A Few More Shots From Christmas

Here are some pictures, mostly of the kids opening their presents.

This is from Santa

....also from Santa

Uncle Jon had her Barbie taped up pretty good. 

One of Lara's gifts from Henry

We had a houseful this year. It was our first time having Christmas, and the first gathering at the new house. Henry's mom and brother came, my parents and brother, and Fumi and Chizuka also came. We enjoyed a prime rib dinner and had fun just spending time together. The kids got a few fun games, and we played all of them I think. They loved Twister and Pop the Pig, and the adults had fun with Jenga and Farkle. The weather was great so the boys went four wheeling, and Henry and my brother used the Deuce to pull a tree down, while Larry helped the girls put their roller coaster track together. We had a great couple of days! So much fun, that THIS happened.....

 Larry was out like a light so we decorated him a little bit.

Here are a few from Christmas Eve too. I almost forgot that they opened one big bag from Grr-ya-ya and Papa the first night they were here.

Legos with Papa

Pick-up Sticks with Grr-ya-ya!

We finished the night by making cut-out cookies. We left one for Santa, and what do you know, he ate it while he was here dropping off presents for the kids! It was a great couple of days!

~My Ladies~

Merry Christmas!

Henry got me a new camera for Christmas. I've been playing with it a little bit. It is so ugly outside though. We need some more snow to make it more fun.

We had a little fun with Larry after he fell asleep in the chair. 

He had no idea until he woke up about 20 minutes later. 

Here is one of our super-cool gifts this year. My uncle made this for our caterpillars that we plan to keep next year so we can have monarchs again!

I need to find my cord for my old camera, which has all of the fun pictures of the kids opening their gifts on it. I will be back after I find it. Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas!

We finally moved into the new place a few weeks ago. It is taking a while to get everything organized. There are so many rooms to put everything in! Once we're completely done I'll go through pictures and post some. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the girls in their outfits from Henry's mom, which they plan on wearing for Christmas. Some of the branches of our tree turned a little brown while it was packed away, but I put most of them on the back side, and I think it actually looks okay. Dang white trees.

Lara made these at school.

Lara is sitting here at the kitchen table working on her list for Santa. I see her first item is an IPad. I hope she isn't disappointed if she doesn't get one, because it's not very likely. I asked her if she knows how much they cost, and she reminded me that Santa doesn't have to pay for anything. I may be in trouble this year. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving! Henry and I had Thanksgiving at our house yesterday. My parents, Henry's mom and brother Larry, and our friends Fumi and Chizuka came to celebrate. We enjoyed a huge meal followed by pie, and since it was so nice outside, some of us played on the four wheelers. We didn't partake in any Black Friday shopping. I never have, and probably never will. We were ready for bed around 5pm!

Lara stayed busy making name cards for everyone who didn't have one from last year.

This year's ended up a little fancier than last year's.

She also was a big help in the kitchen, peeling potatoes. A little slow, but they got the job done.

Here is everyone except Fumi

It was a great day! I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner already. We will be celebrating in the new house this year. Can't wait!

It Snowed Today....

....and I am missing these days already...

 I hope spring comes quickly. Or at least February, when we head back down to Florida with the fam!

Happy Halloween!

I can't believe Halloween already came and went. This year we had a skeleton bride and a doctor. Ayla and I went to Lara's school parade, then the 3 of us went over to Stillwater. Henry's restaurant closed early for an employee Halloween party, so we hung out around there and went trick or treating in Stillwater in my friend Naomi's neighborhood, with her and her 2 boys, Owen and Max. We finished before it got too dark so we didn't freeze, and got just the right amount of candy. Afterwards we went back to the restaurant for a couple hours to eat pizza and hang out with employees.

I didn't have a costume so I dressed as Henry Chan for a couple hours. Maybe next year we'll come up with something good.
I had parent/teacher conferences for Lara last week and she is doing very well. Her teacher loves her and said so many good things about her. I'm so happy and proud of her!
Henry is getting closer to closing on the house, maybe even later this week. It has been such a long process. Hopefully we'll be able to have Thanksgiving at the new place this year! That's all for now. I will share some pictures of the new place once we get moved.

End of Summer

Well our summer is officially over. Booo! We finished it off by going to the Minnesota State Fair with my mom and dad. We got there early on the first day and had great weather, but it did get a little warm in the afternoon. The kids rode about 10 rides each and we ate a bunch of junk while taking it all in.

We went through the Little Farm Hands exhibit again. It was really slow and hot so I think we'll pass on this if we go to the fair again next year.

In other news, we've been "raising" monarch butterflies for the last month or so. My dad kept finding tons of the caterpillars up by their house, so we rounded up some big jars and gave them sticks to climb on and milk weed to munch on. We have released probably 7 or 8 so far at our house. We have one cocoon left, which should be ready to go any day now. It has been a lot of fun doing this! Here is one that we released in Siren.

Lara started 1st grade last Friday! She was very excited about it! We had picture/meet your teacher day last Thursday and she brought all of her supplies in. She is very excited that she has her own desk this year instead of sitting at tables. Her "boyfriend" is even in her class, and one other girl that is a friend of hers from her Kindergarten class. Her grade has 6 classes, so there are tons of kids to get to know! She tells me that the boy she sits next to is quite naughty so I always enjoy her stories when I pick her up. She is enjoying it so far and really hasn't had any homework yet. She reads every night in bed so that makes me really happy. : )

That's about it for now. Nothing too exciting is going on in our lives. We're hoping to make it back to Como one more time while the weather is nice, and looking forward to making a trip to the apple orchard soon! I can't believe where the time has gone!