The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

Curtis was Joseph in the Nativity play at school.

Johnny was a Shepard in his "Friendly Beasts" play at school.

Last week was a crazy one at our house. We had a few Christmas concerts and plays to attend before trying to beat the storm to Granny and Pop's house, in time for Christmas Eve. I spent many hours packing up, and packing the car. We were able to leave at 2pm after the play at school, and slid into my parents about an hour after the storm started! All my sisters made it safe and sound and then the fun was to begin....RIGHT? Let's just say, this will be a Christmas to remember for us!

Christmas Eve began and all my kids were driving me crazy. The excitment, anticipation, and fun were getting to them...or to me. Everyone was tired, and crabby. FINALLY, it was time for church. Now the REAL fun can begin!
The accordion was forgotten in MN in the hustle and bustle of packing up. Christmas was ALMOST ruined, until Aunt Kathy came through with one, just in the nick of time!

Santa came bursting in...

And the boys got EXACTLY what they wanted!

All the kids were tucked into bed and the adult Christmas began. THIS is when I had the most fun! I could actually hold a conversation with one person for more than 20 seconds because I wasn't watching any kids! We played the "dice game" and exchanged presents. Lots of laughs were had! Finally, about midnight, we went to bed, in anticipation for the excitement in the morning.

We soon found out that my kids had a different idea! Andrew woke up at 2am, blazing hot with a fever and dirty diapers. I could NOT get him settled and it was way too hard in a room with five people sleeping in it. So, I took him downstairs and finally got him to sleep in the rocking chair. (REAL comfy for me!)

In the morning, I was SO excited to see the kids reactions, and Erik came down and said, Curtis woke up with a fever and throwing up around 3am. WHAT A BUMMER! Seriously, with 15 people sleeping in a house, this isn't the most inviting or welcoming thing to happen to your family!

After talking to Curtis, he decided to come down, bucket in tow, to open presents quickly.

Johnny was super excited to get a guitar to go with the Packer uniform.
It's all he wanted!

By 9am on Christmas Day, our car was packed and we were headed back to Minnesota!

When we got back, everybody bounced back pretty quickly. Here's Andrew in his new shirt from his Godfather Callan. I decided to spike the hair in a mohawk to go with the theme!
After a few days, Curtis and Johnny were begging to go sledding and skating. I told them after two days of no fevers/sickness, they could go sledding. So, here we are at the "Winter Park" in town!

Curtis

Johnny

Brothers

Then it was time to go back home and use the ever warm "Snuggie" that I won in the dice game on the adult Christmas. (EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT!)

And play the "Guitar Hero" knock-off that Erik won in the dice game!

So, things didn't go as planned, but we are still enjoying our vacation together!

A Little Family Christmas...

This morning, the kids woke up to a some presents under the tree. Every year we travel home for the holidays. The kids LOVE to wake up to presents from Santa at my parents on Christmas morning. Traveling with LOADS of presents isn't as fun for us parents! So, this year we decided to start a new tradition. We did our "Family" Christmas today. We exchanged our gifts for each other, and gifts from some of the great-grandparents.

Andrew was "Bright-Eyed" this morning at 6:20! Curtis had been awake since 5:10am WAITING for everyone else to get up! A little something for my sisters and parents to look forward to on Christmas Morning! (:

Johnny got some fleece pants with NFL helmets all over them from Curtis. He looked at Curtis and in a sweet, quiet voice, he said, "How did you know this was what I REALLY wanted?" Then he opened up a "Gum Book" from us, and said, "I already got what I really wanted for Christmas!" I was LOVING this of course!!

This just spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E...Curtis and a Nerf Dart Gun!

Andrew was LOVING "Howdy" the rubber cow! Seriously, who comes up with these kids toys?Lefty was all about his electric drum set! Headphones included- THANK GOD!Andrew loves to color and whines every time the boys are coloring, b/c he wants in on the action. I walked in and Curtis was holding him on his lap, helping him color. That's not why I put this pic up here. Even better, is JOHNNY in the background! What makes a kid put a dryer sheet up to their face to be goofy! LOL!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our house to yours!

Santa!

This evening, Andrew was up on the stool looking out the front window and really blabbering a LOT! So, I walked over and looked out the window and saw SANTA'S sleigh! I yelled, "OH MY GOODNESS!"

And the other two boys were running over to see what was going on in no time flat!

You can just see the excitement as they peek out the front door to see if he is going to come up to our house!

Here he comes!

The BIG GUY, himself!

Not ONLY was he kind enough to make a stop at our house, but he ALSO brought a few little presents for the kids!

Curtis and Johnny were LOVING it! (Andrew was a little more hesitant!)

Until he opened his book. Then he went running to the window to watch for Santa again!

On another note it's winter in Minnesota. Curtis is gone all day and Andrew is napping. Life is good for the middle child who gets a bath ALONE. Not sure if this has ever happened before, but he was LOVING every minute of it!

Holiday Season

The boys saw Santa at the annual Breakfast with Santa in town. It was on Sunday and they wanted to wear their Vikings shirts. EVERYONE in town, from the mayor to Santa was giving Curtis a hard time about his jersey. He has a Packer jersey he always wears, and carries a Packer backpack to school. BIG Packer fan. So, when people saw him in this, they REALLY were teasing him! His excuse is he LOVES Brett Favre. To be honest...it's been SUCH a fun year to watch the Vikes!
Cousin Meredith came over to watch us do the Wii Fit and make fools out of ourselves! Johnny is a HUGE Meredith fan...but who isn't!
I don't know ANYONE who likes to relax more than my hubby! He LOVES it and will be in for a BIG shock when the kids start having Saturday morning activities! Until then, he is milking it for all it's worth! ("Kate, you take the older boys to breakfast with Santa, and I'll hang with little Andy!")


For Christmas, I am in charge of bringing the drinks, and for a GOOD reason. I like to cook, but I HATE to bake. The boys and I made chocolate covered pretzels and who knew you could burn white chocolate? I melted it in the microwave and it turned into a big, hard, brown BLOB! So, we didn't get as many pretzels made as we wanted. But the ones that did turn out, look SO delicious. For the right price, these pretzel could be yours!While I cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, the boys were busy making a mess in my living room.I can still remember doing this at the Sheas when I was little with my cousins!

Snow Day!

Ahhhh, fresh fallen snow! So Pretty!

Snow Day! YEAH! Everyone is SO excited!

Sledding in the culd-a-sac!

Johnny going up the hill!

Andrew screaming every time the sled stopped moving!
Even he loved it!

Minnesota winters...ya gotta LOVE em'!

Until the wrestling starts...and Mom is about to go CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!
How much longer till Spring? (:

Naughty Boy!

Andrew is into EVERYTHING and ANYTHING these days. I forgot what it was like to chase around a toddler. He is SO fun and I'm enjoying him a LOT more than when I had two babies around!! Here is one of his favorite "naughty" activites! (NOTICE the baby proofing latch was there and was broken between baby #2 and #3. I gave Erik a box of latches and I'm sure they'll be hung up just in time for his 10 year old birthday!
Another hobby of Andrew's has been hitting the fireplace. For days I've been having to tell him, "No, NO." I've had to distract him, and put him in another room. He thinks it's SO funny, for some reason. So, I decided to video tape him and play it up a little! Today, I'm in the ignoring stage, and I hope that does the trick!

Go Minnesota!

So, it's offical. My kids LOVE Minnesota! Above is the picture of them on their way to the Minnesota Timberwolves game on Saturday night with Erik! They love ALL sports and teams, but have a few favorites, and the Vikings are TOPS on their list. Who am I kidding, the Vikings HAVE been a fun team to watch this year. Andrew was SO upset that they left him at home. He cried when Erik went out the back door. Then he ran to the front window to watch them pull away. He got the booby prize....ME!
This picture cracks me up. Some day things won't be this easy. Here is Curtis watching TV waiting to go out to the bus. This is 6:45am.....and he doesn't need to be outside till 7:15! You think he loves school? (:

Silent Night

No one loves this shirt that my mom got for Andrew more than ME!
I lied...Maybe Erik!

Yesterday, I was talking about my Grandma Nita and how she's not feeling well. A few minutes later, I see Curtis turn around at the dinner table and in the reflection on the patio door, I see him do the sign of the cross. Then about 30 seconds later, I see him do it again. He turned around and I asked what he did? He said, "I just said the HOLY MOTHER for Grandma Nita. Oh, I mean the Hail Mary! I said a prayer because I want her to feel better!"

So, I made a BIG deal about how great it was that he said a prayer and no one needed to tell him to do it. I told him that means he's getting older. Then, Johnny looks at me from across the table and does the sign of the cross as FAST as he can. He tells me one split second later in his loud, deep, raspy voice, "I just said a prayer for Charlie Weis, that he has a better year next year!" (The Notre Dame football coach that just got fired!)

Gotta LOVE little Johnny!