Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from our clan! Can you believe it's already the end of the year? Only 2 more weeks until Christmas. I'm still not sure where it went...but we kept busy. Blake is now 4 years old and Olivia is 20 months (well next week, close enough). We got a family membership to the YMCA a couple weeks ago and have really been enjoying it. We've gone swimming several times, Blake is going to swim lessons and we are working off some flab we've both accumulated. Here's to a healthy 2012, in more ways than 1!

They really do love each other!

Santa v.2011

We went to see Santa today....Olivia was fine last year, but this year she did not like it at all! We ended up buying the freak-out picture, gotta have that to look back on!

Snow Fun!

Well we finally got our 1st snow...and it was measurable. About 4 inches. After nap we bundled the kids up and took them out to play. Blake was excited because this snow means he gets to go skiing with daddy again. Olivia had no clue what it was since she was a baby last winter. Daddy pulled them in the sled down the alley, then Blake took his turn pulling Olivia. I'm still not 100% ready for winter and snow....but have no choice now!

Christmas Pictures....take 1

So I thought it would be good to buy a new backdrop this year to try with the kids for Christmas....wrong night for pics for one girl. She was not having it...at all. I even was playing her favorite song on the iPod, hoping she would be all smiley. Nope....running around or screaming instead. We'll try again!

At least this one was posing cute

All Clean!

After the Beef-a-Roni dinner....it was bath time! Scrub a dub....my kids love the tub!

Whatta Mess!!

It's been a while since I've put "easy" Chef Boyardee Beef-a-Roni on the kids plates, may even be Olivia's 1st crack at it. Totally forgot what a mess it makes! The kids were still somewhat stained after bathtime from the sauce.

Boo! Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We got the kids all dressed up after work and took them out trick or treating. Olivia only went up to a few houses, and wanted to play with the candy in her bucket. Blake had a blast...finding which house we could go to, saying trick or treat, and getting candy/treats. Suprisingly there were a lot of kids out last night, usually we get between 5-10 kids total....there are so many indoor events that it seems like kids just don't go outside. We had probably 15+ kids this year come to our door. All in all it was a good night!

Olivia was so excited to get her costume off....

MEA weekend

MEA weekend....long weekend for us with daycare closed, so I headed to the cabin with the kiddos. Eric had to work on a big project this weekend, so he stayed back....and we missed him. It was truly our last Beautiful fall weekend I believe....somewhere between 55-60 degrees and Sunny both Friday and Saturday. The kids got to play outside some and I took them on a wagon ride. Thankfully there were still some leaves to play in, so we raked them up and let them play.

Time for the Pumpkin Patch

This past sunday we headed out to Collegeville Orchards to find a pumpkin (we already had 3 others at home that we picked up at a nearby road stand). There wasn't a huge selection, but the kids had a lot of fun roaming around picking up anything their size.

Olivia actually thought this small pumpkin was an apple, and proceeded to try and take a bite after I took this picture. Ish!

I've been trying to get more hair things in Olivia's hair...keep it out of her face. She let me put some hair "pretty's" in before we went to the pumpkin patch. The bows only lasted about 5 min, but she has been leaving her ponies in.

18 Months

It's hard to believe that Olivia is now 18 months (happened yesterday on the 13th). It's been so fun watching her and Blake play together, fight over toys and see how everything is downright hilarious to her. If someone laughs at something, or someone laughs on TV...she is laughing right along like it was the best joke ever. We have had several word explosions, which has been really fun hearing all the new words....and hearing them when she sees something that is that new word. The best has been when we ask her what a kitty says....the way she Meows could melt any heart. She can do animal sounds for Piggies, Cows, Horsies, Monkeys, Kitties, sheep, ducks...when you get to dog though she just sticks her toungue out. She is our little joy!

Blake is 4!

We celebrated Blake's 4th Birthday this last weekend, headed to the cabin to just hang out and enjoy another fall weekend. It had rained though so we couldn't play out in the leaves like I had hoped. We went to dinner in town, then came back and had some yummy cake.

Olivia had fun running all over the cabin, like usual. She will be 18 months on Thursday....crazy how fast the time goes. She loves climbing the stairs and getting into whatever she can!

Corny!

Since today was a beautiful "Fall" day, we headed out to enjoy the Severs Corn maze in Shakopee. They have a giant maze to walk through and lots of other kids activities.

After running through the maze and seeing all the animals we went to play in the corn pit.....it's literally 2 feet of dried corn to play in surrounded by hay bales. You get corn everywhere and get covered in straw....fun times. Olivia wasn't a fan of the straw in her mouth.

Darlings

Our little darlings.

Bountiful Harvest

We decided to try our hand at growing carrots this year.....they finally have started getting bigger, and even though they weren't ready to pull, we pulled a few to try. Blake has been so excited about these carrots...and I'm suprised the bunnies/squirrels haven't taken them all!

Girly Camo

Eric's dad and step mom sent Olivia her 1st Camo outfit this week....girl has to be ready for the deer hunters banquet in 2 weeks! She looks so cute in it!