Making the Best of Busy Season

Well, busy season is under way.  Kyle had been working a ton the last couple weeks and it will continue for at least 3 more months.  He had to work this past Saturday, but we were able to still get some family time in.  We went out to breakfast for bagels in the morning.  After breakfast, Kyle headed out to OC to work and I took the girls to visit my grandmother.

When Kyle got home, we went for a long bike ride with the girls.  It was a beautiful day out - in the 70's.  I hope it continues to stay that way for a while.

We probably won't be able to do this much together each weekend, but it was very enjoyable and maybe we will be able to get a few family activities in.

No pics today, but I still wanted to share.

It's a New Year!

Making breakfast each morning is not something that I can say we do in our home.  We are pretty much a cereal (or other convenient breakfast) family in our house.  Mainly, I'm probably just not enough of a morning person to get up early enough to have breakfast ready for our early riser (Katelyn is up and ready for breakfast by 6:30 every morning).  However, I do think that it is fun to switch it up every so often.  I decided that it sounded like fun to make breakfast on New Year's morning and eat it while watching the Rose Parade.  This is a tradition that we always had while I was growing up.

I decided to make a recipe that I got from Pinterest.  It is a Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole, made from canned cinnamon rolls.  It turned out pretty well and I think everyone had seconds.  Here is a link to the recipe - http://ohmysugarhigh.com/cinnamon-french-toast-bake-from-pillsbury-recipe/ .

My finished dish - looked delicious.

Eating breakfast in the living room while watching the parade!

Later that day we went to my parent's house and then to my aunt & uncle's house to celebrate Christmas with my Mom's side of the family as we had been out of town for the week of Christmas.  The girls got new Crocs that they wear everywhere.  Evidently I didn't take any other pics that day.

Go Packers!

We may live in California, but this is a family of proud Packers fans.  When Katelyn sees a football game on tv, she says 'Go Packers!'.  She knows it makes her daddy proud.  Things didn't exactly end the way we wanted them to this year, but we did head up to my sister's house (a huge Packers fan) to watch their last game.  (*Note to self:  Do not go out in the evening unless we will be back by 8.  Even if there is an hour long drive starting at 8:30, it does not guarantee that the worn out children will fall asleep.  Basically, remember that if I plan for them to sleep, they very likely will not.)

Happy Daddy (at this point it was still a close game)!

Cousin fans!  Brookie & Micah

Here is a game day photo from 2 years ago (before Brooklyn was born & Katelyn is in the same outfit that Brooke wore this week).

Poppa & Mammie & a New Niece

My little sister had a baby!  MacKenzie arrived on November 9!  She's adorable! 

My dad & step-mom came out at the beginning of December to visit her.

Poppa & Mammie & all the grandkids!  Katelyn looks so huge next to MacKenzie.

We went to my sister's house for an early Christmas while Poppa & Mammie were in town.   Brooklyn loves her gardening set & Katelyn got a bunch of dress up clothes that she wears all the time (especially the jewelry). 

Brookie climbing into her gardening wheelbarrow gift.

We also took a trip to see the Christmas lights while they were in town.

The new wagon we got for Christmas was perfect for the walking to see the lights & the girls loved it - and the lights!

A White Christmas (Part 2)

On Christmas morning (still in Minnesota) we opened gifts with Kyle's family.

Katelyn's first Barbie!

The day after Christmas, we went to a children's museum in Brookings, SD.  I would highly recommend it to anyone that lives close by.  They had a ton of areas that both Brooklyn & Katelyn enjoyed.

Katelyn shopping in the grocery store - a BIG hit!

Brooklyn's first job - a grocery store cashier.

Brooklyn had a cart almost completely full of milk.

Katelyn got all dressed up and was 'getting the mail'.

Our little artist loves to paint. So fun!

A room fully of water toys.

On Thursday it got up to about 17*, so we decided it was warm enough to take Katelyn sledding.  She absolutely loved it!  Brooklyn didn't really want to be set down in the snow and took one ride in the sled, but wasn't a huge fan yet.  It never got warm enough to build a snow man because the snow doesn't stick together when it is that cold, so I was a little bummed as Katelyn had been looking forward to it, but I'm pretty sure she was fine with sledding instead.

Brooklyn & Mommy watching the family sledding.

The family!

Mommy took one trip down with Katelyn.

Daddy & Katelyn

Her first hot chocolate after she got back from sledding.

 Grandma had a bunch of things lined up to keep the girls busy while we were there, included Play-Doh sets and a gingerbread house kit.  Katelyn had a blast.

We need to work on her holding her smile for the camera :-).

We played a lot of games while we were there.  I had to include this picture.  In addition to board and card games, these three played a lot of 'Tiny Tower' on their phones.  They were all playing and then when they noticed that I took out the camera, the phones were quickly shoved under the table.

Sneaky.

I thought I had a pic of the grandparents & the girls, but it looks like it must have been on another camera (or phone).  I will have to try and get ahold of one.

We had a great trip, despite the fact that it did not reach 20* the entire time we were there.  It was great to be back in MN with the family.

A White Christmas (Part 1)

The girls had their very first white Christmas this year.  We flew out to Minnesota to spend a great week with Kyle's family.  They had a significant amount of snow a few days before we arrived, so everything was white.

The plane rides went as could be expected, a little fusiness, not a lot of napping (I think Katelyn napped for about 45 minutes of all of our plane rides).  We packed quite a few toys.  For Katelyn, the best was downloading episodes of Backyardigans & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse onto the iPod Touch.  We also had found this great free app called 'Alien Buddies'.  It is fairly simplistic, but has a lot of different things she can do (matching, puzzles, dot-to-dot) that kept her busy for over half-an-hour both directions.  We had a lay-over in Minneapolis both directions, so the girls spent some time playing in the children's area of the airport.

They went for a ride in this plane, but Brooke's favorite was driving the bus in the background.

On our first full day in MN, we wanted Katelyn to have a chance to go out and play (it was also supposed to be the warmest day for several days, I think it topped in at 14*).  She got all bundled up and went out to play with the adults (Brooklyn was napping).

She was about this happy every time she had to get bundled up.  Gloves were her least favorite.

Uncle Jon pulled her around in the backyard.

Katelyn's first snow angel with Aunt Kristina.

My little marshmallow.  Isn't she cute.  Just having fun walking on the snow.

On Christmas Eve we went to church (which was somewhat eventful because there was not nursery that night and Brooklyn is not used to sitting still) and when we came back, the girls decided they wanted to serenade us . . .

Stay tuned for the rest of our trip (hopefully I will post it tomorrow).

Christmas in California

Our annual festivities started the first weekend in December when we trecked on down to Home Depot as a family and bought our Christmas tree.  The girls had fun at the tree lot looking at the different types of trees and then helping to decorate the tree.  Katelyn 'helped' with the lights and they both managed to get there hands on a bunch of ornaments.  Thankfully, nothing was broken.

Here is a picture of the girls in front of our tree.  So cute they are in their Christmas outfits.

I'm thinking that I need a star or angel for the top of the tree.  It is year #6 and we still don't have a tree topper.  It looks so sad. We opted for a short tree this year as Kyle insisted it would be so much easier to deal with and we were not going to be home on Christmas anyways.  When we got it up & in the house, he said something to the effect of 'We should have gotten a bigger tree. . . .'  Haha, oh well - live & learn.

 This picture was taken the morning that Katelyn 'sang' with the Sunday School in front of church.  I used quotes because in spite of the fact that she new almost every word to all the songs, she didn't sing a single word in church that morning.  She did however lift her dress up so that we could see her belly button and sit down on the steps.  This was a sharp contrast to the first time the Sunday School sang this year when she sang as loud as she could and tried to do all the motions, even when there were no motions for certain parts of the songs.  We never know what to expect for our Missy Katelyn.

Because we were going out of town for Christmas, we opened our presents the Friday evening before Christmas.  I made cinnamon caramel popcorn with pecans & white chocolate - the first time I have ever attempted anything like this.  And let me just say - IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!  It was a great treat while we were opening presents.

Here is a link to the recipe - http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/09/cinnamon-caramel-corn-with-pecans-white-chocolate-aka-cinnamon-bun-popcorn/ (it's a lot easier than it seems to make this)

 

 

 

 

The girls got a bunch of smaller presents.  Their main gift was that Kyle made each of them a tent/fort.  We usually make a large fort every time we get new books from the library, so I thought it would be great to have something we can just pop-up whenever we want.  I think they will work great.  They are, however, HUGE.  I wasn't really thinking about where we would store them when we made two of them.

Opening gifts was a lot of fun this year as both of the girls were really excited about it.  Katelyn kept making huge gasps every time a piece of wrapping paper was ripped off of a present and they were both helping each other open every present.  Here are a bunch of pics from present opening night.

About to open the first gifts (after we had to restuff one for a little girl who jumped the gun - Katelyn, I think).

Two big Minnie Mouse Fans

A train set!

A goof ball opening her stocking.

Playing with their presents inside the forts (not fully opened).

Sorry this post is a little long, I want to catch up to present time and we had a lot going on.  I hope you all had a great Christmas season!