iPhone Update

Copying my sisters-in-law, I've decided to do an iPhone update.  Instead of hauling around my big camera, I rely on my phone so much more these days.  Plus, ever since I decided to join Instagram (thanks, Beth), I find myself taking more pictures of the little events/parts of life.  So, here are a few of those moments!

Grady's favorite activity this fall - throwing sticks.

Turkey Trot 2015...honorary family member Maggie Gavle joined us this year.  Olivia and Grace both completed the mile this year...Brian didn't.  I broke 7 minutes by one second - best run ever.

First snow-fall of the year (early December?).  

The girls were playing by 6:30am.

Grady and his love of basketballs...

First Reconciliation for Olivia - only picture I took, unfortunately.

Christmas party and girls weekend for me

Snuggles before bed

Olivia waiting to play at her Christmas recital.

Cookies!

Big boy haircut!

Bowling with friends over winter break

Messing around - so glad I caught this happy picture!

Olivia and her friends acting out Jesus restoring the vision of the blind man...second grade mass for school.

It got quiet...this happened.

Olivia at Saturday morning basketball - she loves it!

Not wanting to be outdone by his sister...

Grace (far left) and her pals Maggie, Natalie, and Claudia at the variety show for school during Catholic Schools Week.

The End of 2015 and the Beginning of 2016

Back in Decorah after the waterpark, the cousins spent basically every second they could together - two sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa's and one at ours.  They played so well together and enjoyed the snowfall that we got (finally!).  I'm so glad the kids got to spend such quality time together - they certainly miss and love their cousins!  All this time with family was a fantastic way to end 2015.

Arts and crafts thanks to a great present from Tara!

Lego time!

On the 30th, we traveled with friends (the Gavles) and met many others in Wisconsin Dells.  We rented a big cabin with the Gavles and the Poles - it was awesome sharing a space with good friends.  The kids had a blast at another waterpark!  They were huge fans of the "Family Rides," the wave pool, and, well, pretty much everything!  Both evenings we got together with all the families (6 total including us).  There were too many kids to count, crazy amounts of food, and lots of fun conversations; the kids stayed up way too late, but they slept in and were in great spirits.   It was a really great way to ring in the New Year!

 Taking the transit to the waterpark.

 Grady and his pal Devon playing.

A little dark, but Jamie snapped this pictures of Elsey and Olivia cuddled up after playing hard all day.  So sweet.

Christmas 2015!

We had a fantastic Christmas this year!  It all started on the 23rd - Santa came early this year as we headed to Northfield later in the day.  Thanks to his birthday, Grady knew exactly what to do with those presents under the tree!  The girls were excited about the basketball hoop from Santa and thrilled with the tablets they got from Mom and Dad.

Later in the afternoon, we braved some nasty weather and made the trip to Northfield.  We had a low-key evening.  The 24th was filled with a trip to the Y, some quality time with the Woitallas, a quiet afternoon, opening presents, and a fantastic dinner.  The kids were tuckered out as you can imagine!

Christmas morning we had a tasty breakfast together as a family before my mom, Mark, and Thyme got in the car to head over to Wisconsin.  After Grady woke up from his nap, we piled in the car to go "home."  I told the kids we had to make a quick stop so I could pick something up.  We managed to coordinate nearly perfectly arriving a waterpark hotel with the Hoden family and Pat and Roger.  It was great - we all parked close to one another and opened our doors at the same time - after monetary confusion, the kids went crazy with excitement!  We had a great couple of days together enjoying the water, opening a few presents, hanging out in the hotel rooms, and making a special trip with the girls to the American Girl Doll store where we had lunch, picked out some goodies for their dolls, and got their dolls' ears pierced.  Another highlight from our trip was being surprised with a trick present and learning that Tara and Tony are expecting another girl!

I think all these pictures sum everything up pretty well!

Looks like we were moving in doesn't it!

Matching shoes from Grandma - Size 13, 12, 11, and 10!

The one slide Grady went down...otherwise he wasn't a huge fan.

These crazies loved every second though!

A pizza party wearing matching jammies.

Grady and his best bud...seriously, Grady is obsessed with Max!  :)

Playing cards - with and later without the kids.


American Girl lunch highlights...the kids each got a special appetizer, meal, and drink.
(And the food was great!)




The girls and their purchases.  :)  Fun times for sure!

Last Minute Recap

So I was going to get right to my Christmas post, but as I was looking through my photos on the computer, I decided I wanted to do a little more recap of the random summer / fall happenings of the Huinker household:  So, here's a bunch of pictures that give a little insight into it all!

PS - Based on the number of pictures included here, I bet you can imagine what one of my New Year's Resolutions is!

Poor Gracie - Never did a pre-school graduation post for her!  Needless to say, she was pretty proud of herself!  She's a huge fan of kindergarten too!

While the girls were at other activities, Grady and I had a little outing to visit the animals at the Winneshiek County Fair.  He liked the animals, but he loved his malt more!

Olivia earned the ability to go of the boards alone this year!  Grace, not to be left behind, quickly completed the ugliest swim across the pool you've ever seen (twice!) in order to be granted the same freedom!  They were pretty proud of themselves to say the least!

 

All the kids like visiting Dunning Springs and playing in the icy water.

One of our main summer highlights was spending time with the Browns (back from Japan) and the Hodens (back from Canada).  This picture is from Quinn's 1st birthday bash - which included a pony to ride!  It's nearly a complete family photo but is missing Tony as he was already back in Japan.  Our next family picture will have Tony and a new baby in it!

Lemonade stand with the Hoden kids.  They made enough to treat themselves and me to Whippy Dip!

Quinn and Grady watching Olivia and Grace at tennis.

Hanging out at the Kruse family farm.

Brian and I took Max and Mya to Niagra Cave for their birthdays - the kids had fun (and so did Grady despite his total scream in this picture).

 Just being silly and pushing Grady in the doll stroller - it's a good thing he had on a helmet because they were going fast, and I couldn't believe that stroller didn't break!

 Summer included lots of trips to the park - Grady decided it was time to be big and tackled both the tire swing and big-boy swings.

Late summer we took a trip to Northfield and the Minnesota Zoo.  The kids loved it and were troopers despite the very hot and humid weather.  It certainly helped that we hit up the splash pad before heading home.  We definitely need to repeat this trip again (x2) next summer!

 Not spring showers...fall showers and puddle jumping!

 

Grady and I took a couple trips up to the La Crosse Children's Museum this fall.  The girls came along on the second trip and had a fun time too.

Halloween!  This year we had a "Bat Fairy," a pumpkin (as someone refused to put on his costume), and "Bat Woman."  Grady figured out how to get candy pretty quickly, and the girls dominated the entire the neighborhood for the first time.  We had to break into two groups because they were moving so fast!

 The Campground:  This was Grady's and my favorite place this fall.  I would run him in the stroller to the park where we'd play for a bit before heading to the stream to throw sticks.  We made these trips weekly even into early December because the weather was so nice.  Our last trip there ended up with a ride home from Grandpa because Grady decided to take a dip...good thing I was watching closely, but I still can't believe it happened at all!