4 Already ?!

This little beauty turned 4 years old on Monday. People aren't lying when they tell you, Before you know it she'll be off to school. It seems like just yesterday I was watching the clock in the Labor room waiting for her arrival and poof...now she's 4!

This little beauty is 2 and insisted I take her picture too.

I asked Mackenzie what type of cake she wanted and of course she picked Rapunzel. So I got to work and did the best I could to make her a Rapunzel cake and castle cookies to go with.

She had no problem blowing out her candles.

And of course tearing those presents open!

These 2 beauties went down to check out the girls new beauty salon, by themselves, and came back with some lovely new do's.

I again put my Dad to work and asked for a fridge for Mackenzie's gift. Just like I expected it turned out GREAT! He's already been informed that all we need now is a matching sink and stove ;) Lucky for him Christmas is a long ways away so he has plenty of time to get them done.

Hair today...Gone tomorrow

The time has finally come, he has officially agreed to cut his hair. His last hair cut was October 5th. I agreed to let him grow it out at that time since he got it cut short for our family pictures. He sure took a lot of grief from people due to his shaggy look, not by schoolmate (trust me I asked him plenty of times) but he just shook it off and said this was how he wanted to wear it. And why not, its only hair, its not causing any harm.

His hair is SO thick that all I had to do was comb my fingers through it and it stayed straight up! Out came the ruler to see just how long this crazy hair was...3 inches!

A lot of hair was left on the hairdresser's floor and in return I got a new looking boy!

Bringing in the Flag

The boys had the honor of bringing in the flag and leading the crowd in the national anthem before the high school basketball game on Thursday.

I love Landon's look in this picture, double checking his leader to make sure he has his salute right :)

Once they were done we enjoyed the first half of the game with a little popcorn treat. Michael of course wanted to stay and watch the entire game, but since it was a school night we had to head home.

Great job boys! 

Completed Derby Cars

Not too shabby for their first go at the derby car build. With a little imagination they were able to take these blocks of wood and turn them into some pretty cool cars.

 Landon decorated his car to resemble his favorite Lego character Two Face.

And Michael decorated his car to resemble a 2 seater race car. Luckily enough for him, he had two spares of these guys to add to the car.

Now we just need to take them in for the weigh in and wait for the races.

For Mary

Knowing that I changed our Christmas tree over to ornaments for the kids,  Mary gifted me some make your hand print ornaments. 

So last weekend we finally pulled them out. I put Michael to work mixing the plaster.

And with the help of Steve, everyone got their prints done.

Just have to add the bow and they are all set for the tree come Christmas time.

Derby car build

Boy was I surprised when I opened the derby car boxes to find there were no cars inside, but instead blocks of wood.

So today we ventured over to Dads house to have him help cut out the cars.

Landon patiently waited for his car to be cut out.

And with the help of grandpa, Michael went to work sanding his car down.

Next the boys worked like crazy hand sanding every nick and cranny to get them cars smoother than a baby's bottom!

Landon's car is on the right, he choose a design from the Internet and then traced it onto the car. Michael's car on the left, he opted to had draw his car on the block of wood himself. 

Now all that is left is to put the final touches on the painting, add the wheels and to the race

 we go!

Dress up Time

 There will be no shortage of dress up clothes at our house. Miss Mackenzie was getting bored with superhero and star wars costumes, so thanks to Christmas she and Lainey now have a wonderful wardrobe to pick from.

 

 

And when you have fancy dresses to put on, you need to have fancy shoes and crowns to go along with it.

 

 

Ready, Set, go grab a dress!

 

Bubbles

Some days you just need a tub full of bubbles to get your day off right.

And today Lainey felt it would be a good day to dump in half the bottle of shampoo. 

So enjoy little girls, splish splash and clean yourselves up.

And now we know shampoo makes WAY better bubbles than just plain old bath bubbles.

Goodbye Christmas

Goodbye Christmas, til we meet again next year.

 I now can officially say Christmas is over. It isn't until we get through the first weekend in January, which we celebrate with Steve's family, that we know its done. I love that this gathering isn't held until now, I love that it makes our Christmas season last just a little bit longer, but most importantly I love that we don't have to split up the holiday between families. This way we can spend Christmas eve with my family, Christmas day lounging at home and this weekend with the Schneider's. Mary asked if we should pick a day closer to Christmas to get together, but the majority won with the answer no! I think we all feel the same, its nice to have a break in between all the parties.

We started the afternoon with a little munching immediately followed by gift opening so that we would be free later to watch the Big Packer Game. The kids, of course, liked opening the gifts sooner rather than later too.

This little girl took the chance to jump in the hot seat as soon as she got the word.

Art supplies for a little boy that would LOVE to do nothing more than draw and color 

ALL. DAY. LONG.

There is something about this guy that draws Mackenzie in every time we get together. She runs to him the minute we arrive and sticks like glue to him until we leave. He was so sweet with her, allowing her to take a spot on his lap throughout her entire gift opening. Then made sure there was a spot by him during dinner and freed up his lap again so she could hang out with him while the adults played games. THANK YOU Jeff for having such patience with her!

This little girl LOVED her new princess castle and made sure to keep all her princess tucked in close.

This summer Michael was working on a quarter collection. He and Grandma sat down and went through her quarters to pull out a few that he needed. Then one day we headed to the store, he grabbed his bowl of quarters and spent them all. Now that he has a book to keep them in, there will be no spending them ;)

This summer the boys feel in love with their uncle Andy's guitar, and now they can join him in a jam session.

Another year gone by spent with some great family!

Babies!

I'm so excited for our new little friends that have made their arrival on 1/3/13 at a whopping 6#4 and 6#14! They are still nameless at this time, hopefully soon we will be able to call them by their names.

 

 

 

 

Their Momma had them out for a stroll this morning and sent me this super cute pic of the 2 of them together enjoying the ride in 1 bassinet passed out cold. So looking forward to spending some more time with her next week and getting my snuggles on.

 

 

Train Show

Yes another late post, but I vow to get caught up.

 

 

 

We spent my birthday morning at Discovery World looking at lots of trains.

 

I was amazed at how intricate many of these tables were.

 

 

 

 

There was one table that the kids fell in LOVE with. It was kinda like a where's waldo game, only you had to find a list of super hero's and movie characters that were hidden around the table.

 

Can you find the 4 movie characters below?? Miss Lainey sure could.

 

 

 

After a little spunking by a certain little girl, she quickly became a happy camper once she was able to get her hands wet.