LEGO mania

Airplane by Emily and Police Headquarters by Caitlin and Emily

The "Beach House"

Rachel built this all by herself!

This is the house that Mandy built

Caitlin's Log Cabin

There is something about Legos that everyone loves. I am an addict! Kind of like doing puzzles-Once I start I can't stop until its completely done. Natalie can be crying, the girls fighting, dinner burning, but I don't realize all of this going on when I'm building LEGO's. Sad, I know. I have such awe for the engineers/designers that come up with these amazing building sets. Such detail. They must LOVE going to work everyday! Here are some of our creations, enjoy!

January Fun

Way back on the 8th of January, we took Emily and two of her friends to the Ice Skating rink in New Ulm for some skating fun. We had a good time and the girls really enjoyed zipping around the rink. Even Brian who hasn't skated since childhood showed off some moves (not falling down) Natalie liked being in the sled for about a half hour and then decided that was enough. While Natalie flirted with a little boy out in the waiting area, the other girls were jumping and trying to skate as fast as they could. Well after a while and a few calories burned the girls were getting hungry so instead of just going and ordering a pizza we went for burgers at Burger King (yuk). We looked like quite the circus-Brian with 7 females. :) Have you ever tried ordering for 8 people? I don't think we have to do that again for a very long time! All in all the girls had a good time so that was what was important.

The next weekend (15th) we went to my niece Mya's 3rd birthday party. Can't believe she's 3 already. She's 3 with personality and spunk! Annie and Owen were able to come from Fargo and we ended up having our own little christmas too. There were TONS of presents! The kids didn't seem to mind! :) It was nice to visit and see family. Another fun day.

Brian and I enjoyed a couple hours of playing Bingo too. It was a fundraiser for the highschool wrestling team. It was a fun time but no winnings this time around.

This past Friday, when it was -26 degrees outside I hesitantly bundled the girls up for a trip to the cities to shop. I know....what was I thinking. Maybe it was the cold temperatures freezing my brain! First we went to IKEA, for me to shop and the girls to play at the play center. But the playcenter was full, so we checked back later only to find they filled the last two spots and we'd have to wait another 20 minutes. I was able to talk the girls into just shopping with me rather than waste time running back and forth. They did pretty well for the most part but alot of times they'd run off in different directions and lets face it my eyes can't do tricks, so it was hard keeping track of them. Our next stop was Toys R Us-nice and quick because we were all hungry. Our last stop was Eden Prairie Center for them to try on some clothes and play in the soft play area to run off some energy. On the way home, Natalie fell asleep and we stopped at DQ for a blizzard. A nice end to the trip! I was exhausted! Luckily I had a lady's night out planned in the evening so I had a nice delicious meal to look forward to! 10 of us moms from our church's MOMS group dined at Olives in Mankato. Its so yummy. If you haven't checked it out you should. Well worth it!

Saturday we played at the school gym and hung out in the afternoon and ended the day with a movie "Ramona & Beezus", which is a very cute movie! Sunday we vegged at home and relaxed.

Emily with a little more sparkle

One thing Emily wanted to do for her birthday was to get her ears pierced. So yesterday I surprised her after school with the news we were heading to Mankato to do it! She was smiling from ear to ear! I think it was a nervous smile! The ladies at Exclusively Diamonds were so nice, making it a special event for Emily. They pierced her ears so quickly that Emily didn't have much time to even think what was happening. Very fun, very cool, very pretty!

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.