Snorkeling!

Over Christmas break we started getting ready for our upcoming trip to Belize. Saima even packed the girls clothes! She was smart this fall and bought summer clothes on clearance in anticipation for the trip. The girls tried on all the clothes to make sure they fit and that we had enough; looks like we only need to get Katelyn an extra swimsuit. Saima went shopping for swimsuits over the weekend but the stores aren't carrying them yet.

On Sunday we all made a trip to a diving store in Maple Grove to get fitted for snorkeling masks and gear. The girls were pretty excited. It's important to have a good fitting mask, one size doesn't usually fit all. Everyone found a set of gear right away, except Saima. We had to go through about 20 of them before she found one that works!

As soon as we got home the girls tried on their gear, swimsuits included. Of course, they had to field test them as well... in the tub. Saima just wanted an excuse to field test the other piece of equipment we picked up, an underwater camera!

Home Sick

I caught a nasty cold yesterday but went into work anyway. I had an all-day meeting at the main Cargill office center. I like working there rather than the south campus. The photo here is of me working from the cafeteria in the early morning. :-)

I'm home today, just couldn't make it into work. Tried working from home a bit but just don't have the mental energy to do it. Saima had a shoot in the morning but is planning to take the kids sledding with some friends later. I'll probably just take a nap.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. This was our very first Christmas Day at home! What a treat. The girls were so excited for Christmas. They even let me sleep in until 8:45.. wow!! Darin woke me up with a kiss and I got his christmas present immediatly.. he shaved his Go-T (mistake as I like to call it!!). Wow.. its so smooth. I think he has had it for over 10 years. Emma said she couldn't help but stare at him all day. Check out the picture of him! The girls opened their presents with glee. It was so fun to see their excitment.

We spent the rest of the day together. We watched The Christmas Story together inbetween cat naps! Emma and Darin spent most the afternoon putting together her doll house. Altho they didn't get it all finished.. its pretty close. They will work on it throughout the week. Emma is so excited to paint the house.. she's already planning out what color the outside should be. Her and I looked at some examples online for her to get some ideas. I was worried she wouldn't like the dollhouse idea but she just loves it.. Its a great project for her and Darin ... even tho Darin seems to have to do most of the putting together at this point. Emma is so funny (and a lot like me) she has to know whats coming next and what the timeline of everything is.. she obsesses on every detail and can't stop thinking about it.

Around dinner time we all got dressed and went to the movie 'Water Horse' in St. Micheal. We had dinner at the restaurant in the theatre (sense nothing else was open). The movie was good (tho a little scary for kate). Katelyn has such a hard time sitting still for things.. in the movie she was up and down so many times.. finally I got her popcorn so she would sit down and eat it! It lasted for a little while!

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas and I was sad to see it come to an end. I feel so blessed and thank God everyday!

Christmas 2007

It's Christmas day, and it looks like the Christmas tree exploded in the living room. The girls got lots of clothes... and and some good stuff too (though I'm sure they'll appreciate the clothes when they head back to school). Emma got a Battleship game and a doll house kit, both of which will involve some quality daddy time. Kate got an iPod (so she'll quite stealing her sister's) and a build-a-bear bunny named Abby. They both got WebKinz and were on the computer almost immediately trying to adopt them. Unfortunately so were about 2.6 million other kids... the website was broken.

This is also, of course, the first post on this Family Blog. Saima and I having a slight difference of opinion on how to go about publishing a family blog, so I guess we'll just have to try out a couple of different methods. If nothing else, maybe this will spur some healthy competition and result in a win for the consumer (YOU!).

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

The Nichols Christmas

Sunday morning we made our way to Grandma and Grandpa Nichols. We made a stop at Shauna's house to help with a computer problem and then back over the river and thru the snow (lots of snow) we made it. It was a blizzardy day and kind of nippy. Grandpa Nichols was hoping to go skiing but it ended up being too cold. So we spent the day inside. We opened gifts. The girls got digital camera's from Grandma and Grandpa gave them.. it was a big hit until they discovered they could take video with them too and then they got REALLY squirely.

The Big Hawley Christmas

Saturday morning we woke up extremely early 7am (well thats early for me!!) to drive up north for the Hawley's Christmas. It had been snowing for a couple of hours so Darin had loaded the van, plowed the driveway and was ready to go. The night before we got all the last minute shopping, wrapping and baking done so we would be ready to go in the morning. The roads were slushy and snowy so it took extra time.. but we made it.. Over the river and thru the woods.. haha Christmas for the Big Hawley family was at Grandma and Grandpa Hawley's... Its been a long time sense its been there so it was nice. The kids got to play out in the snow. Grandpa was sledding with Katelyn which was so cute I had to capture it on camera. Uncle Ray built a multi tunnel system under the mounds of snow. After a wonderful dinner we opened gifts. For the adults we tried white elephant gifts which was fun and economical. If we do it again next year it will be fun to see if any gifts come back !!

Emma's Just For Kix Performance

On Sunday afternoon we all went to Emma's dance performance. She's been working hard each week with her team. It was fun to see all the levels of the teams. Emma didn't smile once during the dance.. she was concentrating too much! I did notice at times she did mouth the counts. She was very concerned about her hair.. I pulled it back into a bun and then jelled it back so her shorter hairs wouldn't poke out. She thought she looked like a freak! She also didn't like the mascara because it clumped and made her eyes heavy!! She did like the lipstick tho! I'm just amazed at how much she has learned sense starting in September.. they look like a real team and are in sync. I even got goosebumps!

Kate's Christmas Concert

Friday afternoon I went to Katelyn's Christmas concert at school. She has been working on songs sense Thanksgiving and has been very anxious for it. Every night at home she's humming or singing a song. She even learned how to spell Santa! I picked Kate up from school and hour before it started and we did her hair and put on her christmas dress. She was soo excited. She sang so well and was on an energy high the rest of the afternoon.

The Chocolate Fountain.. yummm

Today we setup the new toy I ordered just for Christmas. The chocolate fountain. We plan on bringing this to both families celebrations.. but we had to try it out for ourselves. While the girls and I ran to target in Buffalo to get the chocolate, Darin set it up and had it ready for us when we got home. After melting the chocolate we turned it on. At first it vibrates as the chocoalte makes it way up the tube.. boy were we scared when it got to the top and it was still shaking! Darin was sure it was going to splatter everywhere, but it didn't.. it started flowing over. We thought it was neat.. but not enough flow.. so we melted more chocolate. It still wasn't flowing right. Then Darin read on the directions that you need to shut it off and turn it back on because there can be air bubbles. Vola!! look how much better! The girls also wrapped their presents to their classmates and we started our late countdown to christmas!

Katelyn's First sleepover

The Piechel kids came to visit while Kim was in the hospital. Chip and Kate were having a sleepover. It started out Kate in her bed and Chip on the floor... but in the morning they were snuggled in together!! Oh we will have some good ransom over their heads when they get older!

Here we go!!

We decided to start a blog of our family happenings. I have a couple of friends who do this and I think its so fun to pop in and see what they are up to. There are several reasons I decided to start a blog. First I wanted to share with everyone whats going on around here. Hopefully you can get a better glimpse of what we are up to. The thought of having a journal to have overtime is thrilling. I am hoping that when I scrapbook the pictures I will be able to use the journaling for the pages. I also wanted a way to share our pictures. Even tho its my profession I still love to pickup the camera and capture our family. Its been so fun acquiring better skills and then using them with my family. One thing I also love about the site I'm using for blogging is that there is unlimited space for pictures and they save the full size so people, (like my mom and aunties) can dowload them, its also a form of backup for my most important pictures.

Here are some family pictures we have taken over the years. I guess we missed 2001.. i was pregnant with Katelyn so I'm thinking I didn't want my picture taken! Its kind of fun to see the progression! I showed the kids and they thought it was really neat.