Jesus Dies on the Cross (as drawn by a 4 year old)

Logan drew this picture on Sunday morning without any prompting by us. If you look closely you can see the nails that were used to nail Jesus to the cross. On the right hand side of the picture you can also see a picture of an angel in green that he drew. It amazes me what goes on inside his head.

Logan as a pirate

This was one of the dress up costumes Casey included in Logan's Christmas dress up bin. He looks like the real deal...dread locks and all!

Catching Up

My old roommate from UWEC, Jon Mattison, and his family were back in Wisconsin from California so we got our families together up in the Dells to play and catch up. It was good to see him and his wife again and for our kids to get some time together (they have three that match up one-to-one with ours). We had some laughs and shared some "where is he now" moments while chasing the kids around. It's great to have friends that are at the same place and share the same values...I just wish they were closer and our visits more frequent.

Christmas 2008

It was another exciting and eventful Christmas holiday for the Recob clan. On Christmas Eve morning we did presents from Mom and Dad. Julie made some delicious Monkey bread and we all enjoyed it's yummy, sticky goodness while the boys tore into their presents. Ava got into the mix a little bit too, mostly wanting to play with whatever toy the boys had just opened.

After presents we headed over to my parents to celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa Recob, Kaitlyn, Ron, Bobbi and family. We ate like normal (tons of delicious appetizers, a full course dinner featuring the "roast beast" and desserts-0-plenty) with present opening framing dinner. Logan got a remote control helicopter that he'd been asking for since September, Cooper got some new food for his kitchen (he's quite the chef) and Ava had fun opening some matching bedding for her owl themed room. We left probably a half hour too late with the kids getting a little cranky but everyone had a great time.

On Christmas day morning we woke early to find that Santa had visited and he must have thought the kids were especially good this year. All I can say is that there was a whirlwind of wrapping paper and when it was all over we had even more presents which the kids played with enthusiastically until it was time to leave for Christmas at the Miller's.

We got up to Julie's parents around 1PM and had a wonderful turkey dinner (I'm not sure how we crammed it in...I'm still full). We then opened even more presents...Logan got a trunk full of costumes (Transformer, pirate, horse) from his Aunt Casey that both he and Cooper enjoyed. Cooper got some food which he could cut (velcro'd segments) and was chopping up a storm. After presents we all went to the sledding hill to try out the new sleds that the boys got from Grandma and Grandpa. We all had a great time and everyone had a laugh at Dad when he went over an unseen jump cut into the sledding hill which gave him a nice little adjustment to his back.

Like I said, another eventful Recob Christmas...

Ava's Birthday

In typical Recob fashion, we had Ava's birthday party on a "bad weather day", which for those of you who live in Wisconsin at this time of year know as a day containing a mixture of snow, ice, wind and cold. Even with the weather though we had a great turnout and our little girl had tons of fun entertaining family and friends. She got to show off some new moves (she just started walking the last couple of days...more to come on that) and was all smiles for everyone. Julie decorated the house in an owl theme (including the creation of 20 or so owls that must have taken hours) and the food was delicious. It was also an opportunity for Julie and I to reminisce on the last year and to once again be awed by the changes that have taken place. It's said often and is probably cliche but time sure does move fast and the only hope is that you enjoy every minute of it...I know we all did today.

Our Princess

One year old today...she's getting so big!

Enjoying the winter

We've had plenty of snow for quite a while but it hasn't been quite right for packing (too cold, snow was too fluffy). Finally today we had a day where the weather cooperated and we decided to make snowforts. We called up Ron and Maddi to invite them over and then proceeded to create the worlds largest snow forts. After we finished we had a quick "battle" which ended shortly after Logan took one in the face. We then went in and had some hot chocolate and marshmallows, all in all a great day.

Decorating the tree

After getting the tree back to the house and setup (thanks for your help Cooper), Julie and the kids had a blast with the trimmings. Everyone did their little bit with Julie handling the top half, Logan the middle, Ava the bottom and Cooper worked on the Candy Canes. I'm not sure Cooper put any on the tree but he had a great time eating them. The final result was one gorgeous tree, three happy kids and lots of memories.

Gingerbread Houses with the Heagneys

For the second year in a row, we were invited to participate in the Heagney family gingerbread house extravaganza. Matt and Cara invited us to come to Matt's parent's bakery to assemble gingerbread houses and hopefully visit with Santa (he's made an appearence the last couple of years). The boys had a great time, first with the gingerbread houses and later playing with the other kids (hide and seek). When Santa made his entrance Cooper was mesmerized and all three kids enjoyed their time on his lap. Once again it was a great experience and hopefully we'll be invited back next year. Thanks Matt and Cara!

Ava with hair

By one year of age both of our boys had full heads of hair...it didn't seem fair that our little girl would still be with only trace amounts...



And as a red head (like her brothers)...

Breakfast with Santa

On Saturday we enjoyed breakfast with Santa (an annual tradition put on by Randy's work). The kids had a great time eating breakfast, playing at Keva Sports Center, making balloon animals and of course sitting on Santa's lap. Logan played Soccer, jumped in the jumpy house, played bean bags, rolled on the scooters, played with a balloon and a tennis racket and just ran around. Cooper also played catch, played with the bean bags, ran around and enjoyed running on the mats. Ava took it all in and really just enjoyed the freedom to crawl around.

Bailey

Our Chocolate Lab Bailey is all decked out for the holidays thanks to Logan! She's already 5 1/2 years old...hard to believe how fast the time goes.

Cutting Down our Christmas Tree

We went out to Cold Springs Tree Farm to get our tree. It was very picturesque...we walked over a bridge into the tree farm and enjoyed the beauty of nature. We pulled the kids in two different sleds. Ava had her own and the boys enjoyed a ride in the sled we were going to use to haul the tree. As you can see by the pictures we found the perfect tree and Logan helped us haul it back to the front office where we enjoyed mulled cidar and candy canes.

Thanksgiving with the Millers

We had a lot of fun this year at my sister's house for Thanksgiving. We had such a nice time. My parents were there and my Uncle Kevin and Aunt Diane also joined us from Minnesota. We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, potatoes, stuffing (with apples and sausage...excellent), sweet potatoes (delicious), homemade cranberry sauce and relish, and green bean caserole. We all ate a ton and enjoyed a game of 31 after we ate. While we played cards the kids had a movie theater in Casey's living room with popcorn and hot cocoa with marshmellows (in a sippy cup)..ha ha. They watched Wall-E (very cute). The kids also got to play across the street at the church playground. We played chase, house, climbed the rope, played tag around and down the slide and raced around the church building. After we came home Cooper asked to go potty and take a nap. It's great when the kids ask to take a nap...how often does that happen? It was a great day all around!

Thanksgiving with the Recob's

We spent Thanksgiving Day with the Recob's and had a really nice time. We played games in the afternoon and had a wonderful meal. Randy and Rose made bacon wrapped shrimp (a favorite of ours) and we had the classic turkey, mashed potatoes, wild rice stuffing, green been caserole, rolls and gravey. Everything was great! Afterwards everyone just sat around and visited! The kids were great and adapted to the shift in schedule very well.

Ava Scaling Furniture

Ava has been walking from couch to end table and back for a couple weeks now. We know she's going to take off any minute and start walking. She's taken a few steps to me or to get something she wants. Will she be walking by one?

Roller skating madness

Logan was so excited to try out his new roller skates. He got all ready in his elbow pads and knee pads and off he went. He had so much fun he was belly laughing. He even started falling on purpose just to make us laugh. It was quite funny!

Tiger Art

This is a picture Logan colored of a tiger at preschool. He is quite the little artist and was so proud this was displayed in the art gallary at school.

Logan at his fall concert

This was one of my favorite songs that Logan's class sang at their fall concert last week. I remember singing it when I was a kid and you could tell he was smiling from ear to ear under his homemade smile.

A Spooktacular Halloween Party

Logan had the brilliant idea to have a Halloween party this year. He was so excited about it and had it all planned out in his head. Randy and I decide to just go with it and we ended up with quite the crew from around town. We ate all kinds of fun, spooky snacks, played games and just had fun dancing around to spooky music.

Ava, Cute as Can Be

Climbing Trees

We have a great tree in our front yard that has a ladder attached to it. It provides hours of imaginative play. I cought a few pictures of the kids while they were playing around!

Halloween 2008

We had a great time this year over Halloween. Logan dressed up as Spiderman and got to wear 'sticky gloves' so he could cling to whatever he wanted to climb. Cooper went as a little monkey...he also loves to climb so this was very fitting. Ava went as a skunk (or little stinker...the sweetest one I know). Logan and Cooper had such a fun time dressing up and going trick or treating. Cooper couldn't believe that all he had to say was "Trick or Treat" and people gave him candy...what a fun game. This continued for days..."Trick or Treat Mommy, Trick or Treat Daddy....Logan" and so on. Ava was just plain cute, although she was definitely happiest after the costume was off and she could just crawl around in her tights and onesie!

Our First Packer Game

This past weekend, I was able to experience, for the first time, something that every football fan should at least once in their lifetime...attending a game at the legendary Lambeau Field. As if that wasn't enough, I was able to share this lifetime event with my father, who also was visiting Lambeau for the first time.

I was lucky enough to have a coworker who has season tickets which he wasn't going to need for the October 19th game against the Indianapolis Colts. Since he knew I hadn't ever been to a game he gave me first option on the tickets and I promptly accepted (thanks again Jason!).

My father and I drove up to Green Bay, arriving at around 12:30 and went to a pre-game tailgate sponsored by one of the vendors we have at Wolf. Menasha's tailgate was amazing...basically they own a house (from which you can see Lambeau) which is only used for these parties, it was decked out with Subzero/Wolf appliances in the GARAGE and they had a buffet line going around the interior of the garage that had too much food to even mention. They also provided free beer/liquor, which my dad and I happily consumed since it was a little bit chilly.

We headed over to the field about an hour before kick-off so we could see warm-ups. Just walking into the stadium gave me a little bit of a stomach tingle which when we saw our seat location (50 yard line, 12th row up, Packer sideline) grew into full fledged excitement. We settled in (I recommend renting the bleacher backers, saves the back) and got ready for the fun to begin.

The game was everything you could ask for...the Packer's defense showed up strong, rarely giving any separation to a talented core of receivers from the Colts and the offense was equally effective with Aaron Rodgers taking what was there and Ryan Grant having one of his better performances of the season. On top of the play on the field the enthusiasum of the crowd was palpabale, by the end of the game my throat and voice were quite hoarse. All in all we witnessed one throwing touchdown, one running touchdown and two interceptions returned for touchdowns (including a 98 yarder, coast-to-coast).

It was a tremendous day and one I will not soon forget. I'm most thankful for being able to experience it with my dad, thanks again for an amazing day.