Christmas Eve

After much anticipation, the big day before the even bigger day was here.  Kristen and I always plan a big and fun day for the kids on Christmas and it has since been coined "the kids Christmas party.  On the schedule for this year were Christmas ornaments (which we try to do every year) Rice Krispie houses (think Gingerbread house creations but with much yummier material), sledding, an appetizer lunch, rest time and Church for the Heuers, and then opening presents.

Tim had to work that morning, so the kids and I headed over to the Kelloggs around 9am to start the festivities. The kids were pretty much bouncing off the walls and we let them burn some energy as we got everything ready.  Kristen took charge of the ornaments for the kids while Craig and I formed the Rice Krispie houses.  Then we got out the licorice, peppermints, multi-colored frostings, gum drops, chocolate chips, and candy canes for the decorations.  The kids LOVED it and I did as well as I have always wanted to put together a fun holiday house.  They probably ate as much as they got on their houses, but the houses ended up looking pretty good.

the kids working on their final design

Helping Evan with the frosting

The whole crew getting ready

Emma pondering her design

Evan wasn't sure how to eat it, but was pretty sure he was supposed to

Emma's final design

Merry Christmas Eve from Evan and Emma (this was right before presents. Do you think they look excited?)

Emma loving her new journal

Evan excitedly opens a present too.

After the party there, we went back to our house where we started preparing our Christmas Eve feast.  We always have Gaeb and Eric over for Christmas Eve, plus their significant others, friends or other family that wants to celebrate as well.  The energy was high as last minute presents were wrapped and Emma and Evan talked about Santa and cookies and what they wanted for Christmas.  We had a fabulous dinner of beef tenderloin, cheeses and wines, Pioneer Woman Herb potatoes, bread pudding, pecan pie, homemade Bailey's, Champagne Cocktails when J & MJ came over, chocolates.... what else??  (we always eat well!)

The kids put out cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa and rushed to bed.

It was a great night - especially when we saw Santa putting presents under our tree!!

The kids new toy

The weekend before Christmas we went to the cabin.  The kids noticed that we were taking a different way and because we denied their request for a movie on the way up (due to crabby behaviors and fights over what movie to watch) we were constantly getting the "Where are we?"  "Are we almost there yet"  "are we to the up and down road yet?"  etc etc etc...

Part of the reason for all the questions was the curiosity of where we were and what was taking so long...

this is what we were doing...

Buying the kids a new toy.

I am not sure what prompted it really from Tim, but all of a sudden
he was talking about buying the kids a mini snowmobile.  The next thing you know, he is talking about how much we should spend and that he found one that looked nice.  The next thing you know, we are taking a long way to the cabin.

The kids were excited when they saw it and a little apprehensive.  Evan was the one that took Tim up on testing it out when we got there and after Evan sailing away, us chasing him, and Evan eventually falling off the sled (and an almost heart attack by me) we decided to buy it.  And to give Evan good driving lessons...

After a long time getting it started, the kids were off once we got to the cabin and drove it and drove it and drove it around the lake.  The next day the same thing.  After a few tweaks from Tim (and more heart attacks by me from my little dare devil boy) it is a much loved toy.

And if you ask Evan about the sled or snowmobile, he will correct you and say "Mom... it is a Mini-Z"

well, there you go.

Happy New Year!

We had a small New Year party yesterday evening at the cabin!  We celebrated with family: Grandpa John, Aunt Pat, Uncle Roger, Cousins: Angie, Brandon and Jordyn and dined on cocktails, crabcakes, cheese & crackers, pizza's, Christmas cookies, cupcakes and eventually popcorn for the kiddos watching movies!  At 11pm CST (but still able to watch the ball drop in New York!) we put on our hats, tiaras, grabbed noise makers and celebrated a New Year. (sure, maybe the 11pm thing is a cop-out, but I was tired!  And so were the kids.)  By the time the kids had brushed teeth, tucked into bed, and I was in bed, it was 11:45. Pretty darn good in my mind :-)

Cheers!

Yup, the noise makers got annoying

Cheers to a new year!

Even Sage was celebrating

Happy cousins and best friends when at the cabin!

A day with my little lady

Earlier the same day of the Monster Truck Rally for Evan, Emma and I had a nice girls day for ourselves.  We started what I hope will be a tradition last year of seeing a Christmas play and going out to eat with our friends Jess and Keira (or little Keira as Emma calls her due to having an older cousin Kyra).  We met both of these ladies in Hopkins for fine dining at the Olive Garden first (where both ate pizza and breadsticks) and followed that up with a play at the Children's Theater in Hopkins - Madeline's Christmas.  The nice thing about this theater is that it is fairly inexpensie for a nice show and the shows are about an hour long.  Emma loved it and had fun dressing up in a pretty Christmas dress.

Emma and little Keira

After the show with the boys gone, Emma just wanted to have a nice relaxing evening in.  So, I made popcorn and we watched a Christmas movie!  While she wanted to stay up until Tim and Evan got home (because it just isn't fair that Evan got to stay up later than her, since she is older!) I got her to bed 9:30.

To say that Emma has been craving Mom & Emma time is definitely an understatement, so it is nice when she and I can have an exciting day such as this.  Plus, thanks to our friends for coming along with us!

The Monster Truck Rally

And continuing with my 2012 catch up, here are some pics of Tim and Evan at the Monster Truck Rally they attended early December.  Evan was so excited about the trip with Dad, especially when he heard that his favorite  Monster Truck, Grinder would be there performing.

They went out to eat at IHOP first and then took the light rail train to Minneapolis for the  7pm show.  Tim wasn't sure how long Evan would make it and I was getting worried at the house waiting for them at 11pm when they still weren't home.  it wasn't long after 11 when they strolled in... a very sleepy Evan, but a very excited Evan!  Tim said he was smiles the whole time he was there and asking lots of questions about the whole thing.  Evan loved taking the train as well and thought the whole trip was wonderful!  Due to this, the whole Heuer clan may be taking a trip to the Monster Truck Rally when it returns in January.

 A self portrait - minus one little boy :-)

Grinder!

Happy Evan!

a truck having fun

I have to admit, I don't know a lot about Monster Truck racing, but apparently some people follow it like Nascar.  I am not completely sure about that, but Evan sure does think it is fun to watch and play with his little Monster Trucks.  He even has Emma somewhat excited to go in January.  We will see!

The holidazzle parade!

A few weeks ago we took the kids to Minneapolis to see the Holidazzle parade.  This was the first trip there for the two little ones and they were excited for a few things:  taking the light rail into Minneapolis and seeing the parade.

It was a bit of a rush to get there on time after work, picking up kids from preschool, making snacks, getting into warm clothes, finding the light rail station, etc, but we made it just in time to print tickets and jump on the train. 

The kids LOVED the train. That may have been their favorite part of the trip.  I always love their expressions when they see the tall buildings in Minneapolis and their wide eyes looking at everything.  The parade route wasn't overly busy when we got there, so we laid out our blanket and got settled in for the parade.  We were conveniently sitting right by a Caribou Coffee, so Tim graciously got us some hot coffee and HC for the kids.  Funny that the kids had absolutely no idea what the HC was that Tim kept referring too (hot chocolate) but they were pretty adamant that they needed it and got impatient waiting for the HC.  At one point Emma or Evan said "Mom! Just WHEN is Dad going to get back with that HC of ours."

Then - the parade started and they did like it. I wish the floats would have been a bit closer together, but overall, it was fun.  One highlight of the parade was the Peter Pan float.  The kids loved seeing captain hook and peter pan and REALLY liked it when the ticking alligator came up to Evan and opened his big mouth over Evan's head.  It was hilarious and he just looked up and smiled.

patiently waiting for the HC

Santa 

Pinocchio

The first float

Evan made a little friend right next to him at the parade and they were excitedly watching the parade together.  Emma enjoyed showing me all the twinkling lights and drinking her HC.


One of the funny parts of the whole night was Evan acting as the "expert" on the light rail and telling Emma all about it.  He took the train a week prior to the Monster Truck Rally in Minneapolis and really was the utmost authority on the light rail.

Christmas decorating

The first weekend in December saw us decorating the house for Christmas.  I had went to Michaels the Friday before and spent more money than planned on neat little Christmas decorating ideas for the kids and I.  I pulled them out earlier than planned as Evan got up around 6am that Saturday and was ready to start the day.

So, we headed downstairs to turn on some Christmas cartoons, make some coffee, and to start with the Christmas decorating. It wasn't long before Emma woke up as well and was eager to make some things as well.

I bought random branches, glittered items, poinsettia's and other holiday things from Michaels and we ended up with these:

Evan's creation

My bird table center - made from a simple living or other idea from online.

Emma's poinsettia creation

And Evan's flower creation

The kids really got into it and had a lot of fun decorating the house for the holidays. They get excited for any holiday and love it when I pull out the approriate house decorations.

That afternoon I was outside finding sticks for the bird creation I made and Evan was outside helping.  It was still not snowy out at this point so he was out driving his gator and putting every stick he could find in the back.  As I was looking at the sticks and cutting them to length, I noticed he would take a stick and run off.  A few second back he would come out empty handed and would grab another stick and run off with the same ending.  Back he comes with no stick, to just grab another one and leave.  Curious, I follow the little boy to find this:

sticks placed in corner of house

Sticks placed on metal post

Sticks placed on sill of door

And Evan by sticks

Come to find out, there were random sticks placed all over my yard... on the basketball hoop, in the garage, on the driveway.  Why -- One with a non- four year old mind may ask?? Well, he was decorating!!  And, he got mad when I accidentally stepped on one of the decorating sticks by the garage.

The next day was spent finding and decorating the Christmas tree!  We went to a different tree lot this year, one with no warming house, candy canes, or sleds, but that didn't stop the  kids from running around proclaiming that they had, indeed, found the best Christmas tree EVER!

More pics of the final product to come later!

Ice fishing

Evan has become quite fond of ice fishing the past few days we have been at the cabin.  He goes out with Tim every day and proceeds to chat his ear off, mess up a fishing pole, or drop something down the hole occasionally.  (today, it was a water bottle and we caught it before it sunk.)  Does Tim get frustrated?  Yes, but I can say that he truly enjoys having his little boy out there for amusement and for father-son bonding time.

This morning, we went out as a family.  While Emma doesn't get into ice fishing that much (other than the occasional - "Emma - I have a fish, want to reel it in?")  She now keeps herself occupied with her iPod touch, or visiting with the other ice fishing neighbors.

Very proud of her favorite Christmas gift!

Where is Evan?! With the camouflage shirt, snow pants and chair, it can be hard to spot the little man.

Tim putting a minnow on the hook. Something he does constantly while fishing with little kids.

Reeling in his minnow - to make sure it is still there.

Fishing with little kids takes patience.  They are never watching the bobber (or rarely are anyway) they are constantly reeling in their line to make sure they still have a minnow, they are constantly up and moving around as they get bored. Or - they feel the need to come in and out of the fish house and in doing so, step on fishing poles, drop things near the holes, or who knows what.  But, it is still fun. I remember ice fishing with my Dad when I was little and had fun.  The nice thing with the cabin, at least, is that we can come and go as we please.  We have a nice spacious fish house that comfortably seats 4-5 and that has a heater in it, so we are warm.  I try to pack snacks and bring out the movie player to keep the kids occupied, and if the fish are not biting, we go back in the house or do something else outside.

Evan was fishing with Tim on Friday afternoon (without him having a nap) and when Tim looks over at him, he notices that Evan's head has dropped and that he feel asleep while holding his fishing pole.  A few minutes later, he hears a thud and down goes the fishing pole while Evan is still sleeping!

All-in-all, we have fun fishing at the cabin and do it at least once a day. Thank goodness for a nice warm fish house!

a special visitor

Christmas was fabulous here!  The kids opened presents, ate candy and goodies, and laughed to their hearts delight. The holidays are so special with them. It is nice to be able to experience the holidays through a child's eyes AND to know that all the planning, shopping and wrapping is appreciated!

Christmas Eve night was great (more on the day festivities later).  But that night, after the kids were nestled all snug in their beds, Tim and I woke them up to a special surprise- Santa!

Wouldn't you know it, after I put on my Kerchief and Tim, his cap, and we were settling in for a long winters nap, we arose to a clatter and sprang from our bed to see what was the matter.  And to what should to our wondering eye appear - but, well, Santa Claus!

We got the kids out of their beds just as Santa was coming in the front door with a jolly Ho Ho Ho and jangling his jingle bells.  Emma took a look at Santa and ran back to her bed and Evan unfortunately wakes up hard if he doesn't do it on his own and was lightly crying the entire time.  I ran back and got Emma and put her on my lap as we watched Santa from upstairs, being very quiet of course so Santa wouldn't know that we were awake.  Santa put presents under the tree, ate a few cookies, drank some milk, grabbed the carrots for the reindeer, and with a merry Ho Ho Ho left the house.

Emma was wide eyed the entire time she was watching Santa move about downstairs and as she ran back into her bed, when we assume, Santa was flying away on his sleigh with the reindeer, I went in to chat with her.  She was pretty excited to see Santa and gave me big smile, wide happy eyes, and happy kicks with her feet as she drifted off to sleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head.

Evan was laid back in bed with hesitation by me that he will remember anything.  I wasn't even sure that he was totally awake for the whole thing and hasn't said much about seeing Santa, well, other than the stories that Emma has been telling people.

For me, it was really cool to see Emma excited to see Santa - although I was a bit surprised that she was nervous about it.  I thought she would want to run down the stairs after he left but she ran back to her room and snuggled under the blankets to wake up excitedly around 6:30 to want to open presents.

Maybe we will be lucky enough to see Santa again next year :-)

Santa comes to preschool

Evan had another Christmas program at his preschool this week!  He was learning Christmas songs there, as well, in order to perform a 10 minute concert in front of camera/iPhone yielding parents.  He and his little classmates marched in proudly with their little red noses and reindeer hats and impatiently rocked back-n-forth waiting for the songs to be played.

I somewhat forgot to dress him up for this concert -
but I figured this was at the end of the day and he wouldn't wear his tie all day anyway.

 They sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and then received some bells to ring for "Jingle Bells" and then they got a special surprise - Santa Clause came to visit!

Santa looking for Evan in his book

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Santa was a big hit with all the kids.  He had a nice leather bound book that he was able to look up all the little kids names and write down everything they wanted to Christmas.  When it was Evan's turn, Evan very confidently said "I want teenage mutant ninja turtles and an iPod touch!"  (which made Santa laugh because all the kids asked for an iPod touch.)  And, because Evan said it so proudly, Santa exclaimed, "Oh, what a decisive little boy you are!" because he didn't hesitate at all.  While he wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, he did give him a big high five and Christmas card.  It seemed all the kids thought this was a good idea, as they were all going to their Christmas station and making presents and cards for Santa.

Next came snacks such as muffins, cheese and crackers, vege's and fruit and then home.  But, before he went to bed he asked me with his big blue eyes, "Mama, do you think Santa will come to school tomorrow too?"

More like Evan

And then.. shortly after his preschool concert, he went from this:

To this:

After church, he got home and went up to change.  I had to laugh when he came down looking like this.  No real surprise... his beloved tie dye, with an added embellishment.

The Sunday School concert

I have heard Evan singing Christmas songs for the past few weeks and didn't really think much of it, until we got a note in the mail from our church about the upcoming Preschool Christmas Concert! Ah yes, that explains the "Away in the Manager" sung by a little four year old. So, we practiced the songs and the hand motions and tried to get him excited about it. The day before the concert, Emma and I took him shopping. She was very excited about the prospect of dressing her baby brother and was excitedly showing him one Christmas sweater and then a Cars holiday shirt and a bunch of randomness. He chose a red striped tie. And, was pretty excited about it. I picked up a light blue button down shirt to wear with it and we were done. (and hoping he wasn't going to wear camouflage pants with them.) The day of the concert - he looked like this:      (sorry they are blurry)

The one thing I didn't catch? That he was wearing his black snowboots. Overall he did great. He didn't do the hand motions to the songs, but I was pretty proud of my little man.

The Heuer Nativity

To try to interject some of the true meaning of the holiday, we have been reiterating the Christmas story for the kids. We put up our nativity, read some of the story books we have about the night that Jesus was born, and talked about the fun of giving and not always receiving. For a few nights, it must have sunk in as the kids were constantly putting on Christmas plays. They were, uhhhh..... entertaining to watch. Especially when Mary would burst out in random songs, such as Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer or the Star Spangled Banner. Joseph has a bit part in all the plays, as did the camel. It was pretty much all about Mary. 

Meet Joseph - a very rockin' Joseph wearing tie-dye




The blessed couple with Baby Jesus (aka Mater).




The camel (Sage) just wouldn't cooperate.  So, Joseph tried to keep him in line.