Snowshoes and Minnesota

They kinda go hand in hand, don't they?  G&G Newman got the kiddos awesome snowshoes for Christmas, and they ROCK!  The kids are loving hiking in the woods and all over the neighborhood in them. You can see from their grins they love them!

Hockey Fun

Our nice neighbors cleared off the pond while we were visiting G&G Newman's, so of course we had to go and try it out today and play some hockey.  Mike took the kids out in the morning AND afternoon they had so much fun.  I only got pictures from the morning session....enjoy.

 Chance joined us for the morning session.  He is so exhausted from his stay at camp that he hasn't moved from the spot in front of the couch since he came in from hockey.  He missed his favorite eggs for lunch and dinner.  He's wiped out.

 Abby playing goalie. She was on Griff's team.

 Hanny was goalie, but she was having more fun posing for me :-)

Christmas, Newman Style

Christmas rocked!  The kids loved their gifts from everyone and haven't stopped playing with everything.  I noticed a big difference with Abby's gifts this year....not so many toys and many more clothes, boots and accessories :-)

Favorites:
Abby - Zuca bag, to hold figure skates and accessories; Kindle Fire cover, furry boots and headphones
Hannah - Caroline American Girl doll, Barbie stuff, furry boots and furry slippers
Griffin - Nascar Bashers, Hot Wheels Mega Loop, Monster Truck Wii games and Micro Chargers
Chance - Rawhide bow the size of his head :-)

And we can't forget the awesome marshmellow shooters Mike made for everyone :-)  We also upgraded our Wii system to the Wii U and the kids are having a fun time playing Just Dance 4 on it.

Below are pictures from this morning. It was early, WAY early, so I consider it luck that we got any in focus :-) Oh, and some from last night before bed.

Cookies left for Santa

 Letters to Santa:
Hannah: Dear Santa, here are some cookies for you and Mrs. Claus. Here are some carrots for the reindeer. I love you Santa. Are the elves doing well? Am I on the good list? Love Hannah Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas

Griff: Dear Santa, Here are some cookies for you and here are some carrots for the reindeer. Love Griff

Abby: Dear Santa, Merry Christmas Here are some cookies and carrots. Are your favorite cookies sugar cookies? Love, Abby

 Up early, patiently waiting for me to take a picture before they plow into the gifts from Santa!

 Lots of American Girl stuff for Hannah

 ....and Abby

 Nascar Bashers

 Headphones for the Kindle

 Hannah loves Barbie

Part of Abby's Zuca Bag

 New leo for gymnastics class

 Furry boots :-)

 Wii games

 Caroline!

 Kindle cover

Christmas, Post 1 :-)

We had an early Christmas celebration with Aunt Nancy, Uncle Don and Uncle Dave yesterday afternoon.  The girls walked away with the Ultimate Easy Bake Oven and have been in cooking heaven ever since :-)  We've made red velvet cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. They say they were both really good.....I refused to taste them!

Before leaving for Christmas Eve Mass tonight.

Me and the kiddos. Griff has a piece of candy in his mouth....can you tell????

 The Monkeys

 Early present opening after Mass. PJs and an ornament for everyone

 Hannah got an ornament that looked like Chance, she he is her best friend, besides Griff :-)

 Griff got a race car ornament. He's really into race cars right now.  Abby got an ice skate, but I didn't get a picture of her :-(