Time flies when your having fun!

It is hard to believe that my little man Walter will soon be five! Anyway, yesterday we where talking about how his Birthday is coming up soon and Rose E said "it will be mine Birthday too right" and I said "no not yet, your birthday is in May" and she replied "no my Birthday is in this house." She has been saying the cutest things lately. This morning her band aid came off of a scratch and she said "my band aid came off mine owee, that's okay because my owee died." Then I started to think about how someday I'm going to miss all of those cute expressions such as Rose E calling feet "feets" and Walter calling won "winned".

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Hope you had a very special day (it was Saturday):)

A Very Merry weekend

We had a festive weekend! On Friday Walter and Rose E went over to one of Walter's friends house from school to decorate cookies. Then on Saturday we went to the fire hall to see Santa and today (Sunday) was the church Christmas party. The kids where a little leery of seeing Santa so I had to carry them up there. Just never know from year to year how they are going to react to the big guy!

Here are all of the local cousins together afterwards. Ho, ho ho!

And here is Walter in his Christmas program at church. He is in the middle with the polar bear sweater, he was a donkey this year. He sang quite a bit during the songs.

The cool cats

Mr. Stud muffin here with his train belt buckle on. I've never seen a kid as crazy for trains as this one! Oh and Rose E said "you forgot my seat belt" after Walter put on his belt.
We are not lacking for snow here now, we could measure it in feet! Anyway, the other day we where walking to the car and Rose E said "the cold is getting on me, I don't like it, it's too spicy (whenever she doesn't want to eat a certain kind of food she also says "it's too spicy")." What a goof!

Deck the halls

My Aunt Sherrie came to visit us last week for 6 days, the kids had a blast with her!
While she was here we decorated for Christmas

as Rose E likes to say "peep a boo."

Here Walter dressed his sister up like "an elf wearing glasses "(of which he taped onto her hair and hat). It was also cute because when we set the tree up Rose E said in excitement "our tree is terrific!"

And yet another "peep a boo." The kids have been getting a kick out of Chessie's new resting place. We have been fortunate that she has never tried to climb the tree though.

A litte of this and that!

It has been very exciting in this household because Walter is starting to read!
Every night he has been reading phonics books to us, sometimes he gets excited and tries to guess what the words are going to say but when he takes the time he can actually put the sounds together and read the word. The only thing is now I can no longer get away with spelling out small words out loud to Jeff without Walter figuring out what they say!
Bare with me here, I took all of these pictures off of our old camera and these are all the way back from Thanksgiving. Here are the kids cousins Brady, Kirsten and Cale and

Walter taking it easy after all of that turkey and

the kids with their cousin Ariel. It was a nice Thanksgiving. So many blessings to be Thankful for!

Now on another note here, this weather has been crazy! Just a few days ago we had no snow on the ground and now we have close to two feet!

I took the kids out to do some shoveling and playing. It was fun to watch the excitement as they made pretend "train tracks" and a snow castle. I think this is going to be the first year that Rose E is going to actually enjoy playing in the snow!

A quick update

We went to Eagle Harbor on Saturday to try out the new camera a bit we visited two lighthouses while there. The bottom picture is of the Sand Hills Light taken from a long way away.

Smile

Smile ChevyWe bought a new camera late this evening and couldn't wait to try it out. All we can say is wow! The resolution and quality is so amazing.

Train Trip

Walter had an exciting day on Saturday. Jeff and Walter went to Ontonagon to see trains.

This picture is taken at Mass City with a train crossing on the bridge behind Walter. When Walter heard the train horn he said "that sounds like vampires playing the organ," just never know what is going through there minds!

Also, Happy 2nd Birthday to my nephew Colton! Hope you had a great day!

Ahoy Matees!

Today we went to watch a big ore ship come through the Houghton canal. Walter of course had to bring along his wooden ship to do comparisons to the real thing and Rose E is holding a carrier for her toys dogs, they now go everywhere with her. Anyway, the kids where impressed by the size of the ship and by the sound of the horn.

Recent ventures

This weekend we went to Green Bay, we visited with Jeff's brother and his family and did some shopping. Here are the kids getting ready to swim in the pool with their cousin Ariel.
On Sunday afternoon we took a drive to the "camp" and hiked along Lake Superior. The kids and the dog found a few treasures.

Chevy with his new treasure

and me holding the "lion" that Walter created with his treasures (driftwood).

And finally....Rose E wearing more hot chocolate than she drank! This girl has been cracking me up! Her latest thing is to jump off of things, such as the sink stool, and before she jumps she likes to say "watch me...oing (booing)."

Paris

The other day we where going from Houghton to Hancock (which we have traveled hundreds of times in the daytime) and Walter said as he was looking at the hillside full of lights "is that Paris?"

Ahh...the life

Happy Birthday to our nephew Brady!

Hope your Birthday was a ball!

Happy Halloween

This year for Halloween Walter was a hot rod driver/mechanic. Don't you just love Walter's hair doo and mustache(or as Walter used to say munstache), we even found a Wally patch to put onto his shirt to make it more official . Rose E wanted to be a "horse taker carer of." I had to laugh because the other day we went to Pamida and spotted this horse that is in the picture and as we where walking away she said "that's okay we already have all of the members of our family" after that comment I couldn't resist going back and getting it for her. She has named it "Nino" and has been taking good care of him, laying him down in a container that she has made as his bed and covering him up when he is "tired."
Anyway, here is our gallery of pictures taken with local family today as we where trick our treating.

Here they are with Grandma

with Great Grandma, Great Grandpa and their dog Lacy

with their cousins Kirsten, Cale, and Brady

with Grandpa

and with Great Grandma!

Best buds!

Fall fun

Tonight we went to the pumpkin patch to pick-out a pumpkin. Walter had his eyes set on the biggest one he could find from the moment we pulled-up, here he is sitting on that prized pumpkin of his.
Then we walked through a corn maze. Rose E said "there is lots of corns" and Walter got a thrill out of being our navigator!

Then we came home and Jeff helped the kids carve their "vampire" pumpkin which will be our scarecrow head again this year.

Where the Wild Things Are

A couple days ago I took Walter and Rose E to there first movie in the movie theater. We saw Where the Wild Things Are and the kids where in awe by the experience! Rose E said "that is a BIG t.v." and they must have eaten a gallon of popcorn. It was neat afterwards to hear Walter compare the book with the movie, such my little analyzer! Oh and take notice that Rose E's "Chevy dog" had to have a seat of his own too!