A surprise golden

I'm about a month overdue, but have been wanting to write about my golden birthday.  It was a fun March this year because Abbie and I both had a golden birthday!  For me, I had been waiting my whole childhood for a golden birthday since I had to wait until I turned 31.  When I was a kid, that seemed SO far away!  But it finally came!  And I don't feel old at all!  But to make the celebration even better, Matt surprised me with a party.  I couldn't believe he pulled it off!  I had been planning to go to the twin cities to celebrate my birthday with my extended family, but I had many extra family and friends there to pull off the surprise.  Unfortunately, Matt couldn't even come because Ella was sick with pneumonia.  I guess that's what happens when you have a birthday that falls right in the middle of the cold and flu season.  Even though they couldn't be there, I still had a great day and definitely my most memorable birthday!

golden four

Our lovely Abbie turned four on the fourth of this month and we had a wonderful few days of celebrating.  On her actual birthday, we started the day by opening presents.  Then, she had a "daddy date" with Matt for lunch.  After Miriam was done with school, we went down to the children's museum for some play time.  We finished off the night with dinner at Abbie's choice of restaurant...a pizza place...followed by cake and ice cream at home.  Then, the following weekend, we invited family over to celebrate again.  She had a great birthday and loves being four!

Two!

Somehow, two years have quickly passed by since our darling Ella joined our family.  I can't remember life without her...what joy this little one has added to our family.  We enjoyed celebrating her birthday with just us on her actual birthday and then with extended family the following weekend.  We also had her two-year-old well check which confirmed her suspected better than average height (90th percentile).  Her favorite parts of her birthday were blowing out candles, eating cake and singing happy birthday (and continuing almost every day since).  It was a great few days of celebrating our "baby"!  

Christmas

I guess my trend lately has been to do a once-a-month recap.  Basically, the holidays are busy for us (like everyone).  We had a fantastic December full of concerts, lights, baking, snow, traditions old and new, and all things Christmas-y.  It is so fun now that Miriam and Abbie remember what Christmas was like before and eagerly anticipate all of the things we do to celebrate.  Some of our favorite traditions are decorating the tree together, baking cookies, driving to see Christmas lights, watching Christmas movies, baking a Happy Birthday Jesus cake and opening one present on Christmas Eve.  We always celebrate Christmas with our families after the actual day because Matt works up until Christmas Day.  We have come to enjoy that because we get to celebrate as "just us" before the busier celebrations with our family (even though we always love those, too!).  So, here's a snapshot of our December...mostly around Christmas.

November

I didn't blog at all throughout November (except for highlighting trick-or-treating), so I thought I'd list a few things from our month:

-Matt and I celebrated 7 years of marriage!

-We went to Chick-Fil-A in the twin cities...we love that they are closer to home now

-My college roommate and her son came to visit one day

-We played more inside...the weather is getting cooler

-We had our share of coughs, sniffles and sneezes

-We celebrated thanksgiving with Matt's family and then spent the rest of the weekend sigh my family

-Matt and I saw Steven Curtis Chapman in concert...he was fantastic

-I went Black Friday shopping with my mom

-I got to play my French horn in church...it's been many months since I've played

-Matt got glasses

-The girls and I baked Christmas cookies with my mom

-We had a family Lefse making day with my extended family

-Apparently we did a lot in November!

trick-or-treat

The girls all dressed up like Disney characters this year for trick-or-treating!  Miriam was Tinkerbell, Abbie was Sleeping Beauty and Ella was Lady from "Lady and the Tramp."  We started out our evening by having dinner at Culver's because they were giving away free kids' meals for kids wearing costumes.  Then for trick-or-treating, we went to the mall again this year.  It was quite crowded because of the drizzly and foggy weather.  The girls didn't get a lot of candy because of that, but they still had fun.  Plus, no one came to our house...so we have a ton of candy left over!  

outside

We spent part of this weekend doing some fall clean-up in the yard.  We didn't have too much to do, but we all enjoyed being outside and enjoying the cool, fall weather.  We started a fire, raked leaves, dug in the dirt (well, the kids did), trimmed plants and ate apples.  A fun afternoon!