Happy birthday, Erik! 

We love you! 

Photo Op

Welcomed a new "member" to the family recently...a new camera!! 

I've been having fun pushing all the buttons and trying to

figure out what the heck I'm doing with such a camera.

Here's my fave from this week's shots.

Helps to have such beautiful subjects in my presence at all times! 

:-)

Post-Christmas Fun

The girls and I tried to make the most of our Christmas

vacation with some fun activities.  We finally got to see

Tangled which the girls were dying to see, spent a couple

days at an indoor amusement park and hit good

'ol Chuck E. Cheese to name a few. 

Here's some pics from the week...

What's wrong with this picture? 

Here's a hint (and some telephoto). 

Yep, that's right...that's MY BABY dangling from the ceiling by a rope!!!! 

This does not do good things to a mother's heart. 

Neither does this. 

Against my better judgement, the girl was doing this thing. 

...and she did! 

Thankfully she has ONE brave parent to accompany her since she was too little to go alone. 

I can not believe what you just did, you little stinker! 

Brenin gave it a shot too and made it across the first plank, a MAJOR step for her since she's got her mama's love of solid ground. 

Daddy love. 

Lazer tag!  (FYI:  I WON...don't mess with the mama bear!) 

Climbing wall! 

There, now isn't this much more fun than dangling from the rooftop?? 

Never saw an indoor ferris wheel until this place popped up.  When you live in Wisconsin, you have to made due with what you have!  :-) 

My Chuck E. Cheese beauty!

My sister celebrated her birthday for the SECOND year in a row at Chuck E. Cheese (is she a mama or what?!?)!  We're planning a more civilized celebration when we can leave the littles at home with the papas.  Happy birthday  week  month, Kristin! 

All this running and celebrating and fun-having has left my babes P-A-R-T-I-E-D  O-U-T!!  As the meltdowns grew more and more frequent, I knew it was a good thing the season was drawing to an end and rest was on its way.  We're taking the week off of school to recoup and "just be."  Brenin already has plans to visit her all time favorite place tonight, the library, to load up on "a big huge pile of books" to spend the rest of her week with. 

Christmas Pics!

Babysitting Mama + Luca = Joy

(EXCEPT she happens to call it "Baby Mama" and asked me loudly in the store the other day if she could play "Baby Mama" when she got home...one of those proud parenting moments!) :-)

Brenin's still about all things spy and received a real briefcase and enough spy equipment to last her a lifetime!

:-)

Grandma and Grandpa strike again!  Brenin's been taking acoustic guitar lessons, and the strings on her new Hannah Montana electric guitar are the same, so it was ready for play!  As we were falling asleep that night at Grandma & Grandpa's house, Brenin whispered to me..."I just wanna play it ALL DAY."  :-)

Grandma & Luca

Grandpa made Luca her very own big girl desk and she was BEYOND thrilled. 

Thank you, Grandpa!

Tuck

Fella'

And what 5 year old little girl all dressed in pink DOESN'T want a cordless drill of her own for Christmas??  Luca says she's going to be a builder like Grandpa when she grows up.  I've already heard her on the phone with Grandpa making plans to use her new drill.  :-) 

My dad rocks out on the banjo for HOURS every day, and my sister had this shirt made up for him as a gift...Ban-Jovi.  :-)  (Sorry the pic is a little blurry...Luca was the photographer on this one). 

Rapunzel Polly Pocket is just right for my little hair braider! 

Hours of entertainment wrapped in those shiny packages! 

Happy days are those of Christmas!  

What's Under YOUR Tree?

I just had to post this picture because it's a sight I've seen MANY times this Christmas season...sweet little Luca feet hanging out from under the tree.  For some reason, it just seemed like a good place to hang out to her this year!  Sometimes she'd take ornaments off the tree and play with them like dolls...other times I'd find Polly Pockets or other little toys under there that she'd been playing with...and other times I'm pretty sure she was just hangin' out!  lol  Quite a goofball, this one! 

Jack the Elf

Christmas was even more fun this year with our new "Elf on the Shelf" named Jack!  I loved seeing what kind of trouble our friend, Daphne's elf got into last year on her blog and was so surprised to find one in the mail one day from Danny's sister! 

The elf comes with a story about "the elf on the shelf" reporting back to Santa.  It was so fun to find him hiding in a new place each morning (or at least the mornings "he remembered" to move).  He got into all sorts of Christmas trouble. 

The day Jack arrived, I found Brenin sitting on the floor staring into the little box he came in saying, "Oh Jack, I just wish I knew how old you are!"  :-)  I thought that was so cute that that was what was important to her in the whole concept...oh, the spirit of a 7 year old!  :-) 

Jack was a fun new tradition for our favorite holiday!