Our car smells like Tokyo!

As part of the girl's b-day celebrations we let them pick a restaurant they'd like to have their b-day dinner at. This year Emily picked Tokyo Grill in Mankato. Every year in the past she's chosen Whiskey River so this was quite the shocker for us. Brian and I were excited to go and we thought the girls would get a kick out of the Hibachi Grill. I think Rachel's reaction was priceless. All she knew going into this was that there would be fire and a volcano. (em and ella were telling her) So the moment we get in there, she's asking where the fire is and scoots her chair to the wall in anticipation! It was so funny! The volcano was when the chef cut an onion and stacked the slices and lit it on fire somehow. It was pretty cool! Everything but the salad was delicious!!!!!! I was proud of the girls for trying food they don't normally eat or see. The girls all left in awe and had a great time. When we brought Ella home and picked up Natalie, Emily comes in the house and says-"Our car smells like Tokyo!" It was funny!! I didn't know she had been overseas!

On a side note, we did celebrate Emily's b-day with her grandparents and godparents on the 31st. We had a pizza party with a pathetic looking frog cake. Emily didn't even have a piece! Ken & Gladys & Mom played Xbox bowling and had a great time. It was great to see them out of their comfort zone and having a blast! Em, Caitlin, Rachel, Mya and Brian played in the snow and Natalie, Ally, Laura and Bob napped. I think Emily had a good celebration.

Happy Birthday Dear Emily!

Emily is 8 years old today! Yipee!!!! I can't hardly believe it was 8 short years ago that this dark haired beauty came into our lives. Brian and I were just discussing how Caitlin was Natalie's age now (19 mo)when we brought Emily home to meet her. She was just a babe herself! Emily is the most kind, compassionate young lady that I know. She is the one that everyone in our house wants to play with. Emily loves Legos, writing stories, creating art work, playing with her sisters and friends and helping around the house-most of the time without complaining. She hardly ever finds herself in "time-out" unlike her other sisters. Wishing you Emily, God's blessings on you this year and all the years to come. We LOVE you Em!!!

Happy New Year! 2011

We were able to get back to St. Peter without any problems to host our 3rd Annual New Year's Eve party. Lundquists, Gilbertsons, Gracks, Crowley's and Yosts were all able to make it this year. The kids had fun catching up and playing with each other while the adults grazed on the food and played a couple games. It was great ringing in the new year with such great company!

Christmas Celebrations

Checking out their activity books.

I got new boots!

Natalie took her 'ol sweet time opening up her presents which drove the other girls crazy!


It was nice to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day home with the kids this year. Christmas Eve day Brian went to the office for a good portion of the day to get some things taken care of before his week of vacation. The girls and I hung out, took a sled ride to the Pulse to work out, and anxiously awaited the evening. We made a nice family dinner, meatloaf, baked potatoes and green beans. Yummy. After cleaning up, the girls started bouncing off the walls in anticipation of opening up a few gifts. PJs for everyone this year, even Brian and I. We got a family game, family puzzle, family book and family movie too!

This is Caitlin and Emily at 7am!!! Can you see their excitement??

Natalie is just raring to go!

Good Morning Rachel!

Hmmm...I wonder what it is??

Much better christmas for Rachel this year than last... :)

Christmas morning!! We told the girls the night before that they couldn't come downstairs until at least 7am. It was 7am right on the nose, when we heard Caitlin and Emily tiptoe down. Then squeals, whispers, oohs and aahhs filled the living room. It was so fun to listen to! Brian and I got our rears out of bed and the excitement could hardly be contained! We sat and chatted with C & E about what they thought they had gotten. Then we could tell they really wanted to open them! So Brian woke Rachel and Natalie-poor girls-they were really tired. Then the chaos began! C got a huge Lego set, E got a bike, Rachel got a Barbie Jet and Natalie a grocery cart. And then, generous Santa left the girls a huge play kitchen with play food and pots and pans. They were all so excited! Brian and I were just grateful we can have moments like this to cherish forever. After the excitement settled a bit we got ready to go to mass. Caitlin and Katie Schilling were singing a song with the Mens Choir. (brian also sings) so we had to get there early. The girls did a beautiful job! Celebrating Mass was the highlight of my day. After mass, we lounged around home playing with new toys, putting puzzles together and eating. We made homemade pizzas for supper, which were super good!

20 Grandkids and 1 Great-Grandkid-quite the crew!

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Christmas at the Salfer's was celebrated then on Sunday the 26th. As always, we had yummy food, yummy christmas candy and lots of fun with cousins! After opening their gifts the kids, Brian and Mike went outside and built 7 tunnels in the snow that connected in the middle. It was really cool! The kids worked on it for hours. The rest of us visited and played games. It was a very fun day.

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Christmas at the Moore's was celebrated on the 30th. Annie and Matt weren't able to come down due to the blizzard that was taking place in Fargo and the rain/sleet that was happening here. Bob and Laura and the girls were able to come and Natalie and Rachel had a good time playing with them. Caitlin and Emily were too busy playing Xbox Bob brought down. We had a yummy meal of pork loin and corn. The potatoes came later, kind of a 3rd course! They were well worth the wait though! Salads and desserts were also good. After our meal, the next round of chaos began. There was no rhyme or reason to our gift opening which irritated me since I had the most children opening. I like to see what everyone is getting!!! Anyway, we slowed down and managed to make it last more than 15 minutes! The kids were all excited about their gifts but mostly their aprons that my mom made. Super cute! The rest of the day consisted of playing Xbox and cribbage and eating way too much! As we watched the snow fall we were wondering if we would make it back the next day to St. Peter to host our New Year's Eve party.

Christmas Preparations and Programs

We've been busy baking cookies, cookies and more cookies! On Sunday afternoon we made 7 different kinds of cookies and I'm not even sure how many dozens we made. I left Brian in charge of cut-outs. I do not like them! My favorites are the coconut macaroons with the hershey kiss on top. They are excellent! It was alot of fun but an all day affair!

After the school closings/delays, Caitlin and Emily finally had their christmas program. Before the show, the kids could show off their talents with piano/guitar solos. Caitlin and Emily decided on doing a duet together. They did great!

Caitlin as one of the angels

Emily's class singing "little drummer boy"

Then Caitlin was asked to play a solo on her clarinet before the band played. She did a super job with no squeeks or honks!

Rachel had her christmas program and did a very nice job singing, doing finger puppets and shaking the bells. Afterward the parents were able to have cookies and juice and watch them open up a gift from one of their classmates. Rachel was so happy to see Emily and Caitlin there to watch her. They were able to leave school to do so. It was a nice treat!

Snow crazy

We have gotten so much snow in the past week it's unbelievable, considering its only the middle of December. I can remember in the most recent past we were lucky to have snow by christmas. I do have to say though, it's very pretty and peaceful, unless you have to be out driving in it, which I don't. :) St. Peter got at least 7 inches of fresh snow today. I ended up shoveling two times today and it wouldn't be so bad but the snow plows totally fills in the end of the driveway and it is NOT fun to shovel. Also with the snow banks almost as tall as me, it's hard to throw the snow that high up! This morning school was called two hours late and eventually closed . The girl's christmas program was scheduled for today so it was a bummer that it had to be rescheduled to next week. The girls were excited and anxious! SO we had a party instead. Some of our crazy, brave friends drove to our house for coffee and bagels and then stayed for pizza! We had 11 kids and 4 moms! Quite the little zoo we had! It actually was nice to sit for a change and not have to hurry out the door or run an errand. I'll post pictures of our house and all the snow hopefully tomorrow. It's pretty amazing!

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!