Christmas Tree!

Hopefully over the next day or so I can finally catch up all of our pictures on here from December.  I'm not even going to worry about November :/ I'll just catch up this month and try to keep up from there.  We'll see.  Don't hold your breath though!! 

For the past five years, we have always bought our Christmas Tree at the same tree farm in NC.  We have always loved being able to look back at pictures of the kids in front of the same sign each year growing a little bit bigger and bigger.  The first year we took Ella, we were just carrying her around in the baby bjorn!  So needless to say, we felt a little lost trying to make new traditions for tree hunting here in Wisconsin.  Thanks to several suggestions from friends, we found the best place to go!  It was wonderful and don't tell our old place....but this one was way better and totally replaced it just fine.  They had a huge selection of beautiful trees!  In some spots you just saw trees as far as you could see! We chose the perfect one (which took forever now that the kids are old enough to insist on which ones just aren't "good" enough), cut it down, and caught a hay ride back to the front of the farm.  There we had hot chocolate while the tree was given a good shake and wrapped up to take home.  It was great and every year we just seem to have more and more fun with the kids as they get older and can participate more.  It always feels so nice once all of the Christmas stuff is out and the house feels so festive!  I just love this time of year!!

Family Camp!

{insert big, gigantic, long, sigh here} We had an awesome, awesome, awesome, week at family camp last week.  It was such a fun time!  It was so nice to have an entire week completely "unplugged" to spend with the kids and Randy.  We did all kinds of fun stuff like kayaking, archery, zip lines, pottery, horse back riding...I could go on and on.  We got home on Saturday and got to spend the weekend visiting with friends from NC who were passing through, so to say we are tired...well that would be a huge understatement.  It's all worth the exhaustion though for the great time we had at camp and the wonderful memories we made this weekend with friends.  I think tomorrow, we will sleep.  All day.  Okay, maybe not since I have preschoolers.  But a girl can dream, right?!

Here's a little slideshow of our week at camp!  Enjoy!

Fishing!

 For those of you that only come here to see pictures, today is your lucky day!  I uploaded a ton because I just couldn't make up my mind.  Over the weekend, we were invited to come out to a friend's family farm and fish!  It was absolutely beautiful.  The pond we fished at was located on a beautiful piece of property that has been a part of their family since the 1800's.  Ella and Noah were so excited they could hardly stand it.  They had a great time out fishing, throwing rocks in the water, and even went on a boat ride!  We also got to see some baby pheasants who were only a week old!

The kids were a little nervous about the birds, but eventually warmed up to petting and holding them.

 Sweet baby birdie!

 Getting all set to start fishing!

 Yay Noah!  His first time catching a fish!

 Ella really liked fishing, but didn't want the fish or bait to come anywhere near her! 

 Yay Ella!  Reeling in her first fish ever!

 Love this big smile :)

 She didn't want the fish too close to her, but she still cheesed it up for a picture!

 Ewwwwww!

 My beautiful girl!

 My sweet babies!

 I loved this one.  Sweet Ella making sure her brother is careful getting over to the boat.

 Beautiful.

 When we were done, Lori fried up the fish we caught for lunch.  This was both Ella and Noah's first time eating fish.  I know.  That's pathetic.  Not their fault they were born to a Mama that hates anything seafood.  They both really liked it though and ate a bunch!

Such a fun day outside enjoying this beautiful state!