New Years Eve

We got back from Wisconsin on New Years Eve, and after unpacking the van decided to make our Gingerbread houses! 

We did something a little different this year for New Years Eve... we let our three oldest stay up with us until midnight. They all did great!

Before we put Lucas to bed at 10pm, we let them celebrate so he wouldn't miss out... of course we did it again at midnight too!  They loved the Silly String, noise makers, and party hats!

We watched movies and ate yummy things like shrimp, steak fondue, and fried cheese.  

And everyone slept until 9am the next morning.  

Samuel, New Years Day  :)

Christopher fun

Our Elf, Christopher, popped back in the day after Thanksgiving and the kids had fun putting him in a different place/scenario each night for the others to find the next morning!  His last appearance is always Christmas morning and then he is packed away to wait for the next Christmas season.

  This is one of their favorite traditions!

A few more

favorite pictures from our time in Wisconsin:

 Ruby

Grandma has the BEST dress up clothes!

Sledding!

I have missed out on the last few years of sledding in Wisconsin due to napping/nursing babies or being pregnant.  This year I got to enjoy it fully!  And it was Lucas's first real sledding experience!

He LOVED it!  Samuel liked it as well but go his fill with just a few times down the hill.  Nathan and Emma went back down again as soon as they made it back up the hill! 

 Heading back up the hill... you can see the sled launcher that Lucas went down without a sled... we didn't see him until he was on his way down!

 Emma road down all by herself in Grandpa's big sled!

SNOW!!!

One of our favorite things about Wisconsin in the winter is the SNOW!  We had an awesome day to play outside before it turned bitter cold!

 Cousins made it even more awesome!

Daddy helped them make a very cool snowman!