Christmas morning

Maya didn't want to get up quite as early as Alex so it took her a few more minutes to get excited but they were both pretty excited about Santa coming. They both seemed to like everything they got. I love how excited and thankful Alex is about everything he gets, whether it be a cool toy or a pack of white t-shirts!

Christmas Eve

I'm starting to think that woman who took the kids pictures at Sears was magic because I had a heck of a time getting them to cooperate at all!
We had a fun Christmas Eve as always. Alex always enjoys playing with his cousin Katie and this year Will seemed to really like following Alex around too.
We put carrots outside for the reindeer and cookies inside for Santa and the kids fell asleep pretty quickly.

The Nieto Traveling Circus

It was time again for us to hit the road. Due to me working the holiday season at Kohls this year we had a smaller window of time for traveling/visiting.
We spent a little time in Green Bay and New London first, then went to Rhinelander on the 23rd. The kids got some sledding in that day (thank goodness since it started raining the next day) and it turns out that Maya is quite the daredevil. None of us was overly surprised by that. Alex is really into sledding this year too.

We have snow!

Actually after yesterday and today we have much, much more snow than these pictures but this was the first snow we've been playing in. Maya is much better at walking in it this year and is really into it - she dives right in without hesitation. Alex is seriously excited about sledding this year. He's already been trying in the yard!

Yeah Baby!

Christmas tree

We went and got our Christmas tree last weekend. Looking at Alex you'd think it was -20 out but it really was pretty nice. He is just really into dressing for winter this year - always wants a scarf or neck gator!
The kids' favorite part of course is the hot chocolate and popcorn ball at the end!

To remind me today that they don't always fight.....

Rock on.

Thankful

We started a Thanksgiving tradition for our family this year. We got some blank prayer flags and the we all filled them with pictures and words representing things we are thankful for. We can watch them fly and unravel all through the winter and remind us of those things! It's fun to have a splash of color in our grey/brown (soon to be white!) backyard. The kids seemed to enjoy it, we used fabric markers and some fabric paint on the darker colored flags.

Some of our fall outdoor fun

Oink oink.....

I have not been online for a little over a week - Alex had H1N1 last week so we were keeping to ourselves!
He is all well now. It wasn't that bad for him. Really only very sick for about a day and a half, fever gone completely by day 3 and just took a while to get his energy back.
The rest of us seem to have escaped it.
The weather was gorgeous last week and we spent part of everyday outside, even if it was just sitting in the sun and drawing pictures. I've got some pictures that I will get loaded later this week.

Trick or Treat!

Maya was so excited about her new bed that it was hard to get her to nap on Saturday. She ended up falling asleep very briefly just before supper and remained quite groggy for trick or treating. Alex on the other hand had a great time. We ventured farther into or neighborhood than we had previous years, there was a lot of families out and it was a very fun atmosphere this year! Both got more than enough treats of course and now that we are almost a week later I think it's time for some of them to start disappearing.....out of sight, out of mind!

Maya's new room.

Mom and Dad came last weekend and brought with them all the fixin's for a real big girl room for Maya. We did some switching around of mattresses so Alex got a brand new cushy pillow top mattress and Maya took his old mattress and box spring (hers will be on the floor for a while as she gets use to it). Everyone was pretty excited! Maya loves her new bed.
The quilt on the wall is an original design from my mom that we've had for a while- I can't believe she found bedding that matches so well!

The Pumpkins

Alex spent days and days working on jack-o-lantern designs. He had pages covered front and back with different ideas and finally narrowed it down to two. We drew them on the pumpkins pretty much exactly from his designs. They turned out great!

Friday 10/30 - History Fair

Alex's school had a history fair highlighting the Middle Ages. The kids have been learning about various aspects of feudal and castle life throughout the fall. Everyone dressed in costumes (many knights, a few kings/queens, princesses, peasants, jesters, etc), there was a presentation by a local dance company the specializes in Renaissance era court dances and then games and presentations prepared by the 6-8 grade children for the youngers.
Maya and I went and hung out at school for the morning. She was thrilled to be able to come to school with her brother and did quite well in the classroom - she was a very good listener! Alex got chosen to go up on stage and participate in the maypole dance demonstration by the dance company! His costume was very sparkly on stage!
A big thank you to Grandma for his awesome costume!