Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 You will be missed!

I can't believe that 2010 is coming to a close!  I do have to say that this year has been one of the best I have had in a long time!  All of the little things added up this year to make it wonderful! 

January

This was the 1st full month that I was able to enjoy being a full time stay at home mother!  I resigned from my job after Bryleigh was born and it was the best decision I have made for myself and our family.



February

Happy Valentine's Day and we took a trip up north to Winter, WI to where Bryan used to live to visit Grandma and Grandpa and also Great Grandpa Vi.





March

Bryleigh was welcomed with open arms into the Lord's Family at her baptism on March 14, 2010.  Bryan and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary!  We also took a trip to Mall of America with my parents and niece, Denali.


April

We took Christian bowling for the first time and he loved it!  It was Bryleigh's 1st Easter and Christian still didn't care much for the Easter Bunny! And we started construction on our 2 stall garage which as most of you know has been a very sore subject for us but at least it is mostly finished after 9 months :(




May

We took several mini trips in May. We stayed at a hotel in Madison because Bryan had lots of Dr. appointments there.  We also made our first venture to Wisconsin Dells for the year and stayed at Mount Olympus.



June

It was Bryan's first Father's Day as a wonderful father of 2 so Christian helped make a shirt for Daddy and we also made shirts for the kids!  Bryan also had many doctors appointments in Milwaukee so we stayed with him for the 4 days he was there and made small trips to a children's museum and also the Milwaukee Zoo!





July
We celebrated 4th of July which just wasn't the same this year because the fireworks show in town was rained out so we celebrated the following weekend.  Our handsome little man turned 3 years old on July 9 and we celebrated by going to Bay Beach Amusement Park and saying in a hotel in Green Bay.  Grandma Lola (Bryan's Grandma) married Roy on July 23!  We poured the concrete for our driveway and put the kids hand prints/footprints in it!









August

We took a couple more day trips to the Dells, watched the car cruise in town, and played at Katie's house with big machines while they were building their garage.






September

Christian started Preschool! We took a day trip to the dells to the Kalahari and Buffalo Phil's before I started my job! I started my part time job at Norwood Health Center on September 28 as a social worker on the traumatic brain injury unit and I could not be any more happier.  I have met great people, made lots of friends, and I absolutely love my job.  And we had the September 2010 Flood in Wisconsin Rapids that caused a lot of damage in our town.






October
We did a lot of fun fall activities such as going to Down on the Farm and Altenberg's Pumpkin Patch.  Christian took his first field trip to the pumpkin patch with his Preschool Class and I was a chaperone. Christian was a construction worker and Bryleigh was a butterfly for Halloween.




November
We took a weekend trip to Mall of America with my parents and niece and celebrated my 24th Birthday on November 7!  We celebrated Thanksgiving with all of family!




December
Our precious baby girl turned 1 year old on December 7 and my amazing husband turned 24 on December 10.  And of course we celebrated Christmas which you have heard all about.




I can't wait to see what 2011 has to offer!  Have a happy and safe New Years!




Monday, December 27, 2010

Our Last Christmas Celebration of the Year

Yesterday morning, we took our time getting up, and then we went and did some after Christmas Shopping.  We got some lights and a couple of decorations for next Christmas but no major purchases.  It sure was busy though so we just got a couple of things and headed out.



Rocking out in his Guitar Jammies!

Christian is teaching Bryleigh well :)

We celebrated our last Christmas yesterday afternoon with my Dad's side of the family!  My family is small so its always fun to get together and catch up! Us girls had a great time chit chatting while the guys watched the Packer Game!  I had to get a picture with Christian and Bryan in their new Packer jersey's. 




Then we headed home and Bryan put together the kids new kitchen set!  It is so cool, I will have to get a picture of them playing with it!  Its so realistic!  We did head to bed pretty early last night and now today we have really hung low!  Its nice I had the day off today because I have been able to clean up our house since it looks like a tornado went though. And then back to the daily grind tomorrow!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!  It has yet again been a wonderful Christmas spent with lots of food, fun, presents, and most importantly, family!  God has indeed blessed us again with so much to be thankful for this Christmas!  It has been a very busy 2 days of celebrations for our family but I wouldn't have it any other way!  We look forward to this all year. 

Our celebrations started out yesterday on Christmas Eve Day by going to our Aunt's house for a casual lunch get together as she is newly married and is spending Christmas Day with her husband, Dale, side of the family!  Christian got to open a couple presents from Grandma and Grandpa early!  And Bryleigh wasted no time snacking on the good food! 


Christian and his Toy Story Table

Already into the chocolate pretzels


After a little while, we headed to church. We go to the family service every year and this year's service was a lot of fun!  They had a puppet show for kids and we ended the service with singing songs by candle light or glow stick light for the kids!  The kids did fairly well for it being so packed! This year,  I think Christian finally understands that we are celebrating Jesus Birthday!  We tried hard to keep telling him that is why we get presents and he is really understanding.  After church we headed over to my Grandma's house for our celebrations. We had a lot of fun but we did have some cranky moments because neither of the kids had a nap all day.


After many attempts, this was the best of the two!


My world :)



Christian and his cousin, Denali


Bryleigh and her cousin, Phoenix

My sister, mom, and me








And this is how the night ended!

Before bed, Christian left milk and cookies for Santa and then he was zonked out in no time!  Bryan and I got up early this morning and woke up the kiddos to let them know that Santa had come! We were able to catch the moment with our video camera and Christian was so excited!  We had a great morning with the kids!  Santa was very good to them!




Christian made us this at Preschool!






After enjoying some of the Santa presents, we got ready and headed over to my in laws for more fun!  Grandma and Grandpa once again spoiled the kids!

Grandma Lisa and Bryleigh

She's getting to be a pro at this!






My handsome men

Grandpa Pat opening his presents from us

Christian rocking out with his guitar

After a couple of hours at Grandma and Grandpa's, we all headed over to Great Grandma and Grandpa's for our last get together of the day!  We were all exhausted by this time but we still had so much fun eating and socializing.  And the kids got more great presents!

Uncle Kevin, Christian, and the much talked about, Stinky the Gargage Truck

Great Grandma Lola and Bryleigh with her new Packer clothes

Christian and his new Badgers Jersey

Grandma and the kiddos


Uncle Kevin and Michelle

Grandpa Pat and his girl :)

Grandma Lisa and Bryleigh again

I love my little man

Christan was on lucky little boy this year and just to name some of his favorites:  Rumbling Chuck the Truck, Stinky the Garbage Truck, Paper Jamz Guitar, Chainsaw, Barbecue Grill, shovel lots of cars, trucks, and tools, and lots of clothes including a Packer and Badger Jersey!  And Bryleigh wasn't missed either, she got dolls, a stroller, a kitchen, shopping cart, my 1st laptop, doll house, and lots of clothes! 

We had the most exhausting, fun, special past couple of days!  We have such a mess of toys, wrapping paper, and unassembled toy parts all over our house but we wouldn't have it any other way!  I hope everyone else had as great a Christmas as we did!  God Bless Everyone!