Oh Christmas Tree, how lovely are your branches

Our annual outing to Brewery Hill near LeSueur to get our christmas tree was a fun one indeed. It had snowed, it was some what warm out, we weren't crabby, we were rested and ready to have a good 'ol tree hunt. Natalie fell asleep about 5 minutes before we arrived and slept thru most of it. We put her in a sled and she didn't even stir! We must have looked at a million trees and they all started looking the same after 10 minutes of searching. "was this the one?", "no I think it was this one" and so on. You get the drift! Finally after 30 minutes of fun in the snow, our toes and fingers getting a little cold, we decided on "the one". Rachel was more excited about getting apple cider than she was about the tree! On our way back we stopped at Whiskey River for some hot soup and the view of the wild turkeys, cardinals and birds. It was such a fun day! Decorating the tree was also fun. The girls get so excited about their ornaments we've collected over the years and anxiously wait to find out what we've gotten for them this year. Natalie was super excited about the lights on the trees and wanted to play with the ornaments that made noise. She was pretty careful and didn't break a one!

Natalie's 18 months

Can't believe the babe is 18 months old already. She has a lot of spunk for being such a peanut. We had her well baby check a couple weeks ago. She's 20lbs 4oz (7th %)and 31.5" (41%). She's basically a miniture Caitlin. The kid is so stubborn and very persistant. Is this the quality of a child who's 4th in line? She's still very cuddly-only when SHE wants to be. She has the funniest little laugh and facial expressions. She makes all of us laugh! She doesn't want to say a whole lot yet-maybe once the nuk comes out of her mouth she'll start talking. :)

More pie please?

Celebrating Thanksgiving continued this past weekend. Saturday we entertained my parents, brother Bob, his wife Laura and their girls, Mya and Ally at our house. I tried a new recipe, champagne basted turkey. It was so pretty, smelled good and tasted even better. Of course the usual fixings to go along side. And then the pies...we had four different pies. Seriously people. But it was all so good. The kids loved playing with their cousins and we had fun playing Cadoo. We missed Annie, Matt and Owen though. Move closer!! :)

Sunday, after mass, we traveled to Wabasso for the Salfer Thanksgiving. This year we added 4 additional guests-boyfriends and girlfriends!!! We had a total of 40 people!!! Gladys made two turkeys, two pots of potatoes, two roasters of stuffing, green beans and all we had to contribute was either a salad, dessert or veggies. She's an awesome cook!!! Brian's sister Charlene made an awesome pecan pie. Not too rich, just right! That's why I had two pieces! Oh and REAL whip cream! We don't usually have that at our house! ;) We had a nice time visiting with everyone and seeing how grown up the kids have gotten. I have a feeling there will be some weddings to be celebrated in the very near future! The girls had a blast playing with all their cousins. It's probably their favorite part of any holiday-hands down!

We are blessed.

Thank you God

One of my favorite holidays is Thanksgiving and for two reasons. Being Thankful for all we have and the FOOD!

This year our family was on our own Thanksgiving day and Caitlin had big plans for decorating the table. She insisted on using the china, having lit candles wine glasses, and she would make everyone's seat assignments, complete with name and the silverwear was wrapped in our napkin neatly tied with a ribbon. It was all very cute!

We went to mass in the morning-Brian sang with the men's choir and in the afternoon we hung out, played games, napped, went sledding.

We do have so much to be thankful for. God has blessed our lives abundantly. We have eachother, our health, many friends and wonderful families.

Happenings and Updates

It's been a L-O-N-G time since I've posted on our family blog. Somedays I figure I'll get to it and then something or someone changes my plan. :) Other days I was just plain lazy! Well, it will be a small feat for me to remember everything that has happened in the last few weeks. November was another whirlwind of a month.

So the weekend of the 5th/6th Brian was off to our church's youth retreat in Sleepy Eye with a bunch of teens. The girls never want him to leave them so of course there were tears. He's only going to be gone for 2 nights. Not a big deal, or at least thats what I thought. I had made plans for me and the girls to go up to the cities to see my friend Gina and her girls-the girls were super excited! I woke up feeling ok, not super, but ok. We made it to the cities and long story short I end up getting the flu at Gina's. Not good. In the meanwhile Rachel wasn't her crazy self, instead laying on my lap saying she didn't feel good. Great. We just infected the Bieringer household! We left only after 2 hours of visiting. I asked Gina for some plastic bags just in case. She gave me two-thank goodness. As we get on Hwy 169 Rachel starts crying and says she doesn't feel good. I throw back a bag and she throws up. Now, I'm trying not to think about it because I'm barely holding on myself. Emily starts crying...she can't stand it when someone gets sick. Caitlin is right next to Rachel with her nose plugged. A few more miles go on and Rachel wants me to pull over. Good thing. She pukes again. We are only to Shakopee. 45minutes left to go. We make it home just in time for me to take my turn. I'm miserable, on the couch, Caitlin and Emily are holding down the fort. It was only a matter of time before none of us could make it without our strong foundation...Brian. As I'm in the bathroom, Rachel comes in and starts crying telling me she's missing daddy. I am too. We call Brian and he leaves immediately. He barely makes it in the door before we are all crying tears of happiness. He is loved SOOOO much! It was a very memorable weekend for us all!

November 8th: Our friend Adam is layed to rest. Adam leaves behind a wonderful wife, JoAnna and two very special kids, Grace and Jared. It was a hard day. Adam will be missed. He was a wonderful man.

November 13th: THE SNOWSTORM...how could this happen?? This is my shopping weekend away with my mom, sis and sis-in-law. Mom luckily made it to St. Peter the night before. We get up on Sat. and decide to brave the roads. Stupid...just stupid. It takes us 2hrs to get to Eden Prairie which is only 50 miles away. We saw cars in the ditch, 2 snow plows stuck, and a semi that couldn't get up the hill by LeSueur. Mom was white knuckeled the whole way and she wasn't driving!! We ended up making it there in one piece and ready to shop. It was a great weekend to hang out with the girls. Eden Prairie ended up getting 9-10 inches of snow!

November 17-19: Brian drives to Montana for business. Here we go again...girls don't want Brian to leave, tears are shed, ugh. We survive!! No sickness, the girls were happy, we played games and watched movies. We still don't like having our man gone though. :)

Next up: Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday-Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday Honey! Hope you have a wonderful day! We love you!!

Tricks or Treats

We carved pumpkins as a family on Saturday night and the girls did surprisingly good this year. Normally they're all excited in the beginning but then it get's "too hard" and Brian and I end up finishing them. Natalie didn't know what to think of the pumpkin "guts". She just kept making this "uck" sound and shaking her head no. It was pretty funny! All of the carvings turned out pretty well.

Trick or treating was fun this year. The weather wasn't too bad, no one had strep throat, no one was crabby or tired. We went to our neighbors, Mike and Irenes house first. Natalie had NO idea what she was supposed to do but figured it out pretty quickly after learning she gets candy if she opens her bag. :) Then friends, Gracie, Jared, Ella, Luke and Levi stopped for treats at our house and a quick picture. We ended up going to our friends the Gracks, neighborhood and the kids went door to door and got WAY too much candy. We stayed and had pizza and veggies before diving into our children's buckets of sweets. It was a fun night even though it is not my favorite holiday. :)