CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE!

Good and bad...the holiday season is here in full force this year! Here are some highlights! We have been bombarded with snow since the 1st of December. Today is the first official snow day for the kids and technically winter has not even started yet. Today's snowfall is absolutely beautiful to look at. The other ones seemed to be mixed with more sleet....which has caused our snowblower to not work so well:( I always think of the movie Narnia on days like today...maybe because we have a lamp post in our yard:) Todd finished his first semester of his Executive MBA program and now has a much needed break this month ....thank goodness! I participated in my second annual Christmas cookie exchange with my small group from church. We each brought 8 dozen of one kind of cookie and then went home with a wide variety! Megan loved helping me bake...although I did catch her sneaking M&M's when I turned my back on her:) so cute! The boys just finished their first trimester of school and both brought home awesome report cards!! Nathan was tested for the gifted and talented program and was found to be gifted in the area of general intellectual and math. So if you know Todd you know Nathan got that from him not me:) We are so proud of all of them! Megan is enjoying the holiday season and loves to shop with me! I think I should be worried...since she also has a shoe obsession. She has become quite a chatter box too! We also have had a couple rounds of sickness with the kids too...the other bad side of this time of year! Enjoy the following pictures of the beginning of winter and the holiday season!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Megan holding a Christmas bear... you press a button and it moves and tells you a story. She loves this bear. The kids got it from my Aunt Dorthy last Christmas.

The following pictures are highlights from our snow fall today!

NARNIA??? I think so! :)








Megan and Nathan sporting the Christmas hats!!






Megan helping me bake for my cookie exchange!

Early Halloween

The kids were able to get some candy early:) I signed up Megan to go to a rehab center for the elderly with some friends from MOPS(Mothers of Preschoolers).The boys ended up having off of school that day so they all got to participate. They got to visit some special older people and make them smile as well as getting a little candy early! If anyone can't tell Nathan is Darth Vader, Ryan is a Clone Trooper...both from Star Wars. Mom's personal favorite!! Megan is a ladybug. She loved wearing her ladybug dress....she wanted to wear it to church today:)

A day at the apple orchard!!

We went out apple picking with our adoption group from church"Forever a Family" We had a lot of fun picking apples. I think Nathan and Ryan liked climbing the trees even more! Megan was funny...she wasn't thrilled walking under the apple trees with all the fallen, rotten apples. When we walked under the trees she would say "eeww, gross apples mommy!" Much cuter to hear her say it though! A lot of cute pictures form our day at the orchard! We love to spend time with our Forever a Family group.

First day of School

Ok -I am really behind on posting pictures! I thought the picture was so cute though! Megan had to get out her ladybug backpack! Nathan started 4th grade and Ryan started second grade!I can't believe it!

Ryan's 8th Birthday

We were in Minnesota over labor day weekend so Ryan was able to celebrate his birthday with all his cousins! He was excited to find a Vikings cake! You can't find that in Wisconsin:)

Dress up time!

Megan ready to go shopping--She loves to dress up!

Megan after the boys got a hold of her:) The boys thought they were pretty funny dressing Megan up.

FLASHBACK:)

I decided to post some pictures from last year. They were stuck in the internal memory of my camera. I had lost the connecting cord to my camera and then sort of forgot about them. So I thought I would do some flashback pictures because they were so cute! When things get hard with the kids I sometime wish they were grown (I had many of these days in Aug.) But when I look at pictures only a year old and I see how fast they change I realize I need to enjoy every moment right now(can anyone out there relate)! They are gifts from God and each one is a treasure!

Megan~Spring 2006

Ryan, Megan and Nathan at the lake ~ Summer 2006

Megan walking in the lake ~ summer 2006 Not too sure of the water and she hated the sand.

Ryan~ no teeth last summer. They took forever to come in but they finally came. He talked so cute with out his teeth.

Nathan relaxing~he's more of a take it easy in the water kind of guy:)

Megan...probably April of 06. She was obsessed with climbing our stove when we first brought her home. She was way more of a climber than either of my boys.

She thinks she is pretty funny:)

Megan on her 1st Birthday!wearing a Chinese outfit we bought in China.We went to a Chinese Restaurant and I just remember she wanted nothing to do with the food or the highchair:)

Home to Minnesota for the 4th

This was an indoor playground at the community center where we were at for my cousins informal wedding reception! Kids had a blast!

Two little monkeys:)

Swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's (with the big dog!)Perfect weather and lots of fun! Grandma bought Megan her own little floating house:)
This is The life Ryan has always dreamed of...all day in a pool!!


Nathan has become a great swimmer this year!! He has had a fear of water and really has made a lot of progress! Good Job Nathan!!







This is Megan with her cousin Devin who is also 2! It cracked me up to watch them play on the slip-n-slide. Devin would shout RUN...and go charging all the way down the slide. Megan on the other hand would run all the way to the slide and then when she actually got on the slip-n-slide she would carefully and slowly tip toe down to the end. Megan is all girl and Devin is all boy:) Pretty Cute to watch them!

Fun in the backyard

I wish I could say that Megan decided to spontaneously break out in prayer. I was just snapping a bunch of pictures for fun in the backyard and this is one I happened to get. I'm really not sure if she was trying to pray or not(she does love to saying her prayers). I really didn't notice her hands until I looked at the pictures later. She is a little sweetie though and could definitely pass as a perfect little angel in this picture:)

Falling down the hill!!
Cheese!!

Peek-a-boo Nathan! He loves to be silly:)

A really windy day!

We went out to play despite the really bad wind gusts! Megan seemed to think the wind was funny!

Wow! Megan sat still AND smiled for a picture! I also managed to avoid a wind gust for the picture!