Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

It continued to snow and snow and snow, a total of 20 inches. That meant that the boys had the 20th and 21st off of school due to snow. Not like starting your holiday off early!

That is the neighbor guy trying to get out of his drive way.

 Once the snow cleared we headed up to grandma Van's house for some holiday fun. The newest Mythbuster! Jamison!

Peter likes Santa's outfit, has been wearing the hat for about a month!

 The boys got some fun new-style sleds, so we had to take them out for a try. I think the boys like the "dismounts" more that going down the hill.

  Back at home for christmas eve to open our family gifts. It looks like it was a "utility" christmas. Now each man is equipt with their very on knife.

The boys were fast to sleep in hopes that Santa comes....and he did! whew, we were getting a little nervous. Peter scored some Halo building blocks.

Last year all the boys wanted were their two front teeth, this year all Jamison wanted was a Skylanders starter pack. BUT Santa gave him one for the Wii, and we dont have the Wii. Jamsion was near tears that he was soooo close to having the coolest video game ever but so far away.....or was he?

A WII!!!!! It was declared the best christmas ever.

Katie and Brian flew into Madison for the holidays. Jamison got Jenga from Gma Van, so we needed to have a Van challenge. It must fall over soon.....

How about now, dinner is waiting....

 Dinner is now cold and back in the oven! At 36 layers you are competing at the professional level. It ultimately fell at 33 layers. So close to quitting your day job KT!

 Next layer of holiday fun was having Rob/Carolyn and family join un!.Presents presents and more presents! We were hoping to take them all sledding at Liberty Park, but there was just too much fun to be had here. Maybe next time! Happy Holidays Everyone!

Oh the weather outside is frightful.....

But inside is so delightful, at least right by the heat register. The season's first snow day.

This is almost torture...a snow day right before christmas break. Part of me hopes school is cancelled tomorrow also, the other part really hopes the kids are in school and not at home going crazy about christmas coming. They think they are on Santa's "good" list. We will have to see.

Pat is pretty happy he can truely use his new snowblower that be bought last year and never had a change to really use it. This storm will really put it to use!.

 This is only half of what they said is coming. Jamison asked for snowshoes, I think it is getting pretty deep out there!

holiday prep

Preparations for the holidays are in full swing! The attempt to get a good holiday photo is always interesting.

This is one of the outtakes. Others include wrestling and bunny ears. Boys! I sure hope they are on the "good boy" list.

The neighbor and I escaped for a girls day out and took in a game...Packer Viking Game! It was great to get away for a day and even better that the Pack won!

Our annual party was a blast...it is a good party when every counter looked like this! The party ran later than what Jamison had hoped, he went to bed hours before the last people left. Poor guy. Peter stuck it out as long as he could and was impressed that he made it to 11:37. He was super pleasant the day after!

It is begining to look a lot like christmas....I am not ready for it! Its just too darn cold.

At least it looks pretty.

Thanksgiving and Pat's 40th!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The weather was unseasonably warm and we were able to be outside with just sweatshirts and tshirts! It was fantastic!

Up are Gma we needed these stylish hats. Functional and fashionable!

The boys even were able to get out an fish! They caught a few and boy were they tasty!

We new the weather was too good to last! We woke up friday to this! What a difference a day makes!

Next stop on our holiday triangle was Gma and Gpa Van's house. All the Van Nelson boys were gathers so they decided to Skype Aunt Kt for home holiday cheer!

The new sibling tradition is to play the 5$ open/steal game. Since 3 or the 4 siblings were at gmas house we thought it would be fun to play while skyping (is that a real word now?) Kt and Brian. Oh the wonders of technology.

Next reason to celebrate...Pat's 40th Birthday. Woohoo! He handled it way better than I did. We enjoyed is requested dinner and carrot cake muffins! yummy!

We opened the presents and he cracked open the gift some Heike....interesting booze! Thanks Heike!
Happy Birthday Pat, lets hope for another 40!

The aftermath

It has become tradition to launch the pumpkins out the barn window after halloween.

Not sure why, besides boys like destroying things.

One thing they learned is that it is not as fun to clean it up afterwards. At least the pumpkin guts have been removed.

Ya, i cant comment on this. Not sure what this is. Hopefully it does not stick around.

It might be time to turn on the heat...if the cat is looking for heat and can only find it on the computer....it might be time. Either that or he is getting senile and has no idea where he is.

So Pat is gone hunting this week and so it is me and the boys. They are already challenging my patience. A couple months ago there was a soccer ball/window incident and we removed all balls from the house. Sadly, woodland critters have replaced balls and get tossed around. When they are tossed, they are banished to the top of the refridgerator. Well today the woodland critters, and a polar guest, banded together to declare that they are tired of being treated like balls. They have threatened the boys that they will gather ALL of their plush friends and march right out to the barn attic and enjoy a peaceful life. We will see how long that lasts.

Some other things that have been driving me crazy....and sadly have pushed me to this. I find that I repeat the same 10 things over and over and day after day. They include the following.

1. Leave the (fill in the blank) alone. usually "cat" of "brother"
2. Dont start a sentence with "mom"
3. Put your shoes in the cabinet and close the cabinet door.
4. Brush your teeth for the full 2 minutes
5. Sit on the couch as it was intended.
6. Wash your hands!
7a. Get the crap out of your mouth.
7b. Get your fingers out of your mouth.
8. Stop throwing things
9. Use your manners at the table
    -get your elbows off the table
   - use a utensil
   - sit on your chair
   -chew with your mouth closed
   - etc etc etc

So now I have resorted to stating a number...and expecting the boys to know what I refuse to get my mouth to say one more time. I am going to need a plane trip away for a few days, somewhere warm with fruity drinks and sand, lots of sand.

One a happier note....some other random funny things the past couple weeks.

"mom, what is for dinner" says Jamison.
"I dont know yet, i dont feel like cooking" says Mom
J says to P "that is a good sign that we might get pizza"

The car battery died so I tell J&P's bus driver that I will be riding home with them and that he should save me a spot on the bus! In horror Jamison screams "NO!" and Mark, the bus driver, says "Peter, you will have to live the life of the straight and narrow!" Later that night Peter says "I didnt know what that meant but I knew it wasnt good! (btw i did not ride the bus home, i walked)

U9 fall soccer season comes to a close

 Way to go Mount Horeb U9 Black team! You guys played hard, learned a lot and most of all they had fun!.

The last game of the season was against the hardest team, Verona. When they first played them they lost 7-0, but U9Black said that now they will unleash their secret weapon, the Cullen Brothers, as we were gone the weekend they played them. We still lost, but the score was a much better 2-1. The boys showed awesome ball handling skills and teamwork. Way to go boys!

They finished the season with 4 wins, 3 loses and 1 tie. We needed to celebrate with a pizza party at the Grumpy Troll!

Halloween and a little science

 Happy Halloween Everyone!

This year our house was attacked by Vikings and Pirates!

You got to love Savers! We were able to find the perfect belts for both costumes, a Ralph Lauren frilly shirt for Peter and fuzzy viking boot for Jamison.

 We were also able to get another year out of the "jedi robe and jedi boots" from a couple years ago. The boots actually fit Peter and they are a womens size 6!

 Who would you put your money on....a pirate or the viking?

 In science the boys had to collect seeds from around the house and woods. Thanks Gma and Gpa Van for sending us the really cool moonflower and catalpa tree seeds! no one had those!

Great job boys!

National Jamison Day!!!!!

 Happy National Jamison Day!

For dinner the special boy picked noodles and meatballs, sauce on the side and carrots!

 And for dessert....yummy peanut butter icecream! at school he was the special star and shared muffins with the class.

For his special gift we gave him aquarium wallpaper for Speedy and NG Encyclopedia of Animals. He has been wanting this book since we returned from Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis. He was also the one that typed most of this blog post! Happy Jamison Day!!!!

Holy moley! A month in review

Holy smokes! Before you know it a whole month passes by. This past month went by too fast! I guess that is what happens when there are soccer practice and games, football practice and games.

 In school the boys are studying seeds and have a project to collect and display all differnt kids of seeds so they went into the back woods to collect what they can.

 They need to seperate the seeds into different categories...travel by wind, planted by people,  drop where they fall and "hitchhikers". I think Jamison found some hitchhikers!

 We made it out to Treinen Corn maze. This year the corn maze has a technology theme--

 gears, knots, circuit board and da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man a little bit modified. We made it through and found all parts to the map, but we only found 2 of the bonus 8 stamps. They say only 2% of their guests actually find all 8, maybe one year we will spend the whole day looking for them.

 Jamison tried the Jacobs Ladder again, and again he did not ring the bell. We should really build one of those in the back yard to practice.

 Peter's favorite was the pumpkin launcher....he hit the target! and earned a free bag of popcorn!

 Jamison came close...and also got close to launching himself along with the mini pumpkin.

 On our way home we noticed this disturbing site...yes, there are two dead dear on the back of the toyota camry. weird.

 Our next cooking challenge-Chopped. Both boys will have the same 4 ingredients and will have 30 minutes to prepare a side dish for our dinner.

 The ingredients....pasta, carrots, peas and shredded cheese. They had the same criteria as our Iron Chef competitions (Taste, Originality, Use of ingredients and Cleanliness) and one souschef (me).

 The boys got right to work and I think enjoyed ordering the sous chef around a little too much.

My! that is a big knife Peter! No fingers were cut..so maybe their knife skills are improving.



Jamison prepared two side dishes, first a salad with pretty much everything from the fridge and a sushi inspired rice dish. Peter prepared a similar salad but had added soynuts for a little crunch. He also served yogurt and berries for a palate cleanser and pickles for Jamison because he would not have liked the yogurt. The scores were nearly tied, only a 1pt difference. That 1pt was given because the boy actually put a couple ingredients back in the fridge...ie cleanliness. Sorry Jamison you are "chopped" Congrats Peter! Jamison declared a rematch!   hmmmm, i wonder what the ingredients will be!