Saddles, T-squares, and Sippy Cups

Who would brave the wild winter weather in Wisconsin in January?

Why, Aunt Clara and Uncle Dave! When all your family is spread out and opportunities are few and far between, one learns to aprovechar, carpe diem, or in other words, buy the cheap tickets!

And they did! We are so happy they love us enough to come in January! It was a long weekend visit and we had a great few days. We tried to do a few fun things, show them some sights, play some games, visit with friends and family, and let them sleep in a bit.

Their visit included a trip to the Bucyrus Museum. After the buyout by Caterpillar the museum stands as the testament to Bucyrus' longevity in the market of mining equipment as well as a history of design and production of these massive machines.

Friday night was date night and we had a great double date with Clara and Dave. We all ordered quesadillas and then went home to play Dominion. (We played that game almost every night they were here!)

Saturday morning John and Karisa hosted us for breakfast. It was delicious, of course. And to add a real treat, Aunt Jan was visiting from the Philippines. (Uncle Doug is legal council for the Church over there.) We got to hear all about their experiences thus far. Well, maybe not all, it was just breakfast after all!

And then after breakfast, the boys kept the kiddies and the girls went off for a pedicure.

This was my first pedicure ever!! There are several reasons I have resisted this experience in the past: ugly feet, ugly legs, fear of the cuticle clipper, and lastly, fear of pedicure addiction.
I was right. I could definitely get used to that!

Clara and Dave were so kind as to keep the kids for 4+ hours that afternoon so Chris and I could attend the temple together. Thanks again, guys!

Sunday, was Church and then in the afternoon an old roommate of Clara's, who lives southwest of Madison, came with her husband and little girl to visit and have dinner. It is an awfully small world, isn't it? More proof: They are in the same ward as my mission trainer and her family!

Monday, Chris took off work and we tried to show them a bit of Milwaukee and took them to visit some places that would give them the real Milwaukee experience.

That means the lake,

the Milwaukee skyline,
(They arrived after our first real snow of the year!)

cheese,
custard, (we went to Leon's instead of our usual Kopp's and Oh. My. Goodness. That raspberry frozen custard is to die for!)
and beer. (Or all-you-can-drink gourmet soda after a tour of the brewery, for us Mormons!)
Then it was off to the airport in rush hour traffic!
But we made it.

Darn it.

I had serious thoughts about driving a little too slow...cause we would keep these guys forever if we could!

So remember, hay que aprovechar!

We made a plan.

We borrowed an extra DVD player.

We bought supplies.
And yet we couldn't get our ducks in a row!
We drove to TX. Two days and about 17 hours. We made it but not because we successfully worked our plan.

We stayed at Elise and Dan's house and it was wonderful. Perfect. Separated from the baby girl at night by two doors.

We got there on Thursday evening and had a relaxing few days hanging out and getting the last minute things ready for Christmas day. (This is where I realized that I forgot Ian's main Christmas present. Plan B was put in effect. More about that later!)

The kids enjoyed lots of Wii Party playing. I was always impressed with how well they played together. Made me wish, more than ever, that we were close.
The back yard trampoline was a popular activity regardless of temperature! (And believe it or not we had some times in the 30s.
Sage (like her brothers) can be slow to warm up to people but she is definitely susceptible to bribes. Offered by Aunt Elise,
these delicious spritz cookies were the winner. But only the pink ones, of course!
Christmas Eve was the scene of the most delicious dinner (Filet Mignon and roasted veggies-well, and shrimp if you like that kinda thing:) and other traditional festivities.
We had enough kiddies to fill all the parts for reading and acting out the Nativity. (Dan is still a kid at heart so he counts!)
Afterwards the kids got to open a gift from Uncle Bret and Aunt Christina. The BYU water bottles were a huge hit and thanks to Christina's forethought, all their names were already on them! Phew!

Aunt Elise and her kids made these cute Christmas tree shirts for all the kids. What a wonderful bunch-I could just eat them up!
A birthday cake for Baby Jesus reminded us once again the reason for the celebrations and provided a delicious dessert for the evening.
And no gathering would be complete without a little activity to work off the extra calories:) Around and around we go!
Home to bed to await that long anticipated Christmas morning.

After a bit of wrapping and a cheesy made for TV Christmas movie, us Mommies and Daddies made it to bed too.

After a trip to the ER for Luke and Elise (All of Elise's kids succumbed to the croup while we were there. Nelly the Nebulizer was an imperative part of each day!), Christmas morning finally came:
It was a grand unwrapping, cutting out, and putting together!

(Or cutting it up, as the case may be!)



And then it was time to play with all the booty!
(Even the cousins loot was mighty attractive! Luckily they are so good at sharing!)
Grandma Leslie and Grandpa Max's gift to each of the families was a trip to the Dallas Aquarium. (This was a load of memories for Chris and I. Back when we had been dating for a month or so I left for an 8 week training in TX. We emailed daily and Chris planned a surprise trip to TX to spend a weekend with me. The Dallas Aquarium was one of our stops. We wandered through, holding hands.)

This turtle was actually on the move, which is kinda fun.
Ian was brave and fed the birds.
Almost everything was in an exhibit, behind glass or seen from a distance. This sloth was in a grouping of plants without a rope, piece of glass or anything else in between. He was all curled up in this picture but Chris went back by later and he was on the move. They are pretty fascinating animals.
We had a great time at the Aquarium and finished up with lunch. While Chris took our kiddies home for a nap I was able to go with everyone else out to lunch.

With origins from a different visit to a different place, a gauntlet was thrown and cookie contest was born. Elise, (Uncle) Ian, Chris and Grandma Leslie were the contestants. It was a delicious battle. The judges were hard pressed to pick a winner. Oh, and we were slightly biased too.
Another wonderful reason to gather together came later in the week. Times when we are all (or most, which was the case this time) together are few and far between. So to get to be part of special occasions like this are priceless.
Sophia's baptism was wonderful.
And the chance to get all these people together made it all the sweeter!
And what trip to Dallas would be complete without a visit to the Arboretum? Exactly, it wouldn't! We had beautiful weather in the 60s, a yummy picnic, and Chandra! (That last was the best part:)

Dan is standing in for the time when Elise perfects her head switching and Bret's can be put in. We missed him and his girls!
Our poor ducks didn't get together for the trip home either. All our DVD's got left at Elise's house. Thank goodness for Redbox (and a couple comforting conversations about raising little boys) which yielded Cars 2, Day of the Diesel, and a Winnie the Pooh something or other.

Remember Plan B? Well, it was telling the boys that Santa visited our house in Milwaukee too. (This in in complete violation of our Santa-neutral stance. I still don't know how I feel about that.) So, as soon as we arrived they were off like shots asking where Santa had left the gifts.
We came home to a freezing cold house since the heat was turned off instead of down. It was a relief to be home after the long drive but it wasn't really comfortable until that evening.

We felt so blessed that friends invited us over and we could spend time with then while our house warmed up. That invitation was providential since it came while we were still driving.

Our blessings are to numerous to count. Priceless. I wouldn't trade any of them for anything! Not the least of which is Jesus Christ. A couple of weeks before Christmas I was asked to speak in Sacrament meeting at church. For the first time in twenty years I spoke about the moments that I came to know Jesus was real, my Savior, and that He knew me. I still know, even twenty years later, that He is real, He is my Savior and that He know me.

Merry Christmas!

Our friends, the Robinson family from IN, came to visit us in mid-December. Andy had a conference and Michelle and the kids came and stayed with us while he was busy.

We were all excited to have the come visit. The boys talked about Matthew for days leading up to their arrival. Matthew talked about the toys we have at our house.

Poor Alice turned up sick soon after arriving and we spent most of our time close to home so she could nap and rest. This suited the kids since they were happy to play and run through the house and race cars.
We made it to the Jelly Belly warehouse as our one big outing. It was fun and informational, as usual. The free jelly beans don't hurt either! After much deliberation Michelle and I decided not to split the 50 lb box:)

Michelle and Andy are the perfect house guests. And the kind of friends that you can sit and chat with like you hadn't been apart for months at a time. I love to have them come visit! Andy will be finishing school soon and they are job hunting. I vote for something within driving distance of WI!

The whole family went to watch Noah's Christmas Concert for FHE. It was his first Christmas Concert. Ours too. We were all a little nervous!

I tried to get a picture of Noah's fan section. Ian was persistent and it didn't really come out.
Here either.
I finally gave in!
So being proud parents means we get to post a gratuitous amount of videos that only a parent could love.

(And I do love this boy. Watching him in action, doing something that he had learned totally independent of me or our family was so gratifying and special and heartwarming and yes, I even teared up a little thinking about how much he is growing and learning and what a blessing he is to our family. And to me.)

Well, we are proud parents so here it comes! The concert songs were done according to grade so there was a fair amount of coming and going after every three songs or so.

This first one is just so you can see him and his funny friend John as they are coming. Noah is in the striped polo and John is to his left. They are the tallest kids in the class.


I don't remember which song this is, but I think it might be long, Noah doesn't get into it till about half way through and I had to end the video when Sage started having a hard time. (Gratuitous video posting, remember?)


And last, but not least I think this video is Must Be Santa and it's my favorite. The one that made me teary eyed.

The concert was a fun experience because it was a first for us. Nerves, notwithstanding, Noah did and excellent job and Ian and Sage tried hard to behave.
The whole school gathered to sing us off.

Christmas music was what I needed to get in the spirit of Christmas!

Along about the first week of December we finally got our Christmas tree up. Another New Year's Resolution for me is to actually make and fulfill family holiday traditions throughout the year-like get the Christmas tree up on the day after Thanksgiving since that is what we say is our tradition.
Ah, here is a face shot.
This year I thought to take a page out of a friend's book and let the kids do all the decorating, assuming that I could go back and even things out later.
It worked out splendidly. I didn't care where they put things and they had a great time decorating the tree.
I decided it was so splendidly done I didn't even go back to rearrange things.
(Although that might have been laziness on my part...)