First sleepover!

Henry and Bryn were invited for their first sleepover with their good friends Emily and Elliot before the holidays and they could barely wait till January when they were back in town so they could head over for the night. H and B have spent enough time away from us at our parent's houses and such but never at a friend's so they were super excited, yet a little anxious when the day finally arrived.

Bryn said to Jay on the way over "Daddy do you think we will have a little time to play with Emily and Elliot before we go to sleep with them?" She literally thought that a sleepover is just that, you go there and go to bed, case closed. So she was surprised to know that they were going to eat pizza, play games, and watch a movie.

Jill told me later that while Henry was munching on the pizza he said "Miss Jill I really really like this pizza and I just want to tell you that I was a little nervous about sleeping over but I am really having fun!"
When Jill got back from her soccer game, they were in the last 10 minutes of watching a movie. When she asked if they were almost ready for bed, Bryn quickly said she thought it was time to go to bed (it was WAY past their usual early bedtime) and within a couple minutes B and H were asleep!

Jay and I had a relaxing morning with a very quiet house! Now we need to host!

Welcome baby Rose!

Our trip to Iowa started off a little bumpy when we left on a Friday night during less than ideal conditions. After seeing a couple accidents and driving 30 mph on the highway I white knuckled it home and we tried again the next morning. It was well worth the anxiety the night before to see H and B's newest cousin!

We all love her! So much so that I had to bribe Bryn with my camera so I could hold Rose a little more. Every time I had her Bryn was as my side asking when it would be her turn. She is a baby magnet and just adores little Rose. Didn't matter if she was crying or not, she just snuggled her up.


Rose made Bruce aware she does not like him taking her warm layers off, even for a little photo shoot we wanted to do!

Rose and Mommy!

I could just eat her up!!! Look at this face that Bryn captured.

Henry wanted to hold her too, not sure she was as excited as he was to cuddle on the couch!

Of course they had a blast with Liam and burned off some energy playing at the park across the street and skating in Liam's backyard ice rink that Bruce made.

The new family of 4! Can't tell me she doesn't have personality.... check out this little ham! Thanks for letting us smother her with kisses and hugs.

Badger Mania

Henry and Bryn have been Wisconsin fans for a while but it went into overdrive when their kindergarten class found out they were going to be visited by the Badger Women's Hockey team. They were the first kindergarten class to win the "golden cone" award for being quiet in the halls. Thanks to some great staff with some sweet Badger connections, they got to hang out with the women and were each given an official WCHA hockey puck. You can barely see H and B's head since they were standing as close to the players as possible.


The players who had come to their class invited them to come to "Skate with the Badgers" which followed a home game. Henry took that as an order and insisted we all go since the girls told them to come. We met friends at the game and brought along the hockey skates so they could skate around and get autographs. Bryn was serious about getting as many as she could and came home with a poster full of Badger players by skating to as many as she could. She was on a mission. Above they posed with good friends Jocie, Maya and hockey player Meghan Duggan.

You can see that the hockey ladies were in large numbers around H and B. After he got this autograph another player knelt down and asked him if he wanted her autograph and he said "no thanks." I felt so sorry for her to get dejected by a 5 year old and she was rather surprised too. Henry later told me that he didn't hear what she said and then got nervous. Later on I saw him on the opposite side of ice rink flanked by two hockey players and they were having their picture taken by the team photographer. Leave it to the little man.

Badger fever didn't end as they cheered for the Badgers in the Rose Bowl with friends.

Last but not least... they signed up for a hockey clinic with the Badger women to learn some tricks. Turns out they weren't on the ice long since the majority of kids there were in full out hockey uniforms and gear and B, H and some school friends were clearly out of their league. Since the numbers were so huge they took some kids off the ice which was them and their pals and they got to play some agility drills in the gym instead followed by pizza with Bucky.

Holidays..... just a tad delayed

Due to our crazy life after the holidays it has taken me forever to gather up the stamina to browse through pics and find the time to get some pics posted. I figured I better hurry while my memories were just barely retrievable to write a little something.

Mrs. Carlson (their new teacher) gave them each a bag of reindeer food for Christmas and they made sure to sprinkle it all in one heap in the front yard in hopes of attracting Rudolph and his gang.
They decided that they should sleep in the same bunk bed in case one of them got scared by the hooves and such that they would be landing on the roof that night.

Bryn's favorite gift came from "her brother", which is how she refers to him lately. He picked out a ring at Art Gecko that had two blue stones and said "one stone represents you and one stone represents me." How sweet.

Henry's best surprise was the set of Russian dolls that Miss Jan gave to my mom when she couldn't find them at any stores. I think we all had similar expressions on our faces as we watched how tiny the dolls continued to get.


We spent as much time outside while in Suamico. We snowshoed to our favorite sledding hill in the woods with Grandma.

We also managed to have two Finnish saunas while at my parents. Jay got the fire toasty hot with temps over 150 degrees. The heat inside inspired Henry to run outside and jump in the snow and later for them both to RUN laps around my parents yard in their swimsuits! I could barely stand still on my barefeet long enough to take the pics.

Although you wouldn't guess it from the pics, we did spent a good portion of our vacation with sick kids. The stomach bug that Bryn had earlier came back to get Henry so our time at the cabin was cut short when I had to drive poor Henry back to Madison. Jay and Bryn stayed and played with their cousins, Grandma, Grandpa, Jen , Shawn and the Beckers. Henry and I headed back up as soon as we could but were bummed we missed most of the fun.

Winter gear we hauled up for fun at the cabin!

Sledding onto the frozen lake is even more fun with a crowd!! And no light fixtures were broken this year, added bonus! Alli joined Bryn for a sled down the hill.

Mike, Emma and Bryn enjoying a run.

Nothing like snuggling up with Grandma for some nighttime stories before heading to bed. We all enjoyed the new addition now complete with Grandma's new piano!


Everyone was patient enough to wait for our return back to the cabin to exchange the kiddo gifts so Henry could be a part of the action.


And what would Christmas be without heading down to a local house that has their entire front yard turned into wonderland of lit up Christmas trains, a parachuting Santa, dancing Santas, and my favorite, a Santa whose eyes follow you as you walk by him....

Thanks to both our parents for sharing their Christmas spirit and their homes with our travelling gang of germy kids.