Our busy January

Those of you that follow our blog may have wondered why I became such a slacker lately. Well, it wasn't all my undoing. Thanks to us, two camera happy parents, we have taken tens of thousands of photographs and have essentially maxed out our computers hard drive with pics and videos. We need a new computer and one with tons of memory. Yes , we have them also saved on an external drive but it's not easy to access, blah, blah, blah. Basically the computer was shutting down with a simple download request from me. I was told to just stop trying to monkey with the thing and I did. Just recently Jay deleted a years worth of outtake shots that were on the memory to clear up some space and I am now back to blogging, but it most likely won't last long.

Here is a smorgasbord of our January fun.


Snowshoeing with their friend Simon and his family. At about the half way point on our hike, Henry melted down and was sitting/lying on the snow more than he was upright. Thanks to some quick thinking from Simon's dad who managed to lure Henry into some racing down hill games so we could enjoy the beautiful day without listening to a crying kid.

Snowshoeing can make for one sweaty head!!

We had so much fun watching the UW women's hockey team play the U.S. women's Olympic team (which was full of former and current Badger women). If that game was any indication, the Olympic team is ready for action and will be fun to watch this February. Thanks to Miss Laura who rallied the troops down to the glass and whoop it up in hopes of coaxing Bucky over to them.

Dress up fun with Lennon, Aidyn and Hadley while taking a break from their parade

Bryn with baby Beckett.

We literally had front row seats of a Badger Womens B-Ball game and were there to cheer on Eliot who was a towel boy during the game along with the rest of the Pickhardt family and friends. The following picture is my absolute favorite. Seeing that the kids were in the front row, Bucky was very close at hand. So close in fact that he plopped down right next to Henry. As you can see he was in awe that his favorite mascot was within inches! So excited, he couldn't bear to look at him......





All that excitement equals two worn out kids!

First Goal!!!

Luckily I captured Henry's first official goal that actually made it into a net! He has remained hooked on his hockey playing and our cold temps don't even deter him from getting on the ice.




It was pretty cute. After he righted himself and sat down next to the net he asked me to take a picture of his first goal and didn't touch the puck until I took this next picture.....

Their friend Abbey loves the sport just as much as Henry so they were trying to pass it back and forth which is much easier said than done. The puck usually went flying in a completely different direction.

Earlier in the week I took a video of Bryn doing her thing at Westmoreland ice rink by our house. The skaters they used last year are gone and have been donated to their friends Sam and Abbey, which was Bryn's idea, after they figured out they probably don't need them anymore. Henry first told me that his friend could borrow his skater for 1 week... needless to say he hasn't asked for it back.

I just love the way her little hips are just twisting back and forth. cracks me up! Bryn, who never misses a thing, did check out some "prettier skates" that some other girls were wearing at the rink. Now not sure what to do since she is used to the hockey skates and that darn toe pick could definitely throw a wrench in the works. Luckily she hasn't brought it up again so we will see.

Christmas 2009

Is it really over already? How can 2 weeks go by so fast? As Monday quickly approaches I thought I better try to at least post some Christmas pics before I lost my ambition. Enjoy!

Christmas Eve was spent in Madison and we were lucky to get a visit with Shannon, Bruce and Liam on their way up to Green Bay. The kids exchanged gifts that night before they headed north to see my parents and we stayed here to hang back and enjoy Christmas as a family.

This is my favorite pic of the hundreds we took. Shannon was reading Liam's new book that we gave him for Christmas whose main character is a sweet little boy named Liam. This was his expression when he heard his name. Pure joy and utterly priceless!!!!

Closely matched by the excitement of having an ant farm this summer!

Santa had specifically asked for chocolate chip cookies (really Santa?) and since they usually don't fall within our Christmas repertoire we convinced them that peanut butter kiss cookies have the worlds largest chocolate chip in the middle. It worked. Above are their pictures and letters they wrote for Santa's stop at our house. I was quite impressed with Henry's deer since most of his artwork is quite avant garde and not usually easily deciferable.

Jay and kids reading the note Santa left for them as they stared at their gifts under the tree. Henry got his wish and now owns two hockey sticks (one to share of course) and a hockey puck and since Bryn didn't ask for anything Santa surprised her with a wooden ironing board and iron among other things.

Then on to my parents to hang out with Shannon and family.

Tinkertoy microphones was all they needed for their impromptu Christmas concert.

Trying out their new snowshoes! There was no learning curve whatsoever. As soon as they were strapped in they literally took off running! My dad kept saying how happy it made him to see not only his daughters, but also his grandchildren enjoy a sport he loves so much! We took many hikes in the woods.

My mom's 65th birthday would not be complete without sledding with the 3 grandchildren!

We then left for the cabin to see Jay's parents, Jen, Shawn, Mia and Allison and the entire Becker clan. We indulged in scrumptious meals and drinks and enjoyed hanging out on the lake with everyone.

Henry and his hockey stick. Henry quickly learned some moves playing with "Uncle" Andy, and was "shooting goalies" with anyone who wanted in. He figured out fast that it's much easier playing in boots than his hockey skates and was scooting all over the place.

Bryn and Mia being silly. Henry and Bryn love to watch Ally and Mia and comment on everything they do. Not sure the girls want another set of parents only 2 years older than them....

Snuggling up with grandpa and a Winnie the Pooh book.

Mike pulling Bryn and Emma on the ice! We also went sledding onto the frozen lake, ice fished and shoveled a huge rink for skating. The temps were in the single digits but once we were all properly bundled it didn't matter one bit! The camp fire on the dock helped too.

Grandma and grandkids playing "Simon Says". Each correct question moved them up a step and based on all the giggling it was a hit.

Best of all was just being able to spend so much time with the four of us together.

Hope yours was a blast too!

Cookies, sleds and santa

As should be expected, it's cookie time! They made some pretty cute "free form" gingerbread men with Grandma Affeldt that they carefully decorated for the rest of us. Henry described his as "delicate man" because he had squashed it SO thin.

A trip to the Clasen's giant gingerbread house to sample some of their goodies with Grandma.

They also got invited to a daddy/kiddo cookie party at Mr. John's house where he had the ultimate set up that included at least 4 different kinds of cookies all ready for them to put the finishing touches on. Needless to say Jay and I are trying our best to keep from emptying out the trays of treats that they brought home with them!


The cookie party turned into a sledding party where they took some rides on Mr. John's hand packed sled run. Miss Kristi and I had a lovely morning of brunch at a local restaurant followed by some shopping on Monroe St. while the kids and dads burned off LOTS of energy!






Bryn pulled Henry home from our neighborhood sledding hill the other day. I actually had to run to keep up with that little muscle mouse!

We finally made it over to Hilldale for a visit with Santa. Henry walked right up to him and quickly rattled off his wishes which included a hockey stick, hockey puck and skateboard. Bryn has not asked for a single thing this year which blows my mind. She has said that she has enough toys (which they do) and that she will be surprised. Even as the days count down, she hasn't changed her tune. She needed some convincing to go up to Santa and he knew just what to do. As she got closer to him he was able to reach out his gloved hand and touch one of her flowers and somehow it squeeked. Below is her describing how "magical" Santa is!



I am SO lucky to have great mom friends who want their kids to feel the happiness in giving. We usually head off to a local nursing home but because of the H1N1 scare, they could not visit this year. After several phone calls we decided to make ornaments and then drop them off at the UW Childrens' Hospital. Sam, Abbey, Simon, Bryn Henry and the moms made 5 little baggies full of ornaments and were able to drop them off at the hospital for the kids that won't be home for the holidays.


Wishing you and yours love, joy and peace this holiday season.

Sharing the holidays

Last Monday, Jay's parents' amazing neighbors, the Nelsons, let us help out at the food pantry for the afternoon. They run a full service pantry at a local community center. We spent a little time there last year, but as Henry and Bryn get older, the tasks offered to them get a little more advanced. This year, they started by making birthday bags, filled with good things for neighborhood kids with birthdays coming up. This was Bryn's favorite part because they got to fill them with cake mix, frosting, candles and invitations. Ms. Kristi, Sam and Abbey joined in too.

Here's the gang, ready to start working on the shelves.

It was a flurry of cardboard, little hands and lots of cans. I honestly have NEVER seen four 4 year olds work so hard on a project and practically fight over who got to stand on the stool to stack boxes of Mac N Cheese.

Mr. Nelson spotted the tots as they climbed up high for certain items.

Here's Mrs. Nelson, getting the Swiffer ready for action as Sam listened very carefully to directions. Not a speck of dust in the place. The Swiffer was Henry's favorite and Mrs. Nelson made it such a treat since they each got their own cloth to dirty up and throw away.


Henry wrapped things up with some finishing touches under the shelves. Now I need to figure out how to get the kid to clean like this at home. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Nelson, for all you do for the community and for helping teach the kiddos what the holidays are all about.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Well, last weekend we made the annual trek to find this year's tannenbaum. We scouted a new place but the trees were a little nicer (more expensive) than what we were looking for. So, we rolled to the tried and true spot way out of the way, and scored this beauty for $28.

We fielded a set of questions from Henry and Bryn about how we planned to keep the tree alive once we got it inside our house. That led to an explanation that the tree died when we cut it down, which was followed by the discussion about trees being alive in the first place, though they don't talk.

The following morning, we put on some Christmas tunes, and got the decorations going.

The adventure involves carefully extracting ornaments from the mass in the box they were put in at the end of last season. Henry ended up with this trio of stuck ornaments and that is the way they are now hanging on a branch.

Here he is carefully installing the most delicate ornament, which is a glass ball that was "rosemaled" by one of my family's Finnish friends. Don't worry dad, it has been moved to a safer and higher spot on the tree.

They're now able to get the ornaments another couple inches closer to the top, too.

Among many cool things that happened along the way, the best was noticing when we were done that every pair of ornaments we have somehow ended up next to each other on the tree. I guess twins have a way of doing stuff like that.