Christmas Michigan Style

Gerrit wanted to learn how to snowboard so who better to learn from than Uncle Jeff! We mentioned it to Jeff and he was all over getting the equipment and spending time with him. Christmas Eve we went to a nearby sledding hill to give him a few pointers.

Emmit didn't mind because he LOVES sledding! Mia took her board and Max and Ella went sledding. Emmit seemed to make the rounds sledding with everyone - even Uncle Jeff!

His favorite way to sled - on his tummy, head first!

Gerrit got 'new' snowboard equipment (Max's old board and boots)  and Emmit got a helmet! Adam made the boys wear their helmets earlier in the week when they were sledding because of the ice storm! And now Emmit thinks he needs to wear it every time he sleds...not a bad idea!

He was even laughing with all the snow in his face!

Even Adam got in on the action with Max. Jeff thought the 2 of the maxed out the weight limit on the sled!

Here he is in action! 

He took a break from snow boarding too:

Our new little snowboarder!

After sledding/snowboarding we met back at Jeff and Erika's with the rest of the family. Here is "Santa" Ella and her elves...

2 boys really excited for presents!

We even had time later in the week for a few birthday celebrations. Max, Emmit and Bill (who was sick) all have birthdays with in 2 weeks of each other....Max kindly stood next to Emmit for the annual picture by the cake:

We visited Grandma and GG with Travis and Millie and saw Grandpa Bob and Geri too. The rest of the trip was cousin time! Hockey, sledding, snowboarding (at a real ski hill), presents, and hanging out pretty much sums up our trip this year. It is fun to see the cousins play so well together - they pick up where they left off the last time they saw each other. It makes living so far away not so bad. We look forward to the cousins coming to MN this summer!!

It's Happening Already!

Today when I picked Gerrit up, we walked to his locker to get his stuff. Inside his locker was a folded up piece of paper that read: From Hattie to Getter (Gerrit)....and when I opened it up it read:

"I saw you at basckball (basketball). Why were you shy? Because I thot (thought) you were. You are good at basckball (basketball). Alomst (almost) every time you make a bascgit (basket). Ples writt (please write) me back. When you writt me back plea put it in my mel (mail) box plea. Thank you!

From Hattie to Getter 

I read the note to Gerrit and so far he has no interest in writing her back. Stay tuned to find out if he responds...

Thanksgiving Weekend 2013

Travis and Millie joined us for Thanksgiving. A small and intimate dinner that was a bit later than planned. I thought I'd try the convection setting on my oven....only to have the turkey take a wee bit longer than predicted! Guess my turkey was larger than I thought! None the less, it was worth the wait - juicy and the rest of the food stayed warm during the wait!

Travis is sportin' Emmit's pilgrim hat he made at daycare....

Friday we went to get the tree....Just as we arrived, Santa (Ho Ho if you are talking to Emmit) and Mrs Clause (Mrs. Ho Ho) arrived at the tree farm. This was the first time Gerrit got close to either one of them without crying or holding on to an adult! Emmit still isn't there yet.

Of course, I'm behind the lens....

All ready to find the perfect tree! Took the wagon to the far end of the farm:

So many great trees to choose from. Finally we settled on one. Being in a new house made for an interesting pick - we don't have the nice tall ceiling where we plan to put it. We tried to go small but our its so deceiving out in nature!

Adam doing double duty - carrying Emmit and dragging the tree. Gerrit hit Emmit in the face with the measuring stick (on accident). 

The boys on Sunday morning in their Christmas duds. It was pretty easy to get them dressed - Emmit thought his pants, shoes, and new coat were 'army' clothes! Gerrit had khaki's on but changed to jeans last minute. I wasn't going to argue with him.

Oh, the black eye and missing teeth you might ask about??? A week ago, Gerrit got into a fight with the slide at school. Came home with a real goose egg above his eye which of course left the eye a nice black and blue. The swelling is down and now its looking yellow. The tooth came out when he pulled it (it was pretty loose). The bottom 2 are finally coming in. Yes, he looks like a hockey player!

Emmit, hammin' it up. He had just refused to have his picture taken too!

Our very own Mr. Ho Ho in the tub! Having fun with bubbles!!

And I was able to get a little sewing in over the weekend. I made both boys cozy pants as we call them around here. Emmit chose Gopher fabric and is showing off his new pants!

Somehow the Lego dudes took over the boys' nativity set....

Catching my Breath

I finally feel like I have a few minutes....to update the blog! I think the last time I updated the pictures across the top was almost 2 years ago! Yikes! Thanks to pinterest I came across the pin about changing blog headings. Hopefully I can do a better job of updating the heading so its not outdated by 2 years! And now I should get back to folding laundry...guess my few minutes are up!

Happy Halloween!

A few quick photos from Halloween. The camera needs to be emptied - so there was not much room for new pictures.

The pumpkins carved and ready to be lit.

Anxious Vikings player and Ninja Turtle ready to head out!

Even though we were not in Z-town making the usual trip around town visiting all our friends, we had a good night. We made the outing with the 2 neighbor families we've come to know. The neighborhood is perfect - houses close together and barely any cars (so crossing the street is simple and safe!). The boys only made it an hour and they only did 2 streets (both sides) before they were 'done'. Their pumpkins were too heavy for them at the end and Emmit was freaked out by a "Joker" costume. (The kid didn't scare him, he was at the same house as we were when Emmit saw him and decided his trick or treating was done!) 

And a few text messages from friends in Z-town made the night complete!

Oma and Opa

Oma and Opa made it for their annual fall trip. They helped get Gerrit off to school each morning and picked him up. Emmit hung out with them and skipped going to Hug a Bear. Both boys enjoyed their visit and attention they received. 

When Gerrit and I had a few days off, we went to an apple orchard nearby. The boys dressed themselves - Gerrit in his traditional shorts and Emmit in his new football pants (thanks to Oma's sewing) and his soccer cleats!

I've given up on trying to get them to dress according to the weather and to match!

 

We picked a few apples. Emmit loved jumping to get ones rather than the ones Oma pointed out for him to get that were easy to grab:

Gerrit didn't want to pick apples, but as you can see, he's all smiles. We ended up with more apples than we needed but it was too fun:

Inspecting the fresh picked apples:

A quick photo with Oma and Opa:

The boys also picked out pumpkins. Oma said the only rule was they had to be able to carry it! Gerrit found a large one that was a wee bit too heavy:

Even the one he chose was pretty heavy but he was able to carry it so he got it!

Both boys trying to pull the wagon to the check out:

One last ride on the tractors before going home:

Emmit loved it - it was just his size!

Another fun week with Oma and Opa has come and gone. Yard work, sewing, and shopping were among the things that kept us busy - that and visiting friends! We look forward to this spring when they come back again!

Feelin' Blessed

For making a quick decision on buying our house, it was a great decision!

I love looking outside and seeing this:

Gerrit and the 2 neighbor boys playing on the driveway. Gerrit loves playing with Blake who is in 5th grade and the 2 of them will play football a lot in the front yards. Jacob is 5 and follows the 2 boys like they are his older brothers. Emmit tags along and plays very well with Jacob. The 2 of them will play 'parents' as Emmit calls it - which is their version of house. I love sitting on the steps and listening to them! Such imaginations. 

As much as we loved our neighbors in Z-town, we are lucky to have neighbors with kids our boys love to play with!