Mommy's Christmas Present

For years I’ve been telling the boys (meaning Dale and the kids) that I don’t want any presents for Christmas, I just want to do something fun together that we normally wouldn’t do.  Well they surprised me this year by two days of fun.  We started off with brunch at Prasino followed by a painting session at The Art Cellar of St. Charles.  We each got to choose what we wanted to paint.  We drank wine (the kids had sparkling grape juice) and painted.  It was so much fun and the kids enjoyed it so much.   Afterwards we went to Embassy Suites in Downtown St. Louis.  We enjoyed the indoor pool and hot tub and then went to dinner at Pi.  (We’ve been wanting to try this for years.)  The following morning the boys swam some more before we headed to Winterfest to ice skate under the arch.  Now the pictures look cool, but it was a complete disappointment.  The so called synthetic ice was just hard plastic and you could basically just walk on it.  We came, we saw, we conquered and we learned our lesson!  Max only went around twice and was so mad he sat on the bench the rest of the time.  Will and Levi made the best of it!  We then walked to Ballpark Village since we had never been there and enjoyed some appetizers and walked around.  We were even able to see the Winter Classic rink in Busch Stadium.  We finally headed home (so Dale could work the snow that was coming) and the boys and I rented a movie and had gourmet hot chocolate.  It was a great surprise.  I will remember this time with my family far longer than I would any present under the tree! 

Max, Will and Levi

Max, Will and Levi

Max, Will and Levi taking a "wine" break

Will

Max

Levi

Mommy and Daddy

Daddy and Mommy

Will, Max and Levi

Max

Levi

Will

Daddy and Mommy's painting 

Will, Max and Levi

Will, Max and Levi

Levi

Will 

Daddy and Max 

Will, Max, Mommy and Levi

.

Daddy and Mommy

Levi

Will

Will

Levi

Max, Daddy and Levi

Mommy and Will

Will

Levi

Max

Will, Max and Levi

Brewery Lights

We went to the Brewery Lights at Anheuser Busch last night.  There was sand sculptures, ice skating, sample tents, hot coco, popcorn and we even saw the Clydesdales.  The boys especially liked the ice skating and mommy and daddy especially liked the free samples.  It was a fun night enjoying the Christmas season.

Daddy, Will, Levi, Mommy and Max

Max, Will and Levi

Will

(He saw a kid in a Blackhawks jersey and decided he wasn't cold anymore!)

Levi and Daddy

I know it's blurry but I love this picture of Will.

Max

Will

Daddy and Mommy

Daddy, Will and Levi

Mommy and Max

Will, Max and Levi

Will, Levi and Max

Will, Levi, Daddy, Mommy and Max

Max, Levi and Will

Max, Will and Levi

Daddy and Mommy

Max

Levi

Max

Will

Christmas

The day before Christmas Eve, Fred (our elf) moved our artificial tree from downstairs to upstairs so that Santa could leave presents under the tree instead of just in front of the fireplace.  (Since we had to take our other tree down.)  The boys were super excited that Fred did this.  On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma Sue's then Grandma and Papa Hackmann's.  Christmas Eve night was a rough night.  It took a while for the boys to go to sleep and then Will kept waking up super hot and we were afraid he was getting sick.  Luckily he was fine!  Cabo was more excited than the boys and didn't sleep, AT ALL.  At 4 am Levi and Will came running in our room saying "Santa Came!"  We had to make them go back to sleep.  We were able to hold them off until about 6:45!  Christmas morning after opening presents the grandparents came over for our traditional breakfast.  We then headed over to GG's for Christmas dinner.  It was a very nice Christmas.  

Cabo

Daddy, Mommy,

Will, Max, Grandma Sue and Levi

Papa, Blake, Jake, Levi, Will, Reed, Max, Grandma and Riley

Daddy, Mommy, Max, Levi and Will

Cabo waiting to open his presents!

Levi, Max and Will

Levi

Old House

Well the time has finally come that we have taken down the old house at the barn to prepare for building our new house.  We still need to bring in a lot of dirt, but we are making progress and hopefully will start building in 2017!

Daddy and Mommy

Will, Max and Levi

Levi, Max and Will throwing rocks at the windows!

 

Papa taking down the porch!

St. Nick and Random December Photos

St. Nick came and brought the boys Christmas jammies, slippers and a Lego Advent Calendar.  The boys love the Advent Calendar and building a new Lego every day.  We have also had a very busy and rough December.  Will has been having allergies so bad that he has been wheezing and has had to have asthma treatments.  Needless to say we had to put our beautiful tree outside as we think it might be triggering the allergies.  We probably have more pictures of this tree than any other tree because we made sure to take pictures before we took it down!

Will, Max and Levi

Our beautiful tree!

Levi

Max

Will

Will, Max and Levi

Korte Christmas

We had a family Christmas this past weekend where Santa came for a visit.  Levi even got to play "Up on the Housetop" on the piano for Santa.  It was a fun day and a good start to Christmas.

Max

Max

Levi

Levi

Will

Will

Levi