Daniel is 5!!!

Where did those last five years go?  Daniel turned five this year on April 1st.  It was a special birthday because it fell on Palm Sunday again; the last time his birthday fell on Palm Sunday was the day he was born, 5 years ago.  He has such a unique, fun, and wonderful personality.  He is incredibly smart, and physically talented, and the sky is the limit for this one.  We're so proud of him, and while we don't want to rush through these fun years, we can't wait to see what God has in store for him.
Like most years, we had numerous birthday parties.  The first one was with the Fedies at the Water park of America near the MOA in Bloomington.  Daniel wanted nothing more than to go to a water park.  Following some pool time, we all headed back to our hotel room for some pizza, cupcakes, and presents.

Daniel and his cousin Will having fun in the kiddie area

Opening presents in the hotel

Our family stayed at the adjacent Radisson hotel.  The kids had their own little room with bunk beds

They both insisted on sleeping on top, and even with the openings packed with pillows and blankets, it was

an all but sleepless night for mom and dad.  The slightest noise from that room had dad running to make sure they weren't falling out..  

 

On the morning of April1, he woke up to a flock of flamingos in the front yard again... the neighborhood sure loves it when we do this.

Daniel trying out his new skateboard and pads from John and Amy

The day of his actual birthday, we rented a giant bounce house and put it up in the back yard for the 'neighborhood kids party'.  This was party number 2

Daniel got lots of fun stuff from his neighborhood friends

Party nunber 3 consisted of Nate's family coming up.  Daniel wanted a Pirate party, and Jen hand crafted this incredible pirate ship birthday cake.  It truly was a sight. 

Jen even made Daniel a "Jake" outfit from Jake and the Neverland Pirates cartoon that he loves.

And, here's Daniel almost giving Jen a heart attack by pretending to slice the cake with his sword before anyone got a chnace to see it... fortunately, he was just kidding.

 Daniel and his cousins.  Brooklyn wasn't in the mood for pictures today; It was pretty cute. 

Nate and Kate

X-mas 2011

Some quick pictures from some of the family x-mas celebrations...

Daniel's new Twins stocking hat

All the cousins

Andie opening her new Cinderella book

Daniel and Nate got matching warm facemasks for going ice fishing

The kids all excited to start opening presents

Andie only half-awake, but still super excited

Our wonderful family.

December Events

Jen Hoffe and Brooklyn were up for one of Jen's purse parties one weekend, and we were able to find a night when we could all meet downtown for the Hollidazzle parade on Nicollet Mall. The kids thought it was pretty neat to go to a parade at night with the floats all lit up, and it was super exciting to see Santa riding on a great big float at the end.

Daniel found a great spot to stand right in front of the downtown Target store, and I just had to take this picture. It looks like it belongs in the weekly ad for boy's winter clothing :)


After the parade was over, we (and the rest of the thousands of people at the parade) went to the Macy's 8th floor holiday scene thing. This year's theme was "A day in the life of an elf." There was a VERY long wait to get in, but the kids did great and were very patient.

And it was worth it!!! They were in compete awe.



The next week or so, Jen felt it was ginger bread cookie making time. She and the kids made what seemed to be a million cookies or so, but they sure had fun doing it. (and boy were they good)

The decorating was the best part!

Nate took Daniel for a special treat this December. Daniel had no idea where they were going, we got downtown and when he saw the Metrodome he said "are we going to a vikings game?"... "nope, better" I replied. It wasn't until we walked inside and peeked into the lower bowl of the dome and he saw all the MONSTER TRUCKS did he figure out what he was in for! That's right, Monster Jam at the Dome!!! It was the first real Monster Truck experience for either of us, and boy was it cool.

and LOUD!!!!!

Finally, Santa visited the kids' daycare again this year, so we got to go in and visit him as well as do some x-mas crafts in their classrooms. Andie insisted on picking out her own clothes..

Backlog - November

Catching up a bit here... my apologies to our faithful Blog followers (Helen). This November was pretty normal. No major injuries, surgeries, or catastrophes to speak of. Nate and Jen didn't do any deer hunting this year, which is the first time in 7 or 8 years now for Nate, but we got to spend a lot of good quality time with both sides of our families. We had one Thanksgiving celebration at the Fedie farm, where Daniel and his cousin Will spent quite a bit of time 'farming' which included a few chores like feeding the chickens and the goats, watching grandpa feed the steers some corn, and going on a few tractor rides.

Andie also got her share of farm-girl work in.

After the labor of the day was over, she was pampered with a french braid from Auntie Amy

After a day at the farm, it was off to Milwaukee to celebrate thanksgiving with Nate's side, and to also celebrate Emmett's 1st birthday. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins, and Andie loved sharing bath time with Brooklyn.

The typical 'first birthday cake all over the face' picture

Daniel is really taking to the role of being the oldest of the cousins. He can act so mature when he's playing with the younger ones. Sometimes he'll even begin to moderate when 'sharing' spats erupt amongst the others. It's really neat to see.

After we left Milwaukee and arrived home, Jen wasted no time in gathering the Christmas decorations, and up went the tree. The kids did most of the decorating this year which explains why most of the decorations are at their eye level, but it was the most beautifully decorated tree I've ever seen!

Halloween

Happy Halloween! This year we had a Spiderman and Princess Dora. We were supposed to have a Minnie Mouse, but her dress sleeves were too scratchy. So, she wanted to dress up like Dora. Here's Andie trick or treating at school.

 Daniel had a big party on Halloween. Jen went to help out with it. She got to play a bunch of games with Daniel and his friends. Here is a pic of Daniel and McKenna (his girlfriend). They made candy pumpkin necklaces.

 Daniel and Andie getting ready for trick or treating.

Daniel and his friend/neighbor Shayla we ran into while trick or treating.

 Trick or treat! We went with a bunch of neighbors. You can see Grace the Witch, Dylan (Superman), Hannah (Wonder Woman), and Daniel here.

Train Ride

Big Will had his 3rd birthday party on a train! The kids were so excited to ride a real train. We had a great time. They had so much fun, Andie woke up the next morning singing the Cho-Cho Soul song from the Disney Channel.

We caught the train in Osceola, WI. John and Amy rented the 'Birthday Car' for us, so we had tables in our car. We had cupcakes and opened presents right on the train!

The kids had a blast looking out the windows, hopping from car to car, standing on the balcony right by the engine and looking out the window of the 'baggage car'. Nate and I truly enjoyed it as well. It was a great time. Then, we went to a pizza place afterwards for dinner. We had a back room so the boys (Will and Daniel) were able to run around with their trucks and cars. Andie and Grant were sharing back and forth nicely. Andie kept painting Grant's fingers with her pretend polish. Harrison kept us all entertained too with his super cute self.

Will and his cupcakes that look like a train track!

Busted!!

 On the ride home 

 Amy and Will

 John and Grant

 

The Quist Family!

 The Train

Then, some fun pictures afterwards of the kids.

Andie is 2!

Our Baby is 2! Can you believe it? 

We had a shoe themed bday for her in her honor. She LOVES shoes. She picks them out every morning and changes them often around the house. She got a bunch of super cute shoes and books about shoes. It was a great day for her. We'll get pictures up here soon of her party.

More about Andie:

*She loves her dolls. She loves to give them naps and cover them (and their heads) with blankets.

*She is SUPER smart. I know most parents brag, but we're constantly shocked by her. She can count to 20 (missing 17 and 18), knows all of her ABCs, knows the days of the week and all of the months!!

*She's potty trained! She still has some accidents, but we're getting to the point where she now tells us.

*We got the opportunity to get a little twin bed frame from a neighbor, so we switched her to a mattress on the floor from her crib last week. She just loves being a big girl. She only came out of her room once - and that was because Daniel was coaxing her on the first night. This coming weekend, we'll put the 'big girl bed' in her room for her!

*She's not a very big eater. She usually won't even finish her sweets!

*She loves to say hi and bye to everyone she sees

*She doesn't like things in her hair...but we're working on it.

Andie's Bday party with the family. You can see Will and Daniel dressed up in costumes :)

 Bday Cake - matches the shoes from above.

 Ahhh...I LOVE my grandma

 Smile

 Opening presents on birthday night. I can't believe she picked this as her bday outfit!