Christmas is nearing

It is so hard to believe that Christmas is only 6 days away. It seems so unreal. I do believe that my presents are all bought with only 1 left to wrap. Yippee! This weekend brings us to Friday night being the only time at home this weekend. Saturday we will have Christmas celebration with the Afdahl's side. It will be a little different this year since Ruthie is in a new house and it is more a pot luck style meal. Sunday brings us to my parents house with Chad, Melissa, and the kids and Luke, Landon and I. I am actually really looking forward to this since we will be ordering pizza and appetizers. Totally out of the ordinary meal. Love it!! Sunday night is cousin's night out. Okay so it is first annual and it might be a flop but we are going to try to round the majority of us up and go and see how it goes. I know that Emily and Bridget are looking forward to it. :) Monday is the annual Hurtgen Christmas Eve at my Grandpa's and then Sunday is out the Kathy and Joel's. That is where all the presents seem to come in. Kathy loves to shop and does such a good job; but she sure did make Christmas shopping for my own son a little difficult. Everything I wanted to buy him, she bought it instead since I was shopping with her on Black Friday.

So, we will be busy and we will see how Landon deals with it. He has been having some meltdowns lately. Yesterday morning I was ready to leave him at home. I stood in the hallway and screamed out loud because I couldn't deal with him. He is definitely opinionated and shows it one hundred percent. I guess that is what being two is all about.

I hope everyone has a safe Holiday. Enjoy your families.

Snow, Snow and More Snow

I can't believe how much snow we have gotten in only four days. It seems so crazy. I don't even remember the last time we have had this much snow in the of December. Seems like we have always wanted a snow fall so we could have a white Christmas. I do have to say though, that I do like it. It has made everything so pretty. I do not like driving in it, but that is just a minor detail, right? Landon on the other hand absolutely loves it. He wants his boots and snow pants on so he can go out and help shovel. It is quite comical. Luke has been putting in a lot of hours snow plowing, and yet still working his full time job. I think he is enjoying still since it is the first couple of plows, but I am sure that it will get old in a hurry if the snow keeps coming every couple of days. We are all doing well. We are ready for Christmas. Just a few little items to pick up yet before the holiday. Shouldn't be a problem.

Thanksgiving

It is so hard to believe that another year has come and gone. I do have to say that this Thanksgiving was a great one. Nothing exciting happened and it was very low key. We went a whole mile and a half down the road to Luke's Aunt Virginia's. Her little tiny house crammed with 44 people in it, but it was very nice. We were able to watch to the Packers and enjoy the food. It is so much easier with a 2 year old now. I didn't feel that I had to watch every step he took, and he was able to feed himself. He did endulge in a few too many pickels and picked green beans, but he was having a good old time. It amazes me each year when the cousins are around and how they change. It is crazy to think that was me once upon a time. Very good time.

Luke's Mom and I headed out for Black Friday at 5 a.m. It was so much fun. I must say I do usually have a good time considering it was only my second year ever going. Kathy is a pro at shopping so that makes things easier. We were at Wal-mart at 5:15 and then we headed over to Menard's that opened at 6. It was extremely crazy in there. Then we headed off to Herberger's in Stillwater and then to Maplewood. We met up with Luke's sister there and she went to Albertville Outlet mall at Midnight and had not been to bed. She is one crazy girl. She said she did find some super deals. I need to go shopping there on my own time when the weather is nicer so I don't freeze outside. All in All I got most of the shopping done. I didn't buy too much for Landon after I saw what Grandma had in her cart for him. Goodness, he is going to have a great christmas. Next year might be a different story and I won't be able to cheat on the presents, he is going to start figuring that stuff out soon. :( I am ready for Christmas.

HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween Everyone! Luke and I along with Chad and Melissa hosted our First Annual Halloween party at the Woodville Legion this past Saturday night. Man, what an experience that was. We were the Flintstone's. Chad and Melissa, were Betty and Barney Rubble and Luke and I were Fred and Wilma. It was a pretty darn good time. We had about 75 people attend. We had a DJ that was fantastic. I think next year we will know what to expect and not go over board with the food situation, but I do believe everyone had a great time. There was a couple that came in pretty early that we had no idea who they were for about 45 minutes. Chad and I eventually figured it out. It was pretty crazy. There was a group of 5 that came in later, and we didn't know who they were right away either. Chad did figure it out. I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years, so this was pretty fun. I do know that I do not look good in Orange hair. I do think Melissa looked Fantastic with her black hair. Come, on Melissa I think you should dye it!! So, Happy Halloween to everyone and hope it was fun for everyone.

Landon will be dressing up on Wednesday as a Brewer Player. Simple, but that is what he loves. So we created our own costume this year. Maybe next year I will dress up with him and trick or treat with him.

Pleasant Valley Tree Farm

On Sunday we went with Nathan & Amber, Carson and Gage Lee to the Pleasant Valley Tree Farm outside of Menomonie. It was a good day despite the dreary weather. It was our first time their. Nathan and Amber were nice enough to invite us along.

When we arrived they were preparing the pumpkin launcher. Holy Cow the boys were impressed with that. We went on a spooky trail through the woods, Landon and Dad were able to fish out of a boat (okay, really no water and with magnets on the end), look at the goats at the petting zoo, stand by a pumpkin to see how tall everyone was, go into a jumping castle and crawl on straw bales with tunnels in them. Landon's experience in the jumping castle was a good one. He did very well, until his his worry wort Mom made him get out when the big kids invaded the castle. We ended our day with a hay ride out through the christmas trees. You were able to mark your tree if you wanted to and come back and get it before christmas. It is a great place to start a tradition. Too bad we have an artifical christmas tree.

Baseball Weekend

Now that the week is half over with, I am getting a chance to update my blog. We received an early Christmas present from Mom and Dad, which allowed us to have two nights at the Sheraton in Milwaukee and a Brewer's game. It was AWESOME. Our seats at the game could have not been any better. We were in row 23. It was great. Landon couldn't not have been any better at the game. He was so cute in his Brewer outfit dancing to the music and eating his hot dogs. His admiration for Cousin Joe only grew stronger through the weekend. Where ever Joe went, Landon wanted to go. Joe was a great cousin and sat next to Landon and watched him as he climbed up the wall and kept his attention. Thanks for that Joe.

Our ride to Milwaukee started out late and Landon didn't do the best. He had a horrible hack and could not get comfortable, but we managed to make it. Joe rode down with us and watched movies. We arrived at the hotel Friday night about Midnight and Landon thought the hotel was so fun. We had adjoining rooms with Chad and Melissa and so the door way was very cool. Mom and Dad joined us Saturday morning. We checked out the Brookfield Mall where we each got something Brewer from the store. Otherwise we hung low at the hotel. Landon was going to go the Milwaukee Zoo, but with him not feeling well and not getting a ton of sleep, we decided to skip the zoo. Maybe we will be back next year.

So, Thanks again Mom and Dad for another great Christmas Present. It was a ton of fun and I can't wait to go back to Miller Park. (I never really enjoyed baseball until Landon had to watch it every night, then we started watching the Brewers, and we are hooked :)

Here are some pictures of Landon and the Park.

New Transitions

We have come to so many transitions this past week that I don't know if I like the change. It is all good change, but man, Landon is just growing up. We went and picked up Landon's "Big Boy" bed and all the new sheets. Of course we had to get him sports bedding. It has baseballs, basketballs, and footballs all over it. Landon didn't seem so excited, but we are trying to make it as big of a deal as we can. He wanted this pillow that looks like a baseball glove with ball in it; so we got it for him thinking that if he can only have that on his bed, he will stay in there. So, last night we got everything all washed and set up. Landon was not thrilled about being in his room in his bed. He wanted to go to Mommy's bed. So, I laid down with him, and believe it or not he did fall asleep. Not all night though. He made it for about 2 1/2 hours and then he was in our bed. He woke up yelling and Luke just brough him to bed with me and Luke went to the living room. So tonight we try again. The mattress isn't the greatest. It is extremely soft, but it is going to have to work for now.

The next thing, is the potty chair. Yes, he really did go in there once. I couldn't believe it. I am not sure if he is even ready, but he is always telling us he went potty, so we thought we would start. Daycare is going to start trying harder too. We will see how it goes. That is going to be a bigger chore than I want to deal with though. The potty chair sings and Landon things it is the greatest thing ever. Not so much!! We will see how the next week or so goes. It will be nice to be over this hurdle, but it is just getting to the point to jump that is going to be rocky.