{ oh christmas tree }

Being in the new house means something very exciting for Christmas - we have room for a tree! I thought it would be fun to head out and go cut down our own at a tree farm but life got in the way and well, we got lazy. So we headed a few miles away to a local floral shop owned by a friend that opens a tree lot for the holidays.

We hyped the excursion to Oliver and Stella and ended up with a Noble Fir. Oliver was less than enthused, he must have wanted a Fraser.

We loaded her up and hauled her home.

We made a pit stop on the way to let O and S pick out an ornament at Patina. After 10 minutes steering them away from the $10 breakable ornaments that they loved, they ended up with cupcake ornaments. Little did we know that these would cause major issues once we got home because they actually thought they could eat them. Should have spent the extra $15.

It was fun to see how excited they got about the light and ornaments.

Stella took the job very seriously.

Oliver was especially fond of the hockey player ornaments. Unfortunately that has led to broken sticks on both of them. Oops.

And we've found out that the promise that a Noble Fir will only shed 5 needles total only applies if you don't have toddlers shaking the lower branches vigorously!

Nonetheless, we are loving having a real tree to put us in the holiday spirit!

{ brown bear, brown bear }

With temps in the 50s last week, we headed to the zoo for a final visit with the outdoor animals. It seems every time we go, they get more and more excited about the animals and watching them. This time was no exception!

If only Stella knew how amazing it was that she was face to face with a brown bear, with just inches of glass separating them!

And I'm not sure who tired who out more......the twins or the wolverine?

{ brotherly love }

 

A few weeks ago I dropped Oliver and Stella off at Friday Morning Out. Oliver was extra clingy and not wanting me to leave but I just figured he was having an "off" day. About an hour and a half later I got a call from their teacher, "Miss Jane", saying that Oliver wasn't acting like himself (not participating, not playing when they were outside, etc.). She said he wasn't actively sick but I decided to cut my morning "off" short and head back to pick them up. When I arrived, I found Oliver like this:

 

Literally sound asleep in the middle of a toddler classroom. Ten 2 year olds busy playing, running, making noise and there he laid. I quickly packed up their stuff and as I was getting ready to go, Miss Jane told me that earlier, Stella had kneeled next to Oliver and rubbed his back. Seriously, how cute is that?!? She really does like him after all!

While they have many moments of fighting, hitting, biting (yes, they STILL try to bite each other every so often) they are having more and more moments of caring and sweetness towards each other. I had to capture another one of these moments on video because it just melts my heart. We don't see it every night but they often exchange this before heading to their own rooms before bedtime.

{ turkey day }

This Thanksgiving was extra special because it was the first real holiday meal and celebration that we have hosted in our new house!

 

And it was even more fun because Oliver and Stella were really excited for the "party" and liked talking about the holiday. Though when we talked about eating turkey for Thanksgiving, Oliver would get very serious and say "no, no eat turkey.....we only pretend to eat turkey". A vegetarian in the making?

They also contributed by making some table decorations in art class

The prep started the day before when I began working on the dessert, a Double Carrot Cake Cheesecake.

If you've ever made cheesecake from scratch, you know it isn't an easy task. It involved baking the cheesecake in an inch of hot water, cooling for a few hours, in the fridge for a few more, and overnight in the freezer. There were a few panics along the way (long story!) but it ended up being super yummy! How can it not be with this as the layers: carrot cake, cream cheese frosting, cheesecake, cream cheese frosting, carrot cake, cream cheese frosting, and then sprinkled with carrot cake.

Grandpa/Grandma C, Shawn, and the Christensens joined us and helped fill the table.

With contributions from everyone, we stuffed ourselves with a lot of good food. Which, for the kids, was topped off with dirt dessert cake, worms and all!

A very blessed and thankful day. Gobble, gobble!

{ halloween }

Thought I better get around to recapping Halloween activities before the next major holiday comes and goes.

Halloween was a week long celebration this year. It was kicked off the week before Halloween with trick or treating at Kowalski's. They traveled up and down the aisles of the grocery store and quickly caught on to the fact that treats were being handed out.

Next up, there was a Halloween event at the 50th and France shopping district. Most of the stores had their doors open for the kids to go in and out trick or treating. Oliver had a death grip on his candy bucket and refused to let us help him carry it. Pretty sure he was afraid we would sneak a piece of candy out of it! One of the other highlights of the event was a fire truck tour.

The next day was our annual "friends" Halloween party. We have all gotten the kiddos together for Halloween since they were itty-bitty babies. For reference, this was them two years ago:

And this year:

Extra fun: Pumpkin = Pinata, Giraffe = Lobster, Lamb = Lamb, Hotdog = Dino, Zebra = (pink) Owl, Lion = (blue) Owl

Halloween day morning we headed to a local park for a preschool Halloween party. The highlight, hands down, was the bounce house. Followed closely by taste testing each other's "sucker pops" (as they call them).

Halloween eve Kyle and Elizabeth hosted a pre-trick or treating neighborhood gathering at their house. 

Then we headed out for the real fun!   

And quickly realized that it takes two year olds a long time to walk from house to house, especially when one side of our block has houses with 10+ stairs leading up to them. Oliver and Stella were really cute - after leaving a house they would say "we go to next house". They had also rehearsed their "trick or treat......hoot, hoot". 

Thankfully after one day they had forgotten about their candy loot and it was shipped off to Chop's work. His co-workers can better handle the sugar rush than toddlers! 

Looking forward to many more years of fun Halloween events. HOOT! 

{ frosty the snowman }

We had two very excited two year olds in the house this morning when they saw the white stuff falling. They wondered when they got to go out and built a Frosty!

{ 100 push-ups }

I did it! One zero zero push-ups. After starting out the program at being able to do 9 consecutive push-ups, I've come a long way.

It all started when a friend in my running group decided to do the "100 Pushup Challenge" (click on link to see the program). A bunch of us jumped on board and decided to give the 6 week challenge a try. I was not a believer but as the weeks progressed and the numbers kept getting higher and higher, it seemed manageable.

We all got together last week for the official performance of 100 push-ups. It was really fun, but guess how many push-ups I've done since last Tuesday? Zero :)!

{ tough luck stella }

Stella has had a rough few days around here.......

Sunday = sick, not eating, and throwing up.

Monday = a fall that left her with a fat, bruised lip and a trip to the ER for 3 stitches in the back of her head.

Both of these things, coupled with the daylight savings time change (which always equates to less sleep with kids in the house), has left everyone in this house hoping for a better week ahead!

{ fall color }

Last week there were some beautiful fall leaves on the trees (and ground). Thankfully I snapped a few pictures because after some wind and rain late last week, they are gone!

Just as the wind and rain ruined the fall colors, our very pesky neighborhood squirrels ruined the pumpkins that we picked up last week.

Oliver and Stella LOVE pumpkins (pointing out every single one that we drive by) this year. We brought two home, set them temporarily on the back patio table, and within an hour they were half devoured!

{ boo badgers }

And when I say "boo" Badgers, I don't mean the Halloween kind of boo. We had headed two weekends ago to the Lodge to see who would take home the axe in the rival Minnesota vs. Wisconsin football game.

If the game had been determined by whichever team had the cutest fans, Minnesota would have definitely won.

Wouldn't you agree?

Grandma and Grandpa C held a football party "tailgate" around the fire pit outside. It was an absolutely beautiful morning with the fog just lifting over the lake.

Oliver and Stella wouldn't have noticed though because they spent the entire 2 hours we were outside at the tailgate digging the candy corn and m&m's out of the snack mix dish!

Meanwhile, the boys made sure to let everyone on the lake know who they were cheering for.

Unfortunately the Gophers ended up suffering another loss to the Badgers. Though from the looks of this picture, both teams took a pretty big hit that day.