Much to my delight, we got an extra day with Grandma and Grandpa due to a snow storm in Wisconsin! So we took them to the Children's Museum here in town.

Sydney washed my hair...


and then curled it...


And Grandma got her hair styled by Kayleigh.


Daddy and Syd looking at the bees. This was Kevin's first time to the museum too so Sydney had fun showing him all around.




In the airplane with Grandma....



Kay and Gram in the Dinosaur Cafe.














Sydney was very excited to get to hold this snake!

FOUR

Last night was Family Night....Four Style! Since Grandma and Grandpa Redman are here, we had an early birthday party for Sydney. Our theme for the night was four (since she's turning four). Syd picked our meal...spaghetti and meatballs (we each got 4 meatballs). We had "4" shaped breadsticks. We decorated with four colors of streamers and four balloons. Grandma made placemats with 4s all over them.

And then her cake....this had nothing to do with 4 other than the four candles we put on top. She is our dinosaur lover and last year my dinosaur shaped cake was kinda sad looking. But I found this really cute "wishosaurus" candle holder on Mackinac Island back in October and it was perfect for her cake.

Anyway...here are some pictures.









Sydney got a very cool globe from Grandma and Grandpa!

More Snow...More Fun

We went for another little ski outing today...this time with Grandma and Grandpa. Really it was just Kevin and I skiing with everyone else walking, but Mom did give my skis a try. When we returned home, Mom and I went snow shoeing in our neighborhood woods...wow...it was beautiful! i had no idea we had such neat trails right here. I didn't have my camera with me then so I guess I'll have to go back.

Snow Fun

Grandma and Grandpa Redman are visiting from Illinois!!! Since we have so much snow here, we decided to play in it today. It was finally wet enough to build a snow man and a snow fort so that's what we set out to do. It wasn't great snowman building snow, but we managed to put together a medium sized snow man. The snow would pack together if you did it by hand, but if you rolled the snowball, it wouldn't get bigger in size.

We also have a pretty cool sledding hill behind our house, so we took turns sledding down!











We all pitched in to help build this fort, but Kevin did most of the work. It turned out really great. We had a little picnic inside when it was finished...hot chocolate, clementines and cookies. Kevin is actually sleeping out in it tonight. I don't really know what that's all about...something about testing all his winter camping gear. I'm sure he won't last all night!

Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day!!! We sure did. I was away from my family most of Christmas Eve because I played violin at our church services. We had 2 services, plus practice so that's what kept me away. But Kevin and the girls came to one of the services so I got to see them before and after.

I was like a little kid on Christmas Eve...I couldn't sleep well. I kept waking up wondering if it was time to get up and do gifts. I think I was very excited to see the girls' reaction. This seems to be the first year Sydney really gets the anticipation. And...Kevin made some really cool gifts for the girls!

Anyway, first I want to show you what I got!

Seriously. A new iron so I can iron Kevin's dress shirts for work - aren't I blessed?
(This was kind of a joke...my old iron had a short in the cord and was somewhat a safety hazard so I needed a new one. Don't worry...he got me other gifts, too!)

And the girls saw this birdhouse at Lowe's and thought it looked like the Wonder Pets school house so this is what they picked out for me. They got Linny and Ming Ming in their stockings.


Here is my beautiful Syd on Christmas Eve


Now...this is the very cool volcano / lake play area that Kevin made for Sydney. She was so excited. Last year he made her a "treehouse" for her animals and dinosaurs and this year, when playing together, they talked about how cool it would be to have a lake and a mountain/volcano too. So that was the inspiration.




Two years ago he made Syd a dollhouse, but it was very small and wouldn't hold much furniture. We had all this nice furniture, so this year he made Kayleigh a nice doll house.

Christmas Angels

Merry Christmas!!!

You just have to go HERE to see some beautiful pictures.

Tour the House with Syd

Sydney wanted to take "lots" of pictures today...so I told her to go around the house and take pictures of the house. My friend, Abbie, did a post like this with her daughter and I thought it was hilarious. So here is a tour of the house through the eyes of a 4 year old...

Syd and Kay's bed


Their bookshelf


Mommy's office


The dog...Newton


Their fort


Sydney's feet


Lloyd the giraffe



The Christmas Tree