ski camp

I had intended to do school Monday - Wednesday of this week. Monday morning my neighbor, Molly, called and mentioned that her girls were going to ski camp at the nearby ski hill. She said it wasn't too late for Thomas and Elle to get signed up. I decided that a little longer Christmas break sounded wonderful! So did the kids. When I told them that there was no school and that instead they were going to ski school there was a lot of yelling and dancing around in excitement.

Today is the last day and they have loved it. I watched Elle go down the bunny hill this morning before her class started and she's got snow plowing down! She was very excited to be able to be in the same class as her friend Kate. They were happy to report to Molly and I that they were allowed to ride together without an adult on the chairlift and that she hardly ever goes down the bunny hill anymore. :)

This morning since it was especially cold I bundled them with toe and hand warmers. They had a bonfire going and are planning to roast marshmallows at the end of the class. I think it's about time we plan a family ski vacation to Colorado now!

wintry morning sunrise

I love to watch the sun rise on a winter morning, especially after a fresh new snowfall. Everything sparkles! These pictures really don't capture it like I wish they did but it was -21 this morning and was too cold to take much time playing around trying to get a really good shot!

a little bloggy reorganize

If any of you read my blog through a reader I have to apologize. Today I am working on reorganizing the side bar and your reader might show lots of updates from me. ??? I don't use a reader so I'm not sure how it works but wanted to mention it in case some of you wonder what's going on.

I was getting a long list of recipes over there and thought it would be nice to organize them more like a cookbook rather than an alphabetical list. Is there something wrong with having the desserts and sweet treats category have the most recipes?! We must look like junk food addicts, especially with my last post showing that picture of all the pop and peanut butter balls! I really do try, for the most part, to feed my family healthy, nourishing meals! But we do have a sweet tooth. :)

We are getting more snow today. Total accumulation 4 - 7 inches. It's a good day to take down all of the Christmas decorations and then hopefully get out the sewing machine for awhile!

peanut butter balls

I am definitely going to have to get back into an exercise routine. These peanut butter balls are dangerous to have in the fridge so easily accessible like that. I thought I'd 'forget' about them if I put them in the fridge in the basement. Nope, didn't work. I sneak down there a few times a day to get one. :) They are our absolute favorite holiday treat and this year I went all out and dipped them in the dark chocolate that Scott had brought back from Switzerland. So, so good! Can you believe I still had some of that chocolate left?! It certainly isn't because I have so much self control. He bought three boxes of Swiss Thins and they were better to eat melted on something rather than by themselves because they were so thin.

You should make these for your New Year's party. Your husband will love you for it. Mine does! :)

Peanut Butter Balls

2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 stick butter
4 cups powdered sugar
3 cups Rice Krispies
Good chocolate. (2 bags of these would be good.)

Melt peanut butter and butter together in a large bowl. Stir together to combine. Add the powdered sugar and cereal. Blend together thoroughly. (I do this in the mixer. It makes it so much easier.) Form into balls and chill till firm. Melt chocolate and dip the peanut butter balls. Chill again till firm. We prefer them cold rather than at room temp.

christmas flashback

I was looking through old pictures tonight and found this one. That's us 10 years ago on Christmas morning!

This was what our Christmas Eve looked like five years ago when we opened a few gifts in our house...after laying flooring for awhile. Elle was the age Ava is now.

So many memories!

good 'ol fashioned family fun christmas*

This year we spent Christmas in Minnesota rather than traveling to Nebraska like we usually do. While we missed our families it was relaxing to be home and it was fun to start some new traditions. On Christmas Eve we attended our church's Christmas Eve service. It was a really nice service but Thomas and Elle were so disappointed when they weren't allowed to hold a candle during the candlelight part of the service at the end. Insurance rules didn't allow anyone under the age of 15 to hold a candle. It took a couple of minutes for the pastor to go through the required information on exactly how to go about lighting our candles. Thomas and Elle like the firecode laws at Grandma Betty's church a lot better! :)

After church we came home and had soup for dinner and the kids exchanged the gifts they had found for each other. Then we read our last night's reading from Jotham's Journey. It was such a great Advent story to read. (Thank you Mom for giving it to us to read!) We then tucked them into their sleeping bags by their Christmas tree upstairs in the school/play area.

Then Santa and Mrs. Clause went to work putting together the little toy kitchen for Ava. I wish I would've grabbed the camera to take a picture of that! There were so many pieces and it took a long time to put together. I'm glad Santa is so patient!

On Christmas morning I heard Thomas and Elle up chatting at 6:00. Ava woke up at 7:00. After that, all 3 of them came in our room to get us up. I love this picture Scott took of the kids when they first saw the gifts under the tree. So excited and happy! The best gift for me is definitely to enjoy the excitement of Christmas through the kids' eyes.

Look at that hair! That girl gets some major bed head. She loves cooking with her new kitchen. It was totally worth the 2 hours to put it together. Right Honey?! :)

Thomas and Elle each got a Nintendo DS from Santa. They are having so much fun with them.

Elle has been designing all kinds of amazing outfits with her fashion designer from Grandpa and Grandma!

We know right where this sign is going to get hung up in Thomas's room. You can never go wrong with Husker stuff for Thomas!

A new puppy for little Ava to cuddle.

Christmas breakfast was pancakes but they were no comparison to Grandpa Dale's waffles and Grandma Jan's hot apple cider. :) Scott made maple sausage links and eggs. I think the mimosas are a tradition to continue with for sure though!

It was a great Christmas! We are looking forward to ringing in a new year.

*I got the post title from the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Scott and I watch that movie every Christmas season. Such a classic and always funny!

mini me

Doesn't this -
Remind you of this -

playing in the snow

We woke up to more snow and it's continued to fall all day. We have more snow on the ground in December than we've had in years! It is so beautiful out. So Christmasy! The kids asked if I'd pull them on the sled behind the four wheeler this afternoon so we got all bundled up and went out for awhile.

They had a good time and kept telling me to go faster. Mom doesn't drive as fast as dad!

When they were done sledding they ran around and played in the yard for awhile. And made a few snow angels, of course.

Ava came in crying. She had took her gloves off so that she could eat the snow better but didn't realize how cold that would make her little hands! We ran them under warm water for awhile and then had a cup of hot chocolate. That made it all better.

swim meet

Ready

Set

Swim!

Thomas went to his first swim meet this year. (He's in lane 4 in the pics. The third kid in the picture.) Since this is his first year on the team we decided that he would participate in the 3 home meets. It was a lot of fun to watch him and he had a blast. He was excited to get a ribbon for winning his heat in the breast stroke. Good job Thomas! We are so proud of you!

more funnies

A few more funnies I forgot to mention....

I've been to Target way too many times this month. I'm hoping to only walk foot in that store a time or two next month! Anyway, we were in the checkout line and the cashier was chatting with Ava as she was scanning my items. When they ran out of things to say Ava decided to stick her finger up her nose and say, 'I pick my boogers.' The cashier didn't quite know how to respond to that one!

Yesterday at Target, again, Ava asked if we could go look at the kitchen in the toy aisle that she wants really bad. We had time so I decided that we'd go take a look at it. (One of them will be hers next week!) When we were done in the toy aisles I suggested that we go look at the Christmas stuff. She didn't want to though and said, 'I don't like Christmas!' When Elle and I were looking at the ornaments Ava said, 'I want to go away.'

And without fail, every time we run errands she takes off her socks and shoes at least once between stores. She doesn't care that it's freezing cold. Check out that hair too! She been sporting some pretty wild hat hair for the past few weeks. I guess it matches her personality!

funnies

My kids have said some really funny stuff lately -

Last night I made an Italian Wedding Soup for dinner that had wilted spinach in it. Everyone liked it except Ava and Thomas but he managed to choke it down so that he could have a cookie. There was plenty of leftovers for lunch and while Elle was eating her bowl of it she said, very seriously, 'Mom, you should call this Swamp Soup.' I started to laugh and she didn't understand what was so funny. She explained how the spinach looks swampy but I just laughed harder. I made a note of it in my cookbook to always remember. Also, when I walked over to get Ava's bowl from the table I stepped in something squishy and wet. When I looked down there was all of the spinach from her soup!

A couple of nights ago when it was time for the kids to get ready for bed Scott asked Ava if she was ready to go get her teeth brushed so that they are nice and shiny. That's when Elle piped up and said, 'Sometimes I wish my teeth really would sparkle.'

I overheard Elle call Ava 'Sweetheart' the other day. It was really precious until Ava said, 'I not Sweetheart, I Ava!'

While walking through the parking lot at the Y to get to swimming lessons Ava said, 'Mommy, it's snowing in my eyes!'

baking day

Today my neighbor and I got together and did some Christmas baking. This has become a tradition for us and I always look forward to it. I wish I would've had my camera ready when she walked over to my house because I missed the picture of the day. We have a worn path between our houses and she was braving the freezing cold weather to walk through the snow on it. There was a big snow drift though that you couldn't see until she stepped in it and was almost knee deep in snow with her baking sheets and ingredients in hand. It was pretty funny.

Angie made Peanut Butter Blossoms, Chocolate Revel Bars and my favorite, Sinful Bars. Here is Elle helping me make Special K Bars and Oreo Truffles. I also made some Crispy Sugar Cookies and a new cookie from Martha called Chewy Chocolate Gingersnaps. Scott likes them but they easy for me to pass up with all of the other choices.

Here is the chocolatey face of one of the taste testers. She wasn't happy with me when I took this picture but I can't remember why. I probably was making her sit down on the barstool or else telling her she couldn't have anymore chocolate.

wishing i was bahama mama

It's so cold here. The current temp is -15 degrees. Tonight's low will be between -24 to -29. It actually hurt to go out and grocery shop today. It's going to feel like a heat wave when we get above zero in a couple days!

snow

The snow arrived! It's hard to tell how much we have so far because it's pretty windy out and is drifting. When I scooped the sidewalk there was at least 6 inches and it's still falling. Thomas and Elle played in it for awhile and came in with red faces. The tea kettle is on the stove right now heating up some water for hot chocolate to warm them up.

waiting

Our first snow storm of the season is on it's way. The snowmobilers have been zipping around here this afternoon in anticipation of tomorrow. Total accumulation by Sunday night is predicted between 9 -15 inches. The kids are super excited! I gotta say I'm looking forward to it too. I love snow at Christmastime.

christmas light troubles

This is what our Christmas tree looks like. Real pretty eh? Last year I bought new boxes of Christmas lights for this season during the big after Christmas clearance sale at Target. All four strands worked until I strung them on the tree. Then two of the strands went mostly out and I can't get them to work. And yes, I made sure I had them all connected and plugged in correctly! :)

The boxes say they will remain lit even if one or more bulbs are burnt out, loose, broken or missing and that you can connect up to 6 strands end to end. Scott said they must make lights with expiration dates now. :)

our homeschool: spelling

This is our 4th year homeschooling and our 4th spelling curriculum that we've used. I think we've finally found the one that works for us. It's called Sequential Spelling. I really like the way spelling is taught. Rather than learning spelling by memorizing phonetic rules, spelling is learned in word families and word patterns. For instance in the early lessons the student learns how to spell 'be' and 'in', then they learn how to spell 'begin'. The next day the lesson includes the same words as the day before only with endings added to them. So now the student learns how to spelling 'inning'. By the end of the week he/she can easily spell the word 'beginning'. Elle loves this because she is learning how to spell big words! You can view the first eight lessons in book 1 here.

The other thing that I like is that each day is a test and that each word is spelled correctly by the teacher after the student has written it in their notebook. If the student made any spelling errors they are corrected right away. I think this works so much better than in the past when I've corrected their spelling after they've took the entire test and then tried to teach them the correct spelling.

sneaky girl

Ava and Elle share a bedroom so I often have Ava take her nap in the guest bedroom downstairs so that Elle can play with her toys in their room. The only problem is that we aren't often hanging out in the family room during the day so Ava can be sneaky when she wakes up. Look at what I caught her doing this afternoon after her nap -

Opening presents from under the tree! I'm just glad they were the Sunday school teacher gifts and not her own!

our homeschool: creative writing

I found this writing guide called All About Me for Thomas to do once a week. Each page has a question or two for him to answer. There is also space for him to draw a picture about what he's written or to paste pictures in. When he completes the book he will have a story all about him at age 9.

(You can click on the picture to see a larger version of it.)

the winter fun begins

The kids have been so excited for the weekend to get here because Scott promised to clear them an ice rink. They have been waiting and waiting for the ice to be thick enough.


They think the path connecting our rink to our neighbor's rink is pretty cool.

My kids are true Minnesotans. Thomas came inside to take his snow pants off because he was 'too hot' in them. It is 10 degrees out right now. I told him he had to at least wear his winter coat but as you can see, that came off after a couple of minutes of skating and now he's out there in just his fleece jacket. I was freezing after just 15 minutes out there helping them get their skates on and a few pictures taken! As I was walking up to the house I saw Elle start to take her coat off. She was just going to skate around in the long sleeve shirt she's wearing today. I told her that she could unzip the coat but she had to leave it on.

Ava hasn't made it outside today yet. She wants to go out and 'eat the snow' though. After our first dusting of snow she was my kid who was picking it off her shoes and eating it, right along with a little dirt. :)

must reading

A couple of weeks ago Thomas, Elle and I went and heard the absolutely amazing testimony of Anita Dittman, a survivor of the Holocaust. I had so many different emotions while listening to her tell her story. What she went through was so incredibly awful but the ways that God revealed himself to her and helped her through it all were awesome. I was struck by how she always found the miracles in her life and was always thankful, even in circumstances where you wonder how there could be anything to be thankful for. I bought her book and just finished it today. If you are looking for something to read that will inspire you and put your life in perspective this book will do it! She signed the book with Romans 8:28 - 'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.' This verse has new meaning for me now after hearing her story!

our homeschool: grammar

Grammar isn't a favorite subject of either of the kids. I can't say that I blame them, I didn't care much for it either. Thomas uses Easy Grammar. This is our 2nd year using this and of everything we've tried this is our favorite so far. I really do not have to do much teaching at all. It is even recommended that the student correct his own work. Each day he tells me if he missed any and we go over a lesson together if he struggled with it. We've also borrowed several of these books from the library to read together and they have helped to make grammar a little more fun.

Elle is going through a workbook called Language Smarts from The Critical Thinking Company. She likes that it's colorful and that there are several different types of activities. It's not the same type of worksheet day after day.

I'd love to hear from any of you other homeschoolers that might be reading here! If there is a curriculum that you've used and love I'd like to hear about it. There are so many choices available it's hard to know what to choose. Some of my favorite things that we use are because I was told about them from other moms!

thankful that you are still reading

I've been so bad at keeping my blog updated that I had to check it tonight to even see what my last post was about! We were in Nebraska last week celebrating Thanksgiving with our families. We had a great time!

We started Christmas decorating yesterday. Scott got out the outdoor Christmas lights and put some up on the porch. Just a few strands of white icicle lights across the top and a few strands of solid white lights on the railing. Ava loves it and keeps saying 'It's beautiful!'

I was going to get a real tree this year but when Elle and I went to the tree farm yesterday it was so busy and they were really short on help so after standing in the cold for 10 minutes we decided that our artificial tree would be just fine again this year. I put it up and pulled apart all of the branches yesterday and now need to get the lights on it.

Well, that's a quick update on what's been going on around here. I really am going to try to get back to blogging regularly now!

girls day out

Yesterday Elle and I went shopping at the Mall of America with my friend Stephanie and her daughter Lexi. We left shortly after 6:00 in the morning and didn't get home till almost 9:30 at night. The girls were exhausted! It was so nice to go shopping without Ava. I didn't have to spend time looking for her hiding in a rack of clothes or get the door opened on me in the dressing room. It was bliss! :) (Thank you again Scott and Thomas for watching her all day!)

The clothing shopping was pretty disappointing. The 80's are making a comeback and it is a little scary. Look at the colors of these shirts in Old Navy.

This picture isn't quite accurate. My camera couldn't handle the almost neon colors. :) When we were in Claire's we saw zipper earrings and jelly bracelets. I didn't see anyone tight rolling their jeans yet though!

So anyway, I only found a few tops at Banana Republic that I liked and that's was it for clothes for myself. I found Scott a few things. The most fun was had at Pottery Barn where I found the drapes and a rug for the basement that I've been eying for awhile on sale. I'll take a picture and show you when we get them up! I also got some Christmas shopping done.

The new American Girl store in the MOA just opened up recently and Elle and Lexi were so excited to go. It's a little girl's paradise. It was a very fun day!

minnesota girl

Elle has wanted to start a blog for a long time. Thomas got to start his when he was 7 so it seemed like now was a good time for Elle to start hers. I love the name she thought up for it - Minnesota Girl. :) Family, if you'd pop over there and leave her a comment she'd love it!

birthday finale

What a day! The kids are finally down from their sugar highs and are in bed. I'm exhausted and ready to just sit, watch football and knit a little. Birthdays are fun....and tiring!

Thank you for all of the comments with birthday greetings to Elle. She read them all and loved them!

birthday lunch

Part of the fun of her birthday lunch was helping to make it. Elle is the official grilled cheese chef in our house. She makes it for lunch about once a week.