Sledding!

Today it got up to 30 degrees so we decided to head to Pioneers Park to sled. They have an awesome setup with ramps and everything! The kids had a great time! They sled for almost 1 and 1/2 hours. Lilly loved it until her last run where she got snow in her face. Now if you asked her, she would tell you that she hated it! It was great!

Snow Days!

We had our first (and hopefully last!) blizzard of the year. Braxton was already out of school for the Holy Day on Tuesday, but ended up getting Wednesday and Thursday off too! I stayed home from work on Wednesday, I'm not sure I could have gotten out of the driveway. Chad actually got a ride with a co-worker with 4 Wheel Drive. Even then they weren't sure they could get in our neighborhood. It was quite ugly! Cars stuck everywhere! The kids had a great time playing outside for a while. They also made some mice for our Christmas tree. Not quite sure they made mice, but they had fun doing it!

Braxton shoveling a path for Brownie!

Lilly preferred staying inside coloring!

The mice that the kids made!

Christmas Decorations!

The kids helped us decorate the tree earlier this month! They did a great job! We decided to go with a color tree this year. I don't know why, it just seemed like a good idea. Here are the results!

Twins? Nope, Mother and Daughter!

This is a picture of me and my cousin Heather in my Uncle Steve and Aunt Donna's wedding when I was 3.

This is Lilly in the same dress!

Picture Day at the Park

The first day of November was so beautiful that we decided to head to Pioneers Park and take some pictures. The kids had a great time hiking around and we got some neat pictures!

First Snow

This post is out of order, but I still wanted to make sure it got posted! October 10th we woke up to snow! It wasn't a lot, but there were a couple of inches. The kids were so excited and couldn't wait to get outside and play!

Catching Up

I have no idea where the last month went, but I think I am finally caught up with the last few weeks of blogging. Keep reading, you might have to click Older Posts to see all of the new ones!

Halloween!

The kids had quite the Halloween this year! First, we went to Boo at the Zoo on Monday and trick or treated at the zoo. There were lots of people there and we got to ride a bus! Lilly really enjoyed the bus! The kids were dressed as Superman and Supergirl. It was really planned, that is just what they chose to be! Thursday night we went to Trick or Treat at the Children's Museum. This was nice because it was inside, but there weren't really as many people giving out candy. Lilly was mad most of the time too because she wanted to play, not trick or treat. Finally we were able to let them play on the lower level of the museum. When we left that night, it was pouring down rain!!!

On Halloween day, Lilly wanted to wear her costume all day. One of the most important things I have learned as a parent is to pick your battles, this was not one I wanted to pick. So Lilly wore her costume to Misty's restaurant to celebrate Bernie's surprise 80th birthday, then to church, then trick or treating.

This year we went trick or treating around our neighborhood. It was such a beautiful night for it! We set off around 6:00 and got home around 8:00. I could not believe all the candy the kids got! It was amazing! We only had a few trick or treaters after we got home, so we had a lot of our candy left too. All in all, I think the kids had a great time and they looked super cute!

Pumpkin Carving!

This year both kids really got into carving the pumpkins. Braxton is not a big fan of scooping out the insides, but Lilly loved every minute of it!

San Francisco ~ Coming Home

Sunday Geneva had to be to the airport much earlier than the rest of us. So Stacey took her first thing. It was so great to see my sister those few days (hours really!). We had a great time! While she was gone, we got to meet Stacey's roommate, she was getting ready to fly to Texas. Since her flight was only 1 hour after ours, Stacey was just going to take us all at the same time! We got everything loaded up and headed out. As we turned towards San Jose Airport, where Jodi and I were flying out of, the roommate asked where we were going. Turns out, she was flying out of San Francisco. WHOOPS! Good thing her flight left an hour after ours! We got checked in with no problems and waited for our plane. Nothing too exciting on the flights home. We were just exhausted and ready to be back with our families! Next time we travel though Jodi, we are bringing these!

We got back to Omaha where Chad and the kids picked us up. We dropped Jodi off and headed home. I had such a great weekend! Thanks girls! I think a yearly trip is a great idea! Next year, New York???

Meeting Anthony Rapp!!!

On Saturday in San Francisco, we woke up and got ready to leave. If you can believe it, all 4 of us girls were out of Stacey's apartment by 9:30 am. AMAZING!!! Stacey took us to The Fog City Diner, it was amazing!!! Geneva and I had the yummies spinach, mushroom, bacon omlette. For those of you that have seen 'So I Married an Ax Murderer' the diner is featured in the movie. I will say that parking on San Francisco is outrageous expensive!!! I think it was a quarter for every 5 minutes at a meter. Ouch!

After breakfast we decided to head over to Fisherman's Warf. Chad wanted me to get him a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt and Ralf really wanted a sourdough bread turtle. We headed to Boudin's to get the turtle and what a neat place it was! They had an alligator (maybe crocodile) made entirely out of sourdough bread. It was quite amazing! We wandered back to the warf and just wandered. There are so many neat and fun things to look at! I got the kids some t-shirts and some other stuff. Fisherman's Warf is such a neat place! We went there in high school for a choir trip, after being there as an adult, what were they thinking taking all of us high schoolers there!

Since the show was at 2, we decided to head towards the theatre around 1. Unfortunatly, there was a marathon to be run in San Francisco on Sunday, Saturday was the "check in" day so there was NO parking anywhere near the theatre! We ended up about 8 blocks away. Not too bad really, but just getting over a horrible cold and all the hills in San Fran, it was quite the trek! We finally made it to the theatre. It was beautiful! We had awesome seats! I am a big fan of balcony seating. That way you can see the whole stage!

The show was AMAZING of course. Anthony Rapp was just as good as he is on the CD. I was a little disappointed with Adam Pascal, he just didn't seem as good for some reason. The whole show was just awesome though! I have always been a huge fan of Anthony Rapp and to see it live was amazing, but after the show was even better!

As we were leaving the show, Geneva decided we should go out the side door. It basically took us down the fire escape! As we got to the bottom, there was a security guard saying that the "meet and greet" line was to the left. We decided what the heck, the worst they can do is kick us out! The only cast member to come out was ANTHONY RAPP!! It was so cool. We got his autograph and Geneva even talk to him a little bit about Hawaii. I felt like a kid on Christmas. It was so amazing! After all that excitement, we went to an irish bar and had a drink, then decided to head back to the warf for dinner. We went back to Boudin's and had some really amazing food! I got a sourdough breadbowl with clam chowder that was just amazing!!! We had garlic fries as an appetizer. Let me tell you, if I could make those at home, I would make them all the time. They were so good!

We were all so stuffed and decided to wander around Fisherman's Warf a little bit more (seeing a pattern here?) Jodi decided to get a crepe, it looked really good, but I just couldn't find any room for a bite! As we were sitting eating, we were talking about Alliance. I guess there was a character on 'Supernatural' that said that the devil actually came from Alliance, NE. The big body guard type looking guy sitting behind us commented that we were having the weirdest conversation he had ever heard 4 girls have!

We left the warf and drove back towards Stacey's apartment. She drove us though campus where she works. Stanford is a very pretty campus, even at 11 o'clock at night! We headed home and crashed for the evening!

San Francisco!

What a great trip San Francisco was for me! After being horribly sick on Wednesday and Thursday (might have been the N1H1, but I refuse to think so!) I went back to work Friday morning. I still felt not so great and my boss sent me to work from home the rest of the day. I went home and worked in my PJs and lounged on the couch taking dayquil every few hours. I went to get Braxton from school and then it was time to go!!! We drove up to Omaha to get Jodi. We jumped in the van and headed to the airport.

Once we got to the airport, we found out that we were on a smaller plane. It had propellers! Jodi and I were a little nervous about that. It turned out fine and we made it to Denver with no problems. However, once we got to Denver, there was no gate for us to land at, so we landed on the tarmac and walked into the airport. That was a little weird. We finally made it to our next gate, which was all the way across the airport. Our flight to San Jose was delayed about 45 minutes. At that point, Jodi and I were starving and so tired we could hardly stay awake! We grabbed some dinner and sat down to wait. Finally we boarded our plane and were on our way to San Jose! Jodi and I had a great time chatting and talking to the very hilarious and sarcastic flight attendant.

I know this isn't a great picture because it is from my phone, but this is the people from our plane to Denver on the tarmac checking out the plane.

We landed in San Jose and Stacey and Gwen came to get us. We went to IN and Out for some late night dinner and then back to Stacey's. By this time it was almost 2am in Nebraska. Jodi and I were exhausted! Geneva on the other hand is 3 hours behind California, so it was only 9pm or so at her house. It was crazy! Finally we all crashed for the night! Saturday was so awesome, I think it deserves it's own post!

San Francisco!!

I am headed to San Francisco for the weekend! Stay tuned for pictures and stories!

The Anticipation of Snow

Call me crazy, but I love the first snowfall of the year. I love the anticipation of it. I love watching out the windows for that first snowflake. Looking at the gray misty sky just wondering when the first flake would fall. When I was little my mom would always come and wake us up to the see the snow. There is just something magical about the first snowfall. Everything seems to pure and clean. Don't get my wrong, I hate driving in snow. I hate being cold. But I love the first snowfall. Since this first snowfall is supposed to be on Saturday, I can engage in my favorite snow day activities; snuggling with my kids and a warm blanket, hot chocolate, and movies (or hopefully a good book if the kids are interesting in the movie!)
I will be anxiously looking out my window tomorrow for the first hint of the flakes in the air. I am sure by the end of the day I will be complaining, but for a little while it is my favorite!

Happy Birthday Chad!

Happy 29th birthday to the best father and most wonderful husband ever! we love you!!!

Yes, I know that I am still older than you...but we are the same age right now! =)

Go Huskers!

On Saturday, Chad was invited to go to the Husker game with his mom since his dad wasn't feeling well. They have season tickets that have been in Chad's family forever! We decided that since the kids were already dressed for the game, we would head down and tailgate with them! They have friends that bring their motorhome to each game and have a parking spot close to the stadium. We parked in Chad's work lot (for free!) and walked down. It wasn't exacly close, about 5 or 6 blocks, but not too bad.

They got N tattoos!

A clown came around and gave the kids some stickers. Isn't Braxton cute?

Lilly the cheerleader!

We ran into Seth and Maria and said HI before we headed over to the motorhome. Once we found it, we had a great time hanging out with everybody and people watching in general. People REALLY get into the Huskers. The pep band came around, but the kids thought they were too loud! We had some beer from the guy next to us and had a good time in general! Chad decided that since I should go to the game since I had 2 beers. So he took the kids home and we headed to the game.

From my seat at the game, did I mention they have EXCELLENT seats?

The game was pretty good! I saw Ashley (from the Hawaii trip!) and she did a great job as a Husker cheerleader! The couple in front of us turned out to be from Alliance, what a small world it is! The guy was certainly not feeling any pain! In fact, well into the 4th quarter, he was still sweating whiskey. After the game, we headed over to Sacred Heart where Chad and the kids met us for mass.

What a great time! Thanks for letting me go to the game with you Rosie! I am sure we will be back to tailgate again! Oh yeah, Huskers won!

Potty Trained!

I can't believe that I never made a blog entry about this, but Lilly is 100% potty trained! My mom actually did the hard work. The week they stayed with the kids, Lilly went everywhere in real panties. I had never been brave enough to do that. Since then, she has only had a handful of accidents and is sleeping all night in big girl panties. I am so proud of her! and it is SO nice to not have diapers in the house anymore!

Way to go Lilly & Thanks Grandma Mimi!!!

The Blue Angels!!!

I have always loved the Blue Angels! I'm not sure how many times I have seen them, but I know it has been a few. We decided to head up to Offut this last weekend to see the Blue Angels at the air show! We went with the Master's family and had a great time! Luckily, they decided to stop searching everyone. We stood in line for probably 20 minutes without really moving, then suddenly the line started moving. I guess they decided that the threat of being searched was good enough and they stopped searching each person. We had a great time and stayed maybe an hour and a half which was plenty long for the kiddos! Afterwards we went to the Master's house and watched the planes from the front yard, and then from the neighbors backyard. We had a great time. Unfortunatly, we decided that we didn't want to carry the big camera around the airshow, so we left it at home. We got some pretty good pictures with the little camera though! Thank you guys SO much for sharing your airspace with us. We had a great time! All day yesterday Lilly asked when we were going to go back and see Radley, they had a great time! We need to get together more often.

Chad, Braxton, & Lilly going into one of the airplanes.

Lilly and I up on another airplane.

Chad & Braxton in front of a plane. Braxton was much happier with headphones!

The line to get into "Ralf's Plane".

Braxton & Lilly in front of Uncle Ralf's plane.

This big plane flew over Jodi's house a few times!

The Blue Angels!

Wedding Pictures!

The beach where they got married...so pretty!

Getting ready to say "I Do!"

You may kiss the bride!

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Ralf Madrigal!

Now it is official!