Janary Photo Session

Here is our annual January Photo Session we do in our living room. Always fun to see just how much they've grown!

 

 Clearly she was one happy lady during this photo session.

 

Pretty hard to look at this picture and NOT feel insanely blessed.

Friends and Family Visit

******DISCLAIMER....This is the last Christmas post and then I am officially caught up. Ridiculous I know.*************
We were able to squeeze in one trip away from the farm to visit family and friends this Christmas. With the sicknesses and the weather it wasn't possible to get everywhere, but next time we will.  Nat did his annual ice fishing trip with my cousins' husbands and I took advantage of the opportunity to be with my cousins. Kim and Stacey are sisters and their mom, Irene, is dad's sister. We are all about 9 months apart in age so we grew up very close. I can honestly say that there were few things that I loved more than having them come to grandma's farm to visit. I always made sure I had an overnight bag packed "just in case" a sleepover might happen. I'd sneak the bag into the car and hide it so dad wouldn't see it and then when the time was right I would BEGGGG dad like no other and tell him I already had a bag packed (How can he say no to a plan like that?). My SWEET grandma never turned us down. EVER!! She truly was a SAINT and I had one amazing childhood because of it. Kim, Stacey, and I have played together, traveled to China and New York together, and are now going through parenthood together. We don't get to see each other NEARLY as often as I would like, but when you have as many kids as we do, it isn't as easy as it once was. We still make the most out of the time we do have together. Stacey and Kim's husbands as well as their dad and brother Kevin all went ice fishing and we took care of the kids for the 3 days. All EIGHT of them. Yep....8 kids under the age of 5!! We all stayed in my Aunt Irene's house (Talk about a SAINT!!) and had an absolute blast. Pretty sure none of the kids slept well because they were so excited about the party that was CONSTANTLY going on, but it was all TOTALLY worth it. We even ventured with our crew to the mall for some play time. Can you say CRAZY?  One lady thought we were a daycare. :-)  True story. Hopefully we'll be able to get together again in the summer so the kids can have some good farm time together. Here are some pictures of our crew as we've grown over the years.

Here we are as little girls at grandma's farm. Not exactly sure what I'm doing to Stacey here.....

Enjoying the summer nights in Minnesota pre marriage and kids. 

Such a special day to have them by my side!

Right after Lenny was born! Look at that head of hair on Myles!! 

Fun at Zinsfest 2011. Our little crew is growing!

This was the actual scene at Irene's house. Couch cushions were on the floor, kids were on tables, and everyone was HAPPY!!

 Pretty sure it was WAYYYY past bedtime here and the boys were running circles around the kitchen and then decided to be reindeer. Such an epic slumber party!!

I couldn't forget to post this picture of my cousin David reading to the boys. That poor guy read more little kid books to these kids in one weekend than he probably has in his entire life. He was staying with my aunt and was SUCH a trouper. I haven't gotten to spend much time with him in a long time and it was so fun to get to catch up. He did leave one night and went to the LONGEST movie that was playing at the movie theater that night,  but I can't say I blame him....at all.

The girls with their girls!! 

Kim and Olive, Laura and Natalie, Stacy and Eleanor

Our crazy crew!! Myles, Lenny, Ty, Eleanor, Teddy, Olive, Noah, and Natalie

We were happy to get them all sitting in the same spot at the same time.
 

Natalie and Olive sharing some breakfast! I was hoping Olive's amazing eating skills would rub off on Natalie, but not so much....

Our other trip was to see my T and Chris who also live in the Twin Cities area.  The boys got to play and run and yell and just be boys and it was WONDERFUL!! T and I got to have our weekly "date night" in person where we watch the Big Bang Theory together and comment on it. Theses trips are just NEVER long enough.

Love Love LOVE  my time with these two!!

Myles is 5!!!

FIVE??? REALLY?? It's amazing to think that 5 years have passed since that very special day when Myles came into this world and made me a mom. My new Years have never been the same since then! (Yes his birthday is January 1st and it is February, but I got it done....) Myles is my sweet boy who is very caring and has a lot of love for everyone. This year has been really fun to see how he's grown into the role of Natalie's protector. She adores him and he's always so sweet and gentle to her. They will have a great relationship for sure. On a different note though, I've officially entered the world of denial where I am refusing to accept the fact that he will be in kindergarten next year. If I keep pretending it won't happen then we can avoid it right? :-)
A few of my favorite quotes from Myles this year were, "Dad, you are so special. Do you know who else is special? The Easter Bunny because he poops Jelly Beans".
"I was filled with joy and my heart beated so fast!" (Said to me when I told him I would snuggle with him.
"Mom, today in gym I was pretending I was God and I was telling Aiden about me. I told him that even though he is a bad guy (They were playing bad guys as well as God....naturally) I will still love him because I am the King of Heaven".
When Myles wanted to stay up late I told him he should be tired because he didn't get a nap and he said, "Don't worry, I can handle it".
"Mom, I don't like you.....I ADORE you!!!"

Here is how quickly 5 years flies by....

 1 day old

 1 year old...Look at those cheeks and all that hair!

 2 years old!

 3 years old! It's crazy to think this is how old Ty is now.

 4 Years Old

My big 5 year old!!

This year Myles asked me for a superhero cake. This is the first year that we've done a fun cake while on the farm and it was a little hard not having all of my normal decorating stuff, but we made it work. I was really bummed because it didn't come out quite at well as I had hoped. The S wasn't perfect and the colors were NOT the bold colors that Superman is use to, but Myles liked it. When I asked him if the cake was ok he said, "No it's PERFECT Mom!" Melted my heart!!! He sure knows how to make a mama feel loved!! Can't believe how quickly these first 5 have flown by but look forward to all the new memories that we get to make together during year 5!!