Matthew's Christmas Program

Matthew has his first pre-school Christmas program. It was the cutest thing ever!! The theme was "Birthday Party for Jesus", so sweet! I am so thankful that he goes to a Christian pre-school so that they are reinforcing the TRUE meaning of Christmas! He absolutely LOVES school and sang all the songs... it was 30 mins of straight singing! The kids all did a great job and were so cute! Then we had a little reception after, it was all adorable! So proud of our little guy! I hate to see him grow up though! The time goes so fast and it makes me sad to think he is getting so independent and doesn't need me as much! But I am so proud of the little guy that he is turning into! I love him to pieces and am SO thankful for the gift he is in our lives!!

Here he is singing with a group after putting their ornaments on the tree.
And there he is with his class singing Happy Birthday to Jesus

Here we are at the "reception"...

Matthew and Santa

This was the FIRST year Matthew didn't cry with Santa! he was actually pretty excited! We went early on and there was NO line! It was perfect! He even sat a little longer and had a nice chat with Santa while I paid for the prints! It was cute! I should post the last 2 years photos where he is screaming in terror! it's pretty funny to see the progression! :)

1st Annual Cookie Bake

I had such a fun Friday night! I am currently in a Bible Study with 3 of the greatest girls (Ali, Dana & Leslie)! I truly feel like they are my sisters! I love them all! Dana had done a "cookie bake" at her house with some other friends in the past and we all loved this idea! So... the girls came over with their favorite recipes and we made 4 batches of YUMMY cookies! It was so much fun! We also went through 2 bottles of wine, which may have added to our fun! :) Such a fun night filled with lots of laughter! We will be making this an annual tradition! I loved every minute of it! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures... so bummed!!!

Thanksgiving

We had such a great Thanksgiving! it was a great long weekend! We started it by meeting with our friends the Toppins on Wednesday night. They were in town from Connecticut! We had a blast! On Thanksgiving morning, Ben ran the Gobble Gait so Matthew and I went down to cheer him on with the Wises! It was a really nice morning and we had a great time! We went over the Hausmans for Thanksgiving Lunch and then back to my parents for Thanksgiving dinner... such great food! We are so thankful for our families!! On Friday I am happy to say that I didn't do any shopping, instead we brought Matthew to get a flu shot! My mother in law and sister in law were nice enough to pick up a few doorbusters at Walmart for me! They are so great! Then we decorated the tree and Ben and my dad put up Christmas lights! The house looks fabulous! Then Friday night, went headed up to Ashley's for a family reunion with Ben's distant cousins! It was such a blast! Here are some pics!


Us with the Toppins at RJs!
Matthew and I waiting for Ben at the finish line!

The runners... Ben's sister Tracy ran too! And her daughter Grace was there too... she ran the 2K!

Lunch at the Hausmans... the kiddos ate first.

Ben and his mom! Love this pic!

The boys at the reunion... Sean, Jordy and Ben

The girls... Madeline, Nikki, Kristen, Heather, me, Ashley and Charlie!

The cousins... aren't they sweet!

Matthew's cell phone

I have been quite lazy with the blog lately... too much going on I guess :) Here is a cute picture of Matthew as he is "texting" on his new phone. Connor gave Matthew his broken cell phone and Matthew thinks he is pretty cool! I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon :)

Swine Flu

Hello all! It's been awhile since I posted last. We have all been sick :( Such a bummer! It all started with my sweet nephew Cullen and it spread through my family like wild fire! On Friday, the majority of the family went bowling since it was MEA, we had so much fun!! Cullen got sick on Friday afternoon, I got it on Saturday night, my sister, Kyle & Elizabeth got it on Sunday morning, Matthew got it Sunday night, my mom & Connor got a touch of it on Monday and Ben got it today! It's been crazy! Some of had it worse than others. I am happy to say that Matthew and I seem to be over the hump. We have had fevers since the weekend... but we both have been fever-free since this afternoon... we hope it is gone for good! Below are some pics from the bowling adventure!


A rare moment when Matthew and Luke are loving each other instead of fighting!
Matthew throwing the ball while Cullen stands by.

My mom, Kristin and Elizabeth

Vikings vs. Packers Game

Ben's boss has season tickets to the Vikings games and almost every year we get the Packer tickets! This year was especially fun with all of the Favre hype! We had pretty good seats, on the corner of the end zone and in row 11! :) But first, we headed downtown with Carey and Jess and met some more Hastings folks! We went to Sneaky Pete's and took advantage of their FABULOUS Happy Hour Specials!! Not such a good idea on a Monday night!! It's been a long week because of that!! And during halftime I got to see Heidi!!! So fun! needless to say we had so much fun and it was a great game to watch! I loved it! It was fun to have a night out after a weekend of being a mom 24/7 :)

At Sneaky Petes...

Us with Carey and Jess...

We even could see Randall McDaniel! if you look in the front row, he is wearing his yellow Hall Of Fame jacket!
Heidi and I with a random DIE HARD fan! :) Couldn't resist the photo op! :)

Mommy & Matthew Weekend

Mattthew and I spent some quality time together this weekend while Ben was in Kansas City at a Nascar race! :) Friday we went bowling with one of my BFFs, MerBear and her boys Ben and Jake and we spent the night at their house! We had so much fun! her boys are 5 and 8 and are SOOO sweet to Matthew, he loves them! Saturday morning we picked up Connor and Cullen and brought them to Connor's soccer game... Holy Angels vs. Cretin Durham Hall. Connor's team lost, but he did get a very impressive goal! it was 46 degrees and raining :( Not so fun to sit and watch that game!! After that we headed to Hastings to go to Tori's b-day party at the gymnastics center! Kim hired 2 coaches, one for the girls and one for the boys. Matthew had some more "big boys" to hang out with! He was in his glory!! :) On Sunday the 2 of us just hung out and relaxed... it was great! That afternoon we went to watch Grace's gymnastics meet! she did awesome of course and qualified for State! YAY Gracie!

Matthew getting ready for his first shot! :)

At Mer's house with Jake (8) and Ben (5)

Playing goalie at halftime at Connor's game....

At the b-day party jumping into the foam pit... adding a twist!

The kids at the b-day party... Matthew would not sit for the picture. :(
And our little gymnast!

Golf Tournament!

We had another super successful golf tournament! The weather was the best yet... 80 and sunny! We had a great turnout! Always fun to spend the day with friends. It means SOOO much to us to have our friends there and we appreciate the effort it takes to get out there! :) So thank you for coming! Meredith came and spent the day hanging out with me and was a HUGE help! Dana and Leslie's hubbies came and golfed and then the girls came down for dinner! It was awesome! I loved having them there!

It is such a crazy crazy busy day of running around and trying to be organized but we still manage to have lots of fun and remember our Stacy. It is a great day to hear stories about her and have so many people together who loved her! We treasure the memories!

Me and Mer out on the course. Look how cute she is in her golf apparel!
Dana's hubby is on the far right (Aaron), and Leslie's hubby (Justin) is next to him. I am so sad that I didn't get pics of the girls :(

My sister (2nd from the right) and her friends were selling jello shots and running a bar on the 6th hole... so Mer and I spent part of the day there.

Heidi, me, Mike (my bro in law) and Mer doing a cherry bomb... ugh!

Visiting Mindy (Stacy's best friend) and Kim... they were running a game at a hole.

(L to R) Mindy, Mary, Kim, Me & Mer

My favorite part of the day when we let off balloons up to Stacy at the end of the day.

Our little Tiger Woods!

So Matthew has really been wanting golf clubs, so we finally ordered him some. He is left-handed and all of the "play" golf clubs are right-handed so the clubs he has, he hasn't been able to really use them correctly! So we waited and waited for UPS to deliver them last Friday. They finally came at 6pm and Matthew was SOOO excited. He had his golf gear on... including his soccer cleats, and was ready to roll! He and Ben have been to the driving range twice in the past week! I think that I need to hurry up and have another baby or I will be hanging out by myself quite a bit while they are out golfing! :) Here is a little video of the action!

Labor Day weekend highlights and FIRST day of PRE-SCHOOL!

We started off Labor Day weekend on Friday afternoon with a going away "night out" for the Toppins (Maggie & Chris). They are moving to CT for Chris' job! We are sad to see them go, but will have a new place to visit! 45 min train into NYC! WooHoo! We went to the Skybar and sat outside and cocktails and then to Pizza Luce and to Bootleggers... good time had by all! So good that we had to stay downtown at the Graves 601 hotel... such a nice place! Good deals to be had on ORBITZ!! :)

We got up on Saturday morning and headed straight to the cabin for some Forced Family Fun! Which really isn't forced at all! Everyone was down at the cabin for at least part of the weekend! We had a great time and AMAZING weather!! So much fun. I hate Labor Day weekend... it always feels like the end of summer and that is SOOOO depressing to me. I love fall but HATE what comes after it!

And TODAY is the biggest day... Matthew started pre-school!! My baby is at pre-school right now! Yes, I did cry when I left him, but he started it! So hard to see him sad. I know he is having so much fun! I just can't believe that he is old enough to be in preschool already! time boes by so fast! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was sitting with a brand new baby! I really can't believe that he is 3 1/2! I can't imagine the day when he starts kindergarten... I will be such a mess!

On that note... i will leave you with some pictures!

Here are Maggie and Chris... so cute! Jess (Tri), Maggie and myself at Bootleggers

On to the cabin... my grandma made us all these aprons, so here we are modeling them!

Matthew with Connor and Griffin looking for "sea glass"... so cute! They were gone forever! Thank God for older cousins to entertain Matthew!

The WHOLE clan!! Only missing my brother who got called away to work!

A family photo of us by the bonfire!

I'm feeling a little nostalgic so I had to put in a picture of my little baby matthew... what a sweet baby he was! Check out his nice clean blanket which is now completely tattered and a gross shade of grey! it has gotten a lot os love over the past 3 1/2 year! He was only 1 day old in this pic!
And here he is on his first day of pre-school! Ugh, how time flies!

MN State Fair

On Friday, Ben came home early and we hit up the State Fair. I HATE crowds but I LOVE any kind of junk food so the State Fair is heaven to me! Just the 3 of us went and had so much fun! We didn't have an agenda except to EAT! And that we did... 2 orders of cheese curds, Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies, mini donuts, pronto pup and a strawberry malt from the Dairy Barn! it was all so good that I would really like to go back and eat again! :) Too bad you can't have that food delivered! :) We also saw Mike Pomeranz from KARE 11 introducing the news. he is actually cuter in person!


We had one scary little incident... Ben went into one of the building to find a bathroom and Matthew and I decided to wait outside and people watch. As we were doing just that a man walking behind Matthew had massive seizure. It was super scary. It all happened in slow motion! It seemed to take forever for anyone to do anything... it was so disturbing to me that people just stood there and stared at this poor man. I ran over there but there was nothing I could do and in a matter of 20 seconds, a woman ran up and said she was an EMT and then a few cops showed up and the ambulance was there really fast and I got Matthew out of there... luckily he was sitting with his back to it and didn't see any of it. The man did a face plant into the sidewalk and there was blood everywhere. So I got Matthew out of there and we waited for Ben. It was such a freaky experience. We said a little prayer for the guy and hope he is OK. He was all by himself, I felt so horrible for him! UGH!! I just wish I knew if he was OK.


So after that, it put a little damper on the night but we still had fun. here are some pics!


Ahh cheese curds!!! These were Matthew's favorite!!

Can't get enough of that face!! :)

Pitching for the Twins :)

matthew wants to trade in the minivan for a Jeep! Smart kid!!

Mommy Getaways!!

I feel so lucky to have gotten 2 girlie getaways in the last 2 weeks! SO Spoiled! Spent some time with my BFFs at the cabin! Fraz flew in from Denver, Stacy came up from Chicago and Mer and I all got to spend some quality time with NO kiddos! It was so great! I love my girlfriends and would be sooo lost with them all! it still amazes me that we have kept up our friendships even with all the miles between us! We met 13 years ago! So amazing! We try to get together at least once a year, usually one of us will have a kids with us, but this was the first time in a long time that we had no kiddos! it was great!!!

Then this past week, I went to my sister's friend, Heidi's cabin! I love Heidi like a sister too! She is so much fun! It was Heidi, Kristin, Mary and myself and then Mary Burns came up later and a friend of Heidi's came up for our last day! We were like Crazy Women... out of control! We had such a good time and laughed more than I have in such a long time. While, I love my family... but it is soooo good for me to get away! I think I need a getaway at least once a month! HA!!

Here are some pics!

Mer, Stacy, Fraz and I on a boat ride!

And at the Farmer's Market in Red Wing... it was COLD!

Stacy had to leave us, but we went out anyway! Gotta love the night-life in Lake City!

And my 2nd girls getaway! me and my sistas! Kristin, me and Mary!

Heidi, Me and Krissy

Awww... love my big sis!

At the Cabin Bar... pretty sure they will remember us forever! :)

One of the many reasons why...