Can you move it like this, I can shake it like that...

McCall & Olivia have been taking Hip-Hop classes all year and had their recitals this weekend. With it being Olivia's first recital of any kind, we weren't sure how she was going to handle the pressure. However, other than a few butterfly's and couple of sweaty armpits, she did great! In fact, she surprised us all because during class she was kind of shy and would hold back a little bit, but once she got on that stage she threw caution to the wind and went crazy! Even her teacher said to us "what got into Miss Livy?". McCall was so cute, she had this big smile on her face the whole time like she was having the time of her life. They both did great and we are so proud of them!

Well, we are finally back. For whatever reason, we fell off the face of blogland for awhile. Our recent trip to Chicago got us back in the swing of things. We decided to meet family in Chicago, but we didn't tell the kids. We got them up Thursday morning and had them get ready for school as normal. Then as they were walking out of the garage, we asked them stop. We said, "hmmm.... would you rather go to school today or go on vacation?" They screamed vacation and came running back. When we told them we were headed to Key Lime Cove - they went bonkers! It was a lot of fun to surprise them. That wasn't the end of the surprises, we didn't tell them we would be meeting anyone there. So, we headed down and worked it out just right. When we stopped for lunch, all of sudden Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle James, Aunt Jen, Max, and Sadie came around the corner. The kids weren't really sure how to react, but in the end couldn't contain their excitement.
From there we had a great time playing in the water for a couple of days, then heading downtown to see Chicago during St. Patrick's day. Yes, the river was green! We spent the next day at Navy Pier in the children's museum and walking around. It was a great time!

We spent two weeks in Utah over the holidays, and loved every single minute! What a difference 20-30 degrees make. Not only could we go sledding because the snow wasn't hard as a rock, but the kids actually got hot. Thanks so much to our families for all the fun times and memories that we will cherish forever! We love you!

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful "family" here in Wisconsin. We celebrated the holidays early with a nice dinner, gift exchange, and fantastic company. Thanks to the Seidel's for having all of us over. We love you all!

Let it Snow!

Wow - we have already received plenty of snow this year. It really started right before Thanksgiving, but just seems to keep coming. McCall decided to take full advantage of a little warmer day (32 degrees) and decided to build a snowman. Most of the time the snow just freezes and you can't really get past the thick, hard, crusty top layer of snow. However, today she just started rolling her snowball and didn't stop. Our neighbor joined in and they made their very own frosty the snowman. We also had a great time going with our friends on Monday for family home evening. We were able to go caroling in the middle of a snow storm. Everyone had tons of fun and they really liked the last stop at McDonald's for HOT CHOCOLATE - yummy!

Happy Birthday Boston!

The Bos-man turned three today and all he wanted for his birthday was cake so that made it pretty easy for us! Ok, he did get a few more things. We tried to sing to him first thing this morning and he would have none of it. He said "we have to wait for cake!" As you will see from the photo, as soon as you hit three at our house you gotta start earnin' your keep. We love you Bossy!

It really is our most favorite time of year

We usually wait until after Thanksgiving to deck the halls but this year we just couldn't wait. We figured since we will be in Utah for half of December that we would get an early start. Since we have been married Ryan's least favorite thing has always been to put the lights on the Christmas tree, but now that we have a pre-lit artificial he gets to "fluff" the branches. I think it's pretty safe to say this is now his new least favorite thing. (That and changing the girls beds from twin beds to bunk beds every few months.) The girls had so much fun decorating their tree and were so proud of their decorating skills. Boston had the time of his life wearing Santa's sleigh bells around his waist all morning and playing the singing snowman over, and over, and over... the rest of us desperately wished we had earplugs. We are officially ready for Christmas! Now, if we could just get the kids to trust us that Santa really will find us at Grandmas.