Shellsburg Winter Dance

Madison and Gabe had their Winter Dance tonight. They both had a great time. Maddie danced and played with Isaiah the entire time.

Gabe danced with Leo for a while.

They ate corn dogs, Cheetos and cookies for dinner. Gabe actually ate a corn dog.

Gabe slow danced with Darby for a while. They had lots of parents taking their picture. There were probably 3 "couples" dancing in the entire gym and 2 of the "couples" were Gabe and Darby and Madison and Isaiah.

They came home and got undressed to get their pajamas on and I had to make them get their clothes back on to get this picture.

Santa Knows Everything!

Santa has emailed each of the kids a special video.

They are pretty cool.

Click here to see Madison's video:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/cQIKy60cqjAnsWbRBsnnrQ

Click here to see Gabe's video:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/3SNx63W8KKnk4nO0RlY6uA

Advent 2010

We are doing our Advent Calendar again this year. Last year I made one, but we had a hard time with the boxes falling off. My mom and I found this new one at Michaels after Christmas last year. It is working very nicely. I kept the same paper idea circles as last year and we keep some Christmas candy in a little treasure box above the nutcrackers instead of actually in the advent calendar.

The Santa in the picture in the Advent Calendar is Dave's Great Great Uncle (I may be wrong, but he's in that vicinity). His name is Charles Howard and he was the first Santa in the Macy's Day Parade.

So far we have unwrapped one book, wrote letters to Santa and
decorated the kids' bedroom trees.

The one with the purple star is Madison's and the one with the red star is Gabe's.

We have decorated our big tree and the rest of the house.Gabe has notified his Nana that he wants in on the Christmas Nutcracker tradition and has requested one that plays music. Good luck with that one, Nana!

We made a gingerbread village this year. We thought it would be easier to make smaller houses and then each one of us would decorate one. The kit came with five houses. As we were putting the houses together we remembered from last year how hard it was to keep the houses together. We ended up only making three of the five.Madison decorated the candy shop,Gabe and Dave decorated the Chalet,and I decorated the toy shop.The point of our Advent Calendar is to spend time as a family everyday while counting down the days until Christmas. We have really enjoyed the time we have spent together so far and look forward to the other activities we have planned later in the month.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Originally posted November 21, 2007)

My grandma (dad's mom) passed away this past June. About a week after she died my parents received a package full of old family pictures that my grandma had sent to a distant cousin of hers that is into genealogy. He has a website with my entire family line. While looking at it I realized that I am a descendant of William Bradford. He is my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather (I think that is enough greats).
William Bradford came over on the "Mayflower" and was the second person to sign the compact of government before they landed. John Carver was the first to be elected as governor and when he died in 1621 William Bradford was elected in his place. He and his assistants negotiated with the Wampanoag and other Native groups and according to Wikipedia, "Bradford is credited as the first to proclaim what popular American culture now views as the first Thanksgiving."I think this will make a pretty cool history project for Maddie and Gabe when they get bigger.

On a side note (also from Wikipedia):

Other noteable descendants of William Bradford (besides myself, of course):

The Baldwin Brothers (Alec, Daniel, William and Stephen): American Actors
Julia Child: American entrepreneur and chef of French and French-influenced cuisine
Frank Nelson Doubleday: American publisher
Clint Eastwood: American film actor, producer and director
Christopher Reeve: American film actor, political activist

Miss Madison Got a Haircut

At first it was supposed to just be a trim. Straight across, that is it. After I trimmed it she wanted it layered. I tried to comply and it didn't work out so great, so yesterday after school I took her to the salon and she got a real haircut. She loves it and she got a lot of her curls back, which I love.

Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of Dave's pumpkin he carved for a contest at work. We hope you have a Happy Halloween. We have plans to ride a hay rack ride around our neighborhood with some friends while the kids run door to door for candy.

Check out what Gabe wants for Christmas

Pumpkin Carving 2010

This year was so much fun carving pumpkins. The kids had their own ideas and were really excited about drawing on their pumpkin. We gave them both a washable marker and let them go to town, then Dave cut out their shapes. I am really impressed with how well they both did.

Gabe was the first one done with his drawing. He talked as he drew..."two triangle eyes, a square nose and a smile with two teeth." It was so cute!

Here is Madison drawing her vampire pumpkin. She did such a great job.

We all had a lot of fun carving pumpkins this year. This is the first year that it was totally a team effort and the kids were able to really help us.

We also put Mr. Potato Head parts in a few of our pumpkins. From left to right, Madison's girlie potato head pumpkin, my potato head pumpkin, Gabe's Jack-O-Lantern.

From left to right, Dave's Jack-O-Lantern that he hasn't carved yet (it's for work), Gabe's potato head pumpkin, Madison's Vampire Jack-O-Lantern.

Carving pumpkins this year was so much fun!

Halloween Carnival - Super Girl and Buzz Lightyear

Yesterday was the Halloween Carnival at Madison's elementary school. She went as Super Girl and Gabe went as Buzz Lightyear. They had a ball at the carnival.



Madison had a sewing lesson this morning and did an excellent job. I couldn't believe how well she sewed a straight line and did pivots. She's a natural!

October

Gabe is recovering from Mono. This is what he looked like for 4-5 days last week.

On Tuesday we went on a field trip with Gabe's class to the Pumpkin Farm. He stayed home from school in order to rest up, but he was still tired and ready to go home by the end.

This is Big Bird. Madison is scared to death of Big Bird. Last year Big Bird got out of his cage and got lost in the corn field. We saw it on the news and Maddie was so worried about him.

Here are some of the boys in Gabe's class. I told them to hold their indian corn up and, of course, Gabe held his in front of his face.

This is Gabe's class. There are 22 students.

This is Adelle. She seemed to really like Gabe.

We had conferences yesterday and had some time between, so we went to the pumpkin farm and took some pictures.

Here are a few videos from the past week.

Madison ice skating


Gabe sings some funny songs.

I put my hand upon my hip - then I dip, you dip, we dip.


You change your mind like a girl changes clothes.

Teeth and Hockey

Here's a picture of Maddie with both of her teeth gone. She was so excited to call her family and let them know the good news.

Here's Gabe in all of his hockey gear. He starts practices next Wednesday.

Happy Birthday to my Baby Boy!

Well, he's not a baby anymore. I can't believe Gabe is 5 already! Time flies when you're having fun. Here are some pictures from this weekend.Here's a couple of pictures of Gabe opening some of his presents.

Gabe thanking Daddy for his presents.
Of course, Maddie got a little something (fake nails)too.
Gabe with his birthday cake I made him.