Our weekend (Feb. 11 - 12)

We had another busy weekend at the Heuer household, but it was good - really good!



Friday night started with a movie night "Smurfs" for the Kelloggs and my little ones. It was fun to see how excited they were for the movie. I made some popcorn, the Kelloggs brought candy, and all was good in their world. We showed it on the big screen downstairs and they had a great time!

Saturday morning I had to go to church for a few hours to get the final lessons for Kindergarten Sunday school (which is actually on Monday). While I was out, the kids were busy with Tim making crowns for themselves and then boats for their American girl/boy dolls. (yes, even Evan was involved).


(The boats. I am not sure of the story behind these, but they were having fun with them nonetheless)

Here are their crowns. The kids love cutting and taping and gluing, so it is always fun to see what they come up with.


(and, they actually look like they are friends in these pictures! Sometimes, that is not the case)

After my church thing, it was then back home to go out to lunch - with the whole family... This caused some upset feelings as Emma and I originally had plans that it would be a Mother/Daughter outing. She was so excited when I got home from church because we had plans to go out for lunch and then do some shopping together, because in Emma's words "Mom, I just don't spend enough time with you alone without Evan." Unfortunately, when I got home from church, Tim asked Evan "So, are you ready to go out to eat with Mommy?" This led to an excited Evan, but a very upset & crying Emma. I felt so bad for the little lady, but gave her a big promise that we would have some alone time on Sunday. Lunch was a quick trip to Culvers and then back home for rest time. We all took a rest time, except for Emma. Man, I love taking afternoon naps!

After nap, Tim and I had a wine-tasting outing with neighbors J & MJ. We headed to Wisconsin to taste some local wines, local cheeses, and to have some good quality adult time. While we were out, the kids were here with Eric, Sage, Cole (Eric's puppy) and had fun chasing the dogs.

Sunday was Church school for Evan, which he protested a little, but always ends up having a good time at. Then finally, Emma and Mama outing. She again, was so excited and it is nice to have some good one-on-one time with her. We bought some swimsuits, went to Target, and then went to McDonald's at her request. We talked about school, Valentine's day, her life, and just random stuff. It was good and I have to remember to set aside more alone time with her.

The rest of the afternoon was time spent outside playing with the kids, a run for me, and then the kids playing beauty shop. Also - homework time. Emma, in celebration of her 100th day of kindergarten, had to count out 100 items of something. At Tim's suggestion, she counted out 100 popcorn kernels. A good representation in my mind of how 100 of something can look so small! And, of course, since Emma was doing homework, Evan had to as well. Here he is practicing writing his name.

And - beauty shop.

And, that is pretty much it. We ended the night with bathtime and stories.

Happy Valentine's Day!

While I unfortunately had 3 hours of Financial Accounting tonight, Tim and the kids had a wonderful Valentine's evening. They both were all excited after their big days - both had parties at either school or daycare - and the kiddo's came home excited with all of their loot. Tim took the kids to a local pizza joint to celebrate the day and both ate well and had a great time.

The pictures above show some flowers that Tim bought for me and some cards that the kids made for me. Evan did the drawing and Emma did the little heart shaped note "I Love Kelly, Love Emma." How sweet!

Now, it is 10:35, I just got done eating a big bowl of popcorn and drinking a beer and am blogging. How romantic!

Delayed Christmas pictures

While I have already told the stories, here are the belated pictures of Christmas Day. I don't have a lot of them, but still, good memories! (unfortunately, looking back at my scant collection of Christmas pictures, I wish I would have taken more! But, I was focusing more on the video-taking than the picture taking.)

And why no family picture, you may ask? I wanted to take a family picture the whole weekend... but.. sigh.. it didn't happen.



Sage got a really big bone in her stocking!

Emma trying out her new guitar!

Emma and empty stocking (and candy in her mouth I think!)

Evan and empty stocking as well.






Just Emma!

Evan and his fierce dragon toy that he received from Emma.

Emma with the beauty chair she received from Evan!

That's it! That's all she wrote for another Christmas! Next year I will hopefully be more organized - and have Tim help with some of the production and not just be on present patrol!

Introducing....with her hair cut....

No - you may think it is Kit Kittridge - but it is EMMA! (although a very cute-with- her- new- haircut Emma!)

Ever since Emma has received Kit, she has enjoyed dressing her, playing with her, and dressing up like her. I casually mentioned once that she could get her hair cut like Kit's as well. Well, ever since then, that is what Emma wanted. It was "Mom, can I get my haircut tonight? I want to look like Kit."

Finally, last week, I took her to Kids Hair in Woodbury. Emma brought Kit along and right when we walked in the door, the woman that was to cut her hair exclaimed, "Oh! You brought Kit!" Which made Emma beam. And then, when I told her that Emma wanted her hair cut like Kit she said, "Oh, I know the Kit cut! I have done the Kit cut many times!"

Emma sat so well for the whole cut (which she always does) and could barely contain her smile the whole time... it was very sweet :-)

While the picture posted isn't the best one of her new cut, it is still pretty cute and Emma is very happy!

You can call me stinky pants

It was bedtime and I had just got done reading two stories for the kids; the two stories that Emma just received from her Scholastic book orders: "Sharks: Big, Bigger, and Biggest: and "Don't worry Douglas!" We were reading them in my bed, all snuggly and covered up in blankets. The books had been read and Emma jumped out of bed to go to her room and get Kit ready for bed. Evan hides under the covers.

I say "Evan! Time for bed!" and then gently tickle him and pull the covers back. He looks at me and says,

"Hey! I not Evan!"

"Oh yeah?! If you are not Evan, who are you?"

"Me? I stinky pants!"

and then he laughs, lets me tickle him some more, and then jumps out of bed to go in his room.

What we did this past weekend... Feb. 4 & 5

Finally - a free weekend! I was excited, Emma was excited, and we took advantage of me not having school!





Saturday was a busy day. It was a Home Depot morning, so we got the kids breakfast, (I made YUMMY maple pecan scones courtesy of - you guessed it, The Pioneer Woman!) changed out of jams, and headed to Home Depot for their Saturday project. The kids absolutely love doing these as they get to wear an apron, use a hammer, and sometimes (if they are lucky) they even get to paint. THIS Saturday, they did get to paint AND have popcorn and they were in heaven. The project was a cute little Valentine box and they both had fun glueing and painting.

Here are a few pics of the kids with their creations.

After the Home Depot fun, it was home for a quick rest time (and to lay our new rugs down in our living rooms - yea!) as we had our next adventure planned out - the Hudson Hot Air Affair! I have wanted to go to this every year, as it is a hot air balloon festival! Many weekends in years past, I would see all the hot air balloons go past our house and I would say "Dammit! Missed it again!" but not this year! They had roughly 30 hot air balloon pilots signed up for the event, along with parades, flight shows, craft fairs, geocaching, etc. The weather on Saturday afternoon was beautiful and we were all anxious to see all the hot air balloons close up and in the sky.

Unfortunately - what we didn't account for was that the weather was too nice.... grrr... So, because of the nice WARM weather, the ground was all muddy, and it wasn't conducive to laying the balloons or baskets on the ground. Luckily, there were 2 pilots that were willing to take their balloons on the more solid ground and fire them up for the crowds to see.

Here are a few pictures of the balloons going up.





(see hubby and Emma on far left above)


I love the balloon on the left with the tomatoes and butterflies on it!


Here are the two kiddo's hanging out. They both loved watching the balloons - although Emma was disappointed here because they were out of cotton candy. (the nerve! a winter carnival not having enough cotton candy! She seemed to be satisfied then with the hot chocolate and warm chocolate chip cookies)

And - my hubby and I!

After the excitement in Hudson, we headed back home to get ready for supper. Tim and I were heading out to our favorite place in Stillwater (Phil's Hideaway - absolutely the best!) and the kids were bouncing off the walls excited that their beloved Theresa (their daycare provider) was coming over with her daughter Breezy (Emma's best friend) to watch the kids. Theresa does a wonderful thing for her families and gives each of her families one night of free babysitting for Christmas! By the time she arrived with candy and movies, Tim and I were ready to go out.

We had a lovely date night and dined on shrimp in a cream & white wine reduction sauce, scallops in a lobster cream sauce (heavenly), a new york strip, wine, and desserts. It was absolutely wonderful to get away for a night and relax, have good conversation, and fabulous food!

Sunday was a more low-key day. Evan had his Sunday School concert at 10:15 and he really didn't want to go. Evan has been a bit more stubborn lately and has been trying to assert his independence. It has made for some interesting times, that is for sure. Anyway, he did attend church with us and did actually participate in the concert. He proudly marched up the aisles in church, stood at the front of church with is fellow three year olds, and started picking his nose. Nice.... luckily, he did stay at the front of the church. There were many of his counterparts that (upon seeing their parents) decided to leave their spot and join their parents. So, at least he stayed at the front, even though his finger was in his nose for part of it.

The kids sang 4 songs and did hand motions to them. two of them were" "He's got the whole world in his hands" and a religious version of "if you are happy and you know it clap your hands" He, on the whole, did really good and appeared to be pretty happy up there. While we couldn't get him to dress up for the concert, he did sing and go through the motions, so that made me happy.

After church was cookies and lemonade in the church hall. A good bribe for the kids, I am sure. After that, more relaxation, chicken wings & McDonald's for the Super Bowl and bedtime. All-in-all, it was a great weekend - filled with many fun things - and good memories!

Cleaning his room

One of everyone's least favorite chores around our house is cleaning up. Even mine - I really don't mind doing laundry, but I do not enjoy putting it away :-)

Evan is usually a pretty good helper. The job the night this picture was taken was cleaning rooms and putting away clean clothes. He picked up his cars in his room, jammed all of his clothes in one drawer, and proudly called me up to his room so I could look at it. I was very happy with what I saw. Then... I saw this:

Yup, this is his closet. He had hung up two pairs of undies and two socks. I have absolutely no idea where he got this idea because, no, I do not do this or make my children do this. I couldn't help but laugh, and of course, grab my camera.

The last of the New Years pictures

Here is Evan out ice fishing and doing his favorite thing - cleaning out the holes. Unfortunately this weekend also, he stepped in a hole and got his leg all wet.

This one was a little blurry, but it captures Sage's adventures on the ice - stealing other people's fish and bringing them to Tim. The next few days the guys we were fishing with wised up to his moves and starting to bring him dog treats or catch him smaller fish to keep him occupied.

Emma making a snow angel - or just laying down because she was bored. She wasn't all about the ice fishing at times.

My boys... and Dog.

One more of my little lady.

And the last one just sums up our vacation - relaxation :-)

More New Years pics.

And - my second attempt was successful. More pictures of our vacation during Christmas & New Years.

My Nephew Andrew came up to the cabin with my Mom and Dad for New Years. Here he is trying to teach Emma how to play Chess.

Sage - playing in the snow.

Our Little fishing house on the lake.

On New Years Day, we actually had some snow. Maybe 4-6 inches? The kids loved it and had to play outside.

Emma -

The group out sledding.

Evan -

Tim and faithful companion coming in from ice fishing.

Evan and pomegranite face... (this little guy LOVES pomegranites)

A sunrise (and yes, using another setting on my camera)

Our New Years Vacation

We had the pleasure of taking off the week between Christmas and New Years and spending time at our cabin. We had no big plans other than ice fishing, homework (for me), playing with our new Christmas presents (primarily the kids) and relaxing.



The day after Christmas we headed to the farm to see some cousins & family that were in town for the holidays and from there - it was all about the cabin. Unfortunately, we didn't have much snow right away for snowmobiling or sledding, but we did head out ice fishing a lot. It was so nice to be able to relax after the craziness of the holidays. Emma brought Kit and some of her new dolls, Evan brought some new matchbox cars and Thomas the Train toys, I brought my new camera and homework (blah) and Tim brought Sage -haha!



I don't have a lot of stories to share from this week -as we really just relaxed and watched movies. We spent some time with Tim's family as they were up to their cabins as well. Playing cards, getting together for meals, and being lazy was on the agenda.



Here are some pictures of the week- a lot of picture - with my new camera :-) (a nice Panasonic Lumix point and shoot. Unfortunately my other one broke.)


Emma playing on my iPod. (in sepia, which is a nice setting my camera has)

Evan - playing with Emma's guitar.

Litte Kate

My family and my Grandma & Grandpa

My Dad.

And - a big grrr - as blogger is not letting me upload any more pictures.

More to come.

An individual

One of the many things that I love about Emma is her style and individuality. Yes, some of her clothes combinations are odd, I will admit that. But sometimes, she amazes me and makes me smile.

She had some Christmas money to spend from gifts from family and from the return of the Justin Bieber clothes. We were at K-mart and she immediately went to the girls clothes and picked out this hat:



She just had to buy this hat and wore it around the whole store. I am not sure if it was the color combination or the little story that came with the hat about the dog, Rebecca Bon Bon, who was from France. But, she loved it and wears it around the house a lot. Unfortunately, they cannot wear hats like this in school, but she gets a lot of wear out of it around here.

Christmas 2011 stories

Unfortunately, I am unable to locate my Christmas 2011 pictures (go figure) but I have the stories :-) I actually didn't take too many pictures on Christmas day as I was focusing more on my video. But, I did get a few.

The kids, obviously were very excited on Christmas Day. Evan woke up first around 6:30 and didn't really mention anything about it being Christmas. If he did, he didn't press it, and settled in bed with Tim and I and watched Mickey Mouse on TV waiting for Emma.

I heard Emma's door open around 7:15, but she didn't come into our room. I heard the steps down the stairs a little bit - then called for her and told her to come in as I really wanted to capture the present moment on camera.

She leaps into the room and yells: "he comed!! Santa comed!! I saw our stockings were full! He was here!" At this announcement Evan jumps off the bed and does a little dance... Picture little blond boy with red Santa footie jammies, shifting weight and dancing from side to side, moving his arms left to right. (I know I didn't describe this well, but it was precious) Then, he starts chanting "Santa came... Santa came..." while dancing.

We had to convince them to wait for us to get up, get the video camera and let me get down the stairs before them. I knew, once they saw the presents, it would be all over :-)

Emma races down the steps first - and then Evan. The whole time shouting & bouncing & cheering about Santa and the presents. They went back and forth checking everything out - cookies were gone, vege's were eaten, presents were there, and Santa left a note :-

Santa only brings two presents for each kid to our house and doesn't wrap them (as it would take the elves too long to do that for each kid) so those were the first presents the kids saw. Emma and Evan both received kids snowboards from Santa. Then, Emma got a kids guitar and lesson book from Santa. She LOVED this! She instantly started strumming and singing. Evan's other gift from Santa was a remote control Lightning McQueen. He was very happy with this as well.

The other presents were from the family to each other. Emma also received a baby doll trundle bed, Justin Bieber clothes (which she actually returned) a few leapster games, and a baby doll beauty salon chair from Evan. Evan received a Cars Leapster and a few games, some Imaginext toys, and a Handy Manny build set.

The kids were happy and playing while I heated up the Pioneer Woman Cinnamon rolls that Kristen and I slaved over (but was totally worth it!) and got out the other light breakfast that the kids would be too busy to eat. (but it worked out okay, as their cinnamon rolls didn't go to waste - YUM!)

Then, it was quickly pick up the wrapping paper and breakfast dishes, put on a Christmas movie for the kids so I could get ready for the Heuer family Christmas. Tim's family (about 20 folks) were coming over for lunch and presents later that day. On the menu was Italian Salad, prime rib, Pioneer Woman herbed potatoes (didn't I mention that I was slightly obsessed?) and desserts. It was very fun and a great way to spend Christmas Day. Busy - but fun! The kids were spoiled her with presents as well. They opened up big and mini pillow pets, a Monster Doll for Emma, Cars for Evan, and many other fun things!

After that, it was time to relax and watch the Packer game! I thought it was so nice that the Packers were on that night, as it was a nice excuse to sit and do nothing. I unfortunately was coming down with a cold, so I didn't make it much past the third quarter due to the Nyquil and craziness of the day. The kids calmed down easily and went to bed as well, happily dreaming about all of their new things!

I will post pictures as soon as I have them!

Nailed It!

Hello! Thanks for sticking with me. My class is now done and I can breathe a deep sigh of relief. All right, in all honesty, I was done this past Saturday. However, I have been enjoying my laziness and my time (well - only 3 days) until my next class started.

Good report though - I believe it will be worth it! My papers all got A's, my presentation went well, and I got some good insight, did some deep soul searching, and met some very nice people. All-in-all, great experience (even though brutal) and I am glad I did it. One class down in only 4 weeks :-)

Now, bear with me. I have stories from January to tell, and Christmas for that matter, and I do plan on telling them. As some of you know, I create a blog book at the end of each year, and I have to make sure I have my Christmas and vacation stories included for 2010.