mini-VACATION

We arrived home safe and sound yesterday afternoon from the twin-cities.Looks like we made it just in time, it started snowing last night and we've gotten quite a bit this morning - my chore today will be finding the ice-scrapers in the garage... joy.

The kids had a blast at the hotel, and enjoyed going downtown to see the Holidazzle parade and "A Day in the Life of an Elf" @ Macy's. Chase slept through most of the Mall of America, but we woke him up to see Katelyn go on a couple rides @ Nickelodeon Universe... this was the highlight of her 3yrs of existance, we may skip Disney for the next few years and keep taking her there until she gets bored ;)

FUN @ THE HOTEL

GETTING READY TO HEAD DOWNTOWN

WATCHING THE HOLIDAZZLE PARADE

THE TALKING TREES @ MACY'S

KATELYN'S DREAM COME TRUE

RIDING AZUL THE LITTLE BLUE TRAIN

TWIN CITIES OR BUST

Mark has been wanting to take Katelyn swimming at the waterpark in Dubuque for the last couple weeks, but there's not to much to "take-in" around town. So we're going to head up to my old turf and take the kids to the Mall of America, then we're going to head downtown to see the Macy's Christmas display and the Holidazzle Parade. I'm so excited!!! And Sunday is my Co. Christmas party, it's going to be a great kick-off to a wonderful holiday season. IKEA HERE I COME

Christmas Comes Early...

I just couldn't wait to put my Christmas tree up, so I busted it out of the box Saturday a.m. while Mark was at work. Katelyn said "MOM! You made that tree for me!?!" maybe next year we'll cut one down so she understands that trees actually "GROW".

We were "scheduled" for our anual Christmas photo for my mom's cards later that day, so we decided to just take them in our living room, here are a few of the thousands we took:

THE WHOLE GANG:

KATELYN & CHASE

OUR FAMILY

And I took these for our cards... I scored a beautiful piece of blue awning material that was left over from our company inventory. It's amazing how well a 5' chunk of canvas photographs.

BUSY BUSY!

Just wanted to add a quick post since it's been almost 2wks :( The kids got sick Halloween weekend and it lasted an entire week, so I worked from home most of the week. We're gearing up for Christmas, I've started shopping and pushed the couch over to make room for the Christmas tree... hopefully I'll find time to post new photos of the kids, we took some Christmas photos for our cards and a whopping 3 out of a million turned out. I guess that's pretty good odds with them being 1 & 3!

Everytime we go for a walk we pass this wonderful old car... and everytime I see it I think- next time I'm going to bring my camera and take a picture of Katelyn with it. After months of walking by it, I finally took a photo:

These were taken @ the neighbors:

And on Main St.:

HELP OUT A GREAT CAUSE

My co-workers and I will be participating in the MDA Lock-Up in 2 weeks to help send children with muscular dystrophy to camp. If you are interested in donating you can visit my page here:

https://www.joinmda.org/waterlootelu2008/holly

HONEST ANSWERS

Friday Chase crawled out from around the corner and I said "Woah Katelyn... where'd Chase come from!" she gave me a "duh" look and said "FROM YOUR BELLY MOM!"

HALLOWEEN COMES EARLY

The did a little advance celebrating this weekend @ a church festival and our local kid's carnival.

THE SCURVEY DOGS

AHOYKATELYN'S PIRATE FACE


Before "TRUNK-OR-TREATING" @ Faith Lutheran

IT'S OFFICIAL

They really do LOVE EACH OTHER!

BEARS-BEARS-BEARS

Fall has arrived and with it comes all kinds of fun activities. Last week we took Katelyn and Chase on the annual "BEAR HUNT" that is sponsored by the library. We took a bumpy hay ride out to the park and walked under the stars on a path lighted by luminaries. Along the way we stopped to hear bear stories.

This weekend we took a trip to the nature center to see the Deer, Wolves, Bald Eagles, Owls and Black Bear. Lucky for us we forgot the stroller. Carrying Chase around helped us burn off the calorie-laden homemade strawberry ice cream, buffalo jerky, honey coated peanuts and popcorn balls we devoured while there.

And tonight we went to our first "TEDDY BEAR TIME" at the library. It was so much fun, we just need to work on Katelyn SITTING DOWN so that the other children can enjoy it as much as she did.

A WEEK OF FIRSTS

This week Katelyn has been working hard on her bike skills - Tuesday night she made her first trip on her "BIG BIKE" up to main street and over a block, and back to the house.



And tonight Chase man got his 1st hair cut - I wasn't sure if he really needed one but it was covering his ears, so we gave it a go... and its ADORABLE he looks very grown up :(

He sat on my lap and held very still, I think he was enjoying looking in the mirror and seeing Katelyn & Mark getting a trim in the chairs behind him.

CHASE IN THE SUPER HERO FISH CAPE

ALL DONE... WAITING TO GO GET PIZZA

MORE FALL PHOTOS...

I bought some skittles and dragged Katelyn out into the backyard again, she got one treat for every smile ;) worked like a charm.

Just a 'lil PRODUCT ENDORSEMENT

I am not very brand loyal - nor do I sell Pampered Chef BUT... I just had to share this MARVELOUS new thing-a-ma-jig I bought. There aren't very many things that make my life easier (besides coffee and my new dryer) THIS THING IS WONDERFUL - if you have ever browned hamburger in your life run out and buy the MIX & CHOP it's $9 of pure awesome.

Time Out

We found a new place to put Katelyn when she's naughty ;)

Good Old Fashioned FUN

Last night Grandpa & Grandma White stopped by to visit.

Grandpa bought Katelyn a treasure trove full of doll items @ a sale - old fashioned clothes, a little metal doll crib, hand quilted baby blankets, an ironing board.... We spent the rest of the night dressing up all her dolls (...and ELMO) in the beautiful hand made outfits. She now has the most fashion savy babies on the block - dressed to the 9s in cotton dresses, wool peacoats and bonnets.

FALL PHOTOS

Mark was kind enough to bring me home a few bails of hay, so here are a few pictures of the kids in our backyard. Katelyn didn't cooperate very well...next time I think I'm going to bribe her with M&Ms.