hey friends! Long time no see! or blog...

  The kids and I went to Idaho this summer... it was fun, we hit up Bear World, the fishing pond, the grandparents, Cafe Rio, and Pop even took us down the river!

 Halloween has come and gone as well... imagine that. Despite the Jedi appearance in the picture, Tanner assembled a spy costume for himself, and Kate and Lydia went at lady bugs. We went to my friend's neighborhood and loaded up on more candy than Cory could eat...

We went to a really cute apple orchard down in Illinois... this is a picture of the best, and I mean BEST!!! apple pie I have ever eaten. I wish we had just bought a whole pie. Yum... I am not kidding. Like, I need a minute kind of yum.

For Christmas this year, we were supposed fly to Idaho on a Thursday, but thanks to "Winter Storm Draco" (when did we start naming those?) our flight was cancelled... but fortunately we were able to get out on Saturday! So in the mean time, Cory, Tanner, and Kate played in the snow and built a snowman. Unfortunately, our kind neighbor and his drunk friends have since peed on the poor snowman. So cool! But it was nice to have a few days to "stay"cation and regroup as a family.  

When we finally got out, we were very excited! Everyone did great on the plane...

While in Idaho, someone had her first Christmas! This little girl is so dang cute! 

Some other crazy kids got to go skiing...

 

We had a great time out there! Always... thanks everyone! some day maybe we will live closer to all these peeps we love out there. Until then, we are enjoying Wisconsin! Thanks for stopping by! See ya soon!

Real update! Pictures and all!

You missed us? Oh, that is so nice, I missed you too. Some happenings of late... Cory graduated! Yay! It is nice to be done with school, I would show you a picture, but most of those are on the parents' cameras. Sorry, I feel your disappointment! It was a nice long day, thanks to Leigh for babysitting during the luncheon! Anyway, we miss the old Minnesota crowd, hope you are all well! So a few weeks after graduation, we moved to Janesville, WI! We are enjoying it here. Yes, it is the very Janesville that Paul Ryan is from, isn't that exciting?

 I have a new Mani/Pedi friend. Kate can't take a serious picture, but she is a fan! Like mother like daughter...

 I turned old, yes it is true...

 I took the kids on a little trip to Idaho on my own... to my huge relief, all went well! I will post more on this another time... too many pictures!

 and this sweet little baby has gone from this...

 to this! Crazy! She is already 6 months, and getting ready to crawl! So sad, she is awesome, we all love her a little too much...

 Kate is in a dance class and loves it... they are learning a kitty dance and it is too cute. (yes, she has this much sass)

 Tanner's first day of 1st grade! We lucked out and he got into the same class as a little boy from our ward! and they are good friends, so that extra lucky.

 and here is the fall here in Wisconsin. We went to Holy Hill on Saturday, it was a beautiful day! I wish Marianne was still in Milwaukee because we would have done this with you! Anyway, Holy Hill is a basilica that is on a tall hill...

This was the view from the top! Such pretty colors!

 

Well, there you go... some pictures... we (as in I) will try to get back into the swing of life. It has been a little harder to pick it all back up after Lydi-bug joined us. But it is life and a constant work in progress, so bear with me! Hope you are all well, and until next time... Peace out.



Still here...

Here is now Wisconsin... I'm working on it. :)

Now a family of 5!

Wow! April 1st already! You may think we no longer exist, but we do! Much to your relief I am sure! Well, we added to the family last week, her name is Lydia Jane, and she was a blue ribbon baby weighing in at 9 lbs, 8 oz. and 22 inches.

I am not sure where she was hiding in me, because they had told me they thought she would be around 7 lbs! We think she should have been around 8 1/2 lbs because she was quite swollen from all the fluids they had pumped in me! And that is where she has stayed post hospital! But we were fortunate enough to have Nana come and help out for a week! Kate would call Cory and I "Nana" on accident after she left, it was pretty funny, the kids are missing her!

Tanner is smitten...

Kate has staked her claim...

So, we are partial, but we think she is pretty, and awesome! But mostly pretty awesome! So we will get back to the updates soon... After all, we did have thanksgiving, Christmas, a trip to Idaho, Kate's birthday, and Cory's birthday... Just to mention a few things! But until then, happy April fools day, and I hope you found someone to fool! ;)

Catching up to Halloween...

Well, we have some fun friends and we all found ourselves father/husbandless one beautiful Saturday, so we took the opportunity to go apple picking. It was lots of fun. they had pumpkins and apples, toys, free ballon animals from a clown, apple cider pressing demonstations with yummy samples, and tons more. Lots of fun. Thanks Leigh and kiddos!

We found some leaves, and by some I mean a crazy amount! The kids had a great time, and did I mention it was 82 degrees that day? Yeah, we have had an AMAZING fall!

We carved our pumpkins... Kate did NOT want to have an orange pumpkin... apparently it is so last season. But they loved gutting, designing, and carving their pumpkins!

On to Halloween... Tanner was a little guy riding an ostrich, kids kept calling it a turkey and it seriously annoyed him... and Kate was an owl. It was not easy to get a picture of her, sorry.

Tanner was a sweet brother and held her hand for the costume parade... you can catch a glimpse of Grace behind them, she was a seriously cute ballerina. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry.

This is how Kate ended the party... Tanner had won a bag of cookies at a different party for his awesome costume and stood in front of the announcers at the ward party waiting to win... when he didn't he was very confused and was certain that they had made a mistake. I told him they wanted to let someone else have a turn winning. He was good with that.

Anyway, lots of fun! Happy November... can you believe it?

What was that? Tanner started school over a month ago?

Oh, sorry. He is loving it though. His class has already been assigned a new teacher, but they took a week to transition. So, that was nice. Kate misses him while he is gone, but she not so secretly loves having control of everything. The second day of school Tanner came home and told me about a little girl he had helped with her backpack. He was trying to remember her name, and finally just said "You know, the one with the good looking face?" I was trying to keep my laughter from him. It was too funny. He still tells me stories about her almost everyday, but we know her name now. And yes, she is cute.

Before his first day...

After his first day...

Aside from his glummy, I am too cool for school appearance, he really does enjoy it. I am glad he has somewhere to go a few hours everyday to do fun and educational things that I don't have to come up with or clean up after, I just get to experience the pride and joy of the end results!

A few things we've done...

We went to a Twins Game! It was fun, Cory is actually at another one right now with Tanner because if you can't tell from the pictures, Tanner really liked it...
Kate wasn't as big of a fan... this is saying something, because this little beauty doesn't just fall asleep!

Tanner and his first Major League hot dog...

Also, we went to the Minnesota Zoo again with Sam and Alisha a few weeks ago...

Tanner of course loved the John Deere tractor

My little chicky laid an egg! I am so proud!

Lovin the bears...

And really? That is just gross.

Anyway, the rest has been somewhat forgotten, Cory and Tanner went to a preseason Vikings game. Tanner thought the football was cool, but I guess it was so loud in the stadium he wouldn't take his hands off of his ears. It was a memory either way! But the little man starts school this week, so we will keep you posted! Ha ha... no pun intended.