january happenings

the new year is here, so i guess it's time i finally blogged again.

  

well with a new year comes a new time for church.  now that we have the afternoon church we are trying to fill our children's morning with good things.  luckily we have a daughter who loves the friend magazine and the fun activities inside.

we took advantage of the free day at the zoo as a family.  we love our zoo.

we've welcomed in this new year with some illnesses in our home.  but i say better now than later when the baby is here.  i'm glad the kids are getting it out of their systems now.  but, with that being said, sometimes when you have sick kids you feel like you are stuck inside and need to get out.  so i've been trying to entertain the kids with some new and different activities.

we made a race track around our living room with tape.  i thought tanner would particularly love this activity since his cars are practically glued to his side all day.

the kids wanted their pictures taken and posed like this.  i sure love these kiddos and the funny things they do.

i know this picture is pretty random, but i thought it was kind of cute seeing tanner line his oranges up in a row.

we also had the chance to see the new muppet movie in the theatres.  someone was giving away their tickets to the movie on craigslist, so i quickly claimed those babies.  the movie was surprisingly funny and very entertaining.

somehow, someway we've escaped the mounds of snow that is normally heaped upon us by now.  i just love, love, love it.  we have had snow once this winter.  although it was a little weird not having a white christmas.

the kiddos enjoyed playing in the snow and tanner especially loved "helping" daddy shovel.

hedin family christmas card

merry christmas from the hedin family

a visit to chicago

we made a little trip down to chicago at the end of october so that tyler could take the second half of his boards two exam.  it was the perfect excuse to crash at my sister's place with her family to see them one more time before we left for texas.

a really didn't take a ton of pictures while we were there, but we did happen to make a stop at a fun pumpkin patch that morning.  it was perfect because there was a kiddie area with a bunch of free things for the kids to do.  you can't say no to free!

no matter how hard we tried (well, how hard camille tried since i was trying to take the picture) we just couldn't get all three kids to hold still long enough for a picture with cinderella.  if you look close enough, you can catch a glimpse of camille trying to corral the boys to get in the picture.

did i mention that getting three little kids together for a picture is tricky? 

door county part two

you definitely can't go to door county without taking advantage of the beautiful hikes in the area.  although it was a cold day, it was so nice to be outside surrounded by the beautiful leaves.
before we headed on our hike we stopped at this lighthouse to take a look.  it was pretty small but still fun to see.

and onto the hike.  katelyn found a nice walking stick to use on the hike. 

and since tanner loves to do whatever katelyn does, he found himself some sticks as well.

the view was so beautiful.

the kiddos got a little tired after making it to the end, so before we headed back we let them rest for a minute to play with the leaves.

this really was the perfect getaway for our family. 

door county

taking this little getaway to door county couldn't have come at a better time.  october ended up being an incredibly busy, crazy month full of appointments and errands.  it felt like we never caught our breath that month.  so it was nice when we finally got to take a little break and just enjoy some time together as a family.  and door county was just the perfect place to do that.  it is so beautiful and relaxing.  even in the cold weather.

one of our stops in door county was to this great farm called dairy view farm.  it was completely free and had tons of fun activities for the kids. 

cookie the cow.  we actually did see real cows and got to watch as they were being milked, then shipped out and the next batch of cows was sent it.

there was a little hay maze for the kids to run around in.  katelyn and daddy were able to successfully get to the middle.

tanner however was not, at least not honestly.  he found other methods of making to the middle.

while in door county we stopped at the best restaurant for kids ever.  not because of the food but because of the fun atmosphere.  it's a restaurant called pc junction.  they sit you down in a bar area where there is a train going around the bar.  the kids just sat and waited for the train to come around again and again to see what new stuffed animal had joined the train. 

our food was also delivered on the train. 

lambeau field

as a family we decided we wanted to head up to door county before our time ran out here in wisconsin.  we'd heard so much about this beautiful county that we knew we couldn't skip out on this opportunity to visit.  again, since tyler had october off, it really was the perfect time to go.

after doing a little research, tyler discovered that lambeau field was actually on the way up to door county.  and since tyler is a fan of the packers, we left some time in our shedule to make a stop to take a tour.  tyler was one happy man that day.

of course the kids weren't as excited as their dad was about the tour.  they found other ways to entertain themselves. 

it happened to be a really cold, rainy day as we were doing the tour, but it was still worth walking down the tunnel out to the field.

halloween

i don't know why, but i get a real thrill out of dressing my kids up in coordinating costumes.  after throwing around a couple of ideas, we finally came up with one that katelyn was okay with (and me as well since i would be the one piecing the costume together).   i really didn't want to do costumes that would take forever to make or would cost a fortune.  so after looking at ideas for woody and jessie on-line, we were all over it.

the kids were lucky again this year because they were able to go trick-or-treating twice.  they scored big time in the candy department.  big time.  we went around the neighborhood and went trick-or-treating at mcw.  both were very fun and both times the kids were running from place to place grabbing the candy.

when we were at the medical college trick-or-treating we happened to see none other than woody's favorite horse, bullseye.  we couldn't leave without getting a quick picture.  i have to say that costume was well done.

this is the stash from just one round of trick-or-treating.  they honestly had so much candy.