Emily turns DOUBLE DIGITS!

I'm not sure where the last 10 years went and why it's hard for me to believe that our dark haired beauty is 10!  It doesn't seem like it was that long ago she was toddling around the house terrorizing Caitlin...oh wait...she still does that!  Ha!  Emily is the sister that everyone wants to play with.  She's the one that would rather play than anything else (homework/piano) and shes the one that cares (worries) about everyone most of the time. :)  She loves Legos and she loves drawing.  She is a great help with Natalie and I'm sure she will be with the new little sister too.  For Emily's big day, she got to go back to school!  She's never in school on her birthday, so she looked at it as a treat.  She chose to go to Pizza Ranch for dinner (good choice).  Then on the weekend she invited 4 friends (thats about all we can handle) to go skating at Gustavus (which was a hit) and then come back to our house to play/hang out and have ice cream birthday cake.  Which of course I tried to shape into legos.  Too hard to do with ice cream.  You gotta work fast!  The cake tasted awesome but looked pathetic!  Emily didn't care and said it was one of the best cakes ever!  Gotta love that girl!

2012-End of the Year Wrap Up-Part 2

Christmas with the Moore's and the Salfer's 

The weekend after Christmas brought us to our parents for each sides Christmas celebrations.  First it was my side.  All of us were together, roads were good, no one was sick and Uncle Matt brought his snowmobiles!  That was a nice treat for the kids.  Everyone suited up for the trek out to the big hill for some sledding, except Jack, Mom and I.  The kids had a blast!  They also enjoyed playing with their new toys and just being together.  We stayed the night, which is always interesting, but all went ok and the kids did get a little sleep.  :)

Mr Jack Jack!  He's a busy guy!

Cousin Love

Some of the clan

The next day after a yummy but not too filling breakfast, we headed over to the Salfer side.  Kind of the same chaos, just that the kids are bigger!  We enjoyed a wonderfully delicious meal and some awesome desserts.  The kids pitched in to get the room cleaned up so they could open presents.  It's quite the routine at the Salfer Christmas.  All the presents are lined up according to kid, Grandma passes them out and the kids have to sit in the middle of the circle to open their gift so we all can see.  This year was particularly fun to watch because Great Grandkids, Spencer and Khloe were really into opening and there were some girlfriends/boyfriends too.  And they had to sit in the middle of the circle and open their gift too!!  In the afternoon, the kids played Clue and Cards.  The adults enjoyed each others company while snitching Christmas candy that Gladys and Sharon made.

Part of the circle...before the unwrapping began

Alden catching up on some sleep...not sure how he could with this noisy group

Uncle Mike aka Bow Boy-always entertaining us.

Spencer and Khloe-so cute to watch them open up presents.

We headed back to St. Peter that night and tried to re-coop a little the next day.   Brian worked a bit more on trim and I started preparing for our New Year's Eve party.  I didn't get any pictures of our party but it was a good one and everyone had a fun time.  Our friends the Gracks, Gilbertsons, Crowleys and Friedrichs were able to make it.  We had awesome food and played a really fun game.  We all stayed up for the ball to drop and after everyone was out the door 10 minutes later!  The kids were tired but were good troopers.  Its the only night of the year they get to stay up this late.  It was wonderful to bring in the new year once again with the friends we are blessed with.

2012 End of the Year Wrap Up -Part 1

 December 13th

John Ireland Christmas Program

The kids did a fabulous job at their program this year.  The singing was great, the band instruments made a few squeaks, Caitlin's solo as Mary went really well, Emily didn't "snag  

 anyone with her Shepard hook and Rachel did a fantastic job playing her instrument solo.  We had the Grandparents come down for the evening performance and stayed for cookies/hot cocoa after.  Our neighbor Mike made it to the afternoon performance.  I'm always

 in awe of all the talent...but of course I'm biased!

December 15th - Christmas Cookie Baking (all afternoon)

 The girls and I baked 30 dozen cookies only to throw most of them away due to the fact that they took on a special taste...paint thinner.  Brian was working on some trim, priming and painting and we didn't even notice how horrible the smell was.  Live and Learn...The kids still had fun.  Just bummed that we didn't have any special treats to enjoy.  Thankfully our friends the Gracks gave us a nice plate of good tasting cookies that they had made.  So it wasn't a Christmas without cookies after all.

Christmas Eve

 At the Church of St. Peter the tradition at Christmas Eve mass, is that Father Phil reads a story to all the little kiddos up at the alter.  It's so special and the kids really enjoy it.  This year Rachel and Natalie participated in the story.  Caitlin and Emily were singing in the Children's Choir, which they did a beautiful job singing.  I just love celebrating special days at our parish.  The church is always decorated so pretty and the choirs do a spectacular job.  It's all so festive and meaningful.  After Mass, we tried to get a family picture with EVERYONE looking.  This is as good as it got.  Only Rachel looking away on this one.

Not too bad!  Another one of my favorite things is dressing everyone in coordinating outfits.    It's so fun!  After Mass, it was back home to open a few presents and get ready for bed.

Presents-Christmas Eve at Home

 New PJ's for everyone!  I think secretly this is more fun for the girls than what Santa brings them.  Every year we get them PJ's, then family things like a DVD, Puzzle, Game and Book.  We had a nice "quiet" evening.

Brian is excited-can you tell?!

 This picture of me looks deceiving.  I really wasn't feeling the greatest.  Been coughing and sneezing constantly and was cold.  Little did I know this sickness would rear it's ugly head in the middle of the night and a trip to the ER in the morning!

The girls displaying the fun family items we got.

Emily reading the new book.  Look how sweet the others are listening so intently!

My gift from Brian was this fire place masterpiece.  He spruced up the old log holder and added blocks of wood and tea lights.  It was so pretty all lit up.  Thank you honey!





Christmas Day


Girls opening their stockings!



A completely different Mandy then the night before.  After just a few hours of sleep and 2 steam showers I was ready to go to the ER and get some meds.  I have never felt this horrible before.  I ended up with Sinusitis.  My face, teeth, skin, head all hurt.  My lungs felt on fire and I couldn't stop coughing or sneezing.  Awful!!!!  I came home and after Brian went to the only Pharmacy in the area that was open (Walgreens-Mankato) to get my meds I slept most of the day away.  It wasn't until about 2 days later I saw what the kids got and what they had built.  All the new Lego sets. 



Natalie got just what she wanted - A Medical Kit!!!



And Rachel got what she wanted - Olivia's House  YES!!!



And Emily got the Lego Seaside House - SCORE!



And Miss Caitlin who is getting older right before our eyes, got an iHome for her iPod.  Yippee!!



And last but not least, Santa left Brian and I a present.  The Lego Fire Brigade- 2200 pieces!!
The girls and Brian worked on it all day-got all the sets built and also did a 1000 piece puzzle.

A hunting we will go...

I believe this is our 12th year getting a tree at Brewery Hill Tree Farm in LeSueur!  We were so happy to see it snow the night before we were planning on going because if it hadn't we'd have been dragging the tree thru dirt.  It really was a beautiful site with all the fresh fallen snow.  The kids of course had a blast, throwing snow balls, hiding behind the trees and searching for the perfect tree.  Natalie just wanted to ride in the sled. :)  This year Brian told them that once they found the tree it was their job to cut it down.  No help from Dad this year.  After about 40 minutes or so they finally agreed upon "the one".  Out in the tree farm all the trees start to look the same and for the most part they look pretty full.  Well once we got our tree home we realized that it wasn't a very big or very full tree.  The girls did a great job getting the tree cut down, however it did take them quite a while.  But they kept at it until it was cut.  Rachel pulled the tree all the way back to our vehicle and didn't complain once.  She of course had the help of the sled!  As tradition, we went to Whiskey River on our way home but this year we just had hot cocoa for the girls and a beer for the boy, a basket of fries to share and a bowl to share as well.  Once we were home, Brian got the tree in its holder and brought down the ornaments.  The girls decorated the tree while we all listened to continuous Christmas songs.  It was great!  I love this time of year...