It's a Boy!!

We finally had our ultrasound last Friday and much to our surprise we are having a BOY! We are very excited! You can imagine Ryan's excitement in the room as the technician announced that it was pretty obvious that it was a boy. I think he is feeling at least a little less out numbered with this news. However, our little Maddie's reaction was a little different. As soon as the ultrasound technician said it was a boy, there was a cheer from Ryan and then you heard Maddie all of a sudden say "GROSS!" She wanted a girl, however, she is going to be so excited when she sees this little boy. With a household of girls stuff, now we have some shopping to do! :)

Bunk Beds!

We are in the process of redoing the girls room to get ready for the baby. The only thing Kaylie really asked for for Christmas was bunk beds. She told me she was going to ask Santa for them so we didn't have to spend our money. We had it delivered yesterday, so it was an early Christmas present for them, if we are going to call it that. They were very surprised when they got home from daycare/school to see them set up in there room. Maddie isn't so sure about them. She wouldn't really sleep in her "new" bed last night. She just cried and said "I want my old bed back". Might take some getting used to but I think it just another one of her excuses to not go to bed. Now we move on to painting the walls and getting the crib up. Three kids in one room, WOW, is it possible???? It's going to have to be since neither one of our girls want to move to the bedroom downstairs. It will all work out!

Christmas at Mark and Anne's

We had our first Christmas celebration on Sunday at Mark and Anne's house. It was fun to get together and celebrate. The girls always enjoy themselves over there. Here are a few pictures from the day:



The girls opening presents.


"The Girls"

Auntie Rah Rah, Olivia, Madelyn, and Kaylie

Church Christmas program

Kaylie and Madelyn had their church Christmas program on Sunday. They both did a great job and were super excited about it. It was Maddie's first "performance" in front of people. She was a little leary about going up there but once she was up there she was excited to show off the songs she had learned.


Getting ready for the program


We didn't get any good shots of them up in front. Unfortunately we were pretty far back and it was so dark in there. This is really the only picture you can somewhat see them.

Kaylie's School Christmas Program

Here are a few pictures of Kaylie's school Christmas program. She performed "The Littlest Christmas Tree." She was an elf and did a great job! It was fun to see her say her lines after rehearsing them many times at home!



Kaylie and her good friend Abby.


Kaylie's Class

Close up of Kaylie performing.

Jingle Bell Rock

Kaylie had a fun time dancing with the New Richmond Dance team when she did "Jingle Bell Rock". She and 90 other girls participated and learned a dance in 2 hours on a Saturday and then performed at a high school basketball game halftime. She did great and really enjoyed herself. It was fun to watch her dance! Here are a few pictures from it.


Kaylie practicing her dance at practice.



Kaylie and her good friend Shaye practicing right before performing.

Kaylie performing at halftime.

Christmas shopping

So we attempted to start our Christmas shopping this weekend but found some other things to do instead. We headed to Mall of America because I wanted to go to the American Girl doll store to get the girls some things for their dolls. The girls decided they wanted to get their dolls hair done in the salon they have their for the dolls. So we spent most of our afternoon in just that one store. Ryan was pretty excited :) He already loves that store so much after having lunch in their cafe last year and the dolls got about as much food as he did. Oh well, it is a fun stop for the girls and they love their dolls. We still have a ton of shopping to do but we always have next weekend!


Maddie showing off her Bitty Baby after they put a bow in her hair.


Kaylie showing off her American girl doll after her hair was done.



Kaylie waiting patiently as her dolls sits in the salon chair and gets her hair done.

Maddie waiting for her Bitty babys "hair" to be done.

(they don't exactly have hair but Maddie thought her baby needed a bow like her)

Swimming Lessons

Here are a few pictures from Kaylie's first go around at swimming lessons. Much to my surprise they are going very well. Even though Kaylie is used to swimming and loves to be in the water and spends a lot of her summer in Mama and Papas pool, she very much dislikes getting her face wet. She defintely has put on her game face for swimming lessons and does whatever the teacher asks her to do, which we are very proud of her for. We were told that this was just a slow introduction to water so we thought it would be perfect for her, however, they just jumped right into going underwater and having them do the back float and front float which she is doing great at.




Kaylie and her teacher getting into the water.



Madelyn enjoying some time in the water while Kaylie is at swimming lessons.

Getting ready for Christmas!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner and being the procrastinator that I am, No I haven't even started shopping yet! Oh well! It always gets done!
Here are a few pictures of us getting ready for the Christmas season. The first few are from church and making our advent wreath. Our family had fun having dinner at church and then making this project together. The girls really enjoyed it and are proud of their end results as you can see. The other pictures are from when we got our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. We had fun decorating it and our house!




The girls holding the advent wreath they made.


Kaylie



Ryan and the girls working hard at putting it together.

Enjoying a candy cane while our tree was being prepped.

Kaylie enjoying some hot apple cider after picking out our tree.

Olivia has arrived!!!

We are so excited to have our new baby cousin/niece here!! Olivia has finally arrived and she is soooooooo adorable (as you can see)!!! Our family had fun visiting them at the hospital last night! Sarah looked great and seemed to be doing awesome. The girls are so excited to have her here! They have been waiting and waiting and guessing at when her arrival would come. When we got home from the hospital, Kaylie went and got one of her baby dolls and swaddled it and was rocking it last night and whispering to her "Olivia". It was pretty cute!
Congratulations Sarah!!! You are going to be a great mom!!




Adorable Little Olivia


Mama and Papa with their grandkids!



Sarah and Olivia

Halloween 2009

Our little Wizard of Oz girls


Glinda the good witch in my old flowergirl dress



We certainly cheated this year! We weren't up to the whole carving thing so we just bought things that they could push into the pumpkin. Here they are showing off their end results.




Our little Dorothy holding Toto in her basket.

So it's only going on a couple weeks past Halloween, but thought I would post a few pictures of the girls and their Halloween fun. They had a great day! Kaylie was busy all day with birthday parties and trick or treating. Madelyn went as Dorothy. Wizard of Oz is probably one of her favorite movies right now so she insisted she was Dorothy. Kaylie decided she wanted to be Glinda the good witch from the movie.
We had a little harder time finding Kaylie's costume until my mom remembered she had saved a flowergirl dress that I wore when I was 4 or 5 in my aunt Sue's wedding. It worked perfectly! It looked just like Glinda's dress on the Wizard of Oz! Now the only probably was Glinda's tall crown! We couldn't find one to buy anywear! Believe me I searched high and low and had to settle for making one. I am definitely not a crafty person but she was happy with it and thats all that matters!

Kaylie's Kindergarten Halloween

Kaylie and her teacher Mrs. Jacobson


Kaylie and her class



Kaylie singing "If your scary and you know it!"




Kaylie parading around the school with her class.


Madelyn and I had fun watching Kaylie in her Halloween parade around her school and at her Halloween program in her classroom where she sang some fun songs that she has learned in Kindergarten so far this year. Kaylie was Glinda the good witch from the Wizard Of Oz.

Mickey's Road Show

One of my girls favorite things to do is to go to Disney shows. We went to one last Sunday at the Xcel- Mickey's Road Show. The girls loved it and had a great time, despite Kaylie not feeling well! Mama and Papa came with us and enjoyed the fun too! Next up- Disney on ice. They are especially excited for this years Disney on Ice because it is all about princesses. Here are a few pictures from the show.

Annual Trip to Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we did our annual apple orchard and pumpkin patch visit. We FINALLY had a nice weekend to do it. With the cold temps. and the snow lately, I thought we wouldn't get this visit in but thankfully Saturday was beautiful! We went and took pictures at the pumpkin patch first and then went to the apple orchard. The girls had fun looking around and wanting their picture taken by everything. As we left the place, Maddie exclaimed "I had a great day!" and that makes all these little trips worth it in the end.





Maddie looking at the sheep. My kids are defintely not animal people, which is fine by me. They didn't want to feed or pet the animals there and they hardly wanted to go near them because of their smell. I guess I need to get them in the country more often!




Have to get a picture by the pink tractor every year!

Trip to Apple Orchard

We took in the beautiful day to spend at the Apple orchard as well! The girls enjoyed picking apples, going on a hayride, and looking at all the animals. It was a fun day and the girls really enjoyed it!




The girls showing off their perfect apples.

Ryan, Kaylie, and Maddie getting ready to go on the hayride.

Madelyn picking more apples.

Kaylie finding the perfect apple.