December 2014

As 2014 comes to a close I thought I better post an update of what has been happening this past month. Here is December in a nutshell! Bennett had his 4K Christmas program at school, and Blake had his program at the Elementary School. Unfortunately I was sitting so far away from the stage at Blake's program I wasn't able to get a good picture of him singing songs like- "Silver and Gold," "Hot Chocolate," and "Do You Hear What I Hear?" I did get a picture of Bennett in action at his program. We had unseasonably warm temperatures (40+ degrees) for the month of December. We took full advantage of the warmer temps and made sure to be outside as much as possible. While Randy worked late one Friday night, the kids and I went to the Irvine Park Christmas Village in Chippewa Falls, WI to take a stroll through the park and look at the lights and displays. The kids thought the lights were beautiful, and Marlee loved "knocking" on all of the doors of the little Christmas village buildings. We spent Christmas in Alexandria, MN with Grandma and Grandpa Gronos before they head to sunny and warm Arizona for 4 months! Jessi and Tom and their kiddos, Sophie (8) and Adam (5.5) were there too. Unfortunately Erik, Jen and Grady (8) were not able to make it at the last minute due to illness. We sure missed them! Here are some pictures from our days spent in Alexandria. 2014 has been an AMAZING year with so much to be thankful for! We wish you and your family the best in 2015!

Marlee is 2!

Happy birthday to our sweet, spunky, curious, girly-girl--Marlee Maeve! She has brought us LOTS of laughter and smiles with each year! Her favorite places to hang out are in her bedroom reading herself books or taking out clothes from her drawers and pulling out the drawers in the bathroom and sitting in them with her band-aids! We can't wait to celebrate you today!

Halloween 2014

This year for Halloween Blake dressed as The Man With the Yellow Hat from Curious George. However, he forgot his hat at school Friday afternoon and did not have it for trick-or-treating Friday night. Bennett dressed as a bullfighter for his school program and as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for night trick-or-treating. Marlee wore her 8 yr. old cousin, Sophie's, costume-- a pink poodle.

Their First Deer

A few weeks ago Randy and Blake harvested their first deer together bow hunting. Blake sat in his own tree stand along with the safety vest that I insisted he wear! :) Randy still doesn't like wearing them himself.(Still working on that one!)It was a beautiful fall evening, and Blake came back to the house excited that they had harvested their first doe together. Bennett quickly put on his hunting gear to go and help with the tracking process. It will make some great meals for us this winter. Marlee also had to get in on the picture action! :)

Apple Orchard, Animals and Fishing

This past weekend were spent at three of our favorite spots- the apple orchard/ Down to Earth Garden Center and the Mississippi River. ** Apple Orchard/ Down to Earth- On Saturday morning Blake and Randy headed down to the hunting land to do some hunting preparations- setting up a ground blind and checking foodplots. So Bennett, Marlee and I decided to have an adventure of our own by first going to see some exotic animals at Down to Earth Garden Center and then onto the Apple Orchard. Bennett thought it was so cool that one of the animals had his name. (see picture of wallaby ) :) Other animals we saw were fox, tortoises, a dingo, and kangaroo. From there we headed over to the apple orchard where we took a wagon ride, played on the haystack and climbed up in the really big tractor. ** Saturday night was date night for Randy and I, and since it was too hot to go hunting we decided to take the boat out on the Mississippi River and do some fall fishing. The weather was beautiful and the fish were biting. We caught 20 good-size bluegills that will make 3 delicious meals for this winter.

When Dad's Away . . .

* Grandma and Grandpa come to visit. Grandpa Greg and Grandma Bev came to help out with the kiddos for a few days while Randy was gone on is hunting trip in Montana. The kids enjoyed spending the extra time with them. Marlee enjoyed even more extra time with them while the boys were at school. She read books with Grandpa and played playdoh with Grandma. Thanks for the extra help! * The car breaks down! Yes, good thing Grandma and Grandpa were here, and also good thing that Grandma Claudia and Papa Ron had an extra car we could use! The transmission fluid starting leaking out of the car on Tuesday night and it is currently still in the shop. We should have it back tomorrow! * Dad surprised us by arriving home a night early! All of a sudden at 8:00pm the garage door started opening! Blake, Bennett and I looked at each other wondering who was here and what was going on. We were pleasantly surprised to see that daddy surprised us with his early arrival and that it wasn't an intruder!

1st Day of School 2014

The boys woke up bright and early this morning, as they were both excited to get their first day of school started. Blake will be a first grader this year. Blake started the day with our traditional "1st Day French Toast" breakfast. Blake is fortunate to have two teachers this year, as Mrs. Garlick and Mrs. Jehn will be team teaching. He was excited to see his friends and already had an appointment lined up at recess to play football with one of his classmates! Bennett was excited, but also a little anxious about his first day of school. He said he was most nervous about the bus, but when it came time to jump on, there was no hesitation. Bennett has Ms. Falkner as his teacher. Ms. Falkner also taught Blake in 4k, so it is nice that Bennett will have a familiar face to see when he gets to school that first day! Bennett also enjoyed some French toast, but didn't have as much of an appetite due to those 1st day butterflies :)! I am sure both boys will come home with plenty of stories about their first day, and a little bit exhausted too!

One More Week!

We have one more full week of summer break before school begins! Where did the summer go? We had the chance to sneak in some more summer activities this past week. We went to our favorite summer restaurant, The Stone Barn, with some of our favorite families the Auths and the Daniels. The kids had a blast playing football, hide and seek, and kick the can while we waited for our pizza. We went to the Big Rig Truck and Tractor Show in Eau Claire. Bennett and Blake loved looking inside the cabs of the trucks. Their favorite truck was the Green Bay Packers truck. They said they could live in there "forever!" We set up our own homemade slip 'n slide on one of the hot days this past week. The boys had fun zooming down the slide and running back up again. We are going to savor every moment of this last week of summer!

Date at the Drive-In

Last summer one of our must-do list items was to go to a drive-in movie theater. Sadly, that was one item we never got to on our list. The boys and I made it a priority this summer to go to the drive-in. About a week ago we saw that the local drive-in was playing the new "Planes" movie. Just another reason why we needed to go to the drive-in. The highlights, besides the movie, for the boys were- eating popcorn and snacks, playing catch with the football before the movie started, and snuggling under the stars while they watched the movie!