Photos 53-59:

Day 53: Tom has another week off - which means more "Mario Time!" LOL! :) We've been having fun playing New Super Mario Brothers for the Wii (again - we beat it once - but now we're going back and collecting all the star coins!) How pathetic is that? LOL But its fun....


Day 54: Today was an early release day - so Trevor didnt have school! We spent the day bumming around Eau Claire - here's Trevor trying out some Hockey Gloves - he's pretty tough isn't he? LOL


Day 55: I was cleaning out Reese's cage (our guinea pig) and Tom and Kaylee thought it would be a good idea to see if Kaylee fit in the top part of the cage - and yep she did! :)


Day 55 (photo 2):
We had the Daniels' over again for lunch! :) The kids all play so well together - its fun to watch them! We had a nutritious meal of chicken nuggets, cantaloupe, oranges and french fries! :) Yumm!


Day 55 (photo 3):
Trevor and his new best friend - Carter!


Day 56: WHOO HOO! My first day subbing! It was a hectic day as I filled in for two different specialists - which meant a lot of bouncing around - but it was perfect! I got to meet a lot of different staff and get a good tour of the building! I answered phones, had recess & lunch duty, helped in the pre-k room, tutored math and helped the pre-k afternoon class get their gear on and get on the bus!


Day 57: TGIF! :) Tom joined us at the Coffee Shop this week - the kids sure got a kick out of having him there too! They decided they wanted to sit up at the high tables - so we thought we'd give it a try - of course they loved it! :)


Day 57 (photo 2): It's the kick-off of the Women's Weekend here in town!! We were joined by Mel this year - and she was soooooo fun to hang out with! We started out with a wine tasting tour of Medford - thats 19 different stops! (we only made it to 12 since we had a late start!) But we had fun touring all the different shops and of course sampling all the different kinds of wine!


Day 58: Mel, Ann & I getting all dolled up (at least our make-up) after all our classes today (especially needed after ZUMBA this morning! We also did cake-decorating and no-knead bread! Super fun classes! I was very glad that we chose those ones!


Day 58 (photo 2): One word: STUFFED! Check out all of those empty dishes! The "Taste of Medford" was DELICIOUS at the Veranda - all the area resteraunts come in and bring in samples of what they offer on their menu! YUMM! Ribs, desserts, sandwhiches, desserts, wraps, desserts, prime rib, and did I mention desserts? :)


Day 58 (photo 3): Look at how pretty the wine glass looked w/ the lights! ahhh.....


Day 58 (photo 4): Of course the first thing the kids wanted to do when we got home was sample our cakes! Here are the kids w/ the cake that I decorated! Don't look too closely at the cake - by the time the frosting was to me it was pretty warm and "foamy" so it wasnt going on the best - but it was fun anyways - and the kids sure enjoyed it! LOL! Check out Kaylee's hair - can you tell she was with Grandpa & Dad all day - I dont think its even been brushed!!


Day 59: Last day of Women's Weekend :( It's always sad to be done with our weekend off - but I look forward to being able to participate again next year! We ended our weekend with snowshoeing in the morning and a brunch at the Curling Club. No door prizes won this year :(

Feb 15-21 Layout

Here's my completed Layout from last week - images are linked to my gallery

Photos 46-52

Here are all the photos from last week! :)

Day 46: Before we headed back home - we spent the morning with "The Girls" - the kids love it when we can hang out with Emilee, Ailie & Maija! We grabbed lunch at the new Italian resteraunt in town - it was pretty good!



Day 47: Since the weather was decent & sunny today I decided to tackle chipping off all the ice off of our driveway - the kids must have gotten bored with it - because soon Kaylee was asking to walk down to see Grandpa at his office - and since it was basically noon and I knew he'd probably be coming up for lunch anyways - I let them head down the trail to see him! I wonder how many more times in the next coming weeks and months they'll be doing that! Sorry Grandpa ;)



Day 48: "Happy" Ash Wednesday! Today marks the beginning of Lent, and I've decided to try to not turn on the computer in the mornings where its just Kaylee and I home - she makes it so easy to just pop in a movie, and while she watches the movie & eats breakfast - I get to scrap for an hour. I'm going to try to do more crafts/projects and stuff with her. It'll be good for both of us - but I'm sure going to miss that scrap time!



Day 48 (photo 2): After the kids' baths they were listening to their "new" book on tape - they were sharing sooo nicely and looked so cute - I just had to take a picture!



Day 49: Today was another playgroup for Kaylee while Trevor was at school - this time it was the one for Mom's & Munchkins! I just love getting together with these moms! Here Kaylee is with Addison - she loves to follow her around!


Day 49 (photos 3-4): Since it was ANOTHER beautiful winter day - I decided to go get a car wash - the van was in dire need! Trevor loved watching the bubbles and the water & Kaylee screamed and wanted to go out - try explaining to a 2 year old that you can't go out when the garage door was closed! Poor girl! The 4th photo is just a random one from inside the car wash - shows that it was 35* out! BEAUTIFUL!



Day 50: Wow! Who would have thought that I'd make it 50 days! Thats 1/7 of the way there! LOL! I might not be posting as often as I would like - but at least I'm still taking photos (that's the easy part!) Anyways - today I tried something new for cleaning out our slow drain upstairs in the bathroom - I used baking soda, vinegar & boiling water to clean it out! It was fun to watch (says the scientist in me!) and it worked like a charm! No more drain-o for me! :)


Day 51: The Anderson's came over for a visit this weekend - and it was a great weekend to have them around! The weather was beautiful all weekend! We spent a good deal of time outside - in the AM with the kids and in the PM with just us adults - as the kids napped! We had mini snow-ball fights and even got in a little snowmobile ride!




Day 52: Wow! We are really getting spoiled with all thsi nice weather! Today we took the kids, Grandma Ann & Grandpa Trent out snowshoeing! We took this picture before we began - which was a good thing - because about 3 min after - Kaylee wanted in the backpack! LOL - she did get out later and try again - but it's a lot of work for her little legs! Trevor did GREAT and actually walked quite a long ways - he got a kick out of trying to make himself (and us) fall down! I like the way Kaylee is totally not looking at the camera - she was too impressed with how quickly I could run in snowshoes! She was like "WOW Mom! You're fast!" I set the time and had to RUN to get into the snow - I'm sure it did look pretty comical!

Feb 8-14 Layout

Whoo hoo! Got them all uploaded - and now I'm up-to-date! :) I have the photo from yesterday all ready to go too - but figured I'll wait to post that till I at least have a couple! :)

Images are linked to my gallery where you will find all the credits!

Photos 39-45

Here are my photos for last week! :)

Day 39: Trevor is still on the Florida schedule (aka no naps) so while Kaylee tried to nap Trevor "rested" and then I got him up and figured we better get a start on making some Valentine's for his classmates. He did a GREAT job writing his name 18 times! We took a few breaks because he didnt think he could work that much :) It was funny!


Day 40: Today Andrew is 1 week old! He came early so we missed his birth - we were planning on taking his older sister for a slumber party one night while they were in the hospital - but since we missed that we owed her a slumber party! (see tomorrows photo for a pic of the new big sister!) He is such a cute baby!


Day 41: After such a great sleepover (we layed all 3 kids down in one room, said goodnight, and never had to go back in there! It was amazing!) Kaylee & Alexandra got to play all morning while Trevor was at pre-school. When we went to pick up Trevor it was time for Alexandra to go home - we hope she had fun with us!


Day 42: Today (on another no-nap day :( hopefully this doesn't mean he's done....) Trevor drew a picture of himself on the magna-doodle - I love watching him draw! Then after I complimented him on that - he drew another person - and says, "Look Mom! I drew you with me!" it was just too cute - it made me smile!


Day 43: Today we surprised Grandma & Grandpa with a visit! (Aunty Kassy knew we were coming :) hee hee) Our company that we were supposed to have cancelled on us last minute - so last minute I decided to pack up the kids and head to MN for the weekend. It was my parents 30th anniversary on the 15th, and my Grandpa's 75th birthday on the 14th - so it was a nice weekend to be home!

The photos are of Friday night after we ate supper, Kaylee wanted to dance - so Kassy went and got out some of her old dance costumes and was showing Kaylee some moves :) Kaylee loved it!


Day 44: What a great way to start the morning!! Trevor was sitting on the couch eating cereal with Grandpa Hoppe & watching "G-force" He really likes that movie lately!


Day 44(photo 2): Mom took this photo for me - but I told her to (I was talking to her on the phone - Linda & I were out bummin') Apparently Bailey wasnt quite ready for me to take off his coat (he has a coat that I put on him in the winter after he gets his hair cut - to help keep him warm) because Mom came upstairs to find him laying in the sun - in the middle of the kitchen table! LOL


Day 45: Happy Valentine's Day! Today is also my Grandpa's 75th Birthday! To help celebrate with him we went to a small birthday party at their church - cinnamon rolls, donuts & juice! YUM! Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Feb 1-7 Layouts

Ok - I have everything caught up - I'm just in the process of getting everything uploaded - so bear with me :) Here is my layout for the first week in February!

Notice I changed the templates a bit - and added the extra paper behind the brown - what do you think? Is this too distracting or does it work? I'd continue with this paper for all of Feb (and go back and do a snowflake one for Jan), and use a different one everymonth....do you think that'll be ok?

Images are linked to the gallery where you will find the credits :)

Photos 34-38

Day 34: Today the "young adults" went mini-golfing! The kiddos got to hang out and do some more swimming with Grandma & Grandpa Hoppe! This was also the day that BJ & Lindsay left, and it was Jake's first "full-day" with us! Unfortunately Tom was the big winner of the day :( LOL!


Day 35: Today we went to Disney Hollywood - it was by far the busiest park day - we actually had to wait in line today for more than 10 min :( LOL! Kaylee really loved meeting all the characters - she was really getting into it. Trevor loved the Toy Story Mania game (bottom photo). We actually did that one twice - even with the wait being 50 min!



Day 36: We were thinking about going to the beach today - but decided just to have a relaxing day - and its a good thing that's what we did today! Check out the huge tornado warning all of Disney was under! Glad we werent at any of the parks today! Instead Dad & Tom played some cribbage (dang that Tom, he has all the luck!) Of course the kids did some swimming (before all the storms came through - and I think after too....LOL) Mom, Dad & I did a little shopping, and Kassy & Jake went out to dinner and to a Magic game - it was a close game - but the Magic ended up losing! We also did a bunch of cleaning, laundry & packing as we have to leave tomorrow :(





Day 37: Today is our last day in Florida, but because our plane doesnt leave until 9:50p we were still able to spend all day at Animal Kingdom!! We finished packing this morning and made it to the park about 10ish. It was another busy day - but we were able to do some of the more popular rides with the "fast pass" - even did a few of them twice! The one the kids really seemed to enjoy (and myself!) was the Safari "ride". It was a jeep like ride through Africa - with the animals free roaming - it was way cool! And after the park closed at 6 - we spent some time in the parking lot rearranging our luggage - making sure all the liquids were not in our carry-ons etc - I have to admit I'm sure we looked sort of silly!



Day 38: Welcome "Home"! It was a nice cool day for our first day back from Florida - we didnt get to bed until 2:30am! Quite the day we had yesterday! This morning Tom and I and the kids got up and went to church, then Paul, Colleen, Audrey & baby William came to Grandma & Grandpa's house to visit! The kids all play together so nice - it's fun to watch! Hard to believe I met their mom over 10 years ago! After a few hour visit with them, it was time to head back to WI where we unpacked and watched the 2nd half of the Super Bowl!