It's been too long...

And I have been neglecting my camera a bit as well. 

These are back from November on opening day of gun deer hunting.

 I shot a little four-pointer,
 but I'm pretty proud because it is only my second buck.
The last one was 9 years ago and was a three pointer
so at least they are getting bigger.

One of my favorite parts of hauling it on my Subaru is this picture.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my parents.

After dinner, we headed out to the woods to cut down a Christmas tree.

We had a lot of laughs and
the turkey dinner keeps getting better and better every year.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

My mom had come out to help me out because I

had about a week of vertigo.

I don't know what I would have done without her!

Reducing stress is something I'm working on now:)

My dad drove out to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.

 We had a wonderful meal at our house..

 It was decidedly the best Thanksgiving dinner my mom and

I had ever made.

 Normal people often take naps after a feast,

but Zach brought out the big buck for my dad and I to practice on(with our cc pistols)

 We had a great time and I must say,

I think I get my shooting ability from him:)

Then Zach and I went hunting Thanksgiving afternoon,

where I shot a numb-buck(I've already canned the meat)

Then we headed over to my in-laws for dinner there

and had seven pies to choose from for dessert...it doesn't get better than that!

What a wonderful day!

Washington Island

Our trip started a day earlier than planned to head to Washington Island,

we had a chance to see my sister Jessica and her friend Ami that came for a visit.

It worked out great because we picked up my mom in Green Bay and headed up together.

 My vacation never really starts until we are on the ferry...

once I'm on it, I can unplug.

 Here's my love and I on the ferry.

 My Big girl and her dad wishing for bigger waves...

they don't have my motion sickness problem.

 Here's my oldest sis and my girls. 

The girls being taught how to braid hair.

 We all went to the mountain tower to drop off parachute men.

 We climbed all the stairs to see the men parachute down....

 and try to hit the target on the picnic table.

Warning: This is not as easy as it looks.

 We had a fun time trying...but alas, no one hit the target.

 Here's my beautiful mom and I on top of the tower.

 Here were are packing up the paratroopers for next time.

 My sis with the nieces and nephew.

 We ended that day with a trip to schoolhouse beach

where I saw something floating in the water...

so I went in to get it. 

It was a large piece of a driftwood that we carried back to the island home.

But it got everyone in the mood for swimming so we

got our swimming suits and came back for a dip.

It was great seeing Jessica and Ami on our trip,

we shared lots of laughs and logged some new memories.

I took so many pictures,

there are more posts to come from our trip:)

Until then...



Colors, colors, colors

We had quite the egg dying event.

 

Each of the kids were given two eggs a piece to start with.

 

 Zach tried to teach My Big Girl to use the dipper,

but as you will soon see,

it didn't work.

 My little princess wanted to make more difficult multi-colored eggs this year.

 

 My oldest was on a mission to perfection like always:)

 

 Here's Zach with an egg dedicated to me: the word Mom inside a heart.

 

 (Caption: Who me?)

This Big Girl stole another one from the carton.

 

 We given up on the egg dipper by now.

 

 Some dinosaur eggs got made with adding equal amounts of vinegar

 and vegetable oil after the tablet dissolves. Thanks Megan for the tip!

 

When I didn't have the camera, I was drying the eggs.

 

These next three are a series when our Big Girl realizes we are out of eggs...

 

 Just priceless...

 

 The older two dancing from all the egg dying excitement.

 

Here is our haul minus one

because it was going to be the darkest one yet

and was left in the cup for an hour.

We had a great time as always

and now I'm off to by the discounted packages of dye 

so we can do this in the summer for a fun project.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We don't usually do anything big for Valentine's Day.

So I figured I do a little something more this year

for Zach and the kids.

My big girl and I had a fun time with lots of laughs

making/decorating this cake. 

We hope your Valentine's was as sweet as ours.

Christmas morning...

was absolutely delightful.

 

 The kiddos excitedly opened their stockings,

proudly holding up their own oranges,

which they devoured immediately.

 

 After eating our traditional Christmas morning Kringle,

we started in on the gifts. 

 

 I had to add this picture of my big girl

because it reminds me of "two-blades".

When I was younger,

all I did was to wish for "two-blades"(ice skates)

and I have a picture of me opening them and having this same expression.

 

I treasure home-made gifts,

which is probably why I hand them out every year,

sorry family:) 

This gift is a favorite for this mama,

made my eldest little love.

 

We hope you had just as much excitement as we did.

Merry Christmas to all

My wonderful husband surprised me yesterday with glass ornaments to

repair my grandmothers kissing ball.

He even found pink, which is what I always thought were the

prettiest ones when I was young.

My girls love those the best too:)

 

Many Christmas blessings to you all.

May you be surrounded by the love of God, family, and friends.

 



Breakfast with Santa

Well, all the kids took their turn with Santa.

They all made their requests:

My eldest for a battle game to play with his cousin.

My little princess for a Polly pocket slide,

to which Santa responded, "No one has ever asked me for one of those before,

but I will get one for you"

Of course, to be the first one was all she needed to hear.



My big girl made me laugh out loud.

She was the third to see Santa.

She knew he would ask her name and what she wanted for Christmas

so she walked up to him(didn't get on his lap) and said,

"My name is ---- and I would like nesting dolls"

and turned to walk away.

 

We had a great time.

The kiddo got to see some of their cousins

and get to pick out some presents for mom and dad to put under the tree.