Christmas in a Nutshell

 

This picture sums up our Christmas! 

 

The kids were so so excited the entire week through as we saw lots of family, travelled to WI, ate lots of sugary treats and opened many gifts.

 

They had a blast, we had a blast and now we are settled in for a long winters nap!

Santa Brunch

Last night we survived enjoyed the last ever Holidazzle Parade.  It was cold beautiful and the people were everywhere festive!  The kids thought the floats were really cool, but I think they got even more of a kick out of the light rail train that was within inches of us.  I completely forgot to snap a picture while we were there, oops.  We spent some very stressful quality time in the minivan afterwards while it took us an hour just to get out of the ramp.  That hour included one potty break, where Bennett and I made a mad dash to the hotel downstairs while the rest of the family waited in the line in the van.  Oh well, that is what family memories are made of!

 

Today, we continued in the Holiday spirit and went to brunch with Santa.  The kids were excited to see him, but in the moment were quite unsure about the whole thing.  There were no tears, but they seemed pretty apprehensive.  Bennett told Santa he wanted a monster truck and Tatum told him she wanted toys.  I was quite impressed when Santa told us he remembered seeing us last year at the brunch.  Considering he delivers to billions of houses each year, I felt pretty special that he remembered us:) 

It's so fun to see how excited the kids are this time of year. 

With the spirit of Christmas in the air, it makes everything extra special.

 

Merry Christmas

.

The Birds

I've never been particularly fond of birds. 

 

As a matter of a fact a bird got into our college house one time and I was the only one home, so I sat outside in the front yard until it flew itself out, banging into lots of windows along the way.  No way was I going to be in that enclosed space with a wild flying animal.  I did not care if I had to wait all night, I was not going in there with that bird.

 

But this year I found two birds I couldn't resist. 

 

 

 

The owl and the parrot.

 

They are the cutest little birdies in town. 

 

They say on command, "Polly want a cracker, caaww." and "hoooo hooo"

 

They had so much fun dressing up and collecting treats in the neighborhood. 

 

After each house, they would sprint and scream down the driveway like they had just won the superbowl.

 

They even did a dress rehearsal last weekend in downtown Lakeville.  So they got lots of practice and way too much candy!

 

Even though we had lots of practice, we still left our mark on the night. 

Bennett was leaving a house and they had pretend little gravestones set up in the front yard.

 

All of a sudden he gave one a kick.  Because when you are three I guess you just cannot resist kicking the gravestone...what??! 

 

The lady at the door was watching it all unfold and I quickly picked up the stone and placed it back in its place, but as I was pushing it into the ground it snapped in half. 

 

Yup I broke her gravestone. 

 

Vandal!! I might has well just finished out the night by smashing all her pumpkins. 

 

At least she was watching so I did not have to knock on her door in shame.  Instead I just handed her the broken pieces with a very sincere, "I'm so sorry." 

 

She could not have been nicer.  She said, "Oh I am sure it was already broken."  What a gem. 

 

I know your gravestone was not broken, not until my little parrot gave it a swift kick. 

 

Oops.  I guess there is always something to work on:)

What a Dad

Pat let Bennett watch the Sandlot.

When I asked him if Bennett was too young for that movie, pat reminded me its about dogs and baseball ....both things that Ben loves.

 

Ok I guess.  I don't really remember the details.

Well then came the super scary monster dog part.

Oops.

Shoot we forgot about that part.

Wish we could have a do over. Crap.

Of course Ben was scared. Heck I was scared.

What do we do now?

How about we quickly fast forward to the end so he can see how great that cute Lil adorable pup really is. That'll convince him right?

Bedtime comes and Benny tells Pat "I don't want to be alone." Pat tucks him in and reminds him everything is just fine and comes back downstairs to watch tv with me. He isn't downstairs even 5 minutes and he says, I better make sure Ben is ok.

And that is the last I heard from Pat all night.

I think daddy felt a little guilty because this is how I found them when I came up to bed.

Sharing a twin.....what a dad.

I never want to forget

How sweet and adorable it is to come upstairs each night and see what ben has used to prop his door open. Every night it seems he finds something new. The last couple nights its been his garbage truck.  Sometimes its a stool. Its never there when I tuck him in but by the time I go to bed something is always there.  He hasn't missed a night yet.

It seems so mundane, so everyday. But its one if those mini moments for me as a mom where I realize he is growing up.  I never taught him to do that,  he figured it out all on his own. And I never mention it yet he continues to do it each and every night.

It just melts me.

Doesn't take much......

Getting Started

Tonight Pat decided he was going to start running.

So after a trip to Best Buy to get his music "gear" (don't you usually wait and make sure it sticks before you invest in all the gear??!!)

And lots and lots of talking about running.

He was ready to run. 

He told me, he and Dan were going to run together, over the phone. 

To which I said, "How will you talk and run?"  And he said, "My Headphones." and I said you don't have a mouthpiece to speak into.  To which he said "Right, I guess Ill just call him before and after."

OH DEAR

And by this time it was well after dark, so he got his reflective gear on and told me, "If I am not back in an hour...wait another hour.  This could take a while."

OH DEAR!

 

Oh and one more thing, he thought it would be funny to take a before photo. 

So here is his before photo. 

Oh man.  When he goes, he goes all in.

Love the face. 

He said that is how before faces always look. 

He planned it that way so his after picture can look happy and joyful.

Have I mentioned, OH DEAR.

 

So 5.5 miles and 1 hour later, he came back home smiling from ear to ear, showing me his "Map My Run" route. 

I actually questioned him thinking there was no way he made it that far.  But he assured me it was legit.

Apparently tonight he is going out again. 

Oh DEAR

Safety 1st

The kids beg to wear their helmets for a bike ride. It's fun and cool to them.

 

Hope that lasts for a lil while!

Labor Day

A sweatshirt kind of day out on Prior Lake.

 

Tatum's Hat

Tatum got this hat while on a shopping trip with GG and Aunt Marilyn. 

Now she won't leave the house without it.

She looks like she belongs at Country Fest.

When she wears it to daycare, Rita calls her Miss Daisy.

What a kid!

Dog Days

A heat index of 106 meant an evening pj run through the sprinkler.

Family Photos at the Vineyard

My mom turned 50 over the weekend so while we were all home to celebrate we had some family photos taken by Melissa Meyers. The kids were not having it so the shoot was short lived but she managed to capture some great shots amidst the chaos and tears:)  Here are a few of the sneak peeks that we received. I am keeping our family ones to myself as I am sure one of them will make an appearance on this year's Christmas card:)

Bens first NFL game

He looks pretty happy to be there

......even if it is the Vikings;)

Before Dance

A quick picture if the two of them before dance class.

Balloons and Underwear and Pancakes Oh My

Benny awoke to find birthday balloons attached to his bed and daddy cooking up his favorite foods, pancakes and sausage.  He was so excited.  And after breakfast it was time for a trip to Target.

 

We had been talking up turning three and letting him know that when he turned three he would start using the big boy potty.  So we took a trip to Target to let him pick out big boy underpants and a potty seat for upstairs and now we will see how potty training goes.  He is just one of those kids that is perfectly content in diapers at this point, so who knows.

 

 

We wrapped up the day by spending the afternoon at the beach and splash pad where they swam like fish and wore themselves right out. 

 

What a fun family day with our super special boy.

 

 

Happy Birthday Mr. Man.  It boggles my mind that you could already be turning three.  It feels like just yesterday we were making that wild and crazy trip down to Texas to hold you for the first time.  Here you are three years later, so loving and so dear.  Our hearts could not be any more proud if we tried! 

Twinkle Twinkle

Our Little Star

Driving Along in My Automobile

Friday morning, when we were supposed to be heading to dance class, I realized too late that Pat had taken my keys to work with him.

 

 

So we just hung out in the driveway instead.

 

No keys needed to start these cars:)

 

Melts My Heart

Moments like these make my heart melt.

 

So sweet.

 



 

 

 

And moments like these make me laugh until my stomach hurts. 

She gives us a huff and a slight eye roll and then folds her arms in a pout.

Isn't it too soon to be getting 'tude from our girl?

Reliving the Glory Days

Pat relived his football glory days with the next generation of

lil' athletes at TCF Stadium.

Crazy Uncle Pat

Never a dull moment with

 

 

crazy

 

Uncle

 

Pat

 

TCF Stadium

Work sponsored a movie night at TCF stadium last night and even though there was not much movie watching in our section, the kids (and dads) had a great time running some plays down on the field.

 

The kids got to jump in the inflatables and they all got to take home a semi truck.   Bennett slept with his truck last night.  He was so excited to open his new truck and play with it.  The weather was gorgeous and all the fresh air tired them out.  I think there will be some long naps today.

I'll post a video of Pat re-living his football glory days down on the field as he ran football plays with a team of toddlers.  What a good dad.

Silly Daddy

Hi, this is Tatum. My daddy got me all dressed up. He has good taste so he pulled out a new dress from my closet and even remembered to take the tags off. 

 

But he did forget one minor detail.  To detatch the bottoms from the dress and put them over my diaper. You know how bottoms are always attached to the armpits underneath a new dress. Well dad just left that all in tact.  I don't think he even saw they were there.

 

 

 

 

It was pretty uncomfortable.  Until naptime when mom realized what daddy forgot. She thought it was funny so she took pictures of it.

 Silly daddy. 

Our Little Public Servants

The kiddos got to crawl around in the city fire trucks and police cars and lots of airplanes at aviation days. They were so excited.  The ambulance on the other hand was something they cared less about.