Merry Christmas!!

We had a great Christmas celebrating with family and friends and hope all of you also had a holiday with lots of wonderful memories. Here is a look at some of our celebrations!

Izzy & G'ma singing carols on the piano to put us all in the mood!! Celebrating with the Villaran Family

Nolan's getting so big!!! All 4 Kids! The best group shot we could get. :)

Christmas with Grandma & Nick
(The kids were so excited with the first few gifts they got they didn't want to quit playing to open more!)

Izzy finally likes Vegas and they were working together to get the gift opening to begin! YAY! It's time!!!! Let's GO!! Really clothes?! I'm 3 and I want TOYS!!! Okay this is getting better...

The last gift of the night was their pillow pads...I think they were a hit!

Christmas Eve

Playing with their new toys before heading to Farmington!

Celebrating with the Hemplers!!

New Doll to go with lots of cool toys!
Christmas Morning

What did Santa bring you?!

I want one too...Best part about a snowless Christmas was that he didn't have to wait to try out his bike!

Christmas Day!
We celebrated with some of the Roberts Family and Tori (Nick's girlfriend) also joined us. Good thing too as she's the only one that remembered to take a picture of Izzy in her cute dress!

The next day the Knautz family (minus Parker who had to return to work and school) joined us and we celebrated some more but forgot to take pictures. Oh well it was a good time and we're very thankful to have so many great people in our lives.

Favorite Photos From this Past Month

To give Nicole a break from this blog I thought I would write something.

There, I wrote the word something.

Here are a few favorite pictures.

Tori & Nick

Robert's new Girl

Nicole's schedule has been busy since the start of the coaching season requiring her to work a few evenings and weekends while I've been busy showing homes this month...several individuals trying to get moved in before the year ends.

My other Real Estate projects have included rebuilding my Real Estate Blog and putting together a Business Networking Group.

Over Thanksgiving I prepared a Turducken, which turned out really well. We also finished our Christmas Shopping, put the tree up and approaching a closing date on our home.

Unfortunately I don't have an exciting story to tell and I suspect Nicole will be editing this post at some point.

House Showings!

The past two weeks we've been having a lot of showings on our house which is good but also very inconvenient so on the weekends we've been spending time with the grandparents. Thank you Larry, Mary, and Cheri (isn't it cute how they all rhyme!) for letting us invade your homes. We're hoping to have an offer soon and thus the showing will be done but for now I'll appreciate having a very clean home and getting a lot of excuses to go shopping and out to eat.

Robert's favorite activity at the Hempler's has been playing with Great Grandpa's trains. He loves connecting them and driving them all around and some times he even lets Grandpa Larry play with him!

Izzy found a rocking chair to play with at Grandma Roberts's house and really enjoys climbing in and out of it all by herself. She is growing up so fast!
And even if she does have more of Eric's looks she is definitely my daughter... as you can see she is looking at store ads trying to find the best deals for toys. I couldn't be prouder!!!

Bathtime at Grandma's house. My mom timed the picture just right!

Happy Halloween!

Robert was a little more into Halloween this year especially when he remembered he got candy! We experienced one of his typical tantrums (I love age 3...) and it was beginning to look a little skeptical that he'd be putting his costume on. Luckily a few trick-or-treaters came early for candy and we were able to tell him that if he wanted to go outside like them he had to put his costume on! Here are some pictures from our night.

Grandma and Robert off to the first house

Peek-a-Boo!

Well I was happy...
Home to look at his stash!

Still not sure what is going on but such a cute bug!

Busted! She caught on and got some candy!!!

Fall Fun

This week provided a new experience for us thanks to Grandma Cheri as she took Robert for a few days. Robert had a blast spending time in Red Wing and was kept plenty busy. He spent his days playing outside with Vegas, shopping, working out at Curves, hitting up playgrounds, and checking out some Eagles in Wabasha. While at night he conned Grandma into buying him some new videos to watch while cuddling and eating popcorn with her.

It was a nice change at home for Eric, Izzy, and myself. Not only did we get more sleep...Robert's been on a trend of staying up late and getting up really early while Izzy is a consistent 11-12 hour/night sleeper...but we also saw a new little girl emerge. Iz loved being able to move from toy to toy without somebody taking it away from her and getting mom and dad's full attention.

Both kids weren't the happiest to have Robert return home today. Both became a little too used to being spoiled and getting a lot of attention and free reign on the toys! To ease their pain, and to get out of the house while we had an open house, we visited a corn maze in Brooklyn Park. It was a lot of fun but could have done without the rain. Luckily my mom and I had the kids and were able to take shelter in the corn pool but Eric got a little more wet in the corn field as he was trying to complete the maze when the down pour hit.

At the Eagle Center in Wabasha with Aunt Sally and family friend Ada

And my mom didn't believe he was in a tantrum phase...
Taking a short cut through the corn maze!
Petting Zoo!!!
Not being a fan of animals, Izzy watches from her stroller!
CORN POOL!!! This was so much fun!
This just shows how excited she is to have her brother back...



After the maze Nick joined us for dinner and gave Izzy one too many kisses (:

Have a great week everyone!

Amazing Fall Weather!

This year the fall weather has been anything but typical. We have been experiencing 80 degree temps for over a week which has provided more outdoor time without having to be bundled up. I typically love the fall pictures we take each year while raking the lawn but enjoyed it even more to be outside this year in tshirts and my fingers staying warm while taking the photos. We are definitely taking advantage of the warmer temps because I know that as the leaves continue to fall so will the temperature.

Besides raking leaves we've been keeping busy at work and trying to keep the house clean, not an easy task with 2 little kids, for our random showings! During yesterday's showing I brought the kids into work to take in a little Wildcat Cross County, Soccer, and Volleyball. The kids had a great time running around outside, meeting new friends (including the WILDCAT), and hanging out with some of my swimmers. It was a great day and fun to be able to just play with my kids at work instead of actually having to work. On the flip side...Eric enjoyed time to himself at the office and at home to work without the kids distracting him!

Robert and the Wildcat

Playing in the leaves!!! Not so much fun for Izzy!

Nap time!
He could have stayed outside all day long.

We hope everyone is having as great of a fall as we are and that you can jump in at least one leaf pile this year!!