December Pics

Sorry we haven't blogged in awhile. December is always soo busy. We started out the month redoing our floors in the kitchen and Livingroom. Neil and his Dad put in the tile while I took the kids to my parents in MN for a week.

Before:This was the old laminate flooring we had in the kitchen, very boring and plain and was starting to look very warn.

After: This is the new Tile, so warm and beautiful and has a neat pattern. It looks wonderul in the kitchen.

Before: This is the old carpet by the front door soo ugly. (this picture was taken this past spring, Keenan testing out the durability of the bouncy seat for her Sister)
After: I hated the carpet by the front door. I don't understand why people would put carpet by an outside door. So we brought the tile from the kitchen into the front door/livingroom, so we actually have an entry way.

When we got home Neil had already got the Christmas tree and Georgia is sitting on the new carpet all wrapped up with lights ready to decorate the tree.

A few days later we had a huge snow storm that dumped about 18inches of snow. The snow was up to Keenan's waist, he had so much fun playing in the snow.

Then we took our Christmas card pictures. Which out of all the pictures we took this is about the only one that everyone was looking and smiling. I will add some more pics. later from Christmas.

Keenan's Birthday

Keenan's Birthday was Wednesday the 18th he loved blowing out the Candle!

We went to the Holiday Inn to their waterpark, He had a great time.

Saturday we had birthday party with a baseball cake.

Him and his friend enjoying opening presents.

California Trip

We went to California last week to visit Neil's brother, his wife, and their new baby. My parents came down and stayed with the kids for 6 days. We left early Thursday morning for Santa Barbara. We have not been away from the kids that long so I was a little nervous.
Thursday - We got to CA around 12, got some authentic Mexican food which was amazing then Jenny and I got our toes and nails done, it was so nice to get pampered. That evening we took the scooter down to the beach and watched the sun set.

Friday - we all went to the Valley to some Vineyards, that was a lot of fun. They were so pretty and the wine was amazing.
Saturday - Neil and I went woke up early and took "scoots" out to get some coffee at one of the local coffee houses. Once Chris and Jenny got up and ready we loaded Asher in the car and went down to the Harbor. We walked through the prier and saw some HUGE boats, we walked around the park, and walked on the beach. It was beautiful! After lunch Jenny and I went to a cupcake shop in Monticeto called Whodidily, it was soo cute, it was very girly and so delicious.
Sunday - After church we went to the beach and Neil tried his luck at skim boarding. Skim boarding is like skate boarding on the sand after the wave goes out, there is a thin layer of water that you can skim across. Anyway, you run as fast as you can drop the board and jump on - think full run across a parking lot dropping a skate board and then jumping on with both feet = VERY BAD IDEA. He crashed a few times...pretty hard...but got the hang of it quick enough that Jenny and Chris were both impressed. Asher loved hanging out at the beach he is such a good baby.
Monday - The last day of our vacation, Neil and Chris went for a bike ride on the beach and on some mt.bike trails in the morning. We had decided to make a Thanksgiving meal with them that night we did all the fixings turkey, potatoes, gravy, dinner rolls, some friends of theirs brought sweet potatoes, and green beans and of course pumpkin pie. It was very good!! I'm looking forward to another Turkey dinner.
Tuesday - We left in the morning and arrived home around 7:00pm. When we got home Keenan was still up and his reaction wasn't what we were expecting. We were expecting him to scream with excitement and run to both of us for hugs and kisses, instead he said "hi" and then got his ball and wanted to play - oh well I guess boys grow up faster than we thought! Georgia had just been put to bed so I walked in her room looked over at her in her crib and said "Hi Georgia" she got this big smile and giggled it was soo cute.
The trip was a lot of fun, the kids did great at home, and my parents had a lot of fun watching and bonding with them.

HALLOWEEN

Last night we had our second annual Halloween party. We had about 12 adults and about the same kids. All the kids are about the same age so they played really good together and had a lot of fun.

Creighton definately took home the best costume award with his Land Shark.

Keenan went as a UW basket ball player - which seemed seemed appropriate.

Georgia dressed up as a Lion

Speaking of Georgia, she is crawling around like crazy! She got it figured out and now there is no stopping her, she can't keep up with Keenan yet but that doesn't keep her from trying. It is really fun watching her go from laying and rolling over to becoming mobile.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

With this past week being cold and rainy every day this weekend turned out GREAT. The sun came out at times, and it was really nice. On Saturday afternoon we loaded up and headed out to the Epplegaarden again, this time to pick pumpkins. We got a wagon and headed out to the field to find the perfect pumpkin. Keenan just couldn't get over all the pumpkins and just kept yelling "BALL - BALL" and wanted to run over to everyone and try to pick it up.

I didn't know if Georgia was going to be able to sit on the pumpkin, but Keenan was a good big brother and held her hand.
We were planning on getting family pictures shot this weekend, who would have thought that a pumpkin patch would be a great place for family fall pictures.
We loaded up the wagon and headed back to the barn to state our claim. It only took 10ft. and one good bump before one of the wagon wheels fell off. Fortunately a worker with a ATV was out in the field, we loaded the pumpkins up on him and he took them back to the barn for us. Both kids had a great time and just loved playing with the pumpkins.

Last WORS Race in 2009

This weekend started on friday with the Saris Gala. Everyone had a really good time and it was fun getting to talk bikes all night.
Saturday we were planning on heading up to Sheboygan to pre-ride but after dropping the kids off at my parents place we decided to do some much needed carpet shopping. We found a SUPER good deal but as it turned out the roll was 1ft. too narrow BUMMER. After that I took Cathy to the mall for a mini shopping spree. It was really fun to just hang out. Sunday came early and cold. We hit the road at a crisp 5 am. We got to Sheboygan and helped set up the venue. Cathy got warmed up for her race and off. She had a really good race, the course was in perfect shape and Cathy got into a good groove after the first lap. She finished just as I was lining up. We took off with the usual Sheboygan speed. The first two laps weren't too bad but somewhere on lap 3 I realized that I need to ride more than a couple hours/week. I started to come around on the 4th lap and had a decent enough 5th lap to hold off a few hard charging riders.
Well now the season is over, the weather is getting colder, and it is now cross season. This weekend is the Badger Prairie 'Cross race. We have a really good course put together and I think if the weather holds off it is going to be really fun...however if the weather turns south then it will be fun for the spectators! Either way someone is going to enjoy it.

Nice weekend

It might not have been weather wise a nice weekend, but it was nice in the sence the kids did really good up at the WORS race. We left Saturday afternoon for Bear Claw Adventure Resort hoping that the kids would sleep for 3 hours of the 4 hour trip, well that didn't work as planned, Georgia slept pretty good but Keenan only slept for about 15 minutes. The last 30 minutes was pretty crazy, Georgia has this high pitch baby scream and Keenan thinks it is game and tries to out scream her in both pitch and volume!! We finally rolled in and checked into our room. It was a 4-plex cabin with each room about the size of a single hotel room. It required some reorganization of the furnature to get all the pack-and-plays to fit but eventually we got it. Because the kids didn't take much a of a nap they went to bed early and because the room was really small Cathy and I ended up on the porch...45 degrees wasn't the most appealing temp to sit on the porch but we grabbed a few blankets and were able to relax.
Sunday Neil got up and went to help racers get their bikes ready at the Park Tool repair area. The kids got up and I bundled them up for a long day outside. We played for a while through the morning and then put the kids down for a nap. Neil got ready for his race and I packed a few things. We got out to the course just in time to see Neil on his first lap to hand him a water bottle. It was raining on and off but not hard enough to get us wet.
Neil had had better races but due to the fact that not many people were there it was easier for him to get some much needed points. His race was pretty muddy and hard but he made it through and rolled in just behind his team mate in 17th place.
We loaded up and headed home, surprisingly the kids did better on the way home so that was a HUGE releaf. In all it was a very nice weekend and was fun to get away with the whole fam. This weekend is the final race of the year already. If the weather holds out I think I am going to give the Sport class another shot.