I'm 30!

Can you believe Christmas came and went??! What a fun few days......I woke up early Friday morning to a bunch of presents and little voices singing "happy birthday!" I'm sure you are all wondering about the "thing that goes on my finger" as Alaina told me on Thursday! I didn't get a ring.....but I got something that I really, really wanted. :) Here's a little background first. When I left TN last year my Bunco girls had gotten me a Pandora bracelet with three charms on it....a dice (for my love of Bunco!!), the Chinese meaning for friendship ( I think! I just know its for friendship), and a Bible. I've been telling Tim that if he ever wants to buy me something, I want charms for my bracelet. I even have a booklet with some circled! Of course, he forgot about all that, and last week we drove past a Pandora billboard and I told him again! He remembered this time and went above and beyond! He actually bought me a new bracelet with all the birthstones of my kids with spacers and everything!! I love it. I didn't need the bracelet itself, so on the way out of town I did exchange that for a couple different charms....... I have our 4 kids stones and then on each end its Tim and mine.... all of us are inside the "stoppers" I'll call them......its just two stationary charms that keeps the "insides" in the middle. Then on one side I have my dice and Friendship and on the other side the bible and an angel. I still have room for more, so I'm hoping he remembers for Mother's Day or any other time! :) I'll have to take a picture of it sometime....its hard to explain and make sense! I love it. :)

I also got a spa package.......as he said it was to go massage away my 30 year old wrinkles!! And, a purse (the Sak).....its one that I showed him and said "this would be a nice present!" I'm amazed at how he remembered!! :) Its so fun to see how the kids just get so excited. I always tell Tim that maybe you don't care so much about your birthday, but there are 3 (now 4) little people that think it is a BIG deal! I love birthdays in our house. :)

We got all packed up and drove North. Tim's parents met us and took the 3 big ones home with them and we met my parents, Amy & Vince (and little V), and Aaron & Jenny at the Brett Favre Steakhouse. It was so good!! We had so much fun......

Then on Saturday Tim and I shopped around Green Bay.....its funny, I'm not a big football fan, but we did Brett Favre on Friday night and Lambeau field on Saturday. We ate at Curly's there......it was really neat! And, a great restaurant! I highly recommend both places!

I can honestly say that I was stressing a little bit about turning 30, but its really not so bad!!

I'm not sure how to download pictures here at my mom's, but I'll try to figure that out and post some. I could go into Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but I won't now. We had a blast........and the kids thought it was all way too incredible! Then today we went sliding behind the 4 wheeler with my dad......it was the yellow 4 wheeler (Anthony!) then Caleb first, Erik second, Annika, then Alaina, and last Ryan.....it was a train! We had a blast. Those pictures I will for sure have to post. We are praying for more snow!! With 5 sleds in tow, its way too funny. :)

I'll write soon. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! You have to check out this youtube....it will bring tears to yours eyes and will make you think about what's really important! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCdZwitrNoY

Backwards....

I'm writing all these posts in the wrong order! So, if you read starting with Isabel's 2 month pictures to the top then you'll be in order. :) Here's the last picture.....a nice one of Auntie Lissy and Uncle Brian with the 3 kids.....Annika just got out of the shower and Alaina was on her way in, so I guess its a nice one of 1/2 of them!!

Rhonda.....

I was so excited.....the last present opened this morning was an iRobot Roomba......I couldn't believe it!! We were at Costco last week and I told Alaina to tell Daddy that I wanted one of those for Christmas. I didn't think she'd remember and I really didn't expect to get one! Well, they went shopping on Sunday.....she told me that the Jewelry store was closed, so they had to go to Costco instead! But, she couldn't tell me what they got...... I named her Rhonda and she was going to be a little helper cruising around all day vacuuming.....it was going to be great. Well......this afternoon after all the Christmas programs and excitement ended I went to open her up and get her going.....but I just couldn't do it. It seemed so frivilous and expensive! I love to vacuum (its the dirty stuff I hate!)......I couldn't see myself using her. And, we could use that money someplace else.....so I had to tell Tim to take her back. It broke my heart, but I knew it was the best thing to do. Here is Tim on his way out the door...... him and Alaina went out shopping for my birthday......apparently Rhonda was for my birthday, but when he saw that there were two presents under the tree with his name on them, he ran and wrapped her up and gave it to me early. The Total Gym was our Cmas present.....he didn't realize that the iPod he got was a hand me down and the gloves he bought himself on Saturday!! I really didn't buy him anything!! So, now him and Alaina are out shopping for my birthday. Alaina said she can't tell me what they are going to buy, but it goes on my finger!! How cute was that?!! She is good at keeping secrets......for the most part. She likes to give hints!

Letter to.....Brian??!

Here is a letter that Alaina left out last night. She wrote it all by herself.....no help from us. Not for Santa, but for Uncle Brian! It says "Brian, Dot tak d sukr and da krakr. Is for Satikluklall." She put out Saltines and a sucker! Santa wrote her back and told her to put out Chocolate Chip Cookies next year!

Christmas in Cary...

Christmas came early here. We leave for MI tomorrow.....my 30th birthday!! So, Santa came last night. We've been drilling into the kids that Christmas is not all about Santa......it's about Jesus. Santa is just a helper. :) They get to tell Santa one thing that they want....because God gave us one gift for Christmas and that was Jesus. And, what does God want from us for Christmas? Just us! To love him and honor him! This Christmas season has been really fun with them. What a big time. It gets more fun as the kids get older. They know what's going on now and really get into it. We've been finding Jesus in the things that come around at Christmas.....such as the Candy Cane and the Christmas tree. Its fun when they bring things to my attention that I might overlook!

I had to make a run to Toys R Us last night while the kids were at Awana.....what a zoo. But, I did find a Wedding Barbie.....actually they were out of the official wedding Barbie, but this Disney Enchanted Wedding doll was a good replacement. You will see that Lis and Brian (Tim's sister) were here for a night!! They are on their way to North Carolina from North Dakota..... It was a little shock to hang out with the 6 of us......a little louder and wilder than the two of them all the time! It was fun to have them here. :) You'll see the big Christmas present was the Total Gym.....hopefully by June or so Tim will be looking like Chuck Norris and I'll look like Christy Brinkley! We'll see. Its exciting.....no excuses anymore!

2 Months!

Isabel's 2 months old! She's put on a little weight in the past month! She is such a sweetheart. In her one month picture she was with a dog....I thought she needed something different, so we got out this lamb. Now we'll be able to see how big she gets a little better! Thanks to Uncle Rick and Sheila.....I know the lamb came from you a few years ago!!

Backfired!!

I thought I was Mrs. Cool Mom thinking I finally learned how to get my kids to "be good" while at a store. Its very simple.....I just put three little stickers on their hands. If they misbehave or wander off, I take a sticker off. If they have at least one sticker left when we leave they are suppose to be able to get a treat on the way out or some other reward. I haven't even had to buy them anything b/c the thrill of the stickers has been enough! I've been doing this for a couple weeks and it works! Well, I should say it worked! This week I had Erik, Annika, and Isabel with me and we had to pick up a few things while Alaina was at gymnastics. Before getting out of the van we got the stickers out and they got to pick which color smiley faces they wanted. We went over the ground rules one more time as we always do before entering a public place (this is basically for Annika who tends to forget)! We were doing good trying to find what we needed......then Annika started running up and down the aisle touching all the food boxes on the way down! I called her back and told her I was going to have to take a sticker b/c la dee da......well, I've never had to take a sticker from any child before! She started to cry because she only had two and she wanted three.....she cried and cried and obviously my whole plan was not working! A few aisles down I finally had to give her the sticker back.....then she was fine. I guess she didn't quite understand the point of this exercise!!

I do need to say that if you are looking for a way to get your kids to stay close, it works great for Erik and Alaina.......I'll have to figure something out for Annika!