Be Good for Goodness Sake!

The reindeer have been here to check on the kids to see if they are being naughty or nice. That's how Santa can tell if you get a present or not. Of course Santa can't watch every child in the world so his reindeer run around and check on the kids and God okays the list before Christmas Eve so that Santa does not make a mistake.

A few days ago when she was getting off the bus Alyssa noticed the prints on the roof. She smiled at me simply said that they were back. I smiled and off she went.

I don't know if Alyssa still believes in Santa this year. After all, you don't really want to say there is no Santa just in case the presents from him disappear. But this is how she explained the prints all over our roof last year. (The prints were from the squirrels, but her version was so much cuter.)

Snow Day

Wednesday was declared a snow day by the entire state of Wisconsin! Over 15 inches in some areas was enough to close everything down. Even the state government was closed for the day. We wound up with close to a foot of snow. Luckily we knew school was canceled before we even went to bed so we thought we would be able to sleep in. But when the kids are outside your window hooping and hollering about the BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS snow man family they planned to create sleeping in becomes a little hard. They debated a snow fort, a snow ball fight, building a sledding run, etc. Then they discovered that it was not good packing snow because the snow was too dry. Such bitter disappointment. But it was still fun to be outside with all that white fresh snow.

(Insert a mental picture of the kids bundled up in their snow gear.)

To say the kids were delighted would be an understatement. They were outside playing in the snow drifts before breakfast. Nicko went to work on shoveling the driveway without even being asked. Someone told him that shoveling snow was good for the pectoral muscles.....so off he went. It was very hard work and I think he was more than a little happy to get help from Dad and two of the best neighbors in the world.

(Insert a mental picture of Nicko very seriously shoveling
a foot of snow off the driveway and a photo of the
John Deere tractor that has a snow blowing attachment
that Joel drools over every time he sees it.)

We had a fire thanks to our wonderful neighbor that brought us a huge load of firewood to enjoy. We played countless games of checkers and Uno in front of the toasty warm fireplace. Mom was the checker champ of the day! ;-)

(Insert a few pictures of us hanging out, the checker
board, and the roaring fire in our fireplace that was
perfectly decorated for Christmas. You believe me
right? Just say yes.)

Daniel, Isaac and Alyssa made a pile of paper snowflakes that now decorate our sun room.
This picture was taken Thursday (today). Notice the big icicles and of course the beautiful snowflakes.



Snow days are so fun because they are unexpected little pockets of time to catch up and spend time together as a family. It is so wonderful to have the snow storms raging outside while you are safe inside tucked in front of a fire and your kids are chattering and playing throughout the house. I love snow days. The kids love snow days.

Unfortunately the pictures I took are all stuck on my photo card and I cannot get them into the computer. Daniel also took some pictures and his are stuck as well. So he gets a little of the mental image credit. If I ever recover the pictures, I will add them to this post.

...And It Doesn't Show Signs Of Stopping!

It's snowing. It's been snowing all day. It's going to snow all night. It's going to snow all day tomorrow. :-) The kids have figured out that we have a 70% chance of having a snow day tomorrow. There is something special about the first snow of the year that makes us giddy and excited. It is so beautiful and peaceful. Shoveling the driveway is even fun when big huge snowflakes are floating down from heaven. And since we are all home safe and sound.....Let it snow!

My Thanksgiving Tradition

Every year I like to make cranberry sauce. It is so good with turkey. I made my own recipe and I get to make the cranberry sauce for our Thanksgiving dinner. This is how I do it. First I start with cranberries, sugar, an orange and water.


I put the cranberries in the pan with some water and cook the cranberries until they pop open. Mom adds a little bit of grown up orange flavor to the hot cranberries.


Then I squeeze orange juice and add it to the cranberries. Mom strains the cranberries for me because they are too hot for me and I do not want to get burned.

Then I add the sugar to the cranberries and orange juice.

Then I stir everything together.


Then I pour the cranberry sauce into a pretty bowl. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

We hope you have a wonderfully Blessed day!

Last night we went to our first Marching Band Concert for Nicko's High School Band. I personally have never heard of a marching band concert, but we were quickly educated. All I can say is it was an amazing experience. I was very impressed. Here are a few highlights from last night.

• The school fight song was played three ways one as a march (which is pretty traditional), once as a ballad, and the last version was 6 tubas playing the school song in harmony.
• Three costume changes by the band director.
• A very touching tribute to Veterans.
• A selection of musical numbers from Star Trek.
  
• A music video that 12 students created. The kids took a Taylor Swift song and wrote their own lyrics about how the best way to be cool is by joining the band. It was adorable.
• Incredibly creative percussion performances.
• Audience participation with singing, yelling, jumping up and down, clapping or snapping if you wanted to play it cool, waving, and lots of applause.
• Four songs from the musical Grease.
  

Overall, the concert was over two and a half hours long and every minute was entertaining. I am so happy that Nicko is not only enjoying his musical education, but is part of an environment that encourages creativity and expression in such a positive way. The thing that stood out to Joel and I was how much fun the band had while they performed.

A Poem

A Thanksgiving Feast Pantoum
By Alyssa Boiten

My family and I would all get together.
My family is important.
Our family would sit around the table.
My Dad would say the prayers.

My family is important.
My family would talk, talk, talk while we eat.
My Dad would say the prayers.
We would fold our hands and Dad would say the prayers.

My family would talk, talk, talk while we eat.
My family and I would talk and feast.
We would fold our hands and Dad would say the prayers.
My family and I would surround the table while we feast.

My family and I would talk and feast.
Our family would sit around the table.
My family and I would surround the table while we feast.
My family and I would all get together.

Our One Year Anniversary

November 9, 2008 was the day a big yellow moving truck pulled into the drive way of our new home and we officially started a new chapter in our life. It is amazing what a difference a year can make. It sure is fun to look back, but I am even more grateful that we are settled.
Here are the kids' top three things that they like about living in Wisconsin.

Nicko - The people that live here are really nice to us, I like swimming in the lake and I like all the cheese they make here.

Daniel - I love all the dairy products that Wisconsin makes, I love my school and I like being able to go fishing off the dock any time I want to.

Isaac - I like the wood paneling in my bedroom, I love having a big yard to play in, and I love fishing off the dock.

Alyssa - All my new friends, I like our house and I like living by the lake. I really hope it is warm enough next summer to actually swim in the lake.

And just for fun, here are a few before and after pictures. It was Alyssa's idea to not label the following pictures. She wants you to see if you can tell which pictures are the before and which ones are the after. ;-)




OPPS!!! I lost an 'after' picture. I must have accidentally deleted it. I will have to retake the picture and post it later.

Trick or Treat!

The kids did not have school on Thursday or Friday this week, so Wednesday was their day to wear their Halloween costumes to school. We had two President Obamas, Doctor Pain, and a Mom.



Our neighbor gave the kids a couple of baseball caps from President Obama's inauguration. That and a couple of sport coats that did not fit all that well were the perfect costume for the boys. They were a huge hit at school and the only President at the school! (Isaac and Daniel attend different schools.) Daniel had kids shaking his hand and one of his teachers thought he was a very good look alike for our President. One boy said he loved Daniel's costume, but did not like what President Obama was doing with the country. Apparently the middle school is full of political experts!





Doctor Pain and Mom. I don't know where Alyssa gets her idea of what a Mom looks like. I do not wear high heels and pearls when I am doing the 'Mom' thing. All I know is that Alyssa looked awesome. Thanks Nana for the great costume. And Doctor Pain was the ONLY thing a tough, manly and mature teenager could do with a set of scrubs!

For One Night...And One Night Only!

For one night we had a lovely visit with Aunt Susan and Uncle Dave. We really enjoyed seeing you. Too bad it was such a short visit, but you can come back for Mountain Dew and rubber chicken any time you would like!

Thank you for putting us on your list of people to visit. We loved having you.

Apple Picking 2009

We finally went to pick our apples. Luckily, our apple picking tradition lives on. We got a bushel of Ida Reds to make enough apple sauce to last for at least....two weeks! Dad was happy because we had the place to ourselves and the kids were happy because...well they were picking food and that is a big deal to them these days. Anything that cures hunger is a big deal to these guys!



An apple tree that is the perfect size for the kids to pick apples! It's more like a bush. The kids study each apple before they pick it....no one wants a worm hole in their apple!


Did you see the movie 'Forest Gump'? Remember Bubba and all his shrimp ideas. I think the same thing holds for apples when you ask kids what we should make with our apples. They got pretty creative and by the time we got home, Joel had to stop them from coming up with more! Apple cake, apple pancakes, applesauce, dried apples, apple salad, apples and chicken, candy apples, caramel apples with nuts, apple pizzas, apples and caramel dip, cheese and apples on crackers and the list went on and on and on!
WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT PICKING APPLES?

Isaac - Apples are amazing. They are so good for you and they taste so good. You can eat them or cook with them and they come in so many colors.

Alyssa - I like picking apples because I like to eat them. They help your teeth fall out when they are loose and I have a loose tooth.

Nicko - I only pick the big ones because when I eat an apple I want a big one, but the other kids are not picking big apples, so I want my own bag!

Daniel - Shrug. It's just fun to pick apples.

Mom - I love our family traditions and last year we did not get to pick apples in the midst of moving. This year, the kids have been so busy and time flies by. I always want time to slow down so we have time to enjoy the moment. These family traditions are a way to mark time by celebrating our lives together in our own special way. Our traditions are important.

Dad - I just like it when Heather makes pink applesauce.

The Final countdown!

We Have Been Busy!

Next week is our last week of fall sports. A few more days and we can put our crazy busy schedule behind us for awhile. We have enjoyed watching the kids pursue their athletic goals, but the practice and taxi schedule have been pretty brutal. Last night at a family meeting we all admitted to looking forward to a slower pace.

Once the sports are over, hopefully we settle into a bit of a normal routine. The kids will go back to their Youth groups on Wednesday night, piano lessons will become much more consistent and maybe we can fit a few family things in as well.

We have some fun stuff coming up in the near future. Grandma and Grandpa are due to arrive later today which is always fun. Aunt Susan and Uncle Dave are coming for a visit all the way from California later this month! We have our annual apple picking later this month as well as the all important Halloween. This year we are not going trick or treating. The kids are still deciding if they want to invite friends over for a non scary Halloween party or go to a movie. So lots of fun stuff ahead and hopefully it all gets blogged at some point!

Isaac is off to Green Lake for a three day camp and it's time for me to take him to school. Green Lake is a camp the entire middle school attends for three days for all sorts of self esteem building activities. Isaac can't wait to go!

Run, Run As Fast As You Can!

On Your Mark,
Get Set,
Go!!!
And the runners are off!
This is a shot about three quarters of the way into the race. This was a 1.75 mile invitational. Daniel has been running at a pretty steady pace for most of the meets. I love watching Daniel run. He loves running and it shows. He always looks so happy and peaceful while he is running. Of course, for his shot, he's trying to look like a tough runner because Mom is taking a picture.
Daniel is smiling now, but he's really thinking about sinking his teeth into the biggest apple he can find. Good race, Daniel!

Freshman Football 2009

Have you ever seen the book Where's Waldo? This is Where's Nicko. He is red jersey #65.
Nicko is ALWAYS the first to get ready for a play.
#65 Nicko.....defensive nose tackle / guard

A day in the life of our freshman football player.

5:30 Wake up, eat, get dressed.
6:15 Start weight lifting for football.
8:00 School Starts.
3:30 Football Practice.
6:30 Get home, shower, wolf down dinner, and then do homework.
8:00 Go to bed exhausted.

Apparently it's worth every ache, drop of sweat and sacrifice he makes to be on the team. The team has lost every game so far, but after each game Nicko has a huge smile. He shrugs and says he did his best and he gave it his all, maybe they'll win the next one. Go Team Go!

I'll add a few more pics to this post next weekend.

Signs that Summer is Fading Away

Summer is slowly fading away. We love the changing of the seasons. The cool crisp air, the beautiful color the fall brings, football games huddled under a wool blanket to keep warm, and picking apples are just a few of the things we LOVE about autumn. Each season is so unique and so different than the season before. So here are our top 5 reason why the kids think that summer is fading and fall is beginning.

#1 No More Dock! The dock removal crew.....
.... and the supervisor!




#2 Football is the new Saturday Project! So exhausting.




#3 Trees are starting to get a little color.



#4 Jean Jackets are needed while the kids wait for the bus in the morning.



#5 The pumpkins and mums have arrived!

The Signature Dive!

Hello from Megan!
Alyssa doing a spin.
Isaac and his karate chop!
Go Matt Go!
Joel doing his version of a belly flop.
Nicko's dive was voted the favorite.


This was Daniel's Revolution...not a somersault, a revolution.

Pool games seem to be a big deal for the kids when we are in Alabama. This year we had a diving competition. There were four dives and you were rated on each dive. The four dives were the perfect dive, a belly flop, a cannon ball and your own signature dive. I don't know who won, but I did get a few good shots of the signature round. I don't know who had more fun, the divers showing off or the judges watching the show.