Christmas Day

Christmas morning brought us all kinds of new and interesting things. The day started out with Santa leaving some books for Emma and Lucas. Unfortunately, our van didn't want to start. Thankfully, the neighbors were up bright and early and came to our aid. We got on our way to Illinois.

Once we were there, the kids (along with the adults) had a great time opening presents. The kids got to do it in their magic Christmas jammies.

From there, we went to Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Knoshers house in Naperville.

Everyone had fun opening presents and visiting with one another.

Christmas Eve Fun!

Here are our two kiddos sitting in front of the tree at Grandma and Grandpa Lorenz's house. We had a wonderful dinner with all our family that night. We did run into a little problem with all the snow that kept falling on the ground. Uncle Matt's trucks broke and Grandpa's snow blower broke, so the guys spent the night before and that day shoveling. Everyone was tired, but ready for a fun night.

Opening presents with cousins! They love spending time together.

We all got socks and new ornaments for our trees!

Uncle Matt and Uncle Peter determined that this year's gift of the year was to be foam swords for all the kids that could walk, and for Grandpa. Uncle Dean took one and started chasing us all over the house! We had a great time having our own little sword fight.

Fun in the snow.

The snow was great to play with in the house. Due to the surgery and the cold temperatures we brought the snow inside for the kids to play with. They both enjoyed it, but Lucas really thought it was quite cold.

Cold, but interesting!

Emma began throwing snowballs at Daddy. You never would have guessed that two days earlier she had surgery.


Now we're throwing it at the dog!

December 17th-Tonsils and Adenoids are removed!

On December 17th, Emma had outpatient surgery to remove her tonsils and her adenoids. This is to hopefuly improve her lack of sinus drainage as well as take care of the obstructed airway that her adenoids were causing. This was a day that required a lot of patience and prayer. She is healing well from this, but it has made our break a bit different this year. She only remembers going to the hospital and throwing up at home! It's amazing what the medicine can do!

Here she is before the sugery, noice no IV yet. They put that in once she was asleep.

This was after the surgery, the IV is in and she spent a lot of time begging and yelling at people to please take this out of me!

Emma's Christmas Program

Here she is with all her classmates and friends at the end of their Christmas program. Everyone did a wonderful job!

Snow Fun!

So, winter in Wisconsin has begun. We had around 100 inches of snow last year. We seem to be on the same track this year. Emma loved her first snow to play in while Lucas thought we were crazy being outside. He did enjoy eating the snow, but thought it was a little too cold.

The boys shoveling the walk.

Lucas enjoying some white snow.

Emma working on shoveling the sidewalk.

Since there wasn't good snowman snow, Emma decided to turn herself into a snowman!

Getting the Christmas Tree

We spent a cold Saturday afternoon picking out our tree at Stein's Garden and Gifts. Emma and Tim ran up and down the aisle looking for the best one. In the end Tim picked the winner. While Tim loaded it up, the kids and I went inside the store to get Lucas his very own stocking and stocking holder. Emma said it was just too cold to stay outside and really enjoyed the indoors We then enjoyed a lunch at McDonald's, home for naps, family Christmas pictures, and then the neighborhood Christmas party. It was a busy day, but it was a lot of fun. The next day was the St. John's faculty party, so Grandma and Grandpa Lorenz came to babysit for the evening. A whole weekend full of fun, who can ask for anything more?!?!

There they are with the perfect tree!

Emma was having fun braving the cold winds.

Lucas didn't think this was a fun event at all, maybe next year will be more fun.

Uncle Joel's Birthday and Thanksgiving Fun

Since Joel's birthday falls so close to Thanksgiving, we celebrated as a family a little early. Emma loved helping!

We celebrated Thanksgiving twice this year, we had so much to be thankful for! On Thursday, we celebrated with the Knosher side of the family in Illinois. On Saturday, we celebrated with the Lorenz side of the family in Wisconsin. It was wonderful spending time with all of our family.

Grandma Lorenz made me my hat!
Here's half of the table!

Isn't she such a cute big girl!

What a sweet boy!

Here's the other half of the table.

Emma decided that we did have enough food on Thanksgiving so she built us a new birthday cake.

Aren't they cute together!

Emma loved spending time with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Knosher.

The little brother and the big sister just hanging out, getting ready to head home to Wisconsin.

Lucas has really been on the move lately. You might think that he's after the camera, but check out the next video to see what he's really after.

He LOVES Emma's backpack!

Just Plain Silliness

Lucas really likes being under things.

He also likes being inside things.

Lucas wasn't really climbing the stairs, just checking it all out.

Grandpa Lorenz's Birthday Party

On Saturday, we got together to celebrate Tim's dad's birthday.

The big kids held a musical parade!

All the grandkids "helped" blow out grandpa's candles.

Baby cousins. Eva is almost 1 month to the day older than Lucas. They had so much fun together!

The Packer Trio

Tim has his kids all dressed up in their Packers gear. Emma is starting to get confused as to why Mommy cheers for the Bears team and Daddy cheers for the Packers team.

Playing at Home

Now that it is getting dark earlier in our evenings, we've been finding new ways to spend time at night. One of Emma's favorite things to do is to play the Wii with Mom and Dad.

She is turning into quite the bowler.

Trick or Treating and Other Fun

This weekend was fun and busy. Sarah had parent-teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday, so Emma went to Elgin for those days. Sarah and Lucas went to get her Friday and we got home in time for a nap and trick or treat time.

Emma had fun dressing up as Cinderella and Lucas was a mouse. It was a great evening to spend with our neighbors.

Emma has been discovering the candy in her bucket and had her first pixie stick, that was fun!

Our little trick or treaters! What a fun night!

Emma danced the night away once it got dark.

We had so much fun just watching her go.

The puppy is younger than Lucas and will be bigger than anyone could think in a short time! They really did love each other.

Soon to be best buds, I can already tell.

Here's our busy little guy on the move, always!

Pumpkin Carving Time

So this weekend we got together with some friends from college, who odly enough live 2 minutes from our house, but we never see each other. Tiffany and Jeff brought Isabelle over to carve pumpkins and share in some chili. This past week was full of crazy schedules at work, so Emma requested a movie night after church on Saturday. So, we ate our dinner in front of the Veggie Tales movie, in our jammies, on sleeping bags. This week is full of meetings at work, parent-teacher conferences, and the ever popular Trick-or-Treating on Friday!

Lucas really enjoyed tasting the pumpkins. "Hmm... this taste likes squash, I think that was my dinner last night! So this is what I'm eating."

We are so happy for all of our many friends who are having babies these days. They all look great and we are praying that God continues to bless you and your families.

Emma got to "help" Daddy carve her pumpkin.

What a great face!

Lucas really isn't so sure about this idea.

This idea totally STINKS, Mom!