Here come the out-takes...

This years out-takes are not nearly as good as years past. The duds this time around, all 498 of them were just plain bad. Either one of us had our eyes closed, or the biggest problem, Harry would be saying "CHEEEESE" so hard that it looked like he was in pain. Our out-takes in the past at least have had a little more humor attached, Mieszko's backside in most (he was actually the best this year, the only one to be sitting waiting for the picture), all of us laughing etc...So this year there are more preparation pictures. Family pictures spanned 3 days. The first day was not good at all. Andy was getting the tripod set up, I was getting the kids together and Amelia walks up to me and says "More grapes mama?" I thought "More grapes?!" and then it hit me..."OH, my goodness!! We had grape tomato's with dinner!! I looked down and there she was in her cream sweater with grape tomato's all over her hair, face and of course sweater! Then we could not find the remote for the camera, so we used the timer which didn't go well, and the flash didn't want to work...so we threw in the towel on that night.
Sunday, the third day, we finally had found the remote (THANK YOU ANDY!!). We did a round of stretches to loosen up everyone and that still didn't seem to work. Finally right before bedtime we tried one last time...And finally we had one! I don't know if it was out of pure desperation on the kids part to be done with all of this (Harry said that he liked it...I think otherwise), or they had just hit the wall and were slap happy, but it was done! Family memories.


First day pictures. This one of Amelia is too cute.

It didn't go well in front of the fireplace, so we tried in front of the tree...nope, not there either.
Now the third day...Watch Santa in the sleigh next to Harry...
...and there he goes...
Amelia brushing Santa so he can be put back in his sleigh looking good.


Stretching time! Armmmms Up!
Armmmms down!
Side to side...
Goooooooo
Teammmmm Lewisssss!

Classic. Amelia with a finger up her nose, and Harry showing off the bottom of his feet.
Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope you all have some great out takes of your own!!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

We had an exciting weekend!...We saw Santa! Yep, found him, in Niles Michigan of all places! :)
We went to Fernwood Botanical Gardens. They have Christmas lights all around their area, you walk outside about a half mile to get to Santa. There were two building in between with people caroling, hot chocolate, and Cookies! Once we found Santa, Harry was so excited, Amelia...not so much. Harry quickly rattled off his Christmas list to Santa (he figures he gets 3 and 3/4 gifts because that is how old he is...okay, okay, you can blame that on me, one day he kept adding and adding things to his list and I told him that you could ask for as many gifts as you are old...yep, should have saved that one..."I get 3 & 3/4 gifts, Nina only gets 2!!"...boy o boy, he listens more than you think), he said as clear as a bell "A combine, crashing cars, and a NEW plow." Andy and I looked at each other...a new plow? That's new. Anyway...hope you enjoy the pictures, and as a little teaser, we FINALLY finished taking our family pictures for our Christmas cards, it only took 500 pictures to find one half way decent...the out takes will be up soon, there are plenty to choose from.


Looks like both of them are making snow angels...but actually only Harry. Amelia was so bundled up she kept falling and couldn't get up...but she was warm :)



Hot Chocolate at Fernwood, they both loved it.

This was part of the walk way. It was so calm and peaceful, both the kids and mom & dad really enjoyed it.
Watching an electric train just outside Santa's room.
Amelia freaked out...as most kids her age do, which was fine. The funny part was she was screaming and screaming and a lady offered her a candy cane and she said clear as can be "OKAY!!" as if she hadn't been yelling at the top of her lungs. cute...
Harry signed the "Nice" list.
Nina's name up top.
Harry & Amelia watching the train.

Today we woke up to about a foot of snow. We were all dressed, kids w/coats on, van running ready to walk out the door for church (we were going to just push through the snow with the van), and here comes the plow and deposits about 3ft at the end of the driveway. So we changed and made a snowman instead.
For some reason, Harry wanted the snowman to look like a cone head.
Huge burst of snow blew when I took this picture on timer.
Amelia...eating snow.
Harry...eating the snowman's nose...shhhh, don't tell him that he's eating a vegetable!
Amelia, still eating snow...
Andy then took Harry out back and they went sledding down the side of our property, I hope the creek side is not next! Harry had a blast!
(that is a light-up Snoopy & Charlie brown w/a Christmas tree by Harry)

Mieszko LOVES the snow, if you look by Andy's left side you can see Mieszko's feet at Andy's hips. Our big jumper...

Sneak Peak...

I tried on Nina & Harry's Christmas outfits last night...and wouldn't you know they fit and they didn't fight me! Which means they are probably waiting until church for that! :)

I put Amelia's dress on with the hat, and Andy's reaction was..."Oh no...I have to start my shotgun account now!"

Shhhh...don't tell Harry that his shirt is pink...He pulls it off well. So dapper.

Pictures, pictures, & more pictures....

It has been about a month since the last time I updated the blog. I have added quite a few new pictures some are of the pier that I have had an obsession with :), others are from the holiday and of course lots of random pictures.

We have a video monitor for Amelia (Harry used to have it, now he's a 'big boy'), and when you see her out of her bed you can yell "Amelia back in bed" and her cute little legs run her back to bed and jump in...well the last couple days that has not been working. This night, I yelled to her and I heard back "She's in bed with me!". I grabbed my camera of course, knowing what I was about to see...and yep, there they were cute as can be snuggled in bed together. They fought a good argument to sleep in bed together, but in the end mama overruled and they slept in their own beds. Too cute.


Amelia after church.
We went downtown to see all the snowman decorated, like the cars were this summer. Amelia loves them. When we got down there we knew that there was going to be a little parade (a doggy parade, they were to be dressed up in holiday attire), what we didn't know, along with everyone else was how big it was going to be! We had to park quite a distance away. It was quite cold, but that didn't seem to keep anyone inside, it was an unexpected great time! Harry even got interviewed from the paper (She stared with Amelia, but she was tight lipped on her opinion of the event).


Harry people watching.


This picture is a reference to one that I took this summer. Last year they had bears decorated downtown, and these are the left over tracks that Harry has been so concerned with finding the bear.
Harry was conflicted. He didn't know what to be more excited about the firetruck or Santa...in the end I think the firetruck actually won out! We'll see next year how he feels about it!



This is Mieszko's favorite spot to sleep! Under the tree with his back against the register...ahh heaven.
Decorating the tree was done in two stages. We didn't have the ornaments organized enough, and they were a bit wound up from all the traveling & excitement of Thanksgiving to do it the first night.

Amelia loved kissing all the ornaments when they went on the tree. The shark received special lovin' from her. In fact, before we leave the house, for some reason she has to run over and give a kiss to him, if not many ornaments before we go.


Thanksgiving in Green Bay at my Uncle Gregs house. It was a packed crowd! Because of the snow, we actually drove to Wisconsin on Saturday morning and back that night. It was about 10.5 hours spent in the car, but the kids were troopers and worth it all to make it to see family.

Uncle Benny, Uncle Greg, Grandma Ann, Aunt Georgie, & my mom (aka Mema)

Nina, her usual cute self, and of course Harry hamming it up.

Nina and those Care Bears!

Harry loved his turkey hat that he made in preschool.
When we were snowed in here, later that day I went out to see what the pier looked like & to possibly take some pictures. Little did I know that there would be so many people...well fisher- men. There were probably at least 20 of them. I thought I was nuts going out there with all of the ice, snow and really cold temps. I felt like I was walking out into a mens club. They were all very nice, and I managed to get farther out on to the pier b/c the had made so many tracks.



Our back yard was just beautiful.
Thanksgiving with Andy's family.

My baby boy.
"high five!"



Daddy's little girl.


Andy & my dad working on a branch that it is hanging too low, they made me a bit nervous.

Amelia loves this head band of mine. Whenever she finds it she wears it the rest of the day...Mieszko, what patience.




Some fall pics at Mema & Papa's.


These leaves were enormous!


These pictures are in backwards...but what happend was I went to the pier when a storm was rolling in and I got drenched! I have never seen the lake so angry. The last picture I took, I went a little too far out and a wave came, I turned my back knowing it was going to hit me, and it crashed over my head and pushed me back. Needless to say I ran back to the car and got out of there. Thanks to my brother, my warm coat kept me dry, my legs, hair, shoes, and down my back was soaked. Harry wanted to know why mama was so wet? It was probably a little too much fun taking those pictures!










Daddy having fun with his kiddo's.

There's that headband again!