Xmas Card

So - you all should have received this sweet Christmas photo of the Storm kids on our family xmas card this year! I love Lucy's silly face and the fact Roman looks like such a big guy!

I just wanted to entertain you all with some of the rejects from our holiday card pics this year! It actually took a lot of shots to get these kids to cooperate, to ensure that everyone's eyes were open, etc!  

Dan was the photographer while I worked to keep the peace and made a complete idiot of myself trying to get these kids to smile! :)

Fun with Friends

One Saturday this December we watched Jacob and Evelyn while their parents worked. We had an awesome day with the kiddos. Here are some pictures of the day -

Jacob and Lucy played with her dollhouse. :)

Evelyn enjoyed some bottles

Look at this sweetheart! We love Jacob!

Here are the BFFs - Lucy and Jake

Hanging with Roman!

Sharing hugs...

…and watching the Grinch together!

These two rolled out a few Christmas cookies together and frosted them for a snack!

If you can believe this - we got all 4 kids to take a nap at the same time! Woohoo! I guess you can round that number up to 5 if you count the fact that Daniel snuggled and slept with Evelyn. 

We had such a nice Saturday with the MacFarland kids! We love the fact that all of these peanuts have so much fun with each other! We can't wait to watch them grow up together!

Christmas Cheer!

Just a few photos to document Christmas cheer at our house this year!

Winter Wonderland!

Sister - Brother hugs! 

A big thanks to Grandma Nola for helping us to fill our Advent calendar boxes with stickers, candies, and verses. This is the absolute highlight of Lucy's December days! She cannot wait to open another door each evening before dinner. 

Grandma Nola also found this sweet Christmas Tree decoration. Lucy and Roman put their Advent stickers on it each evening. :)  

Lucy sporting her Hello Kitty holiday pjs! Got them at a yard sale this summer and she l-o-v-e-d wearing them this Christmas! :) 

Big smiles from Roman! At 15 months, our little man still only has 4 teeth! Merry Christmas everyone!

Roman's Words

Roman is starting to say more and more words these days! Check out our chatty little guy in this video.

Oh Christmas Tree

For years we have decorated for the holidays with a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We have always lived in small spaces so a little tree was the only thing that would fit in our living room.

Exhibit A - Lucy relaxing next to her first Christmas tree in 2011!

Now that we live in a house with tall ceilings and a big living room, I could not wait to set up a legit Christmas tree! My dream came true this year!! Daniel decorated our tree from the loft. Here is a picture of him stringing the lights.

Love it! 

The children were so very excited to get their Christmas tree. It is so fun to watch them at Christmas time, everything is so magical! Here they are sporting their holiday pajamas for the first time during the 2014 season.

Our festive little man! Ho Ho Ho! 

Getting ready for Christmas in Minocqua

During Thanksgiving weekend we headed to Minocqua to celebrate the start of the holiday season!

Lucy was excited to see some reindeer - she kept asking which one was Sven! Zero references to Rudolph. Haha!

We had heard that Minocqua had Christmas trains on display. First we stopped by the historical museum - no Christmas trains but there were some serious model trains set up there! There were some older, retired dudes who were clearly dedicated to model train work on hand to describe the replica trains and intricate Northwoods logging towns as they looked at the turn of the century. Lucy was captivated.

Later we walked down the street to a little strip mall that housed the legit Christmas Village trains. :)

The kids were fans of both types of villages featuring model trains! Roman absolutely loves trains these days. When he sees one he exclaims, Choo Choo!

Having fun at the kids table. 

Santa was on hand to see the kids but when we got to the Gaslight mall the line was super long and the kiddo sitting on Santa's lap was a hot mess. After that - we decided that the kids could wait for their first Santa experience until later. Lucy did find some fake snow near the Christmas trees at the mall and she decided to make a beard out of it. So cute!!

Lucy also made a few ornaments for our Christmas tree! 

After the festivities, we went out for dinner at the Minocqua Brewing Company! Here are the boys - Dan, Roman, and Brad waiting for dinner.

It was a fun evening! Thanks for hanging out with us in Minocqua Storm family!

Roman @ 15 months

Look at this sweet 15 month old! Roman turned 15 months over the Thanksgiving holiday. He is officially walking around, it seems like the change happened over night! He pretty much went from a crawler to a runner in a day. He loves following his big sister everywhere - sometimes to her delight and other times to her dismay. He still has 4 teeth and he l-o-v-e-s all fruit and dairy products. Not really a fan of meat or veggies these days. Roman enjoys reading and putting simple puzzles together. He is a fan of anything with wheels and he loves puppies. His vocabulary is growing all of the time - he can say Lucy, pizza, apple, puppy, choo chop, etc. He can also say a few short phrases like All done! and Sit down! Roman is a little lover - he enjoys blowing kisses, giving hugs, saying 'Nice!' while he pets animals (both stuffed and real) and humans. We love you little man!! 

Thanksgiving Weekend

As you can imagine, Rhinelander is not exactly a hotspot for Black Friday shopping! Haha! That's okay - we still had an awesome time with our family. Let me rephrase - I had to work on Friday :( but everyone else had a great day! 

Here is a selfie of yours truly at work - side note, I recently moved offices so there was nothing on the walls at Thanksgiving time. My office is not usually this boring, I promise! While I was at my desk...

...Everyone else was enjoying leftovers and playing in the snow!! Not fair! :) 

As you can see - some woodchopping competitions were underway. We also cut down Christmas trees  from our property for everyone!

After the Christmas trees were cut, it started to feel a lot like the holidays!!

Lucy worked on crafts with grandma. We also enjoyed lots of lefties and treats.

Ice cream...

and monkey bread with Grandpa and Grandma! Lucy was one happy camper!! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hosted Thanksgiving for the Storm family in Rhinelander this year! We had much, much more room compared to Thanksgivings of years gone by! :) Gone are the days of setting up food on the bar in the basement! Yay! :) We have so much to be thankful for this year - healthy kids, a sweet new niece Julianna, an awesome house in the Northwoods, and good jobs!

Dan set the ambiance for everyone's arrival to Rhinelander on Wednesday evening by starting a rip roaring fire. Doesn't he look like a lumberjack? Love it!

The kids woke up and were thrilled to see their auntie and uncles and grandparents. They loved reading with their uncle Brad. 

Lucy was pumped to get a few more birthday gifts! Including her own personal copy of Frozen! Watch out! :) 

So very thankful for these peanuts! Here are the kids enjoying some appetizers as they wait for our Thanksgiving meal. My favorite part about Lucy's picture is that her little toy ostrich is watching her eat. Haha! She is always setting up that little character to watch her activities at the table - eating, doing art projects, playing playdoh, whatever! Who knew that that funny little bird would be such a hit! 

Check out this beautiful bird! Cooked to perfection! :) 

Here is Dan carving our Thanksgiving turkey!

Roman snuggled with Uncle Brad while they watched they dog show on television. 

Here is a picture of Scout - she is watching carefully and hoping that someone will drop food for her! :) It was good to see her play with her cousin dogs Roy and Haley but it was also sad to see the pack of Storm dogs without Chief. We sure miss our big guy! 

Look at this table full of food! Wow! We ate like champs! Thanks to everyone in the Storm family for contributing side dishes, drinks, pies, etc! Yum.

Lucy sang Johnny Appleseed as part of the blessing this year. 

You can't have Thanksgiving without pie! 

Like father like daughter! :) 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!