Merry Christmas 2014

It was another wonderful Christmas!  I'm writing this a few weeks after the busy holiday season is over.  This year I had school right up until Christmas Eve, so I was forced to use my time wisely.  The week before Christmas I worked on checking things off my list each night- shopping, baking, cleaning, and wrapping.   And, I have to admit it was much more enjoyable than cramming everything in last minute like I have usually done in the past.
We spent Christmas Eve out at Grandma and Grandpa Demullings.  This year it was a big crew!  All of the Weibergs made it, the Dauwalters were there, Jack, Justine and Rhett, uncle Jack and Lori, and Great Grandma Hellen.  It was great to all be together again- it's been awhile since all of our schedules alligned.
The girls fell asleep on the way home on Christmas Eve night, but we woke them up to see the beautiful candles set in little brown bags lining Highland Trail (the next street over from ours).  It was amazing to see all of the homes taking part in this cool ritual.  In fact, after putting the girls to bed, Chuck and I each took Lou for a walk separately for a candle lit stroll. 
Of all the mornings to sleep in.........Christmas morning the girls were sleeping past their usual wake up time.  I was so excited for them to see all of the presents under the tree that I was making as much noise as I could and ran hot laps back and forth in the hallway checking to see if they were awake yet.  Finally they woke up and they went right in for the gifts!  First they separated the gifts into a Maggie pile and a Ruby pile and then the wrapping paper was flying!  It was so much fun to see their excitement!!  After the gifts were opened, we hustled to get ready for church and then headed back home and prepped the house and food for our company.  Bill and Bernie and Chris and Jen and the kids came over for a fondue dinner and then everyone spent the night at our house.  The girls loved having a giant slumber party!!!  It was a fun evening and also fun in the morning to wake up together and have breakfast.

Happy Thanksgiving 2014

We are thankful.
We are grateful.
We are blessed.

Another great Thanksgiving!  We had Grandma and Grandpa Souvignier over for dinner on Wednesday evening.  Maggie & Ruby were such great helpers.....Maggie especially enjoyed getting out the table cloth and setting the table for our dinner guests!  Thursday morning we woke up to a temperature below zero and headed over to Minnetonka High School for the Turkey Trot!  Usually a fun way to start Thanksgiving Day.....this year it was a bit cold.....so cold I couldn't feel my feet while I was running! The coldest Thanksgiving since 1935~
We then headed over to Great Grandma Helen's for a lovely dinner along with many aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Great to see everyone!  Saturday we hosted the Dauwalters, the Omaha Demullings, Grandma and Grandpa, Margo and Dan, and Rhett, Jack & Justine at our house.  We had fun watching the Badger/ Gopher game and the cousins got some more time to play together. 
The weekend flew by and suddenly it was Monday and we were all back to our schedules.  I have a feeling the rest of the month will fly by and before I know it I'll be updating the blog with our Christmas pics.  Crazy how fast time seems to fly by.  So important to enjoy and soak in every moment!  I just saw a great quote.........."Instead of counting the days, make the days count" 
So true!! 

Ice Skating Lessons 2014

The girls are doing skating lessons once again this year!  The week of Halloween parents got to skate too and the kids dressed up for a skating party!  So much fun!  We're looking forward to our rink on the pond again this winter! 

Happy Halloween 2014

We had a fantastic Halloween!  I love it when Halloween falls on a Friday!  This year we had our neighborhood friends over for some pizza and then we all went out trick-or-treating together!  It was quite the crew......I think we had about 15 kids!  The girls had so much fun!  Maggie was a crazy doctor and Ruby couldn't decide which princess she was, so it just depended on when you asked her which princess she was at the moment.  After trick-or-treating some of the families stayed- the kids watched a movie downstairs and the adults had a bonfire outside!  Fun evening with great people!

Run for the Apples!

Maggie and I ran one of my favorite trail races of the year.  Run for the Apples is a 5 mile trail run at Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake.  Such a fun morning!  Maggie ran the kids run which was about 1/4 mile.  Maggie's race also went through the orchard and they all finished at the big finish line!  We had to get a picture with our matching medals!  One of us didn't take it off all day!  So cute!

2014 Fall Fun!!

Grandma Alice took us on another fun Pumpkin Train ride this year!  It has been such a great tradition to ride the old train from Osceola to Dresser where the kids pick out a pumpkin from the patch and enjoy face painting and jumpy houses and even a little haunted house with a dance party at the end!  Gotta love that!  Thanks Grandma for the fun time :)  Oh, and this year there was even a live band and they played our favorite song- You Are My Sunshine
The cousins had so much fun together!!

First Day of School!

Here is Maggie in front of her school!  She had a great first day of 1st grade.  We are a few weeks in and she really likes her class and teacher, Mrs. Schlect!  Even though Ruby wasn't smiling in the picture above, she was very excited to go back to Peggy's and see all of her friends that she missed over the summer.