Santa??
We are still not sure about Santa in our family. Katelynn needed her cousin Drew to help her be brave (we are hoping this works in the wedding they are in next fall too!) This is the closest she got which is actually better than before.....baby steps!! We had a wonderful Christmas at Craig's parents Friday. Austin had his moments but the kids were all good. The adults had fun playing the new and IMPROVED Clue when the kids went to bed!!

More Christmas Fun!

Our Christmas with the Schwantz side started with sledding!! It was acutally nice enough to be outside and the kids LOVED it! Austin was so mad when we had to go inside (his mom was cold!!) We look forward to more sledding at Gpa Steve and Gma Connie's this winter!

Santa stopped at the Schwantz's!
After spending a wonderful Xmas Eve at Jen's Gma Lila's in Perham we came home Christmas Day to our house to find our stockings full!! The kids had fun opening gifts from Santa and finding things in the stockings. We went to Chuck and Dar's for the Gulsvig Christmas, and after that we came back home for our own presents!!

Christmas Program
The program had been rescheduled from last sunday to today. It was SOOOO cute! Katelynn is in the front left....kind of hard to see in the picture. They sang great songs. Austin even sat through some of it...thanks to Auntie Rae Rae's treats!!

More Christmas Fun!! The kids had fun opening presents and playing with them all day. There wasn't even any fighting over new toys!! When the kids went to bed we watched Mamma Mia!! We all love it. Bryant had to walk home at 11:30 in the blizzard as he was leaving for the Vikings game this am...so he didn't stay but the rest of us did! He ended up not going because of the roads so we all scrambled to get ready for Katelynn's Xmas program!!

Burgau family Christmas!
I have to dedicate one blog section just to my Mom!! She did such a fantastic job making our Christmas so wonderful. She had a beautiful table set and made a fantastic dinner! (and supper and breakfast!). Thanks MOM!!
We have started a tradition where we all stay over night...even though we live a few blocks away....so we can have some time together after the kids go to bed. Every corner in the house is taken by someone and it is quite hilarious! All the kids were so good all day and most of the night! Everyone even slept in!

Weekend of Fun!!

So much to catch up on!! We had a busy, but fun weekend!

First....My Little Girl turned 4!!!!

We celebrated at Chuck E Cheese on Friday! She is soooooo brave now that she's 4!! (just kidding she still freaked out when Chuck E actually walked by our table!) It was totally chaotic and expensive, but Katelynn seemed to enjoy herself. Tyden, my nephew loved all the games that had balls, and Austin was only happy if he could go where he wanted, which was usually in the middle of someone else's game! Skeeball was still a favorite!!

Birthday Party Postponed!!
Yikes...our first blizzard. You know it's bad when West Acres is closed right before Christmas! The town seems to have shut down for the day (and tomorrow)! They are already scrolling anouncements for things closed tomorrow. Not just schools but businesses. I am interested to see how much snow we actually got. We have one spot of grass in our yard and a drift up to Craig's waist right next to it! We spent the day watching movies and eating birthday party food!! I might gain 20 pounds if this contiunes!! The kids were pretty good. Katelynn got to open her birthday present because I felt bad there was no party today. For those that can make it....supper tomorrow at 5:00!!

SNOW!! The kids and I played in the snow this morning. The temps were actually bearable so we got out the snow suits and headed out! We had a blast. Katelynn made snow angels and Austin just tried to figure out what all this stuff was all about. I took the kids in the sled down the street and they laughed the whole way!

Katelynn finally got one of them to be a princess with her.......Katelynn and Noah played dress up the other night. Don't they look beautiful??

Thanks Gpa Steve!!
I know the picture is kind of fuzzy, but Gpa Steve worked hard all day to put lights on our house for Katelynn. She was sure excited when it got dark and she could see what he did!! Katelynn gets really excited when we see other houses with lights and she asked Craig "when are we going to get lights on our house??" Craig isn't a fan of getting up on the roof so Gpa came to the rescue!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a wonderful day with the Schwantz family at Heidi and Joel's (besides Austin not feeling well). Lots of good food!! While the younger kids napped and the older kids "rested" we even got a couple games of Clue in!! After naps we walked to the park. It was a little chilly but it was great to get the kids outside. Austin and I turned in early....I think he was in bed by 7:00 so I got a lot of TV watching done! My Mom and I got up at 5:00 and went to Walmart! Nothing was worth that madness!!! We had much better luck at Herberger's...I got Craig a GPS!! ( I think I was more excited about the purchase than Craig).

Our first Cobber basketball game of the year! Austin (and Tyden) made it through the whole first half!!! YAY!! You can see Austin moved down to the floor to cheer the second half and then went down to the Olson Forum to run around the track with Papa. (He cheers for either team that is clapping at the moment!)

The head coach is out for 6 weeks after having surgery today, so my sister Rachel is taking over. She was really nervous today...they lost but played pretty well. Good to have that first one over with!! I am very proud of you Rachel...you handled yourself very well!!

Advent Fun Shop day!!

Heidi and I took Katelynn and Eli to the Advent fun shop at church to make Christmas crafts. I used to go to this when I was little...so the tradition continues. They made some fun things today! My cousin Maggie was helping at the first station we went to!

As you can see, Austin stayed with Daddy at the Peterson's to nap and play!! (he was into dress up today!)

Future Lady Cobber????

Katelynn must have been tired after our fun family sleepover at the Peterson's. Although both kids slept great!! The adults got to play cards and Jen's favorite "Clue" in front of the fire with Christmas music playing!!
Anyway...it's usually princess toys in bed but the boys must be rubbing off on her! I don't think the Cobbers need her yet...they got their first win today in Michigan!! YAY Auntie Rae Rae!!

Where you find Eli...you will find Katelynn.

Lately Katelynn has been stuck like glue to her cousin Eli. During the Vikings game she was trying to lay on his shoulder and watch him play Leapfrog....I am not sure how much he appreciates this, however!! Then again the other night she had to be right next to him playing or reading books. That seems to work out as Eli reads and Katelynn listens!

What a beautiful day! I can't believe how warm it was at the football game saturday. The kids really loved being outside. They like rolling down the hill and running around at the game. The little boys enjoyed their stroll with Papa.

Happy Halloween!! We had a fun day. It was just beautiful out for being Oct. 31st! The kids came to my clinic to get started on the candy. We had a pizza party at our house before we made the rounds! It was great to be walking around outside and not even be cold!! The kids loved trick or treating...Noah loved it the most and I think he would've done it all night! Katelynn thought it was really fun that her and Gma Connie were both witches!!

We ended with a few trips to some relatives. I have always loved Halloween (I think because my birthday is the next day!!) Two holidays in a row!! :)

The Pumpkin Carving Tradition Continues...

Papa came over tonight to carve pumpkins! Katelynn has been anxiously waiting this and claims it's her favorite Halloween thing to do. Papa told her even when she's 30 he'll still carve a pumpkin for her....then we realized he would be 90 and I told him I wouldn't let him have a knife!!

Pre-Halloween Fun!

Jack and Ella had a Halloween party today...the kids had lots of fun! Katelynn could hardly wait to put on her costume! They had a great set up in the garage...crafts, games, and treats! I think the kids liked playing outside the most. It was actually a pretty nice day. And...neither one of my kids were scared of any costumes!!

Minims

I don't know if you can see Katelynn (on the end in pink)...her little choir sang in church today. She sang all the songs and did all the actions!! It was great!

Austin's favorite place

Austin loves to climb on the ledge and read books!

Go Cobbers! Katelynn took this picture of me....she loves taking pictures! It was a beautiful day for a football game. We needed to get some fresh air after nap time as the kids haven't been feeling that great. The crowd was awesome and the Cobbers played great and beat Bethel!!

Thanks Uncle Bryant for the foam finger!!

T-BONE SCHWANTZ

My Uncle Kris gave him this nick name after having a dream about him! He said he was watching his first little league game and they announced the next batter "T-bone Schwantz"!! Everyone thinks it's a perfect name for him! Oh...and we were eating spaghetti in this picture!

Craig and I went to Florida for 5 days for a baseball/beach trip. We went to Tampa for 2 days and drove over to the other coast to the Ft. Lauderdale area for the rest of the trip. We saw a beautiful sunset and a sunrise (bonus of being on both coasts!). We saw some great baseball, relaxed in the sun, swam in the ocean, and had great food! Thanks Craig for planning such wonderful trip! I enjoyed every minute of it! Here are some other highlights....

Lisa, this is for you!!! I really did go to Shells this time, you know...like I usually do.

Fort De Soto National Park (North Beach). Our favorite beach yet!! Great for walking, tanning, and picking shells (huge shells!) We spent a very relaxing morning swimming, walking, and relaxing!

Twins vs Rays. Tropicana Field. We had great seats right above the Twins dugout..The Twins came back and won in the 9th inning! YAY! This was a highlight for both of us. Even though it was another "dome" it was actually pretty cool!