Trick or Treat

Ugh. I think I'm getting a cold, and I know exactly who to blame it on - Miss. Savannah! I've been sneezing like crazy today and now my nose is starting to turn red - fun stuff, just in time for Christmas pictures tomorrow. Going to try and not make it worse until at least after the pictures, lol.

So it's Halloween - yay! Gotta love getting tons of free candy! Not that me or my children really need any candy, but it's still fun. Savannah dressed up as a pink Dinosaur (not what I wanted her to pick, was really pushing for the cupcake or Little Red Riding Hood, but that's what she wanted, so that's what she got) and Connor dressed up as Thor. Both kids had a lot of fun going around with Buddy & Ella and all the rest of the gang for about an hour or so then we loaded up and headed to Waunakee to see John & Carol and do a little more trick or treating. Although it was pretty cold outside, I think the kids were dressed warm enough cause neither of them complained about being cold (they had 3 layers underneath their costumes). Well now that Halloween is done, onto the next holiday - Thanksgiving!

Fresh Pear Pie

Today is the Rose Bowl, are you going to watch it? We're going to make some left over snacks that we didn't end up making for New Years Eve and just hang out around the house today. Connor is currently at school, but Scott & I both have off of work so Scott is in the middle of taking the Christmas Tree down, sad!

So for family get-to-gether's I usually make some sort of dessert. This year for the in-laws house and the Viken's house I made a Fresh Pear Pie. I've never made a pear pie before and have actually never heard of a pear pie but I decided to try it. I doubled everything in the recipe so I could make 2 pies but I didn't actually measure the amount of cups of pears I used used 4 pears for each pie. The Father-In-Law and Scott said they LOVED this pie. It tasted very similar to an apple pie but better. I'm not exactly sure how it was better as I don't usually eat pies because I hate the texture of cooked fruit, but they loved it so I'm sure I'll make this one again!

A Very Viken Christmas

So it's New Years Day Now! 2012! We ate some breakfast, did some laundry, now in a little bit we're going to go over to the Moore's to watch some football and eat some more good food. Not sure what else we're doing the rest of the day but we need to get some stuff done around the house. Cleaning, hanging stuff up, etc. Not a very exciting New Years Day, but oh well I guess!

So after spending time at the in-laws, we left around 2:30 p.m. to head out to Aunt Missy's house and celebrate Christmas with the Viken's, Harvey's, and a whole bunch of other people. It's always a good time catching up with everyone and seeing people you only see a few times a year. There's always a ton of people there (I don't even think I could guess how many....40+??) and always a ton of food. After the food we all got to hand out presents and open. Once again my children were spoiled! Connor got some cool Ninja's from the Harvey's, a plug in fish tank light from Bobbi and a bunch of other cool stuff. Savannah got a Baby Alive from the Viken's, a penguin toy from Steve & Dewayne, some cute clothes, etc. Savannah & I got a matching hat from Jeni, so cute! I also got a fabulous purse from Steve & Dewayne and Scott got a fun shirt & some Blood Mary Mix & Vodka. This year we gave more canned goods to people, Lily got a Barbie, Missy & Dewayne got some coffee cups, and the list could go on and on. Anyways, it was a blast, hectic and crazy all at the same time! It's always enjoyable spending Christmas over there with everyone!! And this year it was the last of the Christmas Celebrations, so now we're all done until next year! I hope everyone's Holiday's were fabulous!

Christmas With The In-Laws

New Years Eve, can you believe it? We're almost to 2012! This year has gone crazy fast and it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating 2010 finishing up! We've been eating some good food all night, actually was cleaning some of the night, and now we're in the middle of a movie but are taking a break so Scott can get Savannah to sleep.

After opening Christmas presents at our house Christmas morning we drove over to Jim & Pat's to open presents with them. Their living room was ridiculously full and we were spoiled like always. The kids got some great presents, Connor got some awesome wrestling toys, a Toy Story Garbage Truck and some other great things from Grandma & Grandpa. Savannah got a baby doll and stroller along with a fisher price picnic basket that I had asked for, for her. We also got some great things from The Moore's, including some super comfy sandals for me and an awesome shirt for Scott. We also gave them their presents, and this year Pat wins the present that I spent the most time on. Several, several hours, and 282 photos went into a photo book that covers the time frame of Connor's 2nd birthday to his 4th birthday. I'm going by Birthdays because that's an easy cut off time for me to remember for when I do it again for her. I think she liked it, and I hope everyone else loved their presents as well! After that the family from Milwaukee came up and we spent a few hours with them, celebrating with good food and of course more presents for the kids!

Christmas Morning

So my laptop hasn't turned on since Christmas Eve, which totally sucks, and it also means I don't spend as much time on the computer as before. Why? Well: the computer downstairs is super slow, and the computer is downstairs......which means I can't gradually get things done while still watching the kids, watching TV, etc. like I did before. Still haven't decided if we are going to try and get it fixed or just replace it.......hmmm

Christmas started at home with the alarm going off at 5:31 (we went to bed at 1:30 a.m., so the 1st several times it went off I don't even remember). We finally got out of bed around 6 a.m., then we got the kids up. Opened presents, had to stop several times to re-charge batteries quickly (didn't want to miss Connor opening the batcave on my camcorder). Connor got a wrestling toy he wanted, a batcave, a movie, book, and some clothes. Savannah got a trike, a Christmas Barbie, and a bunch of clothes. I got a few things I had picked out and some new tank tops, and Scott got a Salads book (he loves Salads), a movie, a shirt, and a new game. Then we quickly got ready and were out the door at 7:30 a.m. (that's what time we were suppose to get to Jim & Pat's, but that just didn't happen we were lucky we got out of there when we did!)

Christmas Eve At GG's

So Connor got this super cute little reader that reads 8 Disney books from Grandma & Grandpa for Christmas, and he's been listening to it for almost 45 minutes. I excited! I hope he truley enjoys books as much as I do, I've read over 30+ books this year, and hoping to finish 1 more before the end of the year! Reading = smart! :)

So Christmas Eve we go to church at St. Dennis and then head over to GG's for the Veith Christmas. It's always a pretty crazy and hectic evening at GG's. We eat dinner and then begin to open presents. We go youngest to oldest, so Savannah got to go 1st for the 2nd year in a row. We ended up leaving by 10:30 p.m. and it wasn't near finished yet, I guess they were just finishing up just after midnight. If everyone were to come I think we figured out we'd have over 35 people there. It was a fun time and the kids and us got some really fun stuff. Oh, and this picture doesn't do the night justice, you can only see part of all the presents.

Santa Cookies

What a weekend we had! It went by way to fast and now look, it's Tuesday! And of course, stupid me scheduled mine and Connor's Dentist appointments for 8 a.m. Why did I do that? Waking up at 6 a.m. was not easy, then I had to run Savannah to the in-laws before we went to the dentist. Thankfully Connor did AMAZING, which always helps when you're tired & cranky!

So Friday night I started making "Santa Cookies" for Connor & Buddy to decorate on Saturday afternoon while we were over at the Moore's watching the Dolphin's game. Last year the frosting I made turned out horrible and was super runny & sweet so I searched for new recipes to use this year. I used THIS sugar cookie recipe and THIS frosting recipe. I'm not a fan of sugar cookies so I never tasted that part but the frosting was amazing. The boys had a lot of fun decorating their fun shapes (not just Christmas shapes, we had some animals and planes, flowers, etc). Matt & I did the majority of the frosting while Buddy kept eating all the cookies and Connor kept putting his finger in all the frosting, lol. After we were done with the frosting and the sprinkles each boy selected 3 cookies that we set aside as our "Santa Cookies".

Christmas With The Brausen's

Did a little shopping this morning. Ran to Menards, Shopko and then to Target. Got a few gifts for next year (yes I'm horrible, lol, but come on..........there are a LOT of people we buy for, so I gotta make sure I get really good deals!). Now we're about to run to Walmart before heading to Grandma's for lunch and then Woodman's to get a few groceries for the next couple of days.

On Friday night we went over to John & Carol's house to celebrate Christmas with the Brausen family. We ate some yummy food and then all the kid's opened up their gifts. The kids were spoiled like always, Connor got The Ultimate Optimus Prime Transformer, Savannah got some really cute clothes, and they both got a ton of other presents. Sorry, can't remember everything they got at this moment our house looks like a battle field! I got some yummy smelling body butter and Scott & I both got 1 of our trips to Disney in April, so now we only have to pay for 1 of us! Yay! We also did our gift exchange. We play a randomly selected game to get our order of who gets to pick first and then we can steal, etc. Scott ended up with some ice cream topping set with bowls & a scoop and I ended up with a 2 pack of pretty photo albums which I desperately needed.

Popcorn Balls

Christmas Eve, wahoo! Let the spoiling of the children begin, lol! We had banana pancakes with strawberry syrup this morning, yumm! Now I have to do some baking quick, run to the mall, go over to Aunt Ki-Ki's, then it's church and Christmas with GG. So it'll be a pretty full day today!

So on Wednesday night I made Popcorn Balls for Connor's Holiday Program that was on Thursday. I had never made Popcorn Balls before, so I searched online for a recipe. I came across THIS one. I totally burnt my hands making these, but I think it was worth it. While I'm not a fan of popcorn balls I've discovered, Connor & Aunt Ki-Ki dove right in and there's only a few of the 35 left that I made. And of course I had to make them red & green for Christmas!

Cristmas At The Lodge

Monday - check! Only a few more days to go until Connor is on his 1st ever Christmas Break! Oops, sorry, did I say Christmas Break? I mean Holiday Break! Please forgive me, lol. Okay, I can completely understand why they need to call it a Holiday Break instead of Christmas Break, but a friend of mine just posted on FB that their child's teacher e-mailed them today talking about all the holiday's they will celebrate this week, and guess what? She mentioned every holiday you could think of except Christmas. How can you leave out Christmas if you are celebrating every other Holiday? Isn't that a form of discrimination? Okay, I don't want to get in a debate about it, so I'll stop there!

So Saturday we took Connor to Karate, then headed to the library, did a little shopping and then headed to The Lodge for a Christmas Celebrating (VFW for those of you who are not familiar with the family "terminology", lol) The kids got to sit on Santa's lap (all of which did, so you gotta count that as a win!), they all got a little gift bag from Santa, then we got to eat some snacks that they provided and just hang out for awhile. We were there for almost 2 hours and it was a very nice time. This was a member's only event, and since Pat is a member we got to partake in the celebrating - it also prevented a huge crowd so it wasn't overly crazy in there! Now onto the next event!

The Hangover - Part 2

Can you believe Christmas is only 6 days away? I can't! Still lots to do this week! I finished up reading my Marketing Textbook last night, now I have to read 3 more chapters in my Employment Law Textbook and complete the final exam. Technically I have until Thursday night to complete it but I'll have to finish it Wednesday night so I have Thursday to return the book - it was a rental so it has to be returned by the last day of the semester.

So Friday night we finally got to watch The Hangover - Part 2. Scott LOVED the 1st one so he was super excited to finally see the 2nd one. While it was definitely like the first one, it was outrageously hilarious and disturbing all at the same time. If you like crude humor and can tolerate a lot of F bombs and you loved the 1st one, then i definitely recommend you seeing this one too. Even though we just watched it I guarantee Scott will find some excuse to watch it again in the next several weeks.

A New Cast

Savannah is sleeping and I'm thinking about joining her soon even though there is still a ton to do around the house. I hate when Scott lets me sleep in to much because then it seems most of my day is gone and then nothing gets done. Yes I know I'm complaining about him letting me sleep in, lol, but I've told him countless times that 9:30 a.m. at the LATEST, cause any later I really get more crabby!

So Thursday night after Christmas with Betty we came home and started getting ready for bed. Connor & I decided we were going to go outside and play for a few minutes while Scott got Savannah's PJ's on. Well we were outside for a minute and then decided to come back inside to find some gloves. Well we never ended up going back outside because all I heard is, "Babe, we have a problem!" Well Miss. Savannah's cast fell off! WTF. I didn't know that could happen! So I had to call GHC, wait almost an hour for them to call me back, for them to tell me to call UW, then had to wait for them to call me back, for them to tell me to come into the ER, then for me to call GHC back to make sure that a proper authorization went through. Thankfully Uncle Andy was available to go with me to the ER because I really didn't feel like going by myself, I was already super tired and needed someone to help me stay awake, so I met him at the mall at around 10 p.m. and we made the drive in. We got to see a nurse right away and got back in a room fairly quickly but then we waited and waited....... thankfully all of the Dr's were really nice when they stopped in, they were just busy and we eventually got her re-casted and we got to leave. They made the cast a little longer and bent her arm a little more in hopes that this will not happen again. This time we decided to go with another Christmas cast, and also Connor & Scott's favorite color - Green!

Christmas With Betty

So I just heard the Packer's lost their first game of the year, lol! Awesome! They will probably go on to win the Super Bowl but to be faithful to my dear hubby who is a Dolphin's fan and holds the record of being the only team that's undefeated, I'm glad the Packer's lost and can not take that record! Plus I hate Rodgers!

So on Thursday we went over to Jim & Pat's house to celebrate Christmas with Betty since she goes out to Colorado to visit with her sister for Christmas, so we always do it early. We got some Little Cesar's Pizza for dinner and then got to open presents! Both boys got an awesome Imagainex Dinosaur along with How to Train Your Dragon Movie. The Girls got the Zany Zoo toy, which is awesome! Matt & Scott both got new jerseys and a case of beer, Chrissy & I also got some team apparel! We gave Betty some Christmas Pictures, some canned goods (pickles & banberry jam) and I also made her a UW Wisconsin fleece blanket that had pictures on it. We also do Secret Santa, I had Pat, Scott had Betty, Jim had me, and Chrissy or Matt had Scott (can't remember, and I'd ask Scott but he's currently taking a nap with Savannah, lol). It's always a lot of fun and of course the kids love getting presents early! Now onto the next Christmas event! This season is going by so fast! Only a week left until the big day!

The Cast

Scott went to work this morning and only ended up working for 2.5 hours because the computer systems didn't seem to like him today, oh well! That way he was home in time to help me with the kids - took Connor to karate and then headed to the library and picked up a few things. Connor got 2 movies & a book, Scott got a new book on tape to start after Christmas songs are done on the radio, and I got a new book & cookbook!

So as everyone should be aware of by now, Miss. Savannah broke her arm last week. She was in a splint for a few days and on Tuesday she ended up getting her cast put on. We had to drive to the American Family Children's Hospital to have it done. We were in and out in about a half hour because they weren't very busy, which was nice. It gave us enough time to stop at work and let Daddy see her cast & sign it! I was thinking about making it pink, but decided to do red to make it match for Christmas!

Brausen Christmas

So for the past week dropping Connor off at school as been horrible, just like the beginning. He's been clingy & crying..... it breaks my heart. He's told his teacher that something is wrong but then he wont say anything more than that, so I don't know what to do. Does anyone have any useful advice on how to get a 4 year old to tell you what's wrong? Maybe he doesn't really understand what's wrong and doesn't have the words to say it? I'm not sure........

So Sunday was The Brausen Family Christmas. They do it at the same church every year even though the noise level is ridiculous and sometimes it hard to hear yourself think, but they probably will never change where they have it. This year they did it early so we had more of a brunch, yumm breakfast burritos! Every year they you can purchase "tickets" and try to win donated prizes (this year I brought Apple Butter for someone to win). Savannah & Connor both won a bunch of stuff from the kids table, I ended up winning a baking basket and Scott won nothing! Santa came and brought Connor a transformer & Savannah got Violet. Connor was super excited to see Santa but when he came close he ended up hiding under the table, lol. Overall it was a great time as always, now it's onto the next Christmas Event!

Round Robin

Christmas with Betty tonight! Should be a lot of fun! Just finished up wrapping her last present and also the Secret Santa presents! Can you believe Christmas is only 10 days away? Connor is getting super excited! So tonight is Christmas with Betty, then Saturday is Christmas at the VFW (The Lodge as we cal it), next Thursday is Connor's Holiday Program at School, then Friday night is Christmas at the Brausen's house, Saturday is Church then Christmas at GG's, then Sunday is Christmas! So lots and lots of stuff to going on!

So this past Saturday was Round Robin. If you don't know what Round Robin is, well: We go to every one's (well almost everyone) house in the "Veith" family for an hour, eat food, drink, and then go to the next house. It's an all day event that is a one of a kind day. We started this year at 11 a.m. at the Frank's, 12 p.m. was our house, 1 & 2 were Joe & Cassie's house (which we skipped so the kids could get a nap in). 3 was Kim & Jr's, 4 was Carol's, 5 was Paul & Ginger's, 6 was Gary's and 7 was GG's (which we also skipped because Scott had to bowl). There's always a great variety of food and you always eat way to much, lol, but oh well! Actually at the bowling ally we had to order Connor some food because he was to busy most of the day playing with the other kids. Normally we would have stopped at the Moore's house but Ella was really sick, so we took Buddy off their hands so they could spend some time with her alone. Now that that's done, it's onto the next Christmas Event! (FYI - Connor would NOT look at the cameras, lol, stubborn butt! Oh, and also forgot to mention most people wear their Christmas PJ's for this, but Scott & I wear shorts with Christmas socks!)

Sweet Dream Kisses

So I finished up Pat's Christmas present last night, yay! That took FOREVER! It ended up having 282 pictures in it! Holy cow! I did realize however I ordered the wrong size, crap! Some of those pages have a lot of pictures on them, so I hope she'll be able to see them! I also finished getting the kids god parents presents together this morning! Woho! Now I just need to get 1 more thing for Matt and 1 more thing for Secret Santa and then I think we're done! I'll have to double check everything and make sure we didn't miss anyone, but the end is in sight!

So we finished the book Sweet Dream Kisses - Treasury of Bedtime Stories last month. I don't know how I forgot to post about it but somehow it got missed. I realized it when I went onto my Shelfari account and it still said we were reading it, oops! Anyways, the book is super cute & a really nice one to have. It has a ton of short stories in it, some classics and some I've never heard of before. We would read 2-3 almost every night (Scott even read once and awhile!) and took us a few weeks to complete it. If you're looking for a nice book to purchase for a little kid I recommend this one! I don't remember where we got it but I'm sure you could find it on Amazon very easily.

A Broken Arm

Got a little more done on Pat's Christmas Present, only 17% (4 months worth) to go! Other than that it's been a pretty quiet night, we're going to make Connor go to bed early tonight and I have Chicken Stock going right now. Can you believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away? Does everyone have there shopping done? I have only a few things left to get and a few presents left to wrap, but other than that we're done!

So if you haven't heard yet, Miss. Savannah broke her arm last Thursday. It's officially a Buckle Fracture in her left Radius. It happened when Savannah & Grandpa were taking a nap, he thought she was still sleeping and went quickly to the bathroom, when he returned she was on the floor crying. I took her in Thursday to get checked out, they kept saying shoulder so I had them check that out, they also checked out her head and her hips and everything seemed and we were sent home. I noticed Friday morning while watching her crawl that something still didn't seem right. So I called again and made another appointment for that afternoon. 5 X-rays and an hour and a half after we got there we learned about the fracture. They put her in a splint and sent us home for the weekend. Overall she's doing very well with it. Once and awhile you can tell she gets mad/frustrated with it but it's not a constant complaining. We go in tomorrow morning to UW Children's Hospital to get a real cast. I think I'm going to have them do red one to match for Christmas!

Christmas

So Connor, Savannah, and I are sitting here watching Toy Story 3, waiting for Scott to come home from bowling, so then we can go to bed. I was messing around with my wrap I bought, and I think I have it figured out......at least I think so........Savannah is comfy enough & passed out, so I guess that's a good sign.

Christmas has come and gone, and although it is probably one of my favorite days of the year, I'm glad its done with. With all the presents, my house is still in the process of recovering.......its better than it was this morning, but there's still a pile of presents on the couch to put away. Christmas Eve we decorated cookies, then went to church, and then spent the night with Scott's dad side of the family opening presents at GG's house. We didn't get home until after 11 p.m. Christmas morning we woke up at 6 a.m., opened presents from "Santa", then got ready and went over to Scott's parents house. We opened a ton more presents from them, and then Scott's mom side of the family, from Milwaukee came over, and spent some time with them. We then ran home so Connor could get a quick nap in before going over to Aunt Missy's. Had some great food, and then the bazillion people who were there all got to open presents. We then went home & crashed for the night, then went over to John & Carol's house the next afternoon for another round of food & presents. Like every year Connor got way to many toys, and Savannah got way to many clothes. But I guess I can't complain about a family who loves to spoil my children.