Goodbye To 2011

Well, to say we had a whirlwind year is putting it mildly. We were very blessed, but I am ready to be a bit less stressed. ;) Although I realize it is the new year...I kinda want to wait to start the Stahl New Year until February 1st. Then we are hopefully slowing down and crossing our fingers for a mild year. Of course, as I'm typing this, I realize that is unlikely, but a girl can always dream. :) We had a wonderful year with lots of memories and lots of little (and not so little) adventures!

And, a look at a family shot each month throughout the year. :) Left to right, top to bottom, starting in January!

Ending The Year With Smoothies and Swings

What? New Years Eve? :) This is by far the least New-Years-Evish New Years Eve we have had yet, but it was a wonderful weekend nonetheless!

First of all, our kids have some amazing grandparents who got them an awesome Christmas gift - a swing set! Second of all, my amazing husband did an awesome job putting it together, with only me to help! Third of all, thanks to both of our dads, because with our upbringing, this was way easier. I was thankful he knew so much about tools and putting things together. (And had a some power tools as we needed to do a bit of drilling when necessary!) And I think Brad was glad his wife knows the difference between a Flat Head and a Phillips...and many other tools I might add. ;)

We started our morning with banana chocolate chip muffins and smoothies out on the patio. They finished inside, though, as cold smoothies and chilly early morning breezes made the picnic idea a little less appealing.


And this was us throughout the day. Kids playing outside, Brad working hard, and me assisting all of them. We loved the family outside time!


And I think my favorite Lorelei quote of the day was when she was stuck in the basketball hoop. "We may have to call the fire department!" :)

We didn't quite finish since we got a bit of a late start that morning. They are love love loving having our own playground in the backyard. :) Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Santa Surprise

We were surprised to get a package in the mail yesterday! And sure enough, it even came with a note for Miss Lorelei. Apparently Santa ran out of princess hopping balls right before Christmas, so he sent Lorelei the princess one a little bit late. Perhaps he sent too many princess balls to Virginia instead of Texas which made him have to give her the blue ball instead?



Anyway, this girl is very happy with BOTH her hopping balls. Besides, Makin will want his own sooner or later right?

Thanks Santa!

Some New Jobs

I decided to come up with a chore chart today, and Lorelei is excited for the opportunity to earn some money. We just have to figure out a few kinks...like how much she gets and when, and also if we should have a jar for church/savings other than just her piggy bank...but we got started on it today nonetheless. I am very excited to have her putting her dishes on the counter and having some extra motivation to help clean up! We are starting with just a few to get the hang of it, and then will add more as we go. She really liked gluing them on the chart I found online...not sure I want to keep gluing every week, but its a start at least!

Also had some time when Makin slept a bit longer today, so Lorelei practiced writing her name. Can't say it went that well, but again it will take time. :) Thankful L's are fairly easy! :) And at least the i at the end is fun! :)

Sunny End To December

A high of 69 and sunny skies made for an absolutely gorgeous park day on Friday. Sooo thankful we have this weather this week and most of next week will not be too bad as well. And since I'm working hard not to get too down on what we have coming up, it helps a lot!

Taking Brad to work the last couple of mornings we have really enjoyed seeing the sunrise over the lake. Pretty amazing way to start the day! :)

Mr. Makin swinging in his cool new shades.



We enjoyed the playground as well as doing some exploring with the different practice fields they have at this location. Fun digging in the dirt! :)

After nap we headed outside and played with one of the huge boxes I am temporarily tolerating in the house. Just love how much fun kids have with boxes! Lorelei is thrilled with how many different ways she can turn it around to make different things, including "the cave." She keeps saying, "This is pretty neat."



More amazing weather tomorrow. Can't wait for some outside time as a whole family!

Almost Asleep

In the swing at the park. :) Clifford makes a pretty good pillow.

We are super-excited to have warmer weather this week and plan to get to another park Friday too. And crossing fingers we can get Grandma and Grandpa's present set up in the backyard for fun this weekend...but trying not to hold my breath!









We played in the backyard after nap. Got all the equipment out we could, and Makin did great with t-ball!

Visitors For The Day

We had Mirinda and Isabelle Krenz pay us a visit on Tuesday! We enjoyed getting a chance to catch up and Isabelle liked checking out our toys that were mostly all new to her! Mirinda has some family in this area so we will hopefully get to see them every year or two when they come up from Florida!

New Dress Up

And yes, I warned Makin that he would really not like this picture in about 10 years, but he still wanted to wear it. :)

And if you think they look like they are from the 80's you would be right! None other than Yours Truly wore these and looked cute to boot! ;) They love having more twirly dresses!

Hopping Ball

She was on this ALL day. All. day. She loves. And think of how much energy she must be using!

Okay can't figure out why there is no sound, but will have Brad look at it tonight.

I Will Not Speed, I Will Not Speed

The day after Christmas was spent taking a 6+ hour long online driver's course, divided up with my typical Mom duties and letting Brad get some work hours in at home as well.

Diet Coke and Killer Brownies were a MUST.

Christmas Card Picture

Just wanted to post this since I had not yet so you would be surprised when you got your mail. :)

Christmas Day

We had a happy and low-key Christmas. We played, ate, played, ate (and mostly cookies I might add), and played some more. Just spent the day enjoying each other at home!














Lorelei was a bit miffed that, "Santa ate ALMOST all his cookies." I told her we will leave a note next year instructing him to eat ALL of them. :) So here she is, polishing off what he didn't eat of course!









Drinking her hot chocolate after playing outside for a bit she said, "That what I just need Mommy." :)

Makin loved everything and one of his top favorite words now (between all of the ones we have to eat and the ones that went with Cookie Monster from Aunt Sarah) is "cookie" but not sure how to describe how he says it. :) Sounds close to it though! :) And we enjoyed a bit of the Disney Christmas parade and seeing a few characters, and Makin especially loved the ones from Cars! :) Oh, and he really thinks he looks cool in his first pair of sunglasses! :)

And I think Brad had just as much fun playing as the kids did. He even built a "dog house" for Lorelei's dog with a couple of boxes and some Duct tape. He loved shooting baskets, and we all enjoyed having a fire going all day! Which of course, required a marshmallow roast.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Wishing You A Very...

Christmas Eve

Day

We had a wonderful day together Saturday. It was mostly a lazy day, and just perfect for us. :) Here are a few highlights...

The kids were elated when they saw all the presents under the tree...and waited, but boy was Lorelei itching to open one!

Just a few cute pictures from our day. Brad thought it would be fun to try out some gel in Makins hair...think it would be better if his hair was thicker and shorter, so may wait a bit before we try it again, but was fun anyway. :) The one of Lorelei with her hands up is how I found her sitting after I painted her nails sparkley. :) I did tell her not to touch anything! :)


And then some family pictures. Finally got the one Jeanette requested of us in front of the house...about a month late! Guess I flunked daughter-in-law 101! Sorry! Anyway thought we better take a picture like that after realizing I forgot to take one earlier as intended. We enjoyed having a fire going and reading Christmas books in front of it before nap. :)


And other random pictures from the day include...the branch on our tree with four ornaments hanging on it. :) Found that and asked Lorelei about it, she is just trying to keep them away from her brother's reach! :) And then the highlight of the day for the kids and the headache for me...a remote control helicopter Brad got in the mail for FREE to test out and send feed-back. Oh boy does it keep the kids entertained...and he is crashing it less now, otherwise he knows he gets sent outside in the cold! Lorelei said,"Remember Daddy, don't hit Mommy's tree!" And the other pics are just their cute stockings (Thanks Jeanette) and Makin loving our Christmas Eve chili! :)

Night

All dolled up and ready to head to the candle light service at church. We had a wonderful service, but Makin did keep me on my toes the whole time, especially when he wanted to hold the candle at the end. Lorelei, however, took it all in and was very sweet to her dad while we sang Silent Night.

























And then (bad parental judgement call probably since they were both VERY tired the next day) we headed to a neighborhood that was close to church to check out some Christmas lights. We did not make time to do that earlier in the month as we had planned, so figured since this was supposed to be impressive and was near church, we could do one trip. I packed a star sugar cookie for each munchkin and we were on our way. The neighborhood was quite impressive, and we even had one house that was astonishing and choreographed with music. We even got out to watch for a bit. Hoping to go next year earlier in the month and just park in front and watch from our toasty car. :) http://gordonlights.com/ Has some videos from last year! Apparently its a tradition we can look forward to. :)


Then we got home, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate his little cake (mint chocolate, do you know who picked it up? ;) ) and got to open 1 1/2 presents (they got the remote bus together) before bath and setting out treats for Santa and Reindeer.

And Lorelei's thoughts on Santa coming? "Maybe he need a roll, and coffee, and hot chocolate, and milk..." :) "Maybe Santa need to use bathroom...from all that milk." :) And of course, the animal girl she is, her first priority getting the goodies, was the carrot.

Wonderful Day and Night!

Pillow Buddies

Christmas With The Bohlmanns

Well, most of them. Just missing Heather! Mom, Dad and A.J. came here and had to leave before Christmas Eve because Mom is the church's only piano player/organist and didn't want to leave them on Christmas, and Heather was glad to get to be home for Christmas too, so they will get their own celebration at home. We had them for about two days total, and are looking forward to a longer stay next time!

Thursday morning we started out unloading a ton of fire wood that they brought us! Yay for toasty fires without having to run to 7-11 first! Love having it stacked in the garage!

Lets see...as for the pictures, we have some morning time with Uncle A.J., "antlers" out of fire wood, Lorelei looking at an extra special Cabbage Patch Doll (my first one!) and all the clothes that Nana brought with her, along with two more dolls. She was thrilled to have shoes to put on them! And also working with Nana on a little sticker nativity and Makin wanting to sit in the big chairs like the rest of us.


Then we headed to a nearby park that I had been telling the kids we would go to because they had Christmas decorations up. It was a PERFECT park day and in the 60s. They did a lot of swinging and sliding and just had fun having Nana and Papa with them.



Then we went and picked up Brad for a quick lunch at Chick-Fil-A and Lorelei LOVED the Elf Cow! :)

















That evening we had our mini early Christmas celebration with our favorite snacks and yummy supper (with delicious cookies Mom brought to add to my small collection) and then opened presents. (And oh I wish we could have caught the look on Lorelei's face when she saw a ton of presents under the tree when she got up from nap. :) )

Lorelei loving her new Hello Kitty sleeping bag and Makin loving his excavator...and the air bags that came with the packing... ;) And of course, Nana reading her a new bedtime book!


As you all know, I have many traditions I like to keep, so I asked if A.J. would bring his keyboard to continue one from my Mom's family. I have not gotten to do it much, as we never had big family gatherings, but loved it when we went to my grandma's and got to enjoy it. Each family/person/pair would sing part of The Twelve Days Of Christmas. Well...we just all sang together this time, since we needed a few more people. We still had a great time being able to hear a few Christmas songs played by Mom/Nana, and of course the kids were in love with the keyboard. Thanks for bringing it A.J.! And for playing Mom!

Love you Uncle A.J.!

Love you Nana and Papa!

Thanks to you three so much for coming and we miss you already! Loved having you for a visit and can't wait till next time. :)

We are so thankful that we have gotten to see most of our family from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Just makes holiday time extra-special. :) We are so blessed with wonderful family!

Christmas Means...

Cookies at 9:05 AM :)












And 8:45 AM

Mail!

The kids were thrilled to get a package to open in the mail. And the best part? Now we can listen to Grandma read a story any time we want! (Still not as good as in person with a cuddle though! :) ) Thanks Grandma!

Sweet, Sweet Sound

Nothing like children singing (or doing motions in Makin's case) especially Away In A Manger. As usual, Lorelei knows the words better than she does on the video, but they did great!

The Manger

I took a few videos to send my Grandparents (GiGi and Pops to the kids) so wanted to share some of them with you too. As for these two clips, glad we have the basics down for understanding the real reason for Christmas. :)

Chocolate

This little man is trying many new words out, and Grandma will be happy to know this is in his top 20! :) I think he knows it more because Lorelei talks to him when they are both out in the COLD playing in the sandbox and she asks him if he wants to go inside and get hot chocolate. Then she comes to the door asking for some, and he is standing in the sandbox saying chocolate too. :)

Cookies Are Frosted!

With "finkles." Lots and lots of "finkles."

Aunt Heather's Christmas Visit

Since the timing is off with Heather's days off and when the rest of the family can visit, she came the weekend before Christmas to visit us and celebrate early.


Playing Hide-And-Seek as soon as Heather got here.

















Opening presents Friday night. Lorelei was SO excited to have presents under the tree. And they loved the special bells Aunt Heather used in wrapping...and loved the presents too. Thanks again Heather! (And the one of Brad with Makin's tool bench...long story but we thought we had to take the gears back out to turn easier so he finally got it...and they still turn hard. So not sure what is up with that, but boy who knew you would need a your own tool bench to put together a kids tool bench!?)


Saturday morning we headed over to The Gaylord Texan Hotel. This is what everyone local said was a "must see" at Christmas. Plus, its free to walk around. Just not to park. :) There is also a big show they have each year, but we didn't go to that this time. Maybe when the kids are older! Brad came down with a stomach bug (or just drank too much Mt. Dew at his work party Friday night) so was not able to come with us. He was very disappointed this was his first time not seeing the kids with Santa...but as I reminded him, "Its not like they are meeting Jesus!" :) Next year!

We enjoyed seeing the sights including a stop for coffee and a giant cookie to share, a pond with fish, trains (Makin was fascinated), a "life-size gingerbread house" (but its really just a building they put gingerbread onto and you can't walk into it) and a gingerbread village along with the train.

The Sights (excited to see it at night sometime when our kids are old enough not to have melt downs!)

Coffee and A Really Big Cookie

In Line To See Santa

And of course, Lorelei's first priority was finding Santa! And how did Makin do with Santa? Well, he held it together. After being plopped onto his lap he looked like he was about to burst into tears, and then was okay when he saw I wasn't going anywhere and leaving him with this bearded guy. :) He was quite relieved when I took him back down. Lorelei did her thing, including showing him her picture and explaining that both she and Makin wanted big bouncy balls. (This is our compromise from the pogo stick...since they are really for ages 5+)

The Gingerbread House

Reindeer Bushes and Toy Soldier (really a guy on stilts....)

The Train With Gingerbread Village

And one of the best parts of the visit? We got to see my Aunt Marilyn from Florida (my mom's brother's wife) since she was visiting my cousin (her daughter) in Kellar. I hadn't seen her in about four years so it was great to catch up! The kids had a great time with an awesome backyard and lots of fun toys to play with.

The four Great-Grandkids together. They all were excited to see cousins!

Hoping for another visit soon with Uncle Brian and Mom too!


Do you think Lorelei likes her skates? She only asks to put them on as soon as she wakes up in the morning. ;)



And on our list for Sunday...sugar cookies! So much easier when someone else was rolling and cutting while I helped Lorelei!



Thanks for visiting!