In Memory of Bella...

This new year brought with it some heartache for our family. We found out on December 27 that our 11 year old kitty Bella had liver cancer. She was still doing well at the time, but had lost quite a bit of weight. Within a matter of days, she took a turn for the worst and went down hill very fast. After trying several different things, we had to send her back home on January 3. She was telling us it was time, and no matter how hard it was to do, we know we did what was right for her. She spent her last night here with us snuggled up in our bed under the covers sleeping between us...one of her favorite things to do was to sleep under the covers. Jeff and I were both there with her when the time came to send her back. It was quiet and peaceful and she was wrapped in her very favorite blanket with her two favorite people snuggling her and talking to her. She will be very missed. There are so many fond memories of her. She went from being a ferral kitten who was absolutely terrified of humans to spending the better part of her days with us. She slept on my pillow at night and sat on her daddy's lap during the work day. She was such a part of our family. We will miss her!!

Rest in peace Bella. You will always hold a special place in our hearts!!

October - Hayward, Nana and Pop and Halloween

We had a fun October! We started off the month with a visit to Hayward to see the fall foliage. We were a little late for peak up there, but the drive was beautiful. And late for peak means there were LOTS of leaves on the ground. Braenna was terrified, Mikaiya however had a blast jumping and playing in the leaves!

We also had a new milestone with Braenna. She finally got over her fear of the Ranger! She has been terrified of anything "loud" for quite some time, so this was a great thing for her to get over. Hopefully it sticks into next year!

October also brings the fun of Halloween. This year was our first Halloween in our new neighborhood. The girls went to the Halloween party at our gym on the Saturday before Halloween. Here is our little angel and Strawberry shortcake:

We carved pumpkins and the girls also painted pumpkins this year. They had a lot of fun and lucky for us, the weather cooperated and we were able to keep the paint mess outside!

We also had the fun of Nana and Pop coming to visit. It was a little chilly, but we wanted to give them a little bit of a taste of Madison, so we went downtown and visited Monona Terrace...it was COLD!! But, we still got a picture!! We also saw the capitol and ate at a good old fashioned WI restaurant where we introduced them to cheese curds! Yum!!

They also got to stay for Halloween. Nana walked with us and the girls while Pop helped with candy duty at the house...Pop was quite busy with the over 150 trick or treater's we had!! Quite the change from our old neighborhood where we were literally begging the kids to take our candy!!

Here are the rest of our October photos: Click here for photos!

Apple Picking

Now that we are back in the north again, we get the joy of apple picking in the fall! This was the first time the girls got to go and they really enjoyed it! This is my favorite picture from the day...my girls waiting to go picking and just being silly!
Braenna was super proud of the first apple she picked...we had to help her a little bit with the technique after this one!

Mikaiya jumped right in too! She was a pro from the start!

I love this picture...my artsy one! This is Mikaiya, Emily and Braenna all venturing out into the apple trees. I just think it's cute and fun since they are all in age order and disappearing into the trees.

We even got a nice family picture!

And of course, a cute one of the three kids (who were all eating an apple!):

Aunt Teresa and Aunt Cece also joined us. It was a lot of fun and the apples were delicious! I was amazed how fast we were able to go through 20 pounds of apples, but they were so good that we all ate them like crazy!! This is definitely going to become a yearly tradition!

Camping

We took the kids on their first "camping" experience a few weeks back. One of our new friends invited us to come up to their campground for the day to experience the early Halloween festivities at the campgrounds. We decided at the last minute to go, so we just reused an old costume of Mikaiya's and created one for Braenna. Here is Mikaiya and her little friend all ready to head out for some trick or treating:
This is a cute one of all the kids ready to go. As you can see in the background, everyone at the sites really gets into it...kids and adults!

There was a contest for who had the best decorated campsite. Braenna was not phased by any of the decorations...she even picked up a fake bloody hand at one point...NICE!! Mikaiya however did not like them...she wouldn't go near this one because of the fake spiders!

This is one of the best coordinated campsites. They did a clown horror theme and everyone at the site dressed up like clowns. It's unbelievable how much these people went through to get their site ready!!

We had just planned to go up for the day, but the kids (and us!) had so much fun between the trick or treating, playing at the parks and the costume contest/dance that we ended up staying the night. Luckily there was plenty of space for all in the camper!

Jeff's Birthday

September brings us Jeff's birthday! Always a great reason to blog. Here is daddy and his two favorite little girls celebrating his birthday:
He got to get one present early this year. I'm pretty proud of myself because he was out doing the yard and commented that he really needed a leaf blower...guess who had thought of that for his birthday all on her own?? Yay me!We got a yummy Dairy Queen ice cream cake for the birthday celebration.

And had Casey, Mike, Teresa and Emily over to help blow out the candles. Funny that no matter whose birthday it is, the kids are ALWAYS blowing out the candles!!

This year Jeff even got a night out on the town for his birthday. We celebrated Mike's big 3-0 and Jeff's big 3-5 with a nice steak dinner followed by a party with friends at a local bar. A good time was had by all. And of course, the cake was beer themed

Mikaiya Starts Kindergarten!

Our baby girl officially started Kindergarten on Sept 1. We are so proud of her! She was so excited for her first day and especially excited that both mommy and daddy were going to walk her to school! Here she is waiting for it to be time to go:

It was a gorgeous day, so we had to do a few outdoor shots. Here she is looking cute on the deck:

And all ready to go with her new Tinkerbell back pack:

We don't have bus service since we are 3 blocks from the school, so this is the closest shot I get to her getting on the bus for the first time...she is RUNNING to school...as fast as she can! We could barely catch up!

And of course, what would the first day of school be without the standard shot outside the front of the school?

Here she is in her classroom, coloring in her name tag:

We are so incredibly proud of our little Mikaiya and the wonderful little girl she has turned into. She loves Kindergarten and is learning so much on a daily basis. She has made a lot of new friends too! I got the sweetest note from her teacher last week, telling me how she "adores" Mikaiya, that she is "sweet and kind" and "always wants to help others". These are some of the best qualities I could ever imagine being told that my child possesses. I consider it my responsibility that she keeps these qualities all through the rest of her life! What lucky parents we are to have such a great child in our lives!

A Stampf Family Visit

Wow, how did I get soooo far behind?? I came in to post about September and discovered...I somehow missed August!! Life has just been CRAZY!!

We took a trip to see our family in NY in August. It was a lot of fun. The girls swam and swam (and swam!!) despite a couple of rainy days. Mikaiya even went in off the diving board and swam all the way to the other side of the pool!! Braenna also turned into a fish...more of the sunning sort though as she floated around in her princess tube:

The girls got to spend some time with their cousins. I love this one of Max and the girls hanging out by the pool. They really seemed to enjoy each others company!

The girls really enjoyed their time with Nana and Pop. This is a pretty cute picture of them:

And we even managed to get a picture of Nana and Pop with ALL of their grandkids. And one where someone is not crying!!

We also got a cute one of the 4 kids together. They are so sweet!

It was really great to get to see everyone! Max and Ethan are growing so fast! We really wish we could see them more than just the once a year. Here is the link to the rest of our pics from our visit to NY: Click Here!