Winter break fun!

Winter break fun. We did everything from just hanging out to swimming, sledding (at the end of break when it finally snowed!!), Derek working on a few odd jobs for some friends, going to Bouncy Town, and of course spending time with Bry. Every time Bryan comes back "home" he has a few more groupies that follow his every move. We all miss him so much when he leaves and love when he comes back again for visits.

We really had a great break. After the Christmas festivities last weekend we headed to the Dells for a day at Chula Vista. Boy was that fun! Tessa is starting to get so much less tentative about the water slides and doesn't think twice about going down them. Nolan on the other hand is completely fearless and is a crazy monkey. He would have gone down the biggest water slide there if we would have let him! Seeing how much he's changed already since summer makes me excited for all of the swimming fun that we will have next summer.

We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and enjoyed spending time with family this week as much as we did.
The first of our sledding adventures this winter. It's amazing how much fun sledding can be when there is only an inch of snow! Thanks for the piggyback ride on the sled Beau!

Nanny Mitchell taking care of Nolie. What a great cousin he is. Never fear...Mitchell's here! How are we seriously so lucky to have these kiddos in our lives??

The crew taking a break at the Chula Vista. Kind of hard to go from sledding to swimming (brrrrr) but they really are two of my favorite things.

By the end of the day Nolan had this slide figured out. He finally figured out that if he did this quick turn around on his belly that he wouldn't get a face full of water at the top of the slide.

Tessa taking care of Nolie...cute.

Cheese...

Cheese...

A little snuggle time with Grandpa.

Break time at Bouncy Town.

Nolan feeling like a big boy as he tries to play old school Nintendo with Bry and Mas.

A quick pic with Bry...and no Derek isn't tickling his head like it appears :) Fun times. The holidays sure cruised by!

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas 2011. We love Christmas every year but this year was so much fun. Tessa was all about it for the first time ever. Of course Nolan loved it too but he still doesn't totally understand it. Tessa on the other hand LOVED it, asked tons of questions about everything, and was so excited about her Christmas list that she could hardly stand it. Tessa had three things on her Christmas list and this list didn't change one bit from the first time she made it over a month ago: red lipstick, a puppy in a purse, and Calico Critters. Tessa must have been really good this year because she got everything on her list plus more. (And may I also mention for those of you that Santa consulted about the Calico Critters that she absolutely loved them. She first opened all of the critters. She kept saying how much she loved them and that it was okay if she didn't get the house that she really wanted, but would be so excited if she did get it. She was a huge sweetie about it and loved all of the beautiful gifts that she got from everyone...thank you!!)

Nolan was also very excited about everything but didn't quite understand it all as much as Tessa. He was thrilled with the first gift he opened at all six Christmas parties that we went to but of course was also a very good boy this year so had way more than one gift to open. (What a lucky guy!!)

We sure had a lot to celebrate this Christmas. Derek and I are so lucky to have our two little sweeties in our life (although often we feel as if we have five sweeties including the Lane's...which we often forget are not ours). We really couldn't be happier and couldn't be surrounded by more wonderful friends and family.

Merry Christmas.

Tessa fresh out of bed to see that Santa had arrived. She was a little excited :)

Nolan was all about opening the gifts this year which was a fun change from last year. This was his first gift that he opened...which he then played with for about a half hour before opening the others.

The "little" cousin crew on our Mitchell side of the family. All I can think of when I look at this is that Grandma Mitchell sure would be happy sitting in the background watching this picture take place. Boy she would love all of these little munchkins and would be so very proud of all of us.

Present number one for Tessaroo Christmas 2011 at Grandma and Grandpa Meade's house. Let the fun begin!

The boys. Come on Nolie...give us one of those smiles that you always have on your face...just never when I'm taking a pic!

The crew. Man I love these kids, we couldn't be luckier.

This was the beginning of the Christmas festivities. About two weeks ago the Klein's invited us to Christmas on the farm which was so much fun. Santa even came with his reindeer and elves! What a special treat for all ages :)

The girls at Christmas on the farm. Santa was in the background but they were perfectly satisfied staying super far away from him the whole time.

The kiddos sitting with an elf and reindeer. I love how this guy was in every photo (which I totally get by the way, it was just cute!!). What a cute idea to have the reindeer there. Thank you Tom and Mary!

Tessa's First Christmas Concert

Who knew that they'd do a Christmas concert for Tessa's 4K class?! It was ADORABLE! Tessa's group was the fourth group to go. Each group sang a few Christmas songs and we got some pretty good giggles watching each group while they sang in the big auditorium at the high school. I didn't know how Tessa was going to respond to getting up on stage but she sure loved it. I still don't know where she learned all of her poses that she was doing :) The link to the video is below. It's pretty long, about five minutes, and I'm sorry for the parts where the camera is shaking. I was laughing pretty hard a few different times! This will be fun to look back at some day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMsKfQkjaJQ&feature=youtu.be

Tessa and Sadie after the performance. Maybe someday they will be in the same class up there singing together? They sure were excited to see each other after the performance :)

The photo shoot on stage after the performance. She sure loved being up there!

Let the 2011 holiday fun begin!

This weekend we went to the annual Holly Jolly Light Parade in Baraboo. It's a really cute parade and the kids really do love it. I took Mitchell when he was one (seven years ago...that's crazy!!) and three years ago we started the tradition back up again with us, my parents, the Lane's, and Koenig's. We weren't quite sure if the parade was going to be on with the rain that we had during the day but the rain stopped just in time for the parade to begin and started again right at the end of the parade. This is always such a fun way to start the holidays. It definitely gets us in the holiday spirit. I didn't get pics of all the kiddos but I got a few of them. Sorry Mas. I know Grandma has some great pics of you posing in the street...sorry I didn't capture any myself :)

What a great time of year to reflect on how thankful we are for all of the wonderful people in our lives. I know I say it all the time but we sure are lucky. We hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving and enjoys the anticipation Christmas as much as we do. Wait until you see Tessa's face in the pic below...her first glimpse of Santa in the parade. One of those moments in life that I want to remember forever.

The four of us. Getting three out of the four of us looking at the camera is actually pretty good :)
Santa's coming and I'm a little nervous.

There he is....WHOOOOO HOOOOOO! :)

Hanging out with Mitchell under the umbrella on the soaking wet blanket!!

Sadie, Tessa, and Marah being goofy.

Evan and Nolan taking a break from jumping off the little curb to get a quick picture taken :)

Door County

This past weekend was my first time traveling to Door County. I've heard it's a neat place to visit and I was lucky enough to find that out for myself this past weekend. A friend from work, Rach, has a gorgeous lake house there that belongs to her family. It was an absolutely beautiful house and the four of us (Jess, Leah, Katie, and myself) were super lucky to be asked by Rach to join her there for the weekend. The weekend consisted of eating, laughing, playing games, chatting about lots of different topics :), relaxing, hiking, and going to two different wineries (which was my first time ever!!). Thanks girls for a fabulous weekend :)


As much fun as I had while I was gone, it's always great to come home to my munchkins. Derek had a great weekend with the kids. They had a busy weekend of running around to stay busy but my favorite is where he took the kids on Saturday morning. He took the kids to "Kids in the Rotunda" at the Overture Center where they had a ballet show for kids. Super cute. He dressed Tessa in her ballet outfit and black tights and took Nolie and Tessa there for the show. What a good daddy. I wish that I could have seen that...I bet Tessa was in love watching the ballerinas. The picture below is what he sent me on my phone. The pic didn't turn out great but it captures her cutie outfit that she wore. Overall we all had a great weekend :)

Trick-or-Treat!

It was definitely a fun Halloween 2011! Tessa was so into everything about it. Nolan started to get into it too but still a little confused what was going on :) We purchased Nolan this adorable cow costume (since cows, tractors, barns are his favorite things EVER...still not sure why!?!?) but he wanted absolutely nothing to do with putting it on. It was a full body costume and all he wanted to do with it was walk around like it was a stuffed animal. Our little cow turned into a football player which worked out perfectly. Tessa wore her favorite dress up costume - Tinkerbell - that she got from Aunt Cinders and Uncle Mikers last year. She was decked out and loving every minute of it.

The Lane/Pertzborn crew...love these kids. What in the world would my kids do without M, M, and M in their lives?

The girls. A little snuggle before we started trick-or-treating.

Having a little heart-to-heart conversation while going house to house.

Tessa being a goofball and Nolan still trying to figure out what this whole pumpkin carving, take outside, light a candle in the inside of it thing is all about.

Tessa so carefully cleaning out of her pumpkin and Derek using his sawzall. The butter knife I used worked just fine :)

Look at that concentration. Good job working hard Tessaroo on painting your cute, little pumpkin.

The next three pics are from Stephie's Halloween party. We are so lucky to have her in our lives and are so lucky to have her help raising our children while we are at work. The kids LOVE going to Stephie's..Nolie no longer says Beppy :(. She had adorable Halloween games set up for the kids to play and they had so much fun.

Making a spider web. Even Jennings, aka Nolan, joined in on the this one. Not sure which he was more excited about, playing the game or sitting by Mitchell, but either way he loved it.

The kids signing and acting out a song for us. Super cute!

The beginning of the Halloween show :)

Nolan loves tractors more than almost anything else in the world. He was in awe to be so close to this tractor, and even more importantly the tractor's wheel! He was in heaven and telling him it was time to leave that day was not pretty.

Cheeeeeeese!

Playing outside while we can. Loving playing around in the leaves.

Nolan loving the leaves too. Man the slide goes quickly with leaves all over it!

Fall

What a beautiful fall. We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful week and weekend. The nights dipping down to 55 degrees with highs during the day in the low 80's. Perfect! It would be great if this could stick around for a long time but I know this is not a typical fall in WI so the weather will be changing anytime. The tree colors right now are gorgeous and changing everyday.

We've had a great start to the school year. It's hard to believe we are beginning week six of school already and right in the swing of things. Derek is still really enjoying coaching football this fall and only has one game left before playoffs begin. Man that went fast (at least for me)! Tessa is loving school and still loves going to Stephie's or Grandma's when she's not at school. And Mr. Nolan is changing so much. He talks all the time, is so goofy and silly, and also loves going to Grandma's and Stephie's (aka Beppy). He usually gets out of the vehicle and sprints to whichever house he is going to for the day. It sure makes a mommy feel good when her kiddos LOVE where they spend their days. We are lucky to have two of the best babysitters ever.

We had Tessa's first parent/teacher conference last week. I've had hundreds of conferences over the past seven years but this is my first on the parent side. It was the cutest thing ever. Derek and I didn't know exactly what to expect. We were obviously hopeful that things were going well but you just never know. Her teacher is so sweet. Things are going great at school for Tessa. She's helpful, polite, loves reading and writing, and seems to be right on track for her age. Good job Tessaroo :)

Of course I also have to mention how extremely great it is to be from WI this fall. Go Badgers, Brewers, and Packers!

Mr. Serious just waiting to devour that apple.

Tessa being silly and Nolan being such a big boy swinging all alone.

I don't think I ever recall playing in the leaves with shorts on...but I'll take it!

Thanks Marah girl! Love the bunny accessories that you bought for T. You two are too cute together :)