Grip and Rip

Another fun Christmas has come and gone with only the pictures and memories left...and the gifts of course! We spent Christmas Eve with the Young side and were lucky enough to have Santa (Bob Theis) come again this year. The kids were so excited. Their eyes just lit up when Santa walked into the room and I don't think any of them said a word. They just sat and stared and smiled. It is amazing how they truly believe Santa exists. Even after Santa drove away in a car!

Here is Sydney absolutely thrilled with her new doll.

We spent Christmas Day with the Nystrom side and as always there was plenty of food and presents to go around.

First Snow Fall

Okay so the first snow fall was awhile ago but here are some pictures of the girls happily shoveling the quarter inch of snow. To most of us snow means shoveling and longer commutes, but you just can't help but like the snow a little when you see how much your kids enjoy it.

The day after Thanksgiving we put up the tree. The girls were very anxious to help and actually did a pretty good job. The tree looked pretty sad though this year but we thought it could make it one more year. Last weekend we noticed it was tipping quite a bit and decided it was time to get rid of it before it fell on someone. Luckily Target had just clearanced out their trees and we were able to get a great price on a pre-lit one with 750 lights. Score!

Here is Sydney posing with her cookie. The girls love to bake cut-out cookies but get impatient waiting for everything to be mixed etc, so this year we cheated and did the pre-cut ones. The girls were happy, it was a ton easier for me...life was good.

We have been very busy at our house preparing for Christmas, buying and wrapping gifts. In the midst of wrapping and preparing gifts for the girl's teachers, I asked Lindsey "Which is better, giving gifts or receiving gifts?" and said said "Giving gifts!" What a great answer....

Questions

So we all know that kids have LOTS of questions but as they get older the questions seem to get harder and harder. Last night Lindsey hit me with a couple hard ones. First she asked if we celebrate Hanukkah. That one wasn't so hard to answer. The second was rather intuitive of her. She said "Mom, when do numbers stop?" The third question was by far the best and this one I left up to David to answer. David was telling me that little baby Payne was circumsized yesterday. Lindsey overheard and with a puzzled look said "Mom, what does circumsized mean?" Ahh, the fun has just begun.

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Pilgrims!! (not sure why Sydney made a boy hat at preschool instead of a girl one, but we'll just have to use our imaginations here....)



Just what Thanksgiving is all about....family love.
Leave it to Sydney to tackle her sister.
Have a great day everyone! And to all those crazy shoppers on Friday morning, is it really worth it??? Seriously, 4 a.m. people?? I love a good deal, but sleep is much more important!!!

Little Chefs

Ever since daylight savings time started a few weeks ago we have playing indoors after dinner. We hadn't played with the easy bake oven for ever so we pulled it out and three nights in a row the girls begged to bake something with the oven. It was a lot of fun until the third night when Sydney broke out in a rash around her mouth after just tasting the tiniest bit of brownie mix batter. I looked at the package and sure it enough it said "may contain traces of peanuts." Who puts peanuts in easy bake oven mixes, c'mon!! So that night I had to tell Sydney she couldn't eat the brownies she was about to make. She was so sad. Then Lindsey, sweet as can be, said "Sydney, if you can't have the brownies, I won't eat them either." Then Daddy came up with the idea to have huge ice cream sundaes instead. He pulled out every thing of chocolate sauce and sprinkles we had. Soon Sydney was smiling again!!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween (only 5 days late!!) Lindsey went as Cinderella this year and Sydney went as Uniqua from the Backyardigans. We went with some of our neighbors and made it all around the two neighborhoods by our house this year which means LOTS of candy. I thought for sure Sydney would get tired but she kept up the whole time.

Above are Lindsey, Sydney and Colin getting ready to go out trick or treating. Below are Lindsey and Sydney with the neighbors, Teagan, Colin and Josh and we can't forget the cutest trick or treater, Amelia. Isn't she adorable!!!

Pumpkin Fun

We went to our favorite pumpkin patch, the 101 Market in Otsego, and got our pumpkins again this year. The girls had fun digging the guts out. David helped Lindsey with hers and I helped Sydney. David was done with his and Lindseys by the time I even had Sydney's eyes done. I guess the power tools he used helped, although it made quite the mess! We had pieces of pumpkin all over the kitchen!!

Pretty Girls

A couple of weekends ago we went to our neighbor's wedding. The ceremony was at the Weddings of Wayzata and the reception was at Rush Creek. This was the first wedding that the girls had been to (well first wedding that they were old enough to know what was going on). The girls looked so pretty in their pink matching dresses!

Lindsey enjoyed drinking water out of a wine glass and thought she looked pretty cool. All the glasses on the table made mommy a little nervous but some how nothing got broken! We sat with some old neighbors of the groom's parents and had a really fun time. The girls could have stayed and danced all night! Congratulations Chad and Jodi!!

Lindsey's Kindergarten Class

Lindsey's teacher, Mrs. Klukow is very good about taking pictures and posting them on her website. Here are a couple of pictures from when the firetruck came to visit Lindsey's school. It is always nice to see pictures of your child smiling at school.

Apple Jack Orchard

On September 28th we made the trek to Delano to have the girls pictures taken by Angie. After lunch from the yummy peppermint twist drive-in, we headed to the Apple Jack Orchard. This was our first time at this orchard. The weather was perfect and we had lots of fun. Note to anyone going to this orchard to pick apples, you pay by the pound not the bag! David thought for sure we paid by the bag so we kept filling the bags up even though I thought we must pay by the pound. Sure enough he gets up to the register to pay and the cashier weighs the apples and says--that'll be $29.98!

The day we were there they had the largest pumpkin weigh-in. It's hard to believe those pumpkins grew that big in just one season.

The Big 32

Although I am not a big fan of broadcasting that it was my birthday and I turned a year older on Wednesday, I had to share this picture of Lindsey and Sydney. It was the cutest thing. On Tuesday night they kicked me out of the house for 20 minutes so they could work on something for my birthday. On Wednesday morning they had me stand in the kitchen with my eyes closed and then they came back holding the big 3 and a 2 they had made. They yelled "Happy Birthday" with the biggest smiles on their faces! They were so proud of their sign! Good idea daddy!! I kept asking them if they could change places so I could be 23 instead of 32 but they just laughed and said..."no mommy you're 32!" Bummer...

Water Balloons

Water balloons were the big hit at our house this summer. Every time we went outside to play Sydney would ask to do water balloons. These pictures were taken on Labor Day weekend where we got the pool out for the last time. Lindsey had her friend Jordan over and the 3 girls played for hours. Not sure who the crazy guy is in the last picture who jumped in the pool with his golf clothes on!

Dance Fever

Here are some pictures from the girls' dance recital in August.

(I know I am a little behind!!)
It was in an auditorium so the girls were up on stage with bright lights shining on them. This was Lindsey's second recital so she knew what to expect and did great. Sydney did a few moves but had the "deer in the headlights" look for most of the routine. I was just happy she stayed up there and didn't cry. It was cute but secretly I am hoping its the end of the pink tutu phase. I'd much rather see them in basketball jerseys! Okay maybe that's a little selfish...

Day Number Two

Here she is yesterday, on day number two of Kindergarten. Her and her friends are lining up, waiting for the big yellow school bus. I love this picture below. It was actually taken by Jordan's dad, so I am not sure what they are looking at but they have such confused expressions on their faces. I am sure they are thinking---what are they going to have us do next!

Below Lindsey gives the camera one last smile before getting on the bus.


And she's off..... (sob, sob)

Lindsey's First Day

The long awaited day finally arrived yesterday: Lindsey's first day of Kindergarten. Below she is posing with her High School Musical backpack.

Here is Lindsey and her other kindergarten friends from New Horizon lining up to get on the daycare van. She will take the daycare van on "B" days and the yellow school bus on "A" days.

Below is Lindsey and her friend, Jordan, sitting together on the van getting ready to go. As you can see she was all smiles, which made it easier on Mom. Okay just a "little" easier! It was still the hardest thing I have done since dropping her off at daycare the first day 5 years ago.

And...here she is getting off the van yesterday still all smiles for the camera!!!

We let Lindsey pick where she wanted to go out to dinner yesterday. She chose the restaurant at Edinburgh. We bought her (and Sydney) a yummy dessert for doing so well the first day. As you can see it was HUGE!

After dinner, Lindsey and Sydney practiced their putting. Good thing we brought jackets as the temperature dropped so fast throughout the day!

Check back later for pictures from today of Lindsey

boarding the yellow school bus for the first time!!