Christmas 2013

I think the best way to sum up this Christmas was that it was a roller coaster of really good and really bad. I'll start with the good. The kids have been so, so excited for this Christmas. And on Christmas Eve they were itching to open presents so badly that we let them each open two.

 The next morning, they tore through the remainder at record speed. Ben, in particular, went so fast I couldn't keep up.

My brother and Jamey's grandmother were here for the chaos.

And after the dust settled, Ben was so eager to put together a Lego truck, with boat and trailer that Grandma gave him. Luckily, Uncle David volunteered to help him put it together. I was just amazed by how patient Ben was to work on that. I bet they sat there for at least an hour putting together the little pieces. Ben played with that thing the rest of the day.  And he kept saying, "This is the best Christmas ever!"

Notice, I haven't said much about Maddie. That brings me to the not-so-good. The night before Christmas Eve, Maddie was the first to come down with the stomach flu. So she wasn't feeling so hot. She was especially run down and low-energy on Christmas. It seemed like she wasn't excited about her presents, but I'm guessing that had more to do with being sick.

Ben and I made it through Christmas and then both got sick that night. He threw up 7 times between midnight and 4 a.m. Needless to say I didn't sleep at all.

The next day, the four of us laid in the living room and stared at the TV all day. Jamey didn't get sick until Saturday, just as me and the kids were returning to normal.

Santa - 2013

Ben & Maddie visited Santa today at the Mothers of Multiples family party. Ben asked for "Buzz Lightyear" and Maddie asked for "Palace Pets"

It's showtime!

It was a busy afternoon for the Websters. The kids' preschool had its annual Christmas pageant -- a play/musical about the birth of Jesus. Just like last year, Ben was a wise man and Maddie was an angel. Both had a couple lines to say -- and they did great. Then after that was done, we had to head to Maddie's first dance recital. It was a pretty basic affair. No costumes and only 3 routines (plus we had to sit through 3 routines for an older group of girls). Needless to say we're pretty tired tonight! Here are preschool Christmas show pictures:

And here are dance recital pictures:

We're going to be 5 yrs old pretty soon!

The countdown has begun...

Preschool pictures

We got the preschool pictures today. As usual, they are fantastic. It's amazing what a professional photographer can do!

Duluth

Ben and Maddie made their first trip to Duluth last week, although it was very short, foggy and under sad circumstances. We were there to say goodbye to Jamey's grandfather just before he died. I took a few pics of the kids checking out the big Lake.

Our way-too-fun day!

Yesterday was a banner day in the fun department for the Webster family. We had two extremely tired kiddos when we got home at 9:30 p.m. last night and all day today! In the morning we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Stillwater for a pool party with our cousins. There were 8 kids there, all under age 8. Ben & Maddie were the youngest, but boy did they love following their older cousins around and learning from them.

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I especially love this cute picture of Emily and Maddie:

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From 2013-07-13_Wolffs

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From 2013-07-13_Wolffs

Then in the afternoon we drove to the southern part of Dakota County for a wedding reception for Shelby. The whole Beissel clan was there and we had a great time catching up with them. Since my Dad died, we haven't seen them much, unfortunately. That family sure knows how to party! My friend Dani and her family came up from La Crosse and my brother, David, came from Rochester. The kids had tons of fun playing on the trampoline, dancing and playing with glow sticks and anything else they could find. We tried to get a little "family" photo with our friends, but didn't seem to manage to get everybody to look at the camera at the same time!

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Love this photo of Lois and Dani!

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And this one of Maddie and her uncle David

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And, of course, Lindsey always looks way better than everybody else...

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And there was also a short birthday party for Marge, who will be turning 80 this coming week (although you'd never know it looking at her)

From 2013-07-13_Beissel

Belated Mother's Day

I realized that I'm way behind in publishing things here. Thought I would share this photo from a Mother's Day "breakfast" at the kids' daycare last month:

From MOMsDay2013

Awesome fun weekend!

We had a great time this past weekend with my good friend, Dani, and her family. Her son, Ezra, is the same age as Ben & Maddie (in fact we celebrated his 4th birthday this weekend) and her daughter, Eden, is six. The four kids think the world of each other. It probably is most due to the fact that when we get together it's always extra fun. This time they came to our house. We spent most of Sunday at the Mall of America, riding the rides.

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We also exchanged Christmas and birthday gifts...

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And on Monday we took them to our favorite YMCA where they have an awesome mini waterpark (sorry, no pics of that!) The kids had an awesome time...

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4th birthday!

It just doesn't seem possible that Ben & Maddie are four years old. Where did the years go?? It's so fun to watch them navigate the "big" world and to be able to tell us their thoughts, wants, needs, etc. (Mostly "wants", of course!) The things that come out of their mouths are amazing. To celebrate this year, our friends the Calgrens came over on the 30th and we had dinner and cake (and watched the Vikings beat the Packers, quite unexpectedly). Then on the 31st, we took them to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America, where they rode lots of rides and had lunch before crashing in the car around 3 p.m.

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