Merry Christmas!

A little fun in the snow before the big day . . . Henrik enjoyed sledding, but we need to get a bigger sled.

We've been explaining to Ida that we don't eat yellow snow because that is where the dog has peed, which resulted in her declaring "We don't eat pee!". Well, that's good news.

Christmas Eve before going to church. Suzanne wasn't able to finish Henrik's Christmas sweater in time, but she did finish knitting Ida's dress.

"Do I really have to wait for Henrik?" Yes, Ida is all about the opening of presents.

Henrik caught on quickly, but after 3 or 4 gifts a book caught his eye and he was done. After asking him if he wanted to open more and having him shake his head "NO" every time, we finally let Ida open the rest of his gifts. He didn't care and she was thrilled!

Santa Claus is coming to town

The kids had a little pre-Christmas gift opening with Grandma and Grandpa L.

We had a small party for a few kids 3 1/2 and under and their parents. We got all but two in this picture. We were shocked we were able to get them all to sit still long enough to get this good of a picture.

Henrik was not real excited about the surprise guest . . .

. . . but eventually warmed up enough to sit on Santa's lap.

Ida took to Santa a little quicker, although after weeks of telling us that she wanted a lollipop for Christmas, she could only reply "I don't know" when Santa asked her what she wanted.

One final picture before Santa left for his sleigh ride home to finish getting ready for Christmas eve.

Winter has arrived!

Ida received an art easel for her birthday from Grandpa Curry, which has provided many hours of enterainment and lots of beautiful artwork!

Thanksgiving brought our first real snow and of course we had to make a snowman. We have a lot more snow now, but between windchills and sick kids we haven't been able to get out and enjoy it as much as we'd like.


Ida was showing off her poncho that Grandma L knit for cousin Ella (and Ella handed down to Ida).

Apparently, this was the most comfortable spot in the house . . .

Decorating the tree was entertaining this year. Ida put ornaments on the tree and Henrik took them off. It took a bit longer than usual to decorate.

Ida insisted on reading her new book during our "monthly" power outage. Dad's headlamp came in very handy!

Poor Hagen . . . good thing he loves the kids!

We had an early Christmas celebration with Grandma and Grandpa L. Not surprising, the kids made quick work of opening all those gifts.

Happy 3rd Birthday to Ida!

We had Ida's birthday party on Sunday, and Ida got to wear a very special dress to sunday school and church. This is the dress that the flower girl (Ida's cousin, Ella) wore for Chad & Suzane's wedding. She looked so pretty.

Ida was gracious enough to let all of the kids in on opening presents. Pretty much everyone helped out and great fun was had by all.

This gives new meaning to "all these presents and they only wanted to play with the box". This box provided a lot of entertainment for standing on, jumping on, even sitting on for a good part of the week.

Ida still hasn't quite figured out how to blow out the candles. But lucky for her Grandpa Curry and Jackson helped.

The cake and ice cream were delicious! And lucky for us, the kids enjoyed all the sugar before we went trick or treating so they had some time to burn it off.

Happy Halloween!

Ida and Henrik heading out for a little trick or treating around the neighborhood. Despite the weather forecast, it was a beautiful day!

Chad's pumpkin masterpiece

Hayes Corn Maze and night at camp

We took Ida to camp a few times in September-October 2008, but did not get out down there last year with Henrik being so young. This past weekend he made his first trip to camp. It went pretty well, except that he was up early (really early) and wouldn't go back to sleep. Ida slept in Grandpa's bunk (Suzanne slept with her so she wouldn't fall out) and was very proud of sleeping in the big girl bed.

We got settled into camp and then headed to the Hayes Corn Maze for some fun. Ida thought the tractors were pretty cool!

Henrik enjoyed checking out the Big Wheel.

We hit the hay maze first--which Ida successfully navigated for us.

And then headed to the corn maze. We didn't make it very far into the corn maze before the kids were bored.

But the giant hay pile brought out some excitement, especially when Ida figured out how to climb to the top and then work her way down to one of the two slides. Henrik just enjoyed walking around in all that hay.

We actually got both of them to look in the same general direction for 1/2 a second.

After we left Hayes we headed back to camp for more fun and to stay the night.

We took a nice walk Sunday morning before heading home. It was a bit chilly, but everyone was excited to go "walk in the woods".

Henrik tried to make a run for it, but thankfully Chad was fast enough to catch him before he got too far!

Pre School

Ida started preschool last week and was very excited about going to the "yellow school" (she's in the yellow room).

She was a little nervous once we got there and took a few minutes to warm up to the new surroundings and people. Once she warmed up to the idea there was no looking back. She has had a blast so far!

October is off to a great start!

It's not quite like camping outside, but Ida keeps asking to go "camping" so we thought we'd set up the tent for her.

The weather has been gorgeous the last week so we've been trying to spend time outside and take advantage of it before the snow flies.

Henrik's new favorite place to sit

Weekend in Green Bay/Appleton (without kids for the first time ever)

Early tailgaiters parked at Brett Favre's Steakhouse on Saturday morning for the home opener on Sunday. There were actually tailgaters set up Friday evening when we rolled into town--the Packers are serious about their tailgaiting.

Friday night we had a wonderful dinner at Brett Favre's.

Even though we're Lions fans, a trip to Green Bay wouldn't be complete without a quick trip to Lambeau Field.

A very special little boy named Ethan is why we were there in the first place.

The Super E Team (minus Chad who had tendinitis) lined up at the Start of the Fox Cities Half Marathon and ready to go.

Suzanne ran the race with Kevin Carr, who pushed her harder than she was prepared for but it resulted in a great finishing time.

Mile 10--only 3.1 to go!