Christmas Tree

So here is the Christmas Tree that took us SO long to get. Christmas has been ready for quite some time but no tree. After we got back from our trip there were slim pickings in terms of trees but Madi was getting a little concerned about where the presents would go and I was starting to get a little Bah-Humbug with no tree. Anyhow -- to say the least, Marty was not too excited to pay so much for a tree that we only were going to have for a couple of weeks once it went up. To top it off it was too heavy for him to really lift by itself. It would not be able to go up on the van as we have in past years. Thanks to The Rose's for letting us bug them that evening, we did get the tree home and up in the stand with hopes that the branches would fall so we could decorate it. The branches did not fall right and Marty had to hoist Madi up by her legs and on tippy toes to wiggle the angel on only to find out it was no longer working. Therefore we had an unlit angel this year. We also ran out of lights and had to run out for more and more and more.... Didn't find everything we needed after 4 different stops and numerous phone calls to many different Lowe's stores. To say the least the tree was our tree and we had 2 weeks of enjoying it and now it is the sad Christmas tree abandoned the day after Christmas... left to dry out and make an even bigger mess across the house when it goes out. So the tree saga will end hopefully without too many more bumps in the road. So here's hoping that the steam cleaner holds out for the after tree cleaning and that the tree gets out of our back yard before this summer.... maybe then the tree will redeem itself.

Coming soon... The Christmas Tree Saga

With the lovely trip in the mix, getting ready for Christmas has been quite the event this past week. Needless to say getting the laundry done from the trip was almost a week long job... and I don't know if I can officially call it done as it is cleaned but not so much put away as of yet. The Christmas tree was priority after getting the laundry "cleaned" -- it is finally up but it didn't happen without some bumps in the road... as I said coming soon!!! :-)

Cozumel 2009

Our Mexico trip was timed nicely this year... just in time to escape an unusually long Texas cold snap this winter. We did miss the snow flurry by our house while we were there which is kind of sad but it was nice to be in the gorgeous 80 degree sunshine of Cozumel. :-)

We had 7 days this year... 7 days of the good... sunshine, swimming, sand castles, snorkeling, shell collecting, lots of eating, card playing, great picture opportunities with the kids and so much more. Okay, okay for those of you that are slightly jealous at this point there were some unfortunate parts of our 7 days too... tired kiddos, one big swollen knot and bruise to Drew's head, mosquito bites galore, jellyfish stings, sand, sand and more sand everywhere and 2 kids with excema covering them after our return... OUCH! The good definitely made the bad worth it though...

Madi did boogie boarding this year... the small waves made it hard for even the big kids to get going on their own but we all managed with pushes from the guys.

Drew, on the other hand, played it safe in the sand.

The resort we stayed at had a kid's mini waterpark with two slides and a lot of spraying things... since it was so slow at the resort... we had the entire area all to ourselves so we all had fun there... well almost everyone...

...Of course Drew was not a fan of the play area because of the big pirate that dumps all the water and all the spraying but we did convince (or force... depends on how you want to look at it) him to go down the slide a few times. See below for a picture of that.

Madi snorkeled off the boat this trip... first stop didn't go so well. The waves from the boat were a bit intimidating... after watching from the boat and seeing a baby sea turtle... she decided to try again at the second stop. Here is her and Marty -- she did actually snorkel but didn't have her mask and snorkel on in this picture.

Drew watched from the comfort of the boat... he say maybe in a few years.

Watching the sunset from the boat

Okay... so not too many other exciting events... here is my favorite part... getting some good pictures of the kiddos. Here are a couple of my favorites... it is taking all my restraint not to post like 15 pictures here.

Madi and Drew had a great time climbing the lifeguard stand so we took a lot of pictures there.

Photo Book on the way with the rest of the pictures... unless I get through weeding out the bad ones from my shutterfly account before it comes.

Happy Halloween 2009

Madi and Drew had a fun Halloween... Madi was Silvermist, the blue Disney fairy, and Drew was a baseball player. Love having the boy to get 2 years out of 1 costume since they aren't fussy!!! :-) They, of course, loved having Grandma and Grandpa here...

COWS

So I am slightly late with this post. Madi and Drew have this great fascination of feeding farm animals... so in the fall when we go visit the relatives in northern Wisconsin, we see what the neighbors of Marty's aunt has to feed. 2 years ago it was a horse and he ate apples. Last year it was a couple of cows and they fed them corn. This year there were cows again and we tried out the apples on them. We even added in a few pears too. It again was great fun with a lot of good giggles. Here are Madi and Drew petting the baby cow.

Drew actually attempted to hand this one to the cow. He usually threw them (yes.... he did knock one of the cows on the head) or he would drop them as soon as they got close.

Here Madi got to feed the baby cow an apple. Of course everyone wanted to hold out for the baby. :-)

Fall Wedding in Wisconsin

We went to a wedding this past weekend in northern Wisconsin.... Fall in Wisconsin is always beautiful with the leaves all changing colors and all. I, personally, love the opportunity to throw my jeans and a sweatshirt on -- it is most definitely my outfit of choice. What we weren't quite ready to hit yet this October was SNOW. We literally crossed the Minnesota/Wisconsin border into Wisconsin and the ground was covered. They had just gotten a pretty good storm a few hours before we arrived. Madi and Drew were asleep when we got there but were super excited when they looked out the window the next morning!!! They went and stepped in it and threw snowballs into the parking lot. They even made it snow on daddy a little. Madi's biggest excitement was eating the snow.... By the time I actually had the camera out... most of the snow had melted. Here are the kiddos throwing snowballs in October...

... and all ready to go

Warm and snuggly inside. The kiddos all ready for the wedding! Thanks Katie for Drew's look!

Playing in the Rain!

I don't even remember what weekend this was... but the kids were excited to get out and into the rain to play. They raced boats down the rushing water in the street, splashed around in the puddles and just had a blast getting soaked.

Here are my happy, wet kiddos.