Merry Christmas to all....

Christmas Eve is spent at my grandparents' house every year. The family is usually all there and we do a big huge dinner, we sing Christmas Carol's, Santa makes an appearance and we all open gifts. It is one of my favorite days because my whole extended family gets together to celebrate.



















The girls and I.



































My mom and I pose for the camera!

Avery and Grandma snuggle up!

My handsome hubby! My sister bought him this outfit from JCrew...apparently purple is the in color(and he has no problem wearing it :))

...and to all a good night!

Unintentional psychadelic Christmas lights caused by an uber slow shutter speed due to me forgetting to turn on the flash! I personally think it looks pretty neat and artsy...who am I kidding right?

Each year, we are blessed to have my Aunt Mary as our pianist. She plays the Christmas songs and we all sing along. This year, my girls were having a great time adding to tunes and Mary let them have at it!

My Cousin Halley and her boyfriend Sean (aka Santa Claus). Every year a different guy has to dress up like Santa and this year, Sean unwillingly drew the "short straw." He was a good sport though and did a great job of convincing my kids that he was the real deal.

None of my kids wanted to sit on Santa's lap first. They all kept pointing at each other to be the first. My cousin Jack who is 10 sat on Santa's lap first. When Bria saw that this Santa actually gave Jack a gift she was all over that bouncing up and down yelling, "My turn!"

Avery receiving her gift from Santa Claus.

Bennett, a bit apprehensive of Santa Claus, opted to sit in the folding chair rather than on Santa's lap despite numerous urgings from the crowd and a kiss and cuddle for Santa from cousin Halley.

Christmas Morning was at our house. I have started the tradition of making monkey bread every Christmas Morning. Avery was the only little mouse awake with me so she helped me roll the dough in the cinnamon and sugar mix. We even added a little of our special cinnamon mix given to us from our new neighbor girls!

Bria loves blankies. If there is one in your house, you are sure to find her there cuddling up with it. She drags them around our house all day long and I never know what is dirty and what is clean. Santa brought her a new Princesses' blanket for Christmas and she was able to cuddle it even with the tags and stickers still on it!

Avery loved her cash register from Grandma and Grandpa Fowble. She exclaimed, "My friend Kiera has this same one!" She has been spending the day learning about quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.

Hoops! Bennett got a basketball hoop from Santa and it was a sure hit in our house. Bennett and the girls were shooting hoops for hours! It was nice indoor rec time before we went outside to plow, shovel, build a snowman and sled in the gorgeous Christmas snow!

This was the view out of the back windows of our house on Christmas. What a beautiful sight to behold. I could not have wished for a more beautiful Christmas than the one we had this year! Cheers to a wonderful Holiday season and best wishes for 2010!

Shepherd's Flock Christmas

We were very excited last Thursday to attend Avery's Christmas program at Shepherd of the Lake. Her preschool puts on a show every year and all of the families are invited. Avery picked out this dress at the store and said it had gold and white just like her cross necklace. It was the second time that she has worn that cross which was given to her when she was born by our friend Amara.

The teachers led the students up to the altar and they all looked a bit dazed and confused at first. This is how we were greeted when her eyes locked with her Aunt Brooke. It was so darling to see the huge grin on her face.

They sang us 6 Christmas songs full of actions, shouting, and instrument playing. Avery was having a great time with her hollow sticks singing about reindeer hooves.

After the program, we got to take pictures with the kids. It is always an interesting task trying to get all 5 of us to smile on cue. All of the students had made their families a special gift. It was a hand made ornament and a special gingerbread Christmas card telling us how much they love us. Watching her up there singing brought tears to my eyes. My baby is growing up so quickly!

Avery's best friend at school is Adriah. They both talk about eachother constantly and if I didn't know better, I would think that she is one of two other kids who attend Avery's class! Looking at this picture, I see the size difference between these two four year olds and cannot help but laugh! She is indeed growing up...but not necessarily "up."

It's Cookie Time!

It was cookie making time in our household today.
The twins were still napping so Avery and I got started with the dough. She just adores dressing up in her apron and hat. We got the cutting board, dough and roller sufficiently floured up and went to work.














I wish that I could say that this flour on the nose was sponataneous, however, my child took it upon herself to decorate her face on purpose for this perfect photo opp!

Stars, Gingerbread men, stockings and tree's were what we were making. Bria woke up and came to join us. She mixed the green frosting for us and then began rolling her own dough.

Now, it was Bennett's turn to mix the red frosting and don the apron and hat to roll some more dough.













The finished products were so gorgeous that we all just had to decorate and dig in! I have already had my fair share of cookies but these memories are what my kids will hold dear as this time of season comes around each year.

Festive Happenings

Tis the season of decorations, cozy clothes and all around fun. The kids got a hold of this pretty purple scarf and loved wrapping it around their heads to be little
Eskimo's. Yes ladies and gentleman, this includes my son who adores the color puple :)


We spent most of the day on Tuesday decorating our very large Christmas Tree. The kids loved getting out all of the ornaments and seeing how to hang them up. It was hilarious to see Bennett continually place all of the ornaments on one single branch or two consecutive ones. I eventually disbursed them around the tree, but it was fun to watch.




On Thursday, my mom and I held up tradition by bringing the kids to see Santa and "A Day in the Life of an Elf" at Macy's 8th floor in downtown Minneapolis. The kids really loved the little scenes and especially liked "Reindeer Training School" where it showed tiny reindeer attached to hot air ballons floating up and down in the sky. Afterwards, we ate lunch at the Oak Grill where you get a festive holiday mug and a cookie for visiting that day.

We are looking forward to more activities and festivities that the season has to offer.

December is here

There is nothing that gets me into the Holiday spirit more than the smell of a freshly cut Christmas tree. I also love the smell of my white christmas candles burning the scent of cinnamon and sugar into the air. The beautiful spray of red berries in our decorative evergreen potted plants are a wondeful sight each day. I cannot help but feel all warm and fuzzy during the month of December.

This weekend we bought our Christmas tree. We normally get a Frasier Fir but Home Depot offered a new tree this year, the Noble Fir. This tree looks much like a Frasier only much thicker and quite honestly...perfect! It was packed very tightly and the trunk is as large as a salad plate, so we were not quite sure how it would turn out. We set it up in the living room and then left for the day. When we got home, there stood the most beautiful tree I have ever had the opportunity to own. The house was FILLED with the scent of the tree and instantly I was excited. The kids and Chadd were shocked at how large it was. We got a 7 foot tree but the width of it is what commands attention. I cannot wait to decorate it, even though it may take until Christmas for us to finish it :)

We are looking forward to all of the things that this Holiday season has to offer. Friends and Family celebrating one another and the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord. Gingerbread houses and Cookie decorating. Macy's 8th floor with Grandma Fish. Snow falling. The Holidazzle Parade. Gift wrapping. And most of all seeing the delighted faces of my children as they experience this magical time of year.

Turkey Day

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year. The kids love any opportunity to spend at Grandma and Grandpa Fish's house. Almost everyone was able to be there this year with the exception of my sister and one of my aunt & uncles. The kids really enjoy my cousins Bailey, Jessica and Halley so they spent a lot of time hanging with them. Halley was blowing raspberries on Bria's belly and it was cracking everyone up....including Bria!

I got to do some camera experimenting with my uncle John who is a Canon aficionado. We usually try to dress up on Thanksgiving so that we can get a good family picture for our Holiday card. This year, I spent a lot of time working on lighting. I have deduced that I have a long way to go in order to "know" which settings I should use based upon the background lighting, direction of the sun, lenses and simply where to stand and at which shooting distance to be. My ammature ability aside, I was able to get a few decent shots of the kids in their outfits. I am so glad to have three kids who enjoy holding still and smiling long enough for me to quick snap a shot....who am I kidding right? My camera is so darn fast that it really is the one taking the great shot in spite of my poor ability and my kids who are constantly in motion.

I am looking forward to decorating for the holidays. We normally do this the day after Thanksgiving, but since Chadd's job has taken him over seas again, we must wait until this weekend. I actually was out there today going through bins trying to figure out if I can do anything alone. It really comes down to a whole lot of planning which I am not terribly good at and which Chadd is THE master of. So, I get a pang of saddness and longing each time we drive by Chaska Farm Mart and see the fresh cut tree's lying propped up against the fence just waiting to come home with me. Soon enough, one of those Frasier Furs will be mine.

Gobble Gobble!

This Thanksgiving our family has so much to be thankful for. We are officially in our new home and all of us are loving the peace and quiet of a small town. We live high up on a ridge and you can see tree's for miles out of our back windows. The kids have adjusted to their own rooms quite well and I am amazed at just how well they have been sleeping since the move. Could it be the peace and quiet? I am willing to bet it has more to do with their own space and them being just comfortable here.

Chadd's project is thankfully coming to a close here and after his trip to Tokyo this week, things should quiet down for a bit. I am so thankful that he loves his job because the hours that he put in the past month were enough to drive a person crazy. I felt terrible after a particularly bad 3 day period where he slept a maximum of 3 hours. If he did not truly love his job, I am not quite sure that he would still be working there after going through these past few hectic weeks.

Recently, Bria had a medical emergency that scared the daylights out of us. We are under the assumption that she had a seizure, although there is no clear cut evidence pointing us to a firm yes or no. It appears that she is operating at 100% and has been ever since her episode. She slipped and fell, hitting her head on our tile floor. I heard the noise and saw her lying stiff and contorted. The whole thing lasted about a minute or so but while it was happening I thought it would never stop. I am thankful that she is doing well and is her normal happy go lucky little self.


We have spent the past few weeks exploring the new house, doing arts and crafts, playing outside, meeting new friends and neighbors and trying to get everything organized. Some days it feels as if nothing gets done and yet other days we have nothing to do so we head out and about.

Today, we decided to make Turkey Cupcakes. The original instructions told us to use candy corn for the feathers. The kids and I spent the majority of yesterday running around on a wild goose chase (no pun intended) for candy corn. Can you believe that after 6 stores and gas stations we came up empty handed? Who knew that you can only get that candy during Halloween. It left me wondering where the heck it all goes to? Some factory somewhere to be recycled? I was picturing Willy Wonka with a huge vat of orange and yellow mellow goo...stirring and stirring.




After brainstorming a bit, I thought that we could settle for using pretzels as the tail feathers. I got everything ready and put the nutter butters on plates for the kids after thoroughly sanitizing their hands. Their favorite part by far was the frosting. They really didn't care about much else...can you blame them? I think that Bennett got the eyes on two nutter butters and was already licking the frosting off of his fingers and taking a bite out of a nutter butter.

Bria and Avery definitely lasted longer in the decorating phase...call it gender difference maybe. But, in the end, I had to re-do 7 Nutter Butter's with Turkey faces because they had all "dug in." It was a fun project and the kids enjoyed their reward, as did I. There is nothing better than sweet and salty all wrapped up together.




We wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

What a fabulous Halloween!

Oh what a wonderful spooktacular Halloween it was. My three little babies had their best Halloween yet. This year all three chose their own costumes so I ended up with a very eclectic crowd. Ariel, Batman and the Little Witch loved dressing up the 6 times,before Halloween, that they got to dress up. That red hair of Ariel's sure got tiresome to spray so we opted not to do it a few of the times. Every time that Batman was supposed to wear his mask, he would take it off...until tonight of course! He strutted down the neighborhood streets wearing that mask like a true professional. The Little Witch is a bit on the short side, so when her bag wasn't dragging on the ground it was tripping her. After one pretty nasty spill she stood up, brushed of her knees and shouted, "Dang it!" I couldn't help but giggle at my expressive little gal. Our neighbor Chad puts on a pretty creepy show every year and you just never know what to expect. This year he truly out did himself with screeching zombies and slithering dead people coming at you from all directions. My three children may be scarred for life. I have never seen them all so frightened before. Chad quickly yelled for the people to "tone it down" and then he removed his masks to show the kids it was just him. I sure hope that they realized that it was fake and the costumes had people in them. I am thinking that this trick truly was a treat for me and all of the other adults who loved to watch the action...does it make me a terrible mom that I thought it was hilarious watching kids run away screaming? After making the rounds, Chadd took the twins home and Avery and I went to Sara's house for their "Haunted Garage." Avery was a little nervous at first but because she knows the people behind these masks very well she was definitely not as frightened as she was at our neigbhor Chad's. Thus ends our 4th Fowble Family Halloween. It is a favorite in our house and I hope that it will continue to be for many more years.