The latest

It seems this time of year, between the holidays and birthdays in our house, I forget to record some of the more 'everyday' things of life. So here is my attempt to live in the moment and not miss these things.....

Wyatt lost his 2nd tooth! And I have to say that this one was no less dramatic or fear-filled than the first. Again, it was dangling by a thread and Matt told Wyatt he was just going to pull it out. Wyatt wasn't even eating food for about a day because he was afraid it would fall out and he didn't want to have any blood or have it 'feel' weird. But we pulled it and it is sitting in a bag with the first tooth in a cupboard in the kitchen, waiting until we have the courage to put it under our pillow for the tooth fairy (which may never happen--and that it just fine!)

He is, however, enjoying all the fun things you can do with food and straws in that nice little gap in his teeth.

A few days ago I was upstairs with the kids playing in our loft area and I said, 'Hey guys, we really need to clean this up. It's getting to be a really big mess." As Sadie was walking from her room through the play area, I said, "Sadie, can you help us pick up?"

She looked at me with a completely straight face and said, "Mom, I'm not a farmer"....then after a long pause which was met with a puzzled look from me, she said, "I'm a dancer"

I still have no idea where this entire conversation came from but I then explained that no matter what she is, she needs to help pick up because she is part of our family. I don't know if it had to do with the fact that she was pretending to be pulling a horse around or thinking that it only gets messy on farms, but I couldn't stop laughing as I told Matt about it later that night!!!

The trimmings and the trappings

After we got our tree, we headed back to Woodbury. My Dad and Matt went to the WILD hockey game while my mom and I went back with the kids and began some Christmas decorating. The guys got home around 7pm (it was an afternoon game) and brought some souvenirs for the kids that were being handed out at the game.....

Apparenty November was 'Movember' (Mustache November) as many of the players were growing mustaches to increase awareness and prevention of all types of cancer. Wyatt just thought it was cool to be like his favorite player, Cal Clutterbuck.

My mom made a special 'table' for the kids to eat at. (She is so good at making something fun out of nothing....I saw this as clutter from getting up all our CHristmas decorations and the kids thought her idea of making a special table was great!)

We didn't end up decorating the tree until Saturday night, as it was getting too late and Wyatt had hockey early in the morning. I still had to get all the lights on the tree (which is a project in and of itself. It's one of those things I really hate doing, yet there is a definitely right and wrong way to do it, so I have a hard time giving up control. The lights need to be even, yet you can't have too much cord showing, and they need to even light the inside as well as the outer branches. I inherited this from my mother, who was always the one who put the lights on out trees growing up. So it ends up taking me quite some time, adding in additional time for the lights that have quit working since last year--a true mysterious!)

So on Saturday night, I told the kids we had a quick surprise for them before we started decorating the tree. I know a lot of people get their kids Christmas pajamas and they wear them the night before Christmas, but it seemed silly to me to do this when Christmas is then over. So I gave them to the kids to wear the entire Christmas season and they LOVEd them....

...jumping around....

..and again, Sadie--always posing!

My favorite part as a kid and it seems to be their favorite as well.....pulling out all the ornaments and reminiscing about where and when we got them!

Blake's fire engine, which he still points out every morning!

And yes, we couldn't forget the Coke tradition...

We had such a fun weekend....Sadie and Blake waving goodbye to Nani and Pops. (Wyatt was at hockey with Matt...and one a side note to that, he scored five goals over the weekend!! 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday...and his team won both their games!!!)

The Sorensen household is now fully in the Christmas spirit!!

In search of the perfect tree....

No Black Friday shopping for us. My mom and I looked through all the adds, but thankfully there wasn't anything we 'needed' to get and I was looking forward to a good night's sleep and just enjoying our time with the family. There are some years when my mom and I have braved the crowds, but we were happy to stay in and enjoy our weekend, fully rested.

Thankfully Wyatt's fever had broken, so we headed up to my aunt and uncle's Christmas Tree farm in Cambridge to make sure we got the perfect tree before anyone else found it! This is such a fun tradition for our family....for me, because I have so many memories of celebrating Christmas up at their house with all my cousins and aunts and uncles, but also for my kids because they love getting to pick out their own ornament from the gift shop each year (courtesy of Aunt Adie) and get to see my cousins and aunt and uncle. We also usually run into our good friends, the Kuchs, as Angie grew up in Cambridge and its a tradition for them also.

He looks thrilled, doesn't he? Little does he know that 50 degrees for cutting down a tree is exceedingly warm!

Sadie and Coby

..the ole Sorensen measurement...

Each kid found a tree that was 'just their size'

Sadie was most excited about finding a dog to pet!

Our Tree!!!!!!

I am beginning to see a slight obsession with tools...

Sadie's tree

Nani and Pops still searching.....poor Mom, we gave her such a hard time. She found a great tree but wanted to make sure there wasn't a better one, and in her attempt to ensure that her tree was truly the best one, someone else came and began cutting it down. So then we teased her that she better pick one quickly before someone else took the 2nd best tree!

And of course their tree was much bigger than ours, so Matt and my Dad took turns with the saw and had to haul it out together.

Blake's tree...he kept walking around and standing next to each little tree, saying "Blake's size....Blake's tree"

Matt and my cousin Bob loading the tree.....if you ever need an expert to tie down a tree, my cousins are the ones!

Thanksgiving 2011

We stayed in town for Thanksgiving again this year and hosted my parents and my sister, Mary Jo, as well as a family from our small group with their three kids. And this was the first year that I actually cooked the entire turkey on my own--pulled out the neck and all on my own! I didn't realize it, but my kids have come to see the 'neck being taken out of the turkey' as an actual event in our household. Maybe it's because of my shrills and shrieks and how disgusting this actually is, or maybe it's because in years past I haven't been able to do it and have resorted to asking my mom to do it or to putting on rubber gloves. Whatever the reason, my kids started asking about a week before Thanksgiving, "Mom, are you going to pull the neck out or is Nani going to do it?"
Clearly my mom has never had an issue doing this because I didn't even know there was a neck inside until a few years ago! No great spectacles of fear in my house growing up! So this year, I called the kids away from watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade to witness the unthinkable---Mommy pulled out the neck and gizzards, cleaned the turkey, and stuffed it all on my own! What a site!

Wyatt brought this home from school and I loved seeing what he came up with that he was thankful for...makes you feel like you might be doing something right.

(the 3rd one is America and the picture at the bottom is a kayak)

In our haste to get everything ready and eat while the food was still warm, all while my family was skyping with my sister and brother-in-law in New Zealand, I completely forgot to take a picture of everyone at the table!!!

I did, however, take a picture of this....

Matt was cutting the pies for dessert and the knife slipped and landed like this, right next to his toe!

The kids all played with Matt and my Mom's iPads as well as the numerous iphones floating around.

And Sadie was playing waitress/hostess....one of the things my kids love most about Thanksgiving is getting to drink sparkling juice out of the 'nice' glasses, just like the adults!

Our friends, the Perry's, left around 6 because Jeff is a store manager at a local Target and he had to be to work by 8pm for the midnight rush on Black Friday. So we all relaxed, watched the Packers (which we had DVRed since we were eating during the game), and enjoyed a very relaxing day.

Poor Wyatt wasn't doing so hot. He had come down with a fever a few days earlier and had no other symptoms, but was so lethargic and had zero energy. So he spent all of Thanksgiving in this exact spot.

And many games were played!

Blake showing Nani 'Lanesplitter', the motorcycle game

And discovering his 'duck lips'.....we had never seen him do this before, but once he did it and got such a reaction out of everyone, he loved doing it all night!