last day of 2015

Started out the day with some packing and house cleaning...then we headed outside. Ed was helping the neighbor men assemble the boards on the pond for our neighborhood hockey rink. Finally it has been cold enough and 6-7 inches of ice have formed on the pond making it safe! The guys were out there for probably 3 hours getting it ready. While they were working, the kids were playing.

Then we headed in to attempt a nap...wasn't very successful. Then it was time to head to our neighbors house for a little New Years Eve Party! There was an early countdown for the kids at about 845pm, then they dispersed and went home to bed. Eddie was having a rough night, clinging to me and complaining about his stomach, so I took him home about 945p and just stayed with him. Rowan and Ed followed less than an hour later. We weren't planning on staying super late anyway because we are driving to Iowa tomorrow morning, but didn't think it'd be this early. But I didn't want to leave Eddie home alone and not feeling well.

 

Here is Rowan, Gabby and Elaina with their party beverages!

Sydney and Eddie...we learned tonight that Sydney thinks she is going to marry Eddie (they are in the same preschool class) too cute.

Here are all of the neighborhood kids that were present! And this isn't all of them.

Rowan and Eddie's rocking New Year's celebration.

 

some snow time

While we don't have a ton of snow...it sure is nice to get these kids outside and relieve some built up energy! We started in our yard then moved to the sledding hill down the road. Crazy kids had fun!

5 kids on one sled success! Izzy, Gabby, Elaina, Rowan and Eddie!

new things...

We used one of our new toys from Christmas today...we made ice cream! So fun, easy and oh so tasty! The rest of my family loves vanilla so that was the flavor of choice. I will eat it obviously but chocolate would be my flavor of choice...or at least some chocolate candies in the vanilla! Maybe next time.

Tonight, Ed went to his first Minnesota Wild game, thanks to our neighbor and friend Brian! The Wild lost, but Ed enjoyed it!

Last one of the weekend...

Christmas with the Blodgett's!

 

We were at Karen and Doug's house for breakfast at 9am! And it was delicious. We had an egg bake, cinnamon French toast bake, muffins, sausage, bacon....etc. Then we did open some presents...took some pictures too!

  

Four Generations of ladies!

New for us this year...Great Grandpa is living in a nursing home and doesn't get around easily anymore, so we paid him a visit! He isn't exactly a man of many words anymore, but he did pay attention to us a bit!

He gave Eddie a five!

I realized this weekend, that is will be the first Christmas where we will see all of our Grandparents/Great Grandparents. Happy to get pictures of the kids with all of them! We will finish up with Ed's family next weekend!

After visiting Great Grandpa, we loaded up the car and started the trek home. Because we were so blessed, we had to use the topper to get all of our gifts home, and the trunk was packed as well! This picture of Eddie shows how busy our weekend of travelling was!

The Packer game was on towards the end of our drive, so we listened to it on the radio! With plans of quickly unpacking the car when we got home and then watching the end! Well, while unpacking the truck, somehow my rear window shattered! So instead of watching the game (which they were losing and playing horribly, so didn't matter much) we spent our time going through all of our belongings throwing out window shrapnel, and cleaning up the garage as well. Didn't make us very happy.

While we were busy...Rowan got Julie all dressed up in some of her new clothes.

And that was the end of our fun family filled weekend of travelling for 2015. We are on the road again next weekend to finish up the holidays in Iowa and Illinois...but that'll be 2016 technically.

Let Christmas Continue...

Saturday morning...up and on the road by 8am! Headed to Pewaukee to celebrate with the Knutson's!

Gizmo...again wanting to sit on Rowan's lap!

We stopped by Karen and Doug's house first to drop off Gizmo. They were thrilled to have him for the weekend. It doesn't happen much anymore. Then we were off to Grandma Julie and Grandpa Kris's house! We started with some breakfast...working on getting the kids to wait and be patient. They really are getting pretty good at it!

Rowan in her stocking...or santa hat. Hopefully she will learn how to sit in a skirt some day.

Eddie too.

Once again...too many wonderful gifts for all of us. Kept us busy for a couple hours!

 

Sisters!

The Grandparents!

With the grandkids...

Amanda and the kids and I took a quick trip out to visit Great Grandma Marion! We had some new pictures for her and wanted to say hello while we were in town. We tried to miss lunch, but she was still finishing up when we arrived. So we interrupted for a few minutes for a quick visit. Sadly, she didn't know who any of us were, but she was thrilled with the kids.

Then about 12:30, we got back in the car to head to Elkhorn for the big Knutson Christmas. Not very excited to be back in the car for another 45 minute drive, but we all survived. Always fun to catch up with cousins, aunts and uncles!

 

Me with pregnant Casey (because you can't even tell)! Baby #3 coming in April is a boy!

Grandma Audrey with the twins.

Great Grandma Audrey, Rowan and Eddie!

Eddie and Quinn in a big squeeze!

My cousin Kelsie is delivering twin girls in 2 days...so had to get a picture of Grandma with the twins and twins to be!

Grandma and her Grandkids and significant others!

Grandma and the boys

Just the grandkids with Grandma

And apparently we never do the boys with their wives...so here it is!

We did have dinner together and did do a gift exchange...no pictures of that apparently. Too busy keeping our eye on the best gift. We did pretty well, walked away with a movie theatre gift card and Ed got some tools!

 

We were on our way back to Grandma and Grandpa's house before 7pm...got to relax a bit before heading to bed!

So this is Christmas...

Sadly, Ed and I were up and waiting for the kids to wake up this morning. I couldn't lay in bed anymore waiting, and came downstairs to find Ed in a santa hat playing Mario kart! Again, my third child! I got breakfast prepped and in the oven, tried a new recipe, Cinnamon French Toast bake. Finally about 715am, the kids came strolling down! I didn't get a lot of pictures of them opening gifts because I was trying to pay attention better!

The cutest part of the morning was how excited they were about the gifts they got for each other.

And then there was their favorites gifts...Eddie got a Hot Wheels Garage from Santa! 

And Rowan got a ripstik from Santa...she tried to give it a try inside, but it will be much better outside!

After playing for a bit, we got showered and packed and ready to head to Grandpa and Grandma Bremberger's house for the afternoon. Here the kids are cleaned up and ready for the day!

Our drive to Lyndon Station was rather uneventful. Arrived just after 1pm! I was able to bribe the kids for another picture after they saw all the presents.

We had a late lunch snack, and then started on presents. But shortly into presents, Great Grandpa Ron and Gail arrived. So we took a break to hang out with them and visit, play a few games. They stayed for dinner, then we finished gifts after that. Kids did a great job with the break in action...for awhile!

Only picture I got of us together for the day!

Great Grandpa Ron and Gail...they're heading to Arizona in a few days!

Grandma and her Disney store problem!

After gifts were finally done, we had some dessert, and then relaxed in our jammies. Was a long day of fun, so we were to bed on time to continue on tomorrow for more family fun.