Wildlife Post

Well, since I have no “green grass, sunny, flowers, it’s MAY!” type of photos for you (its 30 degrees outside right now!) I will have to go with these WILD photos!  As I said before, this time of year is so fun for watching the wildlife where we live.  We spend most of the day spying on all the animals.  I even put on camouflage gear and sneak out to take pictures so I go unnoticed.  Okay, thats a lie.  I’m pretty sure that my bright green sweatshirt might be what is screwing up some of my photos??  Or it could be that a certain 3 year old came tearing out of the house at a pivotal moment.  Anyway, I give you – Sullivan Lake Wildlife!

Here is one of 30-50 loons in our bay right now.  

Here’s a handful of them swimming together.  It was gale force winds on this day, so I didn’t stay long watching them.  Too freaking cold.  Story of my life here!

More wildlife….(she INSISTS she is not cold.  She lies.)

And here is the picture in question.  You see, I snuck outside to get a picture of Mr Eagle sitting on the ice and stayed out of his line of sight by walking up to the lake behind a tree.  As soon as I poked the lens around the tree – up he flew!  Now, I am sneaky.  So even though I WAS wearing a bright green sweatshirt, I think it has more to do with the tiny tornado that I took notice of after I took these subpar photos.

Here, it is clear I should use a tripod.  Cuz his loud wail startled me as I was pressing down on the button.  Put this photo in here anyway b/c I thought he looked so funny doing his call.

And here is Mr Eagle again.  Or Miss Eagle?  I don’t know.  I noticed 2 eagles sitting together on the ice yesterday evening and when we went to the window to look closer at them, we noticed this one in our tree.  There was no way I could go outside cuz he’d see me immediately so these are thru a window.  Better than nothing!

I think he is one in a family of 3 eagles.  Cuz right now as I’m writing this, there are 3 eagles sitting next to each other on the ice.  They are so fun to watch.  Eric gets mad thought b/c he thinks they might harm the loons.  

Well, thats all for this edition of Sullivan Lake Wildlife.  Check back for more!  Cuz I’m fairly sure it will never warm up here!  This is all we have!

Edited to add – after I hit “send to blog” on the post, I looked out and noticed 4 eagles in my neighbor’s tree.  So I ran up to Eric’s office to take pictures thru the window again.  Best I could do!  They’d fly away as soon as I opened the door I’m thinking.

While I was watching them, a 5th eagle flew up to join them.  So there were 5 in the tree and 3 on the ice.  Must have been a family reunion! 2 are hard to see here, but trust me, they are there.

Winter, parts 3, 4 and 5.

Well, if you were wondering where the updates went – I was hibernating.  The groundhog was EXTREMELY mistaken this year and we have spent the last month since I last updated buried in snow.  Literally. 

Here’s a nice spring (or winter?!) day.  

We went up to Maple Lake for Easter.  They had just as much snow as we did.  On EASTER.  Booooooooo

We did the best we could to pretend it wasn’t out there.  Here is Auntie Lulu teaching the little ladies some skating tricks.  She also taught me crossovers.  We’ll be starting all over again next fall.  ; )

Wouldn’t be a family get together without tons of food and some wine!

Here is Easter morning!

Auntie Kelli and her best friends!

The older 3 musketeers.

The best friends.

The best friends + an Ella.

The laaaaaadies.  Ryan’s finger was over the flash so thats why its all wonky.

And I blame the snow and its extreme brightness for ruining all 50 of the pictures Lulu took of us here.  They all stunk.

Here are the kids dressed in their Easter best or um, best snow gear for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt!

This is definitely a first – searching for eggs in the snow fort.

No idea what was happening here.  Some sort of trickery I’m sure.

Hobey, the Easter bunny dog.

This picture makes me laugh.  Poor little Addi in the snowbank!

We got home to find that a lot of our snow had melted!  We were so delighted!!!

The snowman had become a blob!  His end was near!

Avery broke out her summer gear in anticipation (pants were an afterthought).

We celebrated with walks to the bridge to monitor the wildlife and ice receding situations.

Then THIS happened.  BOOOOOOOOOOO.  This deck was free of ALL snow before that.

I believe it was an 8 incher storm.  Its hard to keep track actually. 

Then we thought it was safe to go back out.  So did the trumpeter swans who had returned.

Then, wouldn’t ya know it.  It snowed AGAIN.  Avery spoke for everyone here.  

This is ridiculous!

Then.  It snowed again.  This time – 10 inches.  

Excuse the photo barrage from this storm.  Everything was so pretty and it was almost unreal that it had happened again.  We got over 20 inches in a week’s time.  At the END of April.  School even got cancelled and from what I’ve been told – Brainerd RARELY cancels school.  

He was crossing his fingers that this was the last time he’d have to snow blow.  So far, so good.  Knock on wood.

Last week, Dylan was eating cereal when all of a sudden he exclaimed that he had a loose tooth.  He’s said this MANY times so we were like yeah, whatever.  But this time it was true.  He finally had a loose one! (right above my finger)

Couldn’t believe it!

Then, on April 25th at 11:30 am – he lost his tooth on the playground at school.  He lost it while jumping off a snowbank (he re-inacted it for us as we walked out of school) and luckily it stayed in his mouth so he didn’t lose it in the snow.  So the tooth fairy came and he got a 2 dollar bill.  He was pretty excited.

And if you can believe it – exactly one week after school was cancelled cuz of the 10+ inches – it was hot and sunny out.  Yes, I’m aware of how weird this looks.  There is snow but she is in shorts and a tshirt.  Yes, I know.  But the snow has to melt somehow right?!  And melting it all in 2-3 days with 70+ degree weather is the way to go!  Quick and painless!

Avery made snow castles!

Her sandbox was still covered, so she did the next best thing!

We had fun joking around with the snow background.  It really WAS hot out.  I’m serious.  My parents were here and my mom and I were putting snow on ourselves to cool off.  She at one point plopped a big snowball on her head to let it melt gradually onto her.  Snow actually worked out to our advantage!

We had to walk (ok, we ran thru the snow hootin and hollerin cuz of how cold the snow was!) down to the water for my yearly dancer’s pose picture with the ice.  Has to be done every year!

Avery prefers easier poses.

She didn’t seem to mind the cold snow and water on her feet.  She cray cray.

Then we came up with the genius idea to make margaritas with the snow!  When April gives you snow, you make margaritas!

The actually ended up being more like snow cones.  So we switched to beer.  Oh well!

Of course we walked to the bridge a lot.  This is the best time of the year to see wildlife.  When the ice isn’t off the lake yet, the birds and ducks all flock to the one area that DOES have open water – which happens to be right by our house.  

Avery got fancy for the occasion.

Here are the snow melting time lapse photos.  This was 7am-ish and 7pm-ish.

Here is the Blob – renamed Jabba the Hut.  Goodbye Jabba!!!!

And finally, here is more of the wildlife this morning.  I screwed up and didn’t bring my camera last night.  Of course, there was the world’s largest beaver eating a fish.  Several pairs of loons.  A bald eagle watching them all from a tree.  And lots of ducks.  It was a gorgeous night.  But there was more of the same this morning but not quite as warm today.  Here’s one of the eagles on the ice looking for easy targets.

And here are our loons!  So happy they are back!

Nature boy and nature girl collecting sticks.  Yesterday it was rocks.  Which luckily, were allowed to be sent home with grandma and grandpa.  Sticks are still here.  Bummmmmer.  

Well, we apparently have a last minute showing today, so I have to hit post and then hit the ground running!!!!  

Spring?

Well it’s spring.  Supposedly.  I looked at my calendar and our ice was out on March 19th last year.  Its now the 24th of March and the 2 feet of snow on TOP of the ice have yet to melt.  So yeah, it’ll be awhile.  So, until then, we’ll keep doing more of this stuff.  Here’s Avos playing with her barbies.

Sledding at the big hill in Brainerd.  This was a couple weeks ago.  This kids loved it.  The adults thought it was a lot of work.  ;)

Dylan loved this little bump on the steep track of the hill.  He crashed so many times but thought that was the best part.  I felt like he needed to be wearing a helmet!

He had a blast though.  Loves speed!

Avery did a lot of this though.  Laying around complaining about having to walk up the big slippery hill.

This was an early out from school day.  

The snow was finally sticky enough for a snowman.  They’ve been waiting all winter!

I did the balls and they did the rest.

I just love his hands!

They are proud of their efforts.

One Eyed Willy!  (They didn’t notice that his eye fell out until after the photo shoot.)

Here they are being silly.  Dylan is pretending to sleep.  I TOTALLY fell for it.

Then once Avery joins in the trickery, Dylan starts cracking up.

Back inside for indoor shenanigans.  Avery still insists on wearing warm weather clothes when she’s at home.  She’ll be REALLY excited when the day comes that she can wear this stuff outside.  She still asks every school morning if she has to wear a “sleeve shirt” and pants.  YES.  You do.  Put them on.  So on days when she’s not at school – she and Eric wear shorts.  He wears red.  She wears pink.  Here she is putting on a performance for me.

Eric stopped in to watch for a bit and pose for pictures.  See, red shorts!  Though, I know that surprises no one.

Ohhh, emmmm, geeee – it snowed again!  Hahaha.  This was on our way home from Brainerd a couple of weeks ago.  We got stuck behind the plow so there was nothing to do but take pictures.  

That’d be Eric’s nose there.

Then once it stopped (6 inches later) the kids and Eric set out to make a GIANT snowman.

Oh okay.  ERIC set out to make a giant snowman.

It took him awhile to get the job done which is why these pictures are no bueno.  Got too dark.

Then, over spring break, I took the kids to MOA to ride the rides and visit Legoland.  Kacie, Eddie and the kids joined us.  They all had a lot of fun.

This is on the ferris wheel.  Avery enjoyed the low key rides.  Dylan, not so much.  But he did admit he liked the ferris wheel.

This is the Ninja Turtles ride.  It spun around really fast.  He played it cool, but I think I saw a hint of fear on his face.  He’s claiming that I am WRONG.

Here he is mad about having to ride the “baby rides.”  These are the same rides he liked last summer.  Hmph.

Posing at Legoland.  He had been looking forward to this for awhile.  It didn’t disappoint.  

Avery was a good sport at Legoland.  Dylan even had her talked into choosing something Lego-y but I knew better and took her to find something princess-y instead.  Her mother knows best.

Avery loved the carousel.  There was a mirror next to her horsie, so she enjoyed the view of herself enjoying, well, herself.

Dylan LOVED the bigger bumper cars.  The first ones he was on were for “babies” he told me later.  These were more his speed.  He also LOVED the log ride.  Avery, did NOT.  I went with her on the log ride and Dylan went with Uncle Eddie and cousin Easton.  She cried through the whole thing and shook like a leaf.  Have you ever gone on that ride and not held on?  Yeah, I did.  She wouldn’t let me hold onto the railings because I had to have a death grip around her.  Those big drops were SUPER FUN while not holding on.  We’ll be waiting awhile to take her on that one again!

Here we are back at home and he was putting together the lego toy he got from the mall.

And this was yesterday.  Avery and I went on a “looking for spring” walk. We did not find it.  Dylan was being a bum and didn’t want to come with us.  Which is a bummer b/c this picture would have been awesome-r (one of Dylan’s favorite not a word words) with him in it.  My loss I guess.

An airplane flew overhead quite low.  Dylan missed out!

This shows how much snow we have.  She normally is about half way up that railing.  

Here’s our lame excuse for ice melting.  One tiny hole.  Where are the trumpeter swans, otters, and loons supposed to go?!!?!  This is ridiculous!

Eric and Dylan’s fort.  I have no idea what that says.

This was their first fort, but there was an incident and the whole thing caved in.  Now it’s just a hole.  A super FUN hole.

Here, Avos is headfirst into the hole.  She’s a ball of laughs.

And finally, Easter egg dyeing this morning.  

Good times!  We’ll be heading up to Gma and Gpa W’s house this weekend for the first ever thigh deep snow Easter egg hunt.  I wonder if the kids will be able to spot the neon eggs amongst the white?  Should be fun!  Ha. Ha.

 

 

South Padre Island 2013

We are freshly back from vacation.  As I write this, I’m tired, crabby (Avery keeps asking me, “Why you not happy?” – one of her catchphrases) and going through vacation withdrawals.  South Padre Island, I miss you.  WE miss you.  Avery asked me this morning while getting dressed if it was going to be hot today.  And I had to break it to her that we’re in MN again and its still winter.  She then shouted at me, “I WANT TO GO BACK TO TEXAS!!!!”  You and me both kid.  Siggggghhhhh.  Anyway, without further delay – I give you – VACATION RECAP!

We got to SPI late at night (late for us, anyway, hehehe) so this was what we woke up to our first morning.  Ahhhhh.

And we promptly headed down to the beach.  

We stayed at the Saida Towers this time instead of the Royale Beach and Tennis Club.  Its all part of the same complex, but it was a little different than what we were used to.  Gma and Gpa H stayed at their motorhome a mile down the beach (their winter home this year) and the rest of us were in the condo.  Gma and Gpa W were with us this trip as a wedding anniversary present from their kiddies.  

South Padre is ALWAYS very windy.  Okay, thats a lie.  But when its not windy – thats weird.  So we came prepared for wind.  Especially in the mornings.  You could lose your ears if you don’t have a hat on.

Beach boy was VERY excited to see the beach and ocean.

So was this guy.  

Here’s the complex we stay in.  We were in the far right building, top floor, third balcony from the right.  Really awesome views.  But apparently this is the junker unit in the building.  It really wasn’t as bad as what the long term renters said it was.  Just needs some serious updating and a good cleaning.  Gma Kim offered to do it for them in exchange for some living quarters for herself.  :)

The desperate seagulls.  Hungry seagull eat anything. Including seaweed.

You just HAVE to write your name in the sand!

Dylan is all set for his first trip to the pool.  Hurry up Gpa!  Put down that iPad and lets get a move on!

Here’s a shipwrecked boat we watched bobbing along for at least 3 days.  No info on it.  When we zoomed in on the picture though, there appeared to be a hole in the front of the boat.  Perhaps a rock impact caused it.  

Back on the beach for a pre-dinner photo shoot.  And its a good thing we did!  The rest of the evenings were cloud-tastic.

They are being birds here.  

We gave Gma our old SLR so she was having a ball snapping pics with it.

Avos the photo bomber!

Dylan, Dylan, Dylan….

I love these two pics.

Gpa and Dylan were best buds the whole trip.  

Our best family pic of the trip!  So glad we got a good one!  Props to Gma Kim for taking it.

These pics were Eric’s idea.  It was supposed to be a 1, 2, 3, JUMP.  I think it turned out cute.

Love this one too!

Sure glad I brought my blue jacket!  Fab!

Last morning with a decent sunrise!  From here on out, it was fog-tastic in the morning (another typical occurrence at SPI). 

Also glad that I was able to get in some ocean view workouts before the fog set in.  Great way to start the day!

Here are some of the “lame” seagulls, as Gpa Danny called them.  This guy was missing a leg.

And this guy was missing a foot.  He flew away as I was snapping the picture.  Must not have wanted his picture taken looking like this.  Leave me alone, I’m HIDEOUS!

Time for some shell collecting!

Avos the babos on the beachos.

Eric wanted a fun perspective photo, but with the giant lens, it wasn’t meant to be.  I brought my small lens later on, but the darn fog ruined any chance of getting the picture done.

Pelicans passing by.

We had to make a stop at the Turtle Rescue Center.  Its a must stop every time we visit SPI.  The kids LOVE the turtles.  Here’s a “lame” one.  

Avery and Gerry – Gerry is a lifer at the turtle hospital.

Dylan looking around.  He still showed lots of empathy for the turtles and flinched while watching one get a shot.

Gma Tone posing outside the turtle hospital like my Gma did many years ago.  My grandparents were winter Texans, so I figured we must get a pic of my mom posing like my Gma used to when we’d come down for visits.

Dylan played tennis a few times.  If I wasn’t so lazy right now, I’d upload a video of him playing.  I’ll do it later, stay tuned.

Beach time again!

The sand castle master hard at work.  He thought our castle was pretty sweet til we came upon a sand mansion a little ways down the beach later on that day.  Those jerks showed him up!

Fun in the sun and sand!

Our beach babies.  They love it so much on the beach.

These are the best swimsuit shots we got on the beach.  Le sigh.  Oh well.  

A wave hit and everyone took off.  No more photo ops.

Another attempt at the 1, 2, 3, JUMP.  Didn’t go as well.

Gpa Danny, always the jokester.

Another beach walk.  Gpa Tom joined us.

When we’d walk too far down, they’d request to be carried back.  

The kids got new kites while were down there from Gma and Gpa H.  We were worried that the kites might snap off and fly away in the extreme wind.  Happy to say that that was not the case.  However, we DID find a kite that someone else lost tho!  Score!

Here we had walked down to the “jetties” at one end of the island.

Dylan made us all nervous scampering across the wet rocks in his crocs.  

I don’t know which Gma took these, but they are NOT hired.  Off center!

Another posed picture!  Channeling Gma Pat.

Gpa Danny strikes again!

Gma Kim insisted she take a picture of my Mom and I.  I think they turned out cute.  

We were laughing at how many pictures she was taking.

Time to fly Avery’s kite!

The spectators.  We had fun with the zoom lens this trip.  Lots of sneaky, unsuspecting photos were taken.

Dylan sat with me in the sand to watch Avery fly her kite.

She flew it for literally 60 seconds and then handed it off to Eric.  ”I’m done.”

Some of the aforementioned sneaky photos.

The kids spent a CRAZY amount of time in the pool.  Both of them advanced their swimming skills quite a bit on this trip.  Dylan can swim pretty far underwater and Avery is now swimming doggy paddle style for a few feet at a time.  

More beach time!

It fogged up SO much after I took this picture that the rest of the pictures did not turn out at ALL.  You can’t hardly see anyone!

Time for some scenic yoga poses!  Took a few tries to get this and stick it b/c the wind was at hurricane speeds!  Sheesh!

My mom volunteered to pose too.  Fair game for posting, Mom!  I stepped on a man o war right after we took these pics and it splattered onto my leg.  Turns out that YES even if you ARE wearing shoes, the splattering of the innards of the man o war can still give you a sting!  It wasn’t as bad as I’m sure it COULD be, but it definitely itched and stung!

Dylan got a little squirrelly here and was trying to shove me underwater.  He knows I’m not a huge fan of going underwater. 

It turned into an all out wrestling match.  He’s a wire-y little bugger!

Avos was trying to protect me.

But he still managed to succeed.

The kids got to pick out towels at one of the big junk stores they have on the island.  Out of all the choices, Dylan went with the hundred dollar bill.  We had to laugh.  Avery went with Hello Titty of course (not pictured).

Cheesing for me poolside!

This is the Walrus.  Eric gave him his name.  And we kept tabs on what the Walrus was up to all week.  He even got sniped with the zoom lens a few times from up in the condo.  Eric thinks that the Walrus is the king of the pool and he watches over all the people there.  He also thinks the Walrus had it out for us, as he often seemed to be glaring in our direction.  It could be that he has supersonic hearing and knows that we called him the Walrus.  Even the kids were calling him that and they weren’t saying it quietly!  We got this picture of him by pretending that we were taking a self portrait of ourselves.  The Walrus and everyone else fell for it.  My mom and aunt both said, “oh that’ll be a cute picture of you two!”  Muahahahaha!!!  I am the Walrus!!!!

OH!  Here’s Hello Titty!!!  Super purdy!  They were pretty wiped out from all their swimming.

I had to include this photo!  See that really purdy peach colored pot there? Well, there was an incident and the original pot met an untimely end (did I mention how WINDY it is in SPI???).  ”It was an ugly vase, anyway.”  ;)  We found this lovely replacement at Tuesday Morning and got a deal on it.  $2.50!  Now, if only the owner of this place would follow our lead!

And finally, our last attempt at beach photos.  We waited too long on this day and the fog had set in too much. Boooooo.

Last attempt at 1, 2, 3 Jump.  Lame.

Last pictures at SPI!

We had a wonderful trip!  I wish we could have stayed forever, but alas, duties call.  I tried to get Gpa Danny to take over for me here, but it was a no go.  How rude!  Guess we’ll have to start dreaming of next time.  Now, let the countdown to summer begin!!!

January Catch Up

Alright, so I’m a bit behind on updating.  I thought that there wasn’t much that went on in the last month or so, but I guess I was wrong!  Get ready for picture overload!  What else is new, right?  Well, we left off at Christmas in Aberdeen.  Then we came home for a couple of days to regroup before heading north for time with Gma and Gpa W and crew.  We had to hit up the rink before we left, of course.

At this point, Avery was still skating with Eric behind her holding a safety rope around her while she shuffled along.  

On the way out of town, we picked up Avery’s dance photos.  SO CUTE!!!

Then it was time for chillin’ with the fam. Kelli is playing it cool here.  Shades in the house.

We played a few games.

Kids watched a movie.

And hung out together.  Here are the BFFs!

They spent a lot of time playing Mario Kart on the Wii.

We chatted with each other on our devices while in the same room.  Don’t tell me your family doesn’t do that too!

Some people took naps!

Kids played more Wii.  Dylan was OBSESSED with this game.

We were obsessed with Zumba Core for the Wii.  SO. MUCH. FUN!

Little Henrik entertained us all with his cuteness.

Here’s his big brother Easton.  

Avos and her new hat.  Now that I look at this….I wonder where that ended up.  Haven’t seen it since!

We made Gma Kim a canvas print of Cass Lake.

Eric was just as excited about it as she was!

Here’s all the kiddies lined up in front of the tree.

Gma and Gpa’s 8 grandkids all together.

I was dying over the discovery of Henrik looking JUST like this toy airplane!  I couldn’t stop cracking up!  He is so cute!

At the Crookston ice rink.  Still sporting the rope for now.

We hit up HJ’s on New Years Eve and celebrated Gpa’s Bday while we were there.  He is enjoying that bday sundae!

Then he photobombed me as I was trying to get a picture of…

Our dinner guest!  Gma’s friend!  Right Lulu!?

Kiddies were jazzed about staying up late on NYE.

The parents had good intentions but….

We did make it though.  Passed the time playing Trivial Pursuit.  No more wire hangovers!!!

And then we were back at home for business as usual.  Avery has taken an interest in doing chores for me.  Here she VOLUNTEERED to dry the dishes.  She also folds towels and her own clothes.  Awesome!

Dylan was back to hockey practice.  This is his after practice Little Ceasar’s pizza.  And it is HIS.  Do NOT touch it.  He will cut you.

Gpa Danny missed us and came down the next weekend to install the sliding shelves he made us for Christmas.  He so handy!

Here’s a fun art project the kids worked on for an afternoon.

Back on the rink for more skating.

See Shantytown out there?  Its in full swing.

Avery then graduated to a chair.

And then, she graduated to just skating on her own.  She did it!  She’s a skater!

I even put on my skates!

Dylan is showing me how to do some fancy move – crossing one foot in front of the other while moving.

Gave it a go, but yeah..too hard.

Not a fake fall!  Had that post not been there, I would have gone down.

He makes it look so easy.  As he does with any sort of skating move or drill.  Whiz kid on skates!

And Avery is quickly following in his footsteps.  Here she is getting up after a fall all on her own.  Eric tells us that some of the level 1 kids on Dylan’s team can’t even do that!

Mandatory picture together!

Dylan making Avery laugh.

Avery making Dylan laugh.

I came to join them for a photo, but Dylan took off.

And then Avery took off.  How rude!

Then we had a string of sick days for Dylan.  He was hardly sick.  Just kept getting random fevers so he had to stay home for a few days.

It was like old times around here.  ROMPER. ROOM.

I think Avery was happy to have him around all day again.  As much as she likes playing on her own, she enjoys his company when he’s here.

She has taken to wearing her summer apparel all day long lately.  And still changes her outfit at least 3 times a day. This particular outfit was quite striking.  The boots were a nice touch.

And whats this?  Vegetables (or vegabuhls, as she calls them)?!  Probably the only vegabuhls she had all week.  We’ll TAKE IT.

Dylan got better and out they went.  Snow angels were up first!

Then they hit up the frozen lake to work on digging with their sand toys.  

I entertained myself by doing this.  Total masterpiece. 

Then they did some sledding.

Avery got mad at Dylan for some random reason that I can’t remember and laid down on the ground.

And then she got snow on her face and that made her even more mad.

Back inside and in better spirits.  Fancy hat!

And finally, some dancing.  I was practicing for my classes which Avery enjoys.  So we took pictures.

She decided she needed to get fancy for dancing.

She loves a good dance session!

And looking beautiful!

Well, that is all for January!  hahaha!  Stay tuned for a February update at the end of February!  ;)

Christmas 2012

Happy Merry Belated Christmas to you!  We were in Aberdeen for Christmas this year and the time went so fast.  Left very little blogging time.  That’s my excuse anyway. Before we left we opened up our presents for our family.  Its a good thing we did too b/c we were packed to the gills as it was!  Here’s Avery opening her first gift.

Ooooh a PINK Wild Jersey!  Now she doesn’t have to wear Dylan’s old jersey anymore!

Here is Dylan’s big Lego gift from us – a giant helicopter that he’s been wanting forever.

He put it together all by himself earlier today.

Avery is doing her happy dance at the sight of her new Doc McStuffins doll.

My turn.  Eric “wrapped” it in wrapping paper that had just been unwrapped from one of the kid’s gifts.  He’s so creative.

Ooooh dark chocolate covered raspberry goji berries!

Avery got a new dance-a-rina outfit for dance class.  This is her “I’m pleased with myself” face.  

Avery and Doc McMuffins. ; )

I made them a GINORMOUS photo book highlighting 2011.  Its seriously yearbook sized.

And here we are in Aberdeen.  Dylan had gotten 2 transformers from us for Christmas and Eric had been all mad and frustrated with them.  Uncle Tommy was able to figure them out!  Naturally, the kids transformed them back to transformers after all his hard work.

These are some decorations our niece Natalie made.  She churned them out so fast that it prompted me to ask her if she was of elf descent!  I mean, seriously?!?!

Cousins being silly.  Okay, Dylan being silly.  His tangerines kept squirting him in the eyes so Gpa gave him some sunglasses.

Just having a before dinner cocktail.  No big deal.

Before we knew it, it was time to open presents (a day early this year since apparently people have to work on the 26th nowadays???).  Avery got this fancy new Hello Titty blanket from Jon, Renae, Natalie and Daniel.

Daniel and Natalie helping Gma open a present.

Super boy!

Looking fancy in a new outfit!

Jon had the last present like he does every year.  Luckily, no one pulled out a stray present from somewhere after he had opened it.  At least, not yet anyway. ; )

Avery set up all her new toys on the piano for playing.  And yes, there were some items that went IN the piano.  Including the tongs that were used to try and get the lost items out.   Fun times!

Avery’s Christmas Eve dress.

Here is Gma’s table all decked out.

Gma took these 2 pictures. Which explains the weird focusing.

Time for the annual photo shoot in front of the tree!  

 Here are the kiddies!

Photo bomber!

The little ladies.

The boys.

Avos and Debert.

And the fam.

Didn’t really take many photos after this!  We left bright and early the 26th, so time went way too fast.  Feeling kinda bummed that its over already.  But – good news!  Christmas part 2 is comin’ up this weekend!  Might need a best of 2012 post!  If I find the time…. ; )

Thanksgiving and Avery’s 1st Dance Recital

Hey!  Better late than never on the Thanksgiving lowdown!  We started the long weekend with a feast at Dylan’s school before heading up to Maple Lake.  Here is one of the pieces of artwork on display for us when we got there.  If you go to my Shuttercal (which is updated, btw!) I have a picture similar to this of a pilgrim that Dylan made at home – a preview of this, if you will.

Here’s another one – awwww, he is thankful for us!

And then his class came marching in wearing these.  They all looked so cute.

We spent Thanksgiving day at Lulu’s house this year.  She prepared a beautiful bird for us.  

The kids had fun with their aunties and cousin Chandler.

Us ladies got our Zumba Fitness on.  Like we do.

Here they are dressed up for church.  Avery had been looking forward to wearing her dress all week long.

She got new accessories too!  Auntie Kelli’s flower and a necklace from Gma Kim.  Very festive!

It snowed lightly all weekend.  Good start to the holiday season!

Here is Avery in her new Hello Titty costume that I got right after Halloween on clearance.  Dylan got a costume too (Spiderman), but refused to be pictured.  His loss!

And finally, I give you – Avery preparing for her very 1st dance recital!  Be ready for picture overload – can’t help myself!  She’s so cute!  Here she is trying on her dress at home a few days before the recital.

Hammin it up!

Such a pretty “dance-a-rina!”  (her word – combo of dance and ballerina)

She thinks she’s beautiful too!

Here is the stage rehearsal.  She’s in the pink tutu in the back.

And finally – recital time!!!  Hair slicked back, make up on, dress on, shoes on – she’s ready to go!

A little bit nervous since she didn’t really know what was to come.  Her Dad was nervous too.  He didn’t want to leave her behind in the room assigned to her class.  Her brother was nervous too – they both kept looking back to see how she was as we walked out to go find our seats for the show.

Few more pictures before the show.  

Gorgeous girl!  Her long eyelashes even longer with a tiny bit of mascara.  She’s like me – she blinked right after I put it on and the mascara went all over her lids and down below her eyes. : )

And here is after the show with her flowers!  She did just fine without us – like I knew she would.  We came in and she was playing with the other girls and hardly noticed we had come back.  She was very pleased to get flowers and was happy to pose with them for me.

She was also excited when we told her that she still had another show to do!  I snuck in a side door for the 2nd show’s performance to snap some pictures with one of the other snap happy moms.  

She was supposed to move forward to the front row at this part, but oh well.  She did the dance just fine tho.  There was a bit of commotion when one girl ran to the teacher backstage crying, “I want my mommy!!!!”  Several of the other girls ran after her to console her.  It was cute.

Here she is running to the front of the stage for the grand finale.

She’s 3rd from the left – pretty pose!

Well, that’s it for this post!  We get our tree today, so perhaps there will be a lovely post on that.  Lets hope there isn’t a repeat of last year!