Operation Joy!

Today Nolan and I volunteered our morning and helped set up for Operation Joy. Throughout the past couple months, boxes have been distributed to local businesses and then are set up in their business. People come in and donate toys to those in need. Kinda like Toys for Tots. They are being distributed to families today so Nolan and I set up the toys and got them ready for distribution. On a side note... our girl scout troop decorated the treat bags to give to the kids tonight, which showed them that helping others in good, as well.

It was great to show Nolan, today, the concept of helping others and explain to him what it was for. He kept saying that his "heart feels sooo good for helping other kids hearts feel good" So so cute!

This is what the holiday's are all about... Helping others and being there for our community. I definitely feel our parents raised us right and lived on the virtue of helping others and those in need. As a kid, I remember going to the local food shelter( luke house) and helping my parents serve food to families in need. This is something that we hope to do soon when the kids get a little older. ( they have age limits on serving in a food shelter)

Happy Holiday's everyone and remember what is important this holiday season!

 

 

 

Girl Scouts Holiday Party

So I think that I have mentioned before, another mom and I have started a Girl Scout Troop for the kindergartner's. It is called Daisies and we are troop 2290. So far, we have 12 girls. This past Monday we had a holiday dance party for the girls. Everyone brought treats, cupcakes, cookies, and snacks. The girls seemed to have a lot of fun. This Saturday we are taking them all to the Nutcracker in Madison. Stay tuned for pictures from that.... Here are some pictures from our dance party. They girls all got to wear pretty dresses for the night.

 

 

 

 

Tap Dance

Lily had her parents night this past week during dance class. They have been working really hard on their dance routine for the end of the year program in May. This year she is in Tap Dance. She decided to give that a try and has really been enjoying it. The past two years she was in ballet so this is a whole new thing for her.

 

 

Sesame Street Live and the kids' weekend

While we were out of town this past weekend, Mom E. watched the kids the whole weekend. We just wanted to give her a special shout out and a big THANK YOU to her for doing that. If we didn't have someone watching the kids, we couldn't have gone anywhere this past weekend. The kids were both really looking forward to spending the night at Grandma's house and they always look forward to staying with her. It is so important for them to get that bonding time.

So, on Wednesday, we went to a local furniture store and donated some books. They had a promotion that if you bring in two children's books to donate to local children in need, they give you two vouchers for free tickets to Sesame Street Live that was coming to Madison. So Nolan and I ventured out to get some books and stopped to get the vouchers and donate them. While we were there, we signed up for an extra drawing and raffle for backstage passes to meet the characters, front row tickets, and more fun. Well... guess what... we won! We got a call on Friday and we needed to pick them up then..So we ended up getting four free tickets, etc. to the show. ( Grammy picked up Lily at School on Friday for a special treat and we all went to pick up our tickets) The show was going on this past weekend while we were gone so Grandma Kim and Auntie Courtney took the kiddos to the show. They had a wonderful time. Grandma certainly kept the kids busy all weekend which was great. They had so much fun. McDonald's for dinner on Friday night, Cousin Brad's birthday party on Friday, Pancakes for breakfast Saturday, Elmo show on Saturday... toys, Nachos, and pretzels during the show, Special breakfast on Sunday, and then to the movie Tangled on Sunday afternoon.

THANK YOU GRANDMA KIM FOR A WONDERFUL WEEKEND...Love, Lily and Nolan! ( PS. We want to show Mommy and Daddy pictures of the Elmo Show so send them via email )

PS. Thank you to Courtney and Russell for snow throwing and shoveling our driveway on Saturday from all of that snow. We appreciate it more than you know!

Our Weekend Get Away

Chris got me a weekend to Chicago for my birthday this year. We had a wonderful time this past weekend. We left on Friday night and headed down to Chicago. We stayed in a hotel down in Woodfield area, then hopped the train to downtown Chicago on Saturday morning for a weekend down there. We had a wonderful time. It snowed all day Saturday while we were three so we were able to take advantage of the snow falling and all of the lights of the city.We stayed in a wonderful hotel that Chris booked right off of Michigan Ave. We shopped Michigan Ave, State Street, ate at my Favorite; the Cheesecake factory, and made it over to Navy Pier to see the arrival of Santa and the fire works. So wonderful...... We then took a taxi over to a little German market where we drank hot cocoa, ate wonderful food, and admired the beautiful lights and sounds of Christmas in the city. We checked out of our hotel on Sunday, hopped the train back to get our car, and headed back to Madison. We had a wonderful weekend just the two of us. Next time.. we are definitely bringing the kids though. We feel that they missed so much.. especially the arrival of Santa and the fireworks. I have never seen it snow during fireworks and it was so magical.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The World from 4 Feet!

I go to download my pictures from our trip to Chicago this past weekend and guess what I found..... Some surprises! A five year old got ahold of my camera and decided to have some fun. I thought they were cute pictures and wanted to share with you the world from four feet tall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Elf on the Shelf

We started a new tradition this year, The Elf on the Shelf. He is a lifesaver! It's amazing how good your kids will act when there is an elf living with you.

The creator of The Elf on the Shelf was brilliant! What is it you ask? The Elf on the Shelf is a little Elf that comes with a story book that tells a story of how your elf works.

We were having the worst time getting the kids to behave last year around Christmas. Threats of Santa not coming and telling them Santa was watching, didn't even phase them. I was running out of ideas and was worried about it this year when I heard about The Elf on the Shelf from a lady at the toy store and the lady who wrote it happen to be at the toy store the next day for a book signing. I researched it and decided to give it a try. I prepared the kids for it by telling them we were going to have a visitor, one of Santa's Elves coming to live with us until Christmas Eve to report his behavior back to Santa. I told him he was going to be on the first flight from The North Pole and that I was going to pick him up. The "box arrived" from the North Pole and we read the book to the kids which explains everything about your elf. You then can go to The Elf on the Shelf website and register your elf. You can even print out a personalized letter from Santa.


Let me introduce our elf, Frankie He has been a part of our family since November 2010. He is one of the best investments we have ever made for good behavior! Both of the kids named him after much pondering and long thoughts. Everyday when we wake up he is in a different place and he even travels with us when we go away for a couple days and are not in the house. Santa needs to know their behavior all the time :)

You see, Frankie sits anywhere around the house watching the kids and their behavior. At night, he flies to the North Pole and reports what he has seen each day, to Santa. The kids cannot touch Frankie or he looses his magic. Parents can hear what he says, but he doesn't talk to kids. He just watches and listens.


http://www.elfontheshelf.com

Cute message from Santa for each of the kiddos

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/iLHGwBCkRkiuiCObz3mEWw



http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/TvdsYf163c2fwcUN2DoIqw




The first one is Lily and the second message is for Nolan