Christmas Photo Shoot

Darn it! I've been so busy that I forgot to schedule a Christmas photo shoot for my kids. Usually, we go to Wal-Mart or Babies R Us for this. Unfortunately, everything is all booked up because I didn't remember to make an appointment way back in November. Oh well, I decided to create a photo shoot of my kids at home.

I'm sure they are not as great as the store bought photos would have been but it is better than nothing. I got the kids all decked out in their Holiday best put a chair with a plaid blanket in front of our tree and started snapping away. I gotta say, this was no small feat. I took a million pictures and only got a few decent ones. I would say there is only one that I would call good.

The flash on my camera wasn't going off at first, and then when I did reset it to use flash it took forever to take the picture! I can't tell you how many times I had the kids both smiling and looking at the camera only to wait an additional 10 seconds for the flash and get the awesome shot of one child talking and the other looking away. GRRRR!

Despite my frustrations, the kids were actually having a good time. Of course, by the end they wanted it to be done so I have to post some of them. It's funny to see Logan's look of disgust as I snap on even though he is clearly sick of the photo shoot and not cooperating. Lily said "Cheese!" the entire time but was busy looking everywhere but the camera.

Hey, at least I got a few to scrapbook. Maybe this will be a reminder to me to book my Christmas photo sittings early!

And now for the "Mooooommmmmm, I'm doooooonnnneee" photos.

Trimming the Tree

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is decorating the Christmas tree. For the first time this year both kids understood what we were doing and wanted to participate. It was so cute to watch how excited they were to be helping! They even started singing "Oh Christmas Tree" together while they were putting the ornaments on.

I also love to have Christmas music blaring while we decorate the house. There is just something so wonderful about listening to your favorite Christmas tunes while making the house look festive. We heard a lot of favorites while hanging up ornaments.

Logan had so much fun watching me put up the lights. He couldn't wait for them to be wound around the tree so that he could start hanging ornaments. As you might guess, the little ones had clusters of ornaments on the bottom and middle parts of the tree. Mike and I had to strategically rearrange the ornaments so that the entire tree got decorated. Of course, each of them had to help us put the ornaments "up high."
Every year I try to buy ornaments for the kids to put on the tree. Which reminds me that I haven't done that this year! I'm sure I will be able to find something really cute up at our local Thrifty White, they have the cutest gifts.
Anyway, it a tradition that they each get a new ornament every year and hopefully when they grow up they will take the ornaments with them for their own homes. Of course, if they want me to keep them, I would be happy about that too!

When we put the final touches on the tree we told Logan that this year he would get to put the Angel on top. This is the first year he has done it, usually it is Daddy's job. He was so excited to add the last ornament. "Oh, our tree is so beautiful!" both of the kids commented. They couldn't wait to start putting presents under it. I hope to get a few more good years of Christmas tree decorating excitement out of them before it becomes a chore. For now, I will enjoy the excitement of my little ones helping to make the season bright.

Picking Out the Perfect Tree

This year, we decided to do something a little different to pick out our Christmas tree. In years past, we went to Hansen Tree Farm in Anoka. Hansen is truly a lovely little tree farm but I found another really great tradition.

Woodland Hills Winery is my favorite little Minnesota Vineyard. It is located in Delano so it is only about 30 minutes from us. This year, Woodland Hills had a special event that featured Santa Claus, sleigh rides, Christmas Trees and Christmas movies.


We decided to kill two birds with one stone and see Santa and pick out our Christmas tree at the same time. The kids had such a blast! First, we went and picked out our Christmas tree. They didn't have a huge amount but the trees they did have were very nice. We got a blue spruce about 7 ft tall and it looks perfect in our family room!


Santa showed up at the winery with Mrs. Claus and visited with the children waiting to see him before getting settled for pictures. We were one of the first families to get our pictures done. It was wonderful to get pictures done in this laid back atmosphere instead of waiting in line for hours.

After we had pictures done we brought the kids into the wine distillery and they had Christmas movies playing. We then went out and waited by the bonfire for the sleigh ride. The kids had so much fun on the sleigh! It started snowing a little before hand so it was absolutely picturesque. Logan loved how the bells jingled as the horses ran and he led us in a rendition of jingle bells.

Finally we went home. I got a few bottles of wine to give as gifts, we got pictures with Santa, picked out a beautiful tree and went on our first sleigh ride ever! It was a wonderful day!

The "New" Sledding Hill

It was a Sunday, the kiddos were chasing each other around in circles and play fighting. It was driving Mike and I nuts. It would start out as good fun and end up with somebody crying. Every. Five. Minutes. We had to do something, anything! So we decided to take the kids on their first sledding trip of the winter.

We bundled everybody up, loaded up the sleds and headed to the Community Center hill. It was where we brought the kids for sledding last year. It is a perfect hill for the five and under set, not to high, not to steep and it ends in the middle of a soccer field with no frozen ponds or creeks nearby. (There is a steep, high hill that ends at the creek right up the block from us but we've always avoided it although it is a favorite amongst the older kids.)

I realized that I had forgotten Lily's had and she only had a sheer hood to cover her head. This sledding trip was not starting off well! We soldiered on anyway, prepared to leave after only a couple of trips down the hill. We went up to the gate only to find that it was locked! It is never locked! We went all the time last year and never had run into this hill being unavailable.

Then I remembered that during our summer "Park Project" where we went to a bunch of different parks in our area. Highwoods park was one of the ones we visited and it had a huge hill right by it. So, we made the trip home for Lily's hat. The kids were very upset thinking they weren't going to get to go sledding. We assured them that we had found a new hill.

I knew that Highwoods Park hill was a big one but I had forgotten how big! Luckily, one side is very steep and ends on a frozen pond, and the other side is high but not steep and perfect for little ones. When we arrived there was a group of teenaged boys going down the steep side and they had made jumps that they were flying off of as well. This hill is basically like a medium run at a ski resort.

Good thing that the other side was perfect for sending Logan and Lily down. At first, Mike and I went down with them but it wasn't long before they begged to go down together. We sent them down, and wouldn't you know it, they hit the only mini jump that had been made on that side. They LOVED it.

Logan went down many times by himself purposely going over the jump. "That was awesome!" he exclaimed after catching some air. No worries, they both were pros and we went home satisfied and tired to enjoy some hot coco. :)

My funny kiddos!

Here is a clip of Logan singing the Mr. Turkey song he learned at preschool and then Lily has to do something for the camera so she made up "The Pizza song." Kids are a blast!

Happy Halloween!

I LOVE Halloween. It is my favorite holiday because you get to dress up and be whatever you want to be on that day. Well, for Halloween this year my two kiddos wanted to go as Buzz Lightyear and Jessie from Toy Story. So what did Mommy decide to go as? Woody, of course. I actually made the costume out of stuff we already had so I only spent one dollar on it - for the Cowboy hat that I purchased at the dollar store.

We have a lot of kids in our neighborhood so TOT was really fun! We went farther this year than any other year, instead of just going around the block. Mike and I brought the wagon which was a great idea because when the kids were tired of going door to door we put them in the wagon and pulled them home while they ate their candy.

We lucked out this year and the weather wasn't too bad! It was pretty cold by the time the kids wanted to go home but it was in the 40's when we started out. It was really fun to go dressed up as characters from a movie with my kids. We got so many compliments!Maybe next year I can get Daddy to dress up too. :)

The kids were so tuckered out that they didn't even want to show the neighbors their costumes but we convinced them to anyway. We wanted to save the neighbors for last because they get such a kick out of the kiddos every year. Finally, we went in and the kids dumped their spoils on the living room floor. "Look at all this candy!" said Logan as I checked everything out. It was definitely a great time for all of us.

Logan's 5th Birthday - Buzz Lightyear Theme

I can't believe that my baby boy is actually five! This was a bittersweet milestone birthday because I'm glad that he is growing more independent each day but it is sad how quickly time goes by! We went all out for his birthday this year and I'm glad that we did because he had such a great time and he still talks about it.

When I asked Logan what he wanted to do for his birthday party he told me that he didn't want a Halloween birthday this year. He wanted to have a Buzz Lightyear birthday party so that is what we did. I looked online and found a lot of great accessories for his birthday party like a huge 24" Buzz Lightyear balloon.

We decided to serve pizza because in the Toy Story movie Buzz and Woody ended up at Pizza Planet and that is also where they picked up the green guys. We served Mike's famous "Green Guys" guacamole and chips, Buzz Lightyear brew, and "Lotso" caramel apples. Of course we also had birthday cake. I ordered a Buzz and Woody edible images from Cake Toppers.

Logan was so surprised when Mike came home with the bouncy castle. It was a last minute addition to the party but I am so glad that we did it! We had 8 kids at the party in total and it was so fun to see them bouncing around. Plus it was a beautiful day so I would rather have everybody outside.

Of course, because his birthday party was the day before Halloween we let the kiddos wear their Buzz and Jessie costumes! It was really cute to see brother and sister dressed up in matching character costumes.


It was so fun to watch him blow out the candles on his cake this year. He was a pro at it and lovvvveeddd the Buzz & Woody cake that I made for him. "Oh it is so cool mom!" he exclaimed. His friend Lucas asked if he could have the little figurines that I put on the cake. They were from the dollar store, I really lucked out, so I gave them to Lucas.

Logan got what he had been asking for the entire summer - a big Buzz Lightyear - that was remote controlled. It really is a very neat toy because it sings, dances, talks and lasers. Grandpa found a good deal on one at Toys R Us and asked if he could buy it for our buddy. Logan got a lot of great gifts and we are so thankful for our friends and family that came to the party.


This year we had Logan's preschool friends come to the party as well as family members. I think that as he gets older they will become more friend birthday parties but as long as our family can come we love having them there too! It was nice to meet the kids he plays with from his class!

When it was all said and done it was a fantastic day! Mommy was running around like a madwoman but it was worth it. My little boy had the best party so far and I hope that next year I can pull something just as fun off! :)