Noelle's Snow Day

We had some crazy weather here over Christmas-first rain, then ice, then snow. So after the snow, we took Noelle out to sled for the first time. She loved it. Then I had her get in the snow. She wasn't sure about being in the snow, but loved to sled.

Our crazy Christmas:)

We started our Christmas stops at Nate's aunt's house on Christmas Eve. I got the kids shirts that said "I ate Santa's Cookies" they looked cute.
Kade left cookies under the tree for Santa and was upset Christmas morning when the note said Santa had eaten them.

Christmas morning after we opened presents at our house, we headed down to Nate's parent's house to spend Christmas with his family.

My brother came home the day after Christmas, so we headed down to the Stenzel's Christmas in the morning then went to my parent's house that night. Here are the kids before they opened presents.

Kade didn't get a nap for 2 days in a row and he was super exhausted so he actually fell asleep at the dinner table at my parent's house.

Noelle and Olivia got super comfy sleeper pjs from my mom and dad. He they were all ready for bed in their new pjs.

The big tub

Kade and Noelle wanted to take a bath in our bathroom, so I finally gave in. The tub is so deep that Noelle couldn't sit down. They loved it and now they want to use our tub for baths.

Visiting Santa

We took the kids to see Santa in Franklin Grove in early Dec. Noelle couldn't get her coat off fast enough and ran to Santa. Big improvement from the screaming last year.

Kade was still a little shy. He let Noelle go first and then slowly made his way over to Santa. Once he started talking, we couldn't get him off Santa's lap.

Movie Night

We had movie night and made popcorn with the popper and watched Shrek the Halls with the kids. They had never seen the popcorn maker. Noelle thought it was hilarious.

First snow of the year

We got our first snow of the season on Dec 6. It wasn't much, but we took the kids outside and hung up the Christmas lights. It was a good thing we did because we were blasted with almost a foot of snow the next day!

Christmas Stockings

I made new stockings this year for Christmas. Nate thought we should see if Noelle fit in them, and she did.

Curlers

We tried curlers in Noelle's hair for Thanksgiving. She loved them. She sat on her chair while I put them in. She left them in for about 4 hours.

Her hair held the curl really well. It stayed super curly for the rest of the day and all the next day until we had to wash her hair in the tub.

Happy Halloween:)

The kids were Pebbles and Bam Bam for Halloween this year. I actually made both costumes from start to finish this year. The hardest part was finding the full body tights to put under the costumes to keep warm!!

Kade with Great Grandma Gehant

Noelle with Great Grandma Gehant

Kade and Noelle with Grandma and Grandpa Stenzel

Pumpkin Festival 10K

On Oct 25, I ran in the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival 10K. The weather was beautiful, with little wind.

This was about the 5K mark, I was feeling great and keeping a good pace...but then after the 4 mile mark the course started heading uphill:(

Here I am just before mile 6, I have been running uphill for almost 2 miles, I was struggling!!! I finished in the middle of the pack, just shy of my goal time. I was just glad to finish and know I ran a 10K. I decided that day however, that I am a 5K runner:)

Pumpkin Patch

While we were in Minnesota, we visited a pumpkin patch. It was HUGE. There were tons of things to see. They had playgrounds, a hay ride, petting zoo, and a lot more we didn't see. Then of course there was the pumpkin patch. It was very windy and my two had had enough by the time we got to the pumpkins:)

Olivia's 1st B-Day

The kids and I ventured up to Chris's early in Oct. for Olivia's 1st Birthday. Liv had a blast at her party. The kids had fun playing together. This was my 1st trip driving by myself since I was in college. I was nervous, but we made it.

Aaron's wedding

We went to Aaron and Jen's wedding at the end of September. We had a blast. We stayed in a townhouse with Chris, Kristin, Olivia and Kristin's sister Vicki. Vicki bravely volunteered to babysit the kids while we were at the reception! She had our 2, Olivia and 2 of my cousins, WOW:) Here are a few pics from the wedding.
The whole Stenzel family dressed up and ready to party!

The little girls had matching dresses and they were super cute!

Chris, Me, Aaron and Erica. We have taken this foursome picture at all of our weddings now!