's cousin did some dental work for Eli, and we are so entirely grateful to her for all that she did that I called on my friend, Steph to place an order for her wonderful 'thirty-one' stuff!  (if you don't have any of this- you should check it out!!)

We came home from shopping, and decided that laundry and un-decorating didn't sound super exciting, so we thought we'd join the boys at the lake.

5 days after Christmas, and we finally had some snow!

Check out this happy fisherman with his catch!

And she totally looks like she knows what she's doing!!!

And is loving it!

These little buddies do lots of hanging-out together.  They are a busy duo, and like to spend time together at the cabin.

 We took off Saturday for our friend's house to hang out for the night and ring in the New Year.  It was  wonderful, we did it well, and had a TON of fun!  I have lots of cute pictures of all the little ones hanging out too.  They didn't quite make it until the ball dropped, but we faked it a little early for them with a verbal countdown, and some glasses of sparkling cider.  They cozied-up together with a movie, and all fell asleep.  I love their great friendship- Just like their parent's!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Christmas was:  Beautiful, wonderful, exciting, much anticipated, and......BUSY!!!!  We had so much fun.  We ran from here to there, stopped at home, unloaded, reloaded, slept, got up, and did it all over again.  The kids had a blast, and did quite well on only a few hours of sleep.  Is it a little sad to say that I'm kind of glad it's over with?  I am, but I'm not.  Memories were made, smiles all around, and sore tummies from the laughs.  We crammed it all in in one quick weekend.  And today?  We played:)

I'm going to apologize up front for the utter, complete, excessive, PICTURE OVERLOAD....I couldn't help myself..I didn't know how to pick and choose.  Here it is friends....Christmas Eve- Eve right through Christmas day.  And, what was I thinking????- I didn't even take A SINGLE picture at our final family gathering.  I'm still kicking myself a little about that!!!

We started our own little family Christmas celebration on Friday night with a movie, pizza, popcorn party downstairs while watching Christmas movies.  The kids watch The Grinch, and we watched The Griswold's!

 

The next morning it was off to my parent's house for a little brunch and gift opening.  

Cute little girly cousins.

He was 'THIS" happy that Adi got her own Explorer, and he got a new game for his!

Beanie had lots of fun baking cupcakes for everyone!

 After opening gifts it was a quick rush to get ready for church and head out the door.  After mass we went to my Grandma's for our annual Christmas Eve celebration complete with Santa himself!

"Look we got the same-est thing!"- Eli

She was the bravest one of all.  First one on Santa's lap, and did most of the talking this time.

Classic!

They got to ring the jingle bells and sing a song with Santa.  They did a great job....all that listening to Christmas music for the past month has paid off!

The women's gift exchange game.

 Adi fell asleep at Grandma's at about 9:00.  We woke her at midnight, and pulled Eliott from the Wii, and headed for home.  Even though it was late, we still had to sprinkle our reindeer food in the front yard.  Eli was getting a little nervous with how late it was.  He didn't want Santa to pass over our house because we weren't in bed yet.  We quickly got everything taken care of and turned ourselves in for the night.  The anticipation was high in our house:)

Checking the sky to make sure he wasn't going to miss us.

Adi did the same thing!  They were looking for Rudolph's red nose.

Adi was the first one up the next morning, so I tried to distract her with all of her fun new toys while we waited for Bubbie to wake.

Clyde and Santa were here!!!  Clyde set the table with cute new Santa bowls and cups, and there was oatmeal waiting for us in the crockpot!  Santa ate the treats we left out, as did the reindeer, and he left us a note thanking us for everything!

New personalized pillow cases!  How fun

Snowmobile clothes- Just like Daddy's!!!

Each year we make the kids books with all of the pictures from their birthday party that year.  This is one of the best gifts- always a favorite for all of us.

They both stopped opening gifts for a while to check out their books as soon as they opened them.  I Love their excitement for these!  A treasure that we will hang onto forever.

All we need is some snow!

A canvas of Target Field for the bar, and a note that there will be tickets coming!

Mommy got one too!  We are now ready for some snow!

After opening gifts we spent some time at home enjoying one another.  We played, and played until it was time to head out for the next celebration.

My sister gave Beanie the cutest little princess dress-up outfit.  Fits her perfectly!

 Then it was on to the next celebration.

Our newest little cousin, Baby Margot.  These 2 cannot get enough of her!

Adi thought she needed to push Georgi in the stroller.  They were hilarious!

Especially with Adi hiking her tu-tu up to her armpits!

Then Adi wanted a ride, so Oliver helped her out.

Each year my aunt makes a birthday cake for Baby Jesus.  The kids enjoy singing Happy Birthday to him and blowing out the candles.  Not to mention eating birthday cake!

Reading a story with Auntie Lori.

Having This. Much. Fun:)

Flying their new airplanes.  The little ones are sure looking up to the big boys.

Oh, it sure is fun to get all these little ones together!

 And sadly, that is where my picture taking ended.

We still had one more celebration to attend.  As you can see it was a fun-filled few days.  We truly enjoyed one another and our company.  It was so nice to see friends and family that we haven't seen for a while.  We are sad that Christmas has already passed us, but are excited about what the New Year will bring!