A Glimpse into December (2013)

My birthday started out the month of December. We took a family walk and went to Possibility Playground where I insisted on a family photo. This is what happens when you put the four of us together. We get a little silly. :-)

Well, the Christmas tree was up and all decorated. So what better way to be silly than in Santa hats? 

    

This year, the weather was warm enough to participate in the Port Washington Christmas festivities: Christmas on the Corner. We decorated Christmas cookies at Dockside Deli, saw Santa at the bank, visited a few shops while we looked for the Elf on the Shelf in them, and watched the parade.

We receive the Focus on the Family magazine that has Advent devotionals in the December issue. So we attempted to do that every day leading up to Christmas. One of the activities was on forgiveness and how we end up feeling tied up when we don't forgive. The kids really enjoyed this and it was a great way to have family time.

Sonya had her first Christmas concert for school. They sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Unfortunately, we weren't close enough to get any good photos, but my friend was able to capture a decent video of the kids. Here's a photo of me with my parents and then we tried to take a few photos of Sonya in her Christmas dress.

A tradition that we started a few years ago is to go to the Live Nativity at Christ Church in Mequon. They have a really great set-up with activities for the kids, a Christmas play, cookies, an interactive town of Bethlehem, live animals, and music. We love going to this event. 

Tim tried taking photos of the play, but he has yet to master his iPhone. Lol!

Caleb's Christmas Concert 2013

This year, the 1st and 2nd graders at Lincoln Elementary performed: Melton the Warm Hearted Snowman. Enjoy the photos and the clips of video from the show!

VIDEO:

VIDEO:

VIDEO:

Thanksgiving at the Heidenreich's (2013)

Turkey Veggie Tray

Uncle Fritz with the veggie turkey

Tim's mom, Michelle with her brother, Scott, and sister, Amy

They're a little goofy sometimes

Aunt Tina helping the kids

Fritz's mom :-)

The Wagner side of the family

Making silly faces :-)

Cousins!

A Beautiful November Day

It's not very often that we have a free weekend (especially a Saturday). Either we're traveling to see relatives or there's a specific event or function going on that we have on the calendar. So we decided to take a drive into Milwaukee for part of the day. Tim had to stop by his work to get a few things done before his trip to Dallas. Then we headed over to Lake Park.

Pretending they were giving a concert

Playing drums

This kid is pretty strong!!

Beautiful view

Hiking

After the park, we stopped by Bayshore to grab a bite to eat. Then we perused the mall. I had forgotten that Tim said Gilbert Brown would be coming to the mall until we stepped inside Sports Authority. They were doing drawings for gift cards, there were food samples and music, face painting, and more!

Sonya decided that she wanted to be a tiger. You can't see it, but they added sparkles to her face!

We popped into the Photo Booth and posed for a few good (and silly) pictures.

Tim already had Gilbert Brown's autograph so he wasn't really too worried if we left without seeing him. But, I decided that it would be cool to officially meet a Packer (since I'd never had that opportunity) and I figured it'd be a good story for the kids someday. So we stood in line to meet #93. Gilbert was so down to earth. Even though we weren't supposed to be doing photos, he asked if we wanted one with him and then instructed the kids to get close and "Don't be scared now. It's just like sitting on Santa's lap."

Meeting Gilbert! -- "Do you want me to sign some for them too?"
(not the most flattering photo -- I tried to capture him while he was actually doing an autograph)

Tim was too focused on getting Sonya to smile that he didn't hold his phone still. Oops!
Blurry, but still cute photo.