Christmas

Christmas was really fun and relaxing this year. We enjoyed the music, the decorations, and time with family and friends. The kids got to do some of their own Christmas shopping and had fun choosing different presents for people. They went with the idea.."when in doubt give silly string. EVERYBODY loves silly string!" Emily and Erik have decided to take up ice-skating together. I can post some of their early learning video soon. They are doing a great job and have gone together many times. Ryan is still busy building all the Lego sets he received this year and Andrew is riding around on his motorcycle...the ONE bad thing about a white Christmas is it is hard to ride your Christmas presents indoors all the time.

Ryan is NINE!!!

Things are always pretty busy in Decemeber. We always start off the month with Ryan's party. I have discovered how great it is to have the party somewhere OTHER than my house. Ryan thought that it would be fun to have a swim party in December with an "Underwater" theme. Mom (grandma Ginger)always does a great job of cordinating the cake with the theme. Well..lucky for us I work at the YMCA and they have a great pool/waterslide and a fun teen center to play in too. This party was so much fun..and so easy! The swimming was excellent and so was the teen center. Ryan really enjoyed being with his close friends. One highlight was when he discovered that his friend had wrapped a box inside a box inside a box...and in the end he found Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the Wii. Another big hit was the "explosives." (a 2 liter bottle of Coke and Mentos...too funny)

Sledding

We had just finished watching a Christmas movie and Erik looks and me and asks, "Three kids, what should we do to entertain them?" We all decided sledding would be a fun option. So, we bundled up and walked across the street to the park (which has a great sledding hill) and we had a blast! The snow was perfect. As the kids walked up the hill, Erik threw snowballs at them and they shielded themselves with their sleds... hehehe gotta keep them on their toes. Let's face it better at them than at me! Andrew really enjoyed it this year...I think last year he viewed sledding as a form of cruel punishment. As soon as our toes started to feel slightly frozen we went home to a warm mug of hot chocolate.

My Dancer

This is Emily's third year of dance. She just had her Holiday Dance Show. The show was really fun. Her dance studio is so great...completely non-stress. I also think she likes the costumes. I cannot remember what songs they danced to, (oh yeah one was Rocket Christmas and another one was something about emailing Santa..don't worry I ordered the DVD) but I do know in the middle of one routine they broke into a Jingle Bell song for a bit...fun little bonus. I don't know what my problem is, but everytime I go to these dance shows I get a bit weepy. Proud mom moment I guess. FYI mine is the shorter pink girl.

The Wedding

Well I was going through stuff and I found the "This is your Life" CD that John and Ben put together for me shortly after Erik and I got married. Since this blog is about the Apple Valley family I thought it would be fun to put this clip up for all to share...kind-of a how it all started type thing. (Don't worry, you guys are not going to be subjected to a bunch of OLD home movies all the time) This is a record breaking length video...more than 8 seconds. In fact it is almost four whole minutes so grab your popcorn and let's go down memory lane. Look for some fun cameo appearances.. I have not watched this in such a long time. I love it..ah sigh. Was Erik really THAT young when we got hitched? Of course I have not aged at all..hehehe.

Magic Slideshow

I didn't work at the Y today, so I thought it would be good to clean up the house. When I looked around I was overwhelmed at how fast things can get out of hand! So I thought it would be fun to put together a before and after slideshow...yes this is probably most entertaining to me but I have to say it has already paid off. Emily was practicing her spelling list at the kitchen table. When she was done, I asked her to put away the marker bin. She huffed and says, "you always make me do everything!" I then calmly told her to meet me in the basement. I showed her the magic slideshow and asked her if she still thought SHE did EVERYTHING. Of course she had no answer, but gave me her embarrissed smile. I also overheard Ry tell his friend not to mess up the house because mom worked hard today. Hooray for fun slideshows!!! A picture is worth a thousand words. Fear not..as you can see I still have a huge pile of laundry hehehe.

A Hint of Christmas

We are getting ready for Christmas around here. The tree is up, the house is lit and we have even purchased a few presents. Already we are having fun making plans to celebrate this month. One thing we are excited to do is go downtown to the Nutcracker display. Hopefully we won't run out of time before the big day.

The Theater!

We just got home from a really fun show called..can you guess.."A Year with Frog and Toad." It was at the Minnesota Children's Theater. The set looked just like the books. The music was so much fun...and Frog and Toad were fabulous. They acted out different tales from the books..like cookies, flying a kite, planting seeds, sledding and scary tales. (Andrew was not too sure about the scary tale part) It is so cool to go and enjoy stuff like this with the kiddos. It made us want to go back and reread those books again. Of course it also made me want to go to the next play at the Children's Theater too. We always have so much fun at the Children's Theater! I am very excited that Mrs. Pigglewiggle will be there soon...not to mention If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Yes, I need season tickets. hehe

Thanksgiving

Can you believe that there is only one week until Thanksgiving? Poor Thanksgiving gets squished between Halloween and Christmas and it is such a great holiday! This is a picture of my one lonely Thanksgiving decoration. It was made at a Super Saturday one year...let's just say it has character and leave it at that. I hope that wherever you are that your Thanksgiving is wonderful!! I hope your food is good and your company is better.

Grandparents come to town

Over the last few weeks we have been visited by three of our four grandparents from the west coast. We had fun taking Grandma Glenda and Grandpa Lee to the YMCA where they could see the kiddos in action. We also enjoyed going to the BEE MOVIE with Grandpa Dan. But, the best part of their visits was spending time just hanging out with each other...FYI Grandpa Lee makes a mean milkshake!!!

Ryan gets baptized

Ryan was able to be baptized this past Saturday at our church in Burnsville. It was such a great meeting. Emily gave a talk and so did Grandma Ginger. He even got to discuss video games with grandma in the middle of her talk...could life be better for Ry? It was very special to have Grandpa Lee here to baptize Ryan and great to have some of our family and close friends there to support him. Right after he was baptized he asks, "is that it?" After the ceremony, we hit a yummy buffet. What a happy time.

Andrew's Halloween Dance

I know that I am slightly obsessed with the whole blog thing...but I have to say that Andrew totally cracks me up so I have to share. We were waiting for the school halloween parade and Andrew just heard that music and went with it. Notice how impressed the people are in the background.

Halloween fun

We had so much fun this year. Emily was both a Diva and a baby, Andrew was a ninja turtle and Ry was a ninja. Andrew has one of those hard plastic masks, but the poor kid could not see with it on. (and I didn't know it) He was ready to go and walked into a wall and then he turned and fell off the porch stair. So needless to say had did not use the mask and really has no interest in putting it back on ever. Yes I did laugh..it was funny and he wasn't hurt. We did all the regular stuff..school parties, brownie party, pumpkin carving, trunk-or-treat and of course trick-or-treating. This year I got to stay home and pass out candy and Erik took the boys out with some neighbors, and Emily went out with some other neighbors. I loved the quiet house. I vote same set up again next year : ).

Leaves, leaves and more leaves

One of the things that we really like about our back yard is all the trees. During the spring we enjoy watching the new leaves grow and summer is filled with playing in the shade. Of course the fall colors are wonderful but I have to admit that at least once each fall I think, "Oh crap each one of those will be coming down." Believe me I am not a fall grinch, I do quickly snap out of it and enjoy. Sorry I said crap.

Getting to work

Over the past few weeks, Apple Valley has exploded with beautiful fall colors. We have really been enjoying the view. But, of course, we have to rake the leaves to get ready for the next season that is coming...not that we are in a hurry for it yet! Erik and the Apple Valley Kiddos worked together today and got a lot done. They filled 28 brown yard bags and we still have 1/2 our yard to go...and the leaves are still falling! Andrew took the first picture of dad. The next picture was of the process..kids stomping (mulching) the leaves so they can fit more leaves into the bags. The last one is Emily building up our big leaf pile. Mom, in case you were wondering... No parades were missed during making of these leaf piles..hehehe.

Time for fun

Needless to say there were a lot of leaves being raked today. We had to have some fun too. I mean really, who can resist a good leaf pile?

Ryan comes out of the waterslide

Vortex pool video

The apple orchard

The Apple Orchard

What kind of Apple Valley mom would I be if I didn't take the Apple Valley kiddos to an apple orchard? We went to Fischer Croix apple orchard in Hastings, Mn. We had such a great time. We picked Honey Golden apples. Let me tell you they are wonderful. In fact Ryan said it was the best apple he has ever had in his life. We did make apple sauce with them and it was so yummy.

Exploring Lake Superior

One of our favorite activities was just spending time on the shores of Lake Superior. The waves were fun to watch. Erik got wet from a huge wave. We got explore the rocks. We got to see ships come in off the lake. We also got to see the bridge go up and down. We are already looking forward to our next visit.

We discover Duluth

Duluth is an amazing city. We were able to visit the Geat Lakes Aquarium. There we learned about the lake...one cool fact is that if you spread all the water from Lake Superior it would cover North and South America with one foot deep of water. That is a huge lake. We also visited the Children's museum. It was not that great, but we took a family picture so I put it up. The train museum was a great stop. We got to go up into the different trains. We are excited to go back to Duluth. There are so many things we still want to do.

We discover yummy treats along the way!

Like all good Minnesotans, we stopped on the way there (and back) at Tobies. It is a yummy bakery in Hinkley, Minnesota. The ladies all thought Andrew was so cute and one gave him a free bag of of pretzels. Yes, I had some goodies too, but somehow a picture of me stuffing my face isn't as fun to look at.

Swimming at The Edge

Did I mention that we went swimming at the hotel? I think we swam each day for at least 5 hours. Yeah, we got wet!!

Getting ready to go.

This is the post I wrote before we left for Duluth....we are back now. (I realized I should not announce that our house was going to be empty.) Hopefully I can put up pictures up tonight after bedtime!

Well we are getting ready to go on a fun trip to Duluth Minnesota. The kids have a week off from school so we decided to skip conferences and make a run for it. I packed last night and we are leaving shortly. The kids are excited because we get to stay at a fun hotel/waterpark called The Edge. I have to admit that I am pretty excited too. Oh fear not this entire trip will be on the blog...dare I say even a short video? I am slightly addicted to the whole blogging thing!

Summer Fun Slide Show

Here is a slide show of some of the things we did this summer. We had a great time going to the cabin, swimming, zoo, and other great places. I cannot believe summer is over!

The Apple Valley Kiddos

As you can see Ryan went to the butterfly garden too.

Here is Emily at the butterfly garden at the Minnesota zoo.

Just started

I guess I am just going to start this blog to catch people up on our lives etc.