What does Santa Say?

Kale is just starting to talk...In this video he points to the "Santa" we have hanging on the wall...I think it's adorable! :)

Christmas Pictures - 2009

Kale riding Rylee's new Bike - It's a little big for him...

Eli with "Rocky - the Robot Truck
I am not sure if he likes the truck or the tic tacs more!

Rylee with her baby Leopard Cub.

I think she named her Leona!

Christmas Programs 2009

Eli's Preschool Class - Jesus Loves me Preschool 2009

3 yr olds in the back, and 4 yr olds in the front.

Rylee's Kindergarten Class - 2009
(Graduating Class of 2022)

Merry Christmas 09!

Rylee Ann (5 years old)

Elijah Trent (3 years old)

Kale Carl (1 year old)

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, and I hope you all did too! Christmas Eve we headed to Sally and Mike's Church for the candle light serivce. It was a nice service, but all in all it was an hour and 40 minutes long. Let me tell you it is not that easy to keep 5 kids (7, 5, 5, 3, and 1 years old) happy, content, and quite for that long, but somehow we managed to do it! They had a couple dress up as Mary and Joseph with a their young baby swaddled up as Jesus. They walked in from the back of the Church and walked the isle up to the front of the church. I pointed them out to the kids, and Rylee looked at me very seriously and said. I think that Baby Jesus would be all grown up by now. I don't think he would still be that little! That made me laugh! After getting home and getting the kids to bed. Santa had lots of wrapping and assembling to do! So it was a late night.

We were lucky that they kids slept fairly late. We went down stairs to see what Santa had brough them. The kids were very excited to see the gifts that Santa had brought. Rylee got a bike, Eli a Robot Truck, and Kale got a vaccum cleaner. Of course there was lots of other toys and presents too. After playing for awhile, we packed up and headed to Grandma Hendrickson's house for Christmas with Trent's Mom's side of the family. Later that night we visited with Trent's Dad at Grandma and Grandpa Schneider's house for a bit. We stayed overnight at Judy's house, and celebrated Christmas with Trent's Mom and Brother & Girlfriend on Saturday. Then headed home...I was a good thing we have a mini-van cause the kids got so much stuff that we had it packed to the ceiling!

Sunday we headed up to My Mom and Dad's house to celebrate the Hutter Christmas. It was a nice weekend all in all. We were excited to see some cousins that we don't get to see, and meet Rhonda's new boyfriend and his daughter (Riley). It was a good time! By the time we got home on Sunday night it was supper and bed time already.

We still have two more Christmas's to celebrate. We are getting together with Mark (Trent's Dad) on New Year's Day, and celebrating with my family on the 2nd! It's nice to spread out the Christmas "Joy"!

I hope you all had wonderful Holiday's! Merry Christmas!

Twas the Days before Christmas...

Santa's Helper's with Cookies (Eli & Cash)

Helping Grandma make Rice Krispy Treats!

Girl Elves - Posing (Rylee & Mikki)

Girl's Helping Grandma.

Well, The Christmas cards are done and stuff (yet to be mailed...That is a project for Lunch time!) We got almost all of the shopping done (just a few minor things left). The stocking are hung (not by the chimney...We don’t have one, but on the wall) with care of course. For the most part we are ready for Christmas. The kids are very excited for Santa to come. I am excited to spend time with our families, and watch the kids this holiday. They are the perfect ages to really appreciate the magic of Christmas. We are going to go the Church on Christmas eve, I always remember as a kid loving the candle light service, signing Silent Night in the dark. It was always a magical time! I want the kids to experience that, and remember the true meaning of Christmas.

This past week, was a lot of fun. Both Rylee and Eli had their Holiday Programs on Friday. Rylee’s was the kindgarten class. They have over 100 Kindergarteners! They sang several songs! It was very cute. Eli’s Preschool Program was at night. He did fairly well, but in true Eli style he was a bit of a card. He waved to everyone in the “crowd” several times. Then when he was supposed to be playing the Bells, he covered his ears. Apparently it was too loud! Too loud to play, but not too loud to take your hands off your ears and wave at Grandma! That boy! I got video and Pictures, but left my camera at Cheryl’s house on Saturday night. We were there celebrating Taylor’s 15th birthday!

Christmas Cards and Other Projects...

So since around Thanksgiving time, I have been telling myself that I need to start taking pictures for the Christmas cards. Well, It's now Dec 16th, and I have yet to take the pictures. I must say that I think I am not the only one that is a little behind this year. Why do I say that? I haven't recieved a lot of cards in the mail yet this year. Well, At least not as many as I normally do. So yesterday I told myself...It's time to figure this out. So I came up with an idea for our cards. The plan was to take the pictures last night. Well, Rylee had to take snack to school today, and she had homework. Eli was crabby, and by the time we got done with supper, homework, and snack it was almost time for bed. Fine...That means tomorrow night instead. We will see! Hopefully everyone is happy tonight, so the pictures turn out, and don't take all night! Wish me luck!

We have a couple other projects to work on this coming weekend to. Christmas presents you know! I really think it will be a crafty weekend! :)

This is how Eli feel asleep the other night!

It doesn't look real comfy to me.

We had a very nice weeked! Friday night I had a game at Wisconsin Heights (3-0). Trent and the kids stayed home and relaxed. Saturday morning we got up and took Rylee to basketball pratice. She seems to really enjoy it! Then Mom came over and watched the kids so I could get some Christmas shopping done! From 11 am until 8 pm I shopped, and at the end of the night I dropped! I did however get a huge chunk of shopping done! Sunday, we talked about doing several different things...Should we go see Santa, fo Sledding? We ended up wrapping presents, playing games with the kids, watching the Packer Game, and reading lots of books. It was definately a lazy day, but it was a nice day.

Last night the kids had their last night of swimming, and I had a game. So Trent and the kids came and watched it after swimming was done. We won big (4-0). After my game the kids hung out for awhile, and then headed home. It was lots of fun! Rylee is going to come with me to practice tonight. It's a short one because there is a band concert at the school. She seems to be pretty excited about it! We will see.

Pictures from Decorating Cookies!

Aunt Judy Frosting the Cookies.

Eli and Cash Decorating...If you can call it that!

Mikki and Rylee working hard...Can you say too many Sprinkles!

Kale Enjoying a cookie. He is still too little to decorate...next year!

Aunt Lynda frosting the cookies she made!

Thanks for all the hard work...The kids love it!

Snow'd In...

Eli and Kale...(KC wasn't sure about the snow at first)

Rylee relaxing after shoveling!

After awhile Kale decided it was pretty fun in the snow!

Eli and Rylee playing in the snow!

Rylee’s school got cancelled yesterday with the Blizzard that hit Wisconsin. I kept saying, I will believe it when I see it! Well, I believe it now! Ha ha! I was going to try and venture out, but by the time the plow finally came through and we got the driveway cleared (mostly Trent) it was already 1:30 P.M. The kids and I went outside for about an hour, but then they were getting cold and wet! Kale did pretty good outside. He got frustrated with the mittens. He couldn’t pick up the shovel or hold it like he normally would. Finally after some frustrations, he started just putting the shovel under his arm (between his side and his arm). I was funny! He seemed to like the snow. Rylee and Eli had a lot of fun climbing around, helping shovel, and playing in it! Eli kept asking Trent when he was going to take him for a snowmobile ride. All day he kept asking. I was actually pretty surprised that he asked, because no one told him about it. He asked all on his own. After shoveling and snowplowing for 3 plus hours Trent did not have the energy to get the snowmobile out and get it running. It’s stored under and behind some stuff in the garage. Eli was crushed! So we will have to work on that one of these days! Both Uncle Mike’s should be proud!

It was nice to just hang out yesterday as a family! Enjoy the snow and take advantage of “being” Snow’d in! It was fun! Well, Everything but the snow removal was fun anyway...

Busy Season...

When you work for a retailer, they always call Christmas their “busy season”. Well, Really I am starting to wonder for who the Holidays isn’t the “busy season”...Well, I suppose there are people, but it seems like everyone is busy this time of year! This weekend was part of our “busy season”.

Friday night the kids went to Sally & Mike’s house, after practice I hurried home, and got ready to go to the Mueller Holiday Party. It was a lot of fun, as always. We had a nice dinner, entertainment, and of course some drinks. We headed home and were up bright and early on Saturday Rylee had basketball and a doctor’s appointment. Then it was home to clean and cook. Trent’s family came over on the Sunday for Thanksgiving. Saturday afternoon we headed to Milwaukee for Tim Hurley’s (Amy’s hubby) surprise 30th b-day party! I think he was surprised! It was a lot of fun! The kids behaved, and played good too! Sunday we had Thankgiving...Ate too much again! Played some games and hung out! It was a nice day. By Sunday night, we were all tired!

Trent is on vacation this week, and Rylee had a late start for school today (planned). I was very jealous that they were both still sleeping when the boys and I left the house! I think with the snow today, it would have been a perfect day to snuggle in and sleep! Although it was a busy weekend it was a lot of fun. Busy, but enjoyable!

Thanksgiving Photos (Thanks Cheryl)

Kale does NOT like Diablo!

Eli Does!

The Game of Life...

(Eli, Stacey, Rylee, Taylor)

Taylor was mad he lost!

Rylee's Thanksgiving Decorations - She had to bring them along for Cheryl!

Eli didn't like the Cranberries!

Eli's Sore Foot!

Eli has had kind of a rough week. He fell at Kara’s house on Tuesday and hurt his foot. Kara and I both didn’t think much of it at first, but he continued to complain about it hurting and he would limp on and off. Tuesday night we had our first basketball game, so it was kind of crazy around our house, but Trent looked at his foot, and it was really swollen, and bruised. So after my game on Tuesday (which we won! YEAH) I asked our Athletic Trainer to look at it. She recommended that we take him in, cause it was really swollen and with kids and growth plates, etc it was better to be safe than sorry. So Yesterday I called the clinic and got him in. The doctor said he had really done a good job on his foot. He X-rayed it, and said that it wasn’t broken, but that it might have a small fracture (it is really hard to tell with kids of his age. Most of their foot is still cartilage! He had definitely broken blood vessels, and damaged tissue. He also said that he may have hurt the cartilage, but there is no way to see that. So, NO cast, just keep him off it as much as possible! Ha ha! Have you meet Eli! He also recommended that we have him wear a hard soled shoe for a couple weeks. Well, That is great, but the swelling (as of the morning) had still not gone down enough that it didn’t hurt him to put a shoe on! By this morning he was definitely walking better! Today was Pajama day at Preschool, so the good news is that he could get away with out wearing shoes! Ha ha!