Quick Picture of Christmas

Just a little bit of Christmas that is going on at home.......

The Kiddos Did it Again.......

Abby, Hannah and Griff did another bang up job on the Christmas tree this year.  After I strung the lights....after sending Mike out to Home Depot to pick up lights that actually work.....the kids got busy and hung up all the decorations by themselves.  Mike and I were busy outside and left them to it. When we came in an hour later, the tree was done and the mess was picked up :-)  Not sure how they got ornaments all the way to the top -- I'm guessing standing on some chairs was involved.

Now they are camped out on the couch watching a movie, relaxing after a hard day of Christmas decorating!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the Newman team.  We are celebrating at home after two of the three kiddos came down with awful colds.  The change of plans bummed everyone out, as we were supposed to go to IL to celebrate with the Newman family. We were looking forward to taking over Uncle Tim's house again :-)  We miss everyone, but trust me, you don't want to be around all the sneezing, coughing, nose blowing, eye watering and complaining that is going on!  I had a suspicion that we may be staying home on Tuesday when Abby came home early from school a complete mess, so I ran out to get groceries for a "planned at the last minute turkey dinner". It all came together and we had turkey with all the trimmings for lunch (although I did forget the pumpkin puree for the pie, so dessert was vanilla oreo truffles and cocoa kiss cookies -- still yummy!). We are planning on heading out later this afternoon to see the movie Frozen and having popcorn and twizzlers for dinner :-)

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and lots of yummy food!

Friday Night Play Date

There's nothing more fun than a Friday night play date and brownie parfaits!

Back from Cabo

Mike and I had a blast spending last week in Cabo with great friends. Everything was awesome...the weather, food, pool, sun, fun, the house and of course the great friends with whom we spent the week.

I'm missing it already, especially since we now have a dusting of snow on the ground. Welcome, winter, you have officially arrived :-)

Figure Skating Competition

Abby had another skating competition over the weekend. She did GREAT. There was a lot more competition at this event than at past ones. Many clubs were represented and there were some really good skaters there. Abby was in a group of 6 (based upon figure skating level and age) and she placed 3rd! She was super excited about that. This is the first time she competed using her new routine and she rocked it :-)  I have video but am still having a hard time posting video. I'll keep working on it.

A couple random pics from the last few days.....

Hannah fell asleep reading one night in bed ......

Beautiful weekend day...kids were out playing football with Mike...see the football in Hannah's hand? Relish the green grass and beautiful trees.....everything is covered in snow today!

Griff and one of his besties after a night of "spooky skating" at the hockey rink. Look how sweaty they get! And you always have to get a blue slushie after hockey :-)

All Saints Day Mass

Hannah and Griffin celebrated All Saints Day at school by dressing up as a Saint. The entire 2nd grade does this every year. It very cute to see them all dressed up. Hannah was St. Lucy and Griff was St. Peter.

Griff and one of his best friends

 Twinners - getting ready in their classroom before Mass starts

Hannah and Griff's 2nd grade class after Mass...I like how Hannah is looking at me out of the corner of her eye. Oh, and only in Minnesota would St. Nick have a hockey stick covered in tin foil as a staff :-)

BOO!

Great night of trick or treating, except maybe when it started to snow at the end......