The Froehle's

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Christmas Day!

Around 2am or so Bishop ran into our room and crazily and excitedly wanted to know if Santa had come!! We assured him that Santa was on his way and it was the middle of the night. He was, of course, the first one up in the morning. Since Nora's a little more of a sleeper, we let Bishop go downstairs when he got up to get his presents and we let Nora sleep. Bishop had asked many times for a Ninja Turtle and a Dragon.....however, on Christmas morning he realized the Ninja Turtle wasn't exactly what he wanted.....and I think he was pretty bummed at first about the "dragon" he got. He made sure I knew it was a dinosaur and not a dragon!

Nora on the other hand was delighted with her gifts from Santa--a baby and a house for her baby (a princess castle/house). After Nora was up we let them open their gifts from us.....that helped Bishop--he got a bunch of transformers so he could play transformers vs his Dragon (or Dinosaur)! ;) Our Christmas morning got off to a little rocky start--thankfully we got back on track and enjoyed the rest of our day together!

We had absolutely no plans on Christmas Day, which has never happened, so we enjoyed our time together as a family! Last year we went cross country skiing on the lake and I had visions of doing that again this year.....except there was NO snow and it was warm enough for some of the ice to start melting......so we went for a bike ride/walk instead! The kids were exhausted and it was a good time for a little nap for them. We had lots of time to play with new toys and relax together. After our walk we had some fun appetizers for dinner and hung out together as a family! Merry Christmas everyone!

Bishop loves his new tool bench from Nana and Papa!

Nora wore her giggly baby in her bjorn and zipped her coat over it on our walk!

A bike ride on Christmas Day--crazy!!

Such sweethearts!

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas Eve!

This year we celebrated Christmas Eve at the Bormann's. It was such a fun afternoon and evening! We started out with some pictures and then went to the 2:30 Christmas Eve service at Lord of Life Church in Maple Grove. The kids did great in church. Bishop loved coloring, the girls had a good time giggling together, and Jack fell asleep!

After church we came back, had some appetizers, hung out, had dinner and opened presents. This year we had the kids open some of the presents in stages--it really helped reduce the chaos of everyone opening presents at the same time! This way they could enjoy the presents as they opened them too! They started with their gift from Great Marlys--everyone got a new scooter and they all tried them out in the basement!

After all the gifts were opened and played with we went home to get some sleep so Santa could come!

The oldest cousins

Nana and Papa--they started this wonderful family!

The girls with Nana!

My beautiful niece with Nana!

The Bormann's!

Nora and daddy!

These 2 can't get enough of each other-it's so sweet!

The Froehle's!

Nana and Papa with their grandkids!

My sister and best friend! She is the absolute BEST!

Ryan and Shelly-such a great couple!

Bishop on his new scooter

After eating yogurt (on his own, of course) the firefighter had some work to do!

Auntie Shelly is so good to my kids--Bishop got 2 dragons from her!

Bishop and Papa-such a special bond!

Bishop and Uncle Ryan with the remote control rat he got him! ;)

My sweet niece, Madelyn!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Bowling and Christmas with the Hennum's

We had one day between when we got home from Grandview and Christmas Eve and we wanted to make it a fun, family day! After getting some things done around the house we decided to go bowling as a family! The kids loved it!

That evening we celebrated Christmas with the Hennum's at their house. We exchanged a few presents with the kids and settled down to watch a movie. Nora got a baby she can feed a bottle to and it actually goes potty--unfortunately the baby only came with one diaper and napkins aren't that absorbent! ;) Bishop got some legos and absolutely LOVES them! We always have fun with the Hennum's. Siena and Maia are so good to Bishop and Nora--and we are so thankful for their friendship!

Jumping up and down as they watch their ball roll!

Maia with her stuffed puppy!

Everyone helped give Nora's baby a bottle!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Christmas with the Froehle's at Grandview

We celebrated Christmas with the Froehle Family at Grandview Lodge this year! We had a very special 70th birthday to celebrate (Eileen's), so we combined it with Christmas and had such a fun weekend together!

We arrived on Friday night and had a fun evening together! There were a lot of activities for the kids to do throughout the weekend, which was very fun! On Friday night the Elves came to our cabin to hand out candy canes and ask the kids what they want for Christmas--it was pretty neat to have our own special visit!

Jake arrived later that night and understandably so, we couldn't wait to open presents any longer, so we opened presents Friday night after he arrived. The kids were so excited! They both got many fun things from Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Jake and they enjoyed playing with them the rest of the weekend!

Saturday included breakfast at the Lodge, a sleigh ride (more like a wagon ride pulled by horses), playing in the "Kid Zone", (which included jumpy houses and slides indoors--it was awesome,) and going to the water park and going down the water slide.......and then back to the Kid Zone that night!

Sunday brought more of the same--water park, wagon ride and Kid Zone! Grandpa, Grandma and Jake left Sunday afternoon and we scheduled an ice fishing outing in the afternoon! We rented a temporary ice fish that included fishing poles, bait and even a heater! Bishop was super excited to go ice fishing and this was my first experience ice fishing too! Bishop caught one fish! Nora was a little skeptical at first, but became more comfortable the longer we were in the ice house!

Monday morning we had breakfast, soaked up a little more time at the water park and then headed for home! It was easier going home knowing we didn't have to go back to work and we had the week together!

It was a very fun weekend together and while there wasn't much snow (on Saturday night it rained and washed all the snow away), we had a great time and made some lasting memories!

Nora sang Christmas Carols on our way to the Lodge! :)