WI Stampf Family Blog

In Memory of Bella...

2012-01-29T16:35:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-16T16:32:00.000-08:00

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

2011-10-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-10-13T16:29:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-05T18:06:00.000-07:00

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!

My Little Flower Girl

2011-10-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

It was brought to my attention that I never blogged about my beautiful little flower girl...and you know what? I should!! So here goes!!

Mikaiya was such a great little flower girl for Aunt Cece and Uncle Mike's wedding in July. She spent the whole morning getting ready with the bridal party. Here she is getting even more beautiful than usual with her hot rollers in:
This is one of my favorites from the day. She could not WAIT to put on her dress!! She was soooo excited. I held her off until about 11 AM (we weren't going to the church until 1!!), but that was the best I could do. She looked so pretty!

It was very sweet to watch her when all of the action was going on. Right before this picture she had whispered to me that Aunt Cece was becoming a "princess". She was so in awe of every moment and so proud to be part of Aunt Cece's big day!

Here is a picture of me with my sweet little girl. I am so lucky to be her mommy!

Mikaiya did an AWESOME job at the ceremony! We were quite worried after the rehearsal the day before, but we had worked hard with her on prepping her for what was going go happen and she did great. She walked straight down the aisle and stood up front for almost the whole ceremony. She did so well!

She really enjoyed the reception too. One of the guests sent me this picture and it is definitely my favorite! She sure does love her Aunt Cece and was having a blast dancing with her!!

Thank you to Casey and Mike for letting Mikaiya be a part of your special day. I know this is something she will remember for the rest of her life and always look back fondly on!

Just in case anyone wants to see the rest of my pics, click here!

July Photos

2011-08-07T16:29:00.001-07:00

July was a very fun and exciting month for us! We had a trip to Hayward, Aunt Cece and Uncle Mike's wedding, a visit from the Brown family and then another weekend in Hayward! We had a really great month. Here are the remaining pictures that we haven't already posted:

Click Here for Pictures

The Brown Family Visits WI!

2011-07-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

We were so fortunate to get to have some of our best friends from TX come visit us this weekend!! Danny, Jodi, Aiden and Alina were up in the UP on vacay and stopped in to visit us on their way back home to TX. They came in Friday evening and left on Sunday morning. It was a short visit, but so worth it to get to see them all!! The girls were so excited to see their little friends, and one of the first things they all enjoyed was the big screen in the media room and some popcorn for movie night:
On Saturday, we took them to downtown Madison to see the capitol and Monona Terrace on Lake Menona. It was a beautiful day and Monona Terrace was the perfect location to catch up on some photos. Here are the 4 kids:

We got a nice family shot:

And Jodi and I got a new photo together...since we've both lost quite a bit of weight, our old photos together don't even look like us anymore!!

Of course I had to get one of Jeff and I also:

After Monona Terrace we walked through the square to a restaurant called The Old Fahioned where we enjoyed some yummy Wisconsin cheese curds and several Wisconsin brewed beers. It was fun and the food/drinks were yummy!!

We got home and the kids had some downtime watching a movie while the adults hung out. Then the kids swam while the adults enjoyed some games of bean bags. We had a great time! This is my absolute favorite new picture of Mikaiya and her little "boyfriend" Aiden...it totally caprtures their little personalities:

We also got a cute one of Braenna and her BFF Alina...they are so cute!

We also got a nice pic of all of us when we were at Monona Terrace... We had such a great time and are so happy that the Brown's were able to stop in and visit us! We look forward to the next time we all get to be together!!

Hayward Vacation 2011

2011-07-24T16:25:00.001-07:00

Seems to be a common theme on this blog...I'm behind again!! I uploaded Hayward photos when we got back, but realized I never blogged or sent out the link...whoops!! We had a really nice time up north...the best part was it didn't involve an 18 hour drive each way this year!!

We were really busy while we were up this year. We actually were up on "Musky Fest" weekend this year, so we got to go to the carnival and all the Musky Fest activities. Here are Mikaiya, Braenna and Emily on the swings at the carnival....they all loved them!!

The girls really enjoyed fishing this year (Mikaiya especially). I love this pic of the girls all fishing with Grammy, Grampa and Aunt Teresa on the dock:

Here is Mikaiya so very proud of her catch!! She hasn't put two and two together just yet on what happens to the fish after she catches them. It hasn't occurred to her that they are the same fish on the dinner table on fish fry night yet ;) We'll see how much she enjoys fishing when she figures that one out!!

We did get one rainy day this year, so we decided to take the kids mini golfing. Overall, considering we had two 3 year old's and a 5 year old, it went pretty well. They actually paid attention almost the whole time and really seemed to enjoy it. Here the girls are posing for a quick photo op:

We even got to have a couple of campfires while we were there. This is my favorite campfire pic...notice my girls covering their faces from the smoke, and Emily looking at them like they are nuts! I don't think they get the "fun" in a campfire quite yet!!

We rented a pontoon boat this year and it was really fun. It was perfect for the kids because they could safely wander around the boat while we were moving. It was also great because we were finally able to check out one of the natural sand beaches on Nelson Lake. It was a definite hit and somewhere we plan to return to next time!!

I love this picture of my girls and their daddy out on the pontoon! They are all so cute!!

Katie, Bruce, Andrew, Jenna and baby Mikey came to visit us also. I love this pic of the kiddos. They are all pretty close in age, so it's great to see them play and interact and each year they enjoy each other's company more and more!!

Overall, we had a great trip! There are always interesting moments with 3 little ones all in one house, but I think everyone did pretty well in general and we all had a great time!! We are fortunate to be close enough now to go up more than once a year and are looking forward to at least one more weekend trip up to the lake!!

There are a TON more pics...you can view them all here: Click here for pictures!

June Photos

2011-07-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

June was such a busy month for us!! We started the month off with Braenna's birthday and Mikaiya's 4K graduation. We went to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate Braenna's birthday this year instead of having a party. It was a lot of fun! Here are the pics from her birthday and Mikaiya's graduation:

Braenna's 3rd Birthday

Mikaiya's 4K graduation

The next weekend we went to our first Sun Prairie Farmer's Market and got some yummy fresh veggies. That same day we got to go the downtown Sun Prairie block party which was a lot of fun for all! Braenna started soccer this month and Mikaiya started tball this month. It's been quite busy! We finished the month up with a trip to Hayward and all the final preparations for Casey's big day coming up!

Here are the rest of the June pictures: June Pics

Braenna's 3rd Birthday

2011-06-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

June 7 was a busy day in the Stampf household as in addition to Mikaiya's 4K graduation it was also Braenna's 3rd birthday! We knew it was going to be a crazy day, so we did a little rearranging of present opening and celebrations to fit it all in. She did get to have cupcakes at school with her friends on her birthday. Here she is posing with it in the morning before school. She was so excited!!
This turned out to be a popular gift! It's a lady bug tent. I think Mikaiya likes it just as much as Braenna!

Since we didn't have many little friends to invite to her birthday party this year, we decided to do it up at Great Wolf Lodge in the Dells. Aunt Teresa and Emily were able to come up and stay with us and Aunt Cece came up for her party too! Our room was really cute for kids, it had it's own "Kid Cabin" with bunk beds and another bed...perfect for 3 little girls!!

Present opening is always an adventure! Mikaiya and Emily couldn't help but "help" Braenna! They are all very interested in her Barbie horse!

Here is the birthday girl with her cake! She picked it out herself this year...her main selection requirement? PINK, of course!!

We decided that it was time to move her out of her toddler bed and into her big girl bed as part of her birthday celebration. Here is her official new big girl bed, pretty pink floral bedding and all!! She loves it!

Mikaiya's 4K Graduation

2011-06-19T08:58:00.001-07:00

On June 7, Mikaiya officially graduated from 4K! We are so proud of her! It was a very nice ceremony for the kids. Here is our proud graduate posing outside of the school before her ceremony:

We had to do a "redo" on the diploma pic...The camera and I are still not friends and I could not get it to take a picture in the 3 seconds sh ewas up there during the ceremony. That's okay though because this one turned out so cute!

And here is a cute family pic we got after the ceremony:

Aunt Cece, Aunt Teresa and Emily were all able to attend as well! All in all, it was very nice.

4K Graduation Videos

2011-06-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

Mikaiya graduated from 4K last week. It's been really busy since and I am just now getting to uploading her videos. This first one is the song they kicked it all of with:

Here's their next song:

And this is Mikaiya getting her diploma...she's so proud!

Hope you enjoy!!

May Happenings and Pics

2011-06-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to say, since we have moved to WI we have never been so busy!! Life is going full speed ahead and we are struggling to keep up! May was another crazy month! May started with the first weekend being our anniversary and Mother's Day. Aunt Cece came and watched the kids for us while we took a long awaited night away to the Dells. We had a lot of fun...maybe a little too much! Mother's Day was great, but a little rough due to way too much fun the night before! The girls got mommy some great gifts and we had some good quality time together and some yummy DQ! We also had Aunt Cece's wedding shower and bachelorette party this month which was a lot of fun! Mikaiya even got to come to the shower and help open presents, she LOVED being included!

Then came our trip to TX to visit our TX family. We had so much fun! Thank you to everyone for your hospitality while we were there! We got to have a little happy hour with some old work friends, two fun evenings with all of our "friend" crew, Izzie's birthday party and a great afternoon/evening at the Hemphill's pool. It was all so fun. The girls really enjoyed having all of their little friends around again and I realized just how much I missed the place that was my home for 10 years. And how incredibly lucky we are to still have all the wonderful people from there as part of our lives and our kids lives. Here's to hoping that I improve on my "keep in touch" skills ;) Hopefully this trip will become an annual event!!

Well, those are the big highlights for the month. June is already looking to be a busy one here also, so I'll apologize now for when I'm late with June updates!

Here is the link to our May pics...sorry they are all out of order, our new camera and I are having a few minor disagreements on my download preferences!

Click here for photos

A Little Behind...

2011-06-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

I realized tonight as I was working through May picture uploads that I never finished April! It was such a crazy month with several blog posts and photo uploads, so I thought I'd done them all! Needless to say, I somehow completely missed Easter! So here is the link to all of our pictures from Easter this year. The girls got to go on TWO Easter egg hunts, one here at our house and one at Aunt Teresa, Uncle Kory and Emily's house. What lucky little girls they were!!

Click here for photos

Dance Recital

2011-04-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

The girls had their first dance recital here in WI this weekend! It is quite the extravaganza at our dance studio. They had really fancy costumes, a dress rehearsal and TWO shows!! They really did have a blast...most of the time ; ) Both girls did awesome at the recitals! We were very worried because Braenna would not go on stage at the dress rehearsal, but she pulled through and danced her heart out at both shows! And Mikaiya was the leader of her class and had to lead the whole class on stage...she did so great! We are so proud of them both!! We learned this weekend that apparently just being incredibly cute is not enough for a ballet recital! Since our school was wanting the girls in make up and all, we decided to just completely go all out. Here are the girls getting ready for their first show...yep, those are hot rollers!! Grammy came and helped with hair. Here is Mikaiya all ready to go, she looks so grown up!!

Braenna looked beautiful also...although she doesn't hold still long enough for the camera these days! This is the best shot I could get of her:

And here are my two beautiful girls all dolled up and ready to go:

Braenna and Emily are in the same class. It is so awesome to get to see the girls together! Here are the three of them are at dress rehearsal:

I thought this was just the sweetest picture...here is Braenna and her class lining up to go in. It's like a little pink polka dotted sandwich!

And here is Mikaiya in her class. Note to self, next time put her in the older class versus the younger when she's on the border. She is by far the biggest kid in her class!!

They had so much fun. They even got flowers and presents after their first performance. We were so happy to get to have so much family here to share in their special days too! Nana and Pop drove all the way in from New York to be here, Grammy came down from Hayward and Aunt Cece, Uncle Mike, Aunt Teresa and Uncle Kory were all there too. Thank you so much to everyone for coming...it really means a lot to the girls!!

We have a TON more pictures! You can see them here: Click here for pictures!

March Pictures

2011-04-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to the March pics: Click here!

Mikaiya's 5th Birthday

2011-04-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

It's so hard to believe our baby girl is 5! She had a great day on her 5th birthday. It fell on a Saturday this year, so we got to do lots of celebrating! Here she is looking all adorable and grown up for her ballerina themed party:

We got her cake at the local grocery store and it actually turned out really cute and fit in perfectly with the theme! She of course loved it and couldn't wait to get her hands on the Barbie ballerina on the top!

We had her party at the Madison Dance Academy this year. They did a great job making the room look festive! Here are Mikaiya and Braenna posing before everyone arrived:

This is the first year we have invited her friends from school. She had 8 little school friends plus Braenna and cousin Emily attend. She was so excited to get to have Emily at her birthday this year! And she seems to be doing pretty well in making friends at her new school as all of the little girls seemed to get along very well and really loved Mikaiya. Here they all are posing with the ballerina who led the party:

After the ballerina party, Mikaiya got in a quick nap and then opened more presents from mommy and daddy and others that had sent them to her. She is having fun playing with everything! We also went out to dinner at Red Robin to get her free birthday sundae.

Here are her and Emily being silly with their canteloupe at dinner:

And here she is enjoying her sundae:

She really had a great day! Here are all of the pictures we took (sorry, there's a lot!!):

Click here for pics!

Our trip to Great Wolf Lodge

2011-03-06T14:38:00.001-08:00

We took a fun family trip to Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells this last weekend. We had a GREAT time! I didn't take a ton of pictures because most of the time was spent in the waterpark. This is an excellent place to take the kids...they have so much for them to do and the whole resort revolves around entertainning kids of all ages!

Here are the girls wearing their wolf ears that we got at dinner our first night and in their jammies all ready to head down to story time at the clock tower. This is a nightly event on the weekends, and the girls LOVED it!!

Here is Mikaiya showing off her new swimsuit in the water park. This area both girls did not like though because there is a HUGE bucket that fills with water and then dumps all over everyone! We could not get Braenna in there without her screaming the whole time!

I love this one of Braenna! She is having a blast on the pretend jet ski squirting water at the target...notice the pink tutu swimsuit (she picked it out herself!):

Mikaiya's turn!!

Here are the girls posing with the bear in the sweet shop where we grabbed ice cream on Saturday night:

And here is our only decent family shot...a self portrait we took at story time. Notice Braenna is not looking...this is her new favorite reaction whenever she says "cheese"...she must look away from the camera!!

This is the clock tower. They put on a little show here each night followed by story time:

And who can resist the sweetest picture of all? Braenna adores her big sissy!!

January and February Pics

2011-03-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

I apologize that I'm late! We were very busy both months, although I'm not sure what all we were doing! There are not a lot of January pics at all, but here is the link:

January Pictures

February was pretty busy. We had a Superbowl party, WAY too much snow and a visit to see mom and Great Grandma Harms. It was a fun month. We are all ready for winter to be done here...hopefully March brings spring! Here are the February pics:

February Pictures

So Many Pictures!

2011-01-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

Wow, we have a TON of December pictures! It was a busy month filled with a new dance class, cookie baking, Emily's birthday party, Christmas, Braenna's transition to a big girl bed and bowling with Uncle Mike's family! What a blast!

Here are the pics: Click here!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T12:10:00.001-08:00

We had a really fun Christmas this year! It was definitely white, with lots of snow on the ground and flurries all day Christmas Eve. Here is the best we could do at a family pic:

There were a TON of gifts this year for Christmas Eve. We had my parents, Teresa and her family, Casey and Mike, and Mary and Ray all over for Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun for all!

Here are the cousins, all wanting to open the same gift!

And here are the girls putting out their reindeer food before bed time. They wanted to be sure that Rudolph could see our house!

We thought this was just the sweetest thing. Mikaiya wrote her own little note to Santa (we had to help with spelling!), but still very cute. And Braenna specifically put the center cookie in just for Rudolph:

I guess the reindeer food worked! The girls woke up Christmas morning to LOTS of presents! Santa (and everyone else!!) was very good to them this year:

1st Snow

2010-12-09T17:32:00.001-08:00

We had our first snow this last weekend! Amazing that we made it all the way to December before getting it. Here's the view out the back windows:

The girls stepping out for the first time:

Believe it or not, Braenna LOVED the snow!

Mikaiya's snow angel:

November 2010

2010-12-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

November 2010...A month that will forever be etched in my mind. What a crazy month it was. We said good-bye to a lot of amazing friends as we packed up and moved to WI. We bought and moved into a new home. We sold our home of 9+ years. Mikaiya and Braenna started at a new school. I started a new job. We celebrated our first holiday in our new home and we decorated for Christmas. What a whirlwind it has been! Here are some pictures documenting our month:

Click here for pictures!

Christmas Decorating at Our New Home

2010-12-05T17:58:00.001-08:00

We got the joy of decorating a new home for Christmas this year! It's actually pretty tough to start from scratch again and ended up taking us most of the three day weekend to finish up! The girls had a blast helping out, as usual! Here is Mikaiya posing with the "princess" (angel) for the top of the tree:

And Braenna took the term tree "skirt" literally...and wanted to wear it herself!!

Each of the girls picked out a special ornament to put on the tree first. Then they went to town on getting the rest of them up! It was like speed decorating!!

Here is the finished product on the tree. And so far we've only blown the fuse once, what an accomplishment considering the tree has 42 strands of lights on it!

Jeff worked really hard on the outside as well. It's always hard to get a good shot, but here's the best we could do on the outside lights:

Sun Prairie Christmas Tree Lighting

2010-12-05T17:50:00.000-08:00

We got to start another new tradition this year with the Sun Prairie Christmas Tree Lighting and Fire Truck parade! It was a lot of fun, despite the COLD! We all bundled up, so the temperatures were pretty tolerable. Here is daddy and the girls anxiously awaiting the start of the fire truck parade:

The parade was really cool! There were firetrucks from all over the Madison area and they got all decked out in Christmas lights and decorations. Some even had snow machines on the top of them! They played Christmas music and blared their horns and sirens. The kids really loved it! Here is one of the most decorated trucks:

After the parade, we all went over to where the tree would be lit. They brought Santa in on a fire truck (see below!). They raised him up and over the tree and he sprinkled "elf dust" on the tree and it lit up. It was really fun to see!

After his duties of lighting the tree, Santa visited with the kids. Here is Mikaiya's reaction when I asked her if she would like to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas this year:

Braenna on the other hand was willing to brave it...I guess she'll do anything for a candy cane!!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-05T17:47:00.000-08:00

We hosted Thanksgiving this year at our new house here in WI. It was fun to start new traditions with our family and get to spend the holiday with all of our WI family. The food and company was great! Here are a couple pics from our holiday:

New House Pics

2010-11-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pics of the new house. I will keep adding to this album, so check back often if you are interested!!

House Album

October Pics

2010-11-01T17:24:00.000-07:00

I don't have any real time to write...or sort through pictures!! Here are October pics, and I apologize for there being so many!

Click HERE

A Busy September!

2010-10-02T11:09:00.001-07:00

September always seems to be one of our busiest months! I guess that's because it's finally not 110 outside every day. We have TONS of photos this month. I sorted through as best I could, so here they are:

Click Here for Photos

Parade of Cultures

2010-10-02T10:46:00.001-07:00

Every year at Primrose, they have the Parade of Cultures. This year, Braenna's class was Australia (don't ask what she's supposed to be...I have no clue!):

Mikaiya's class was South Africa:

The kids love parading around the parking lot with their teachers and classmates. And we love getting to go watch!!

T-Ball

2010-10-02T05:58:00.000-07:00

T-ball season has started and is in full swing again! It's really nice to get two seasons a year here! Mikaiya is on the Rays this season:

She is getting really good. Here she is perfecting her form to throw the ball to home plate:

It's been a lot of fun this season because Aiden is on her team also! That means that Braenna has a playmate while Aiden and Mikaiya play. Braenna and Alina LOVE to run around and get into trouble together:

And the little girls want nothing more than to play with the big kids. Here is Mikaiya taking some time away from the game to talk to her two biggest fans:

It's been a fun season so far. The kids really are getting better the more they play!

Plano Balloon Festival

2010-10-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

September 16 we got to go to our absolute favorite event here in TX, the Plano Balloon Festival! It is so much fun every year and the whole family loves to go. We got some rain again this year (seems to happen every year!), but it was still a great time! Here is a nice family shot...or as close to a "nice" one as we could get!

The balloon glow was amazing this year! We go at night just to see this special sight when they light up all the balloons in the dark. It's so pretty!

This year, they let us out onto the field by all of the balloons...we were able to get up close and personal with some of our favorites. This one was new this year and a definite hit:

As always, it's an awesome sight! There are so many beautiful balloons:

Add to all the balloon fun that there is a Kids Zone! The girls got to color, make bracelets and do all kinds of FREE arts and crafts. Mikaiya also enjoyed the (very wet) bounce toys and slides. We had a great time!!

Rangers/Yankees Game

2010-09-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

We took the girls to their first MLB baseball game this last weekend. I got free tickets through work (my group has season tickets). The seats were great...they were two rows up from the field out in right field....and BONUS, they were in the shade (a must in TX, even in September!).

Here are the girls watching the game...Mikaiya is rooting for team Disney Princess ; )

We found the best treat ever this time in cotton candy! A small investment kept them entertained the whole game! Here they are enjoying their special treat:

We didn't get any family pics, but we did get a couple of cute ones. Here is Jeff with Braenna:

And a self portrait of Mikaiya and I:

Overall it went really well and was a lot of fun! We were shocked that they did so well, considering they were without naps and everything. Both of them crashed as soon as we got to the car, so we had a nice peaceful ride home!

Daddy's Birthday

2010-09-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

Jeff's birthday was earlier this month. The girls helped him celebrate by first "helping" him open presents:

And then helping mommy make a cake:

They both had a blast with all the "helping" they got to do that day! Here's the finished product of the cake...and it even tasted great!!

Happy Birthday To Daddy!!

2010-09-06T16:50:00.001-07:00

These are the moments to remember forever:

August Photos

2010-09-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been awhile!! Life in the Stampf household seems to get more and more hectic by the day! We joined the gym after our July trip, hence no more time to post ; ) No seriously, all my free time now goes there...I say "all" like it's a lot!! Not really. Anyway, here are pictures from the second half of July and August. The girls are doing well, as always. Mikaiya started Pre-K and loves it. It's still at her same school with her same friends. Braenna is good too...starting to potty train, FINALLY! She's still not quite getting it though, hopefully soon! Here is the link to pics:

Click Here!!

Hayward 2010

2010-07-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

Wow have we ever had a whirlwind of a last month or so! Barely a week after we got back from NY, we went on another big trip to Hayward to see the Walker family. It started off with the long 17 hour car ride. We got the girls new pillow pets for in the car as a surprise. Mikaiya got a bunny and Braenna got a bee. They were a definite hit:

Mikaiya was really into fishing this year and kept asking if she could go down and fish. She actually caught a few and did pretty good with them. I thought she'd be scared of them, but she was pretty interested in them...still not wanting to actually touch them though:

One of my really close friends from college, Katie, and her husband and their two kids (Andrew, 5 and Jenna, 3) rented a house on our lake this year too. It was really nice, we got to see quite a bit of them. Here's a pic of Mikaiya, Andrew and Jenna playing in the water. All of the kids are close enough in age that they really had a blast together this year!

It was so nice for the girls to get some time with their cousin Emily. And as you can see, they took to each other very well! It's great now that everyone is old enough to interact. I think at times my girls were a little overwhelming for little Em, just because they are used to each other and lots of kids around from daycare and Em isn't quite as used to that just yet. She did very well though. Here's one of my favorites of the three of them:

This next one cracks me up. We were at dinner one night and one of the girls started taking off her dress. Next thing you know, we have three naked girls...all laughing hysterically! It was the cutest thing. I managed to get a shot of the three of them after we got them down from the table. They are so proud of themselves!

We got to go to the Wilderness Walk again this year. It is always a big hit with the kids. Mikaiya really enjoyed feeding the animals in the baby zoo:

Braenna still really wasn't very into it this year. She likes looking at the animals that are caged, but isn't too into the ones walking around. Speaking of walking around, these animals get up close and personal. They are very used to people! Check out this dear as Mikaiya checks it out! It almost looks fake, but it is a real, live deer...and it just let her walk up that close to it! Amazing!!
Here is our favorite little niece Emily. She is so adorable!!

And my last favorite...a nice family picture! We haven't had one since Braenna was born, so that's over 2 years of not having everyone in one place at one time and motivated to get a picture. It's great to have a new one and it actually turned out pretty welll:

Overall, it was a great trip! It's always relaxing to go to the lake...well, relaxing as any trip with a two small kids can be! We even got a night out with just us "big kids" and it was great. I honestly don't remember the last time I had that much fun! It really makes me realize how lucky I am to have such a great family! We even got to be there for Casey and Mike's engagement! That meant a lot to me...I always feel like I miss everything, so it was nice for once to be a part of something! Time to start looking forward to a wedding...and of course, to our lake trip next year!!

Here are the rest of the pictures from the trip: Click HERE!

Ethan's Baptism and NY Trip

2010-06-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

We got back from Ethan's Baptism and our trip to NY on Tuesday. It was quite the whirlwind trip, as they all are! We arrived at Nana and Pop's late the Wednesday before. Jeff and I got to sneak away for a night to ourselved Thursday evening and then Saturday morning, we all headed up to John and Jen's to meet Ethan and spend time with all of them and Max. The girls had a great time the whole trip. Mikaiya got to swim in Nana and Pop's pool, which she loved!! And they both got to spend some much needed time with their cousins. I think the girls really enjoyed all of Max's cool toys! He had all kinds of cars and trucks to play with, not to mention his big Truck that he drives around the back yard and the trampoline. Braenna was a bouncing machine!! Guess we're going to eventually have to invest in one of those! I got the priveledge of being Ethan's Godmother as well, which I am very honored for. Thank you very much to John and Jen for giving me such a special place in Ethan's life! He is such a sweet baby and I cannot wait to see what the future brings!

Here is the link to the pics from our trip:

Click here for pics!

Braenna's 2 Year Well Visit

2010-06-14T17:36:00.001-07:00

We took Braenna in today for her 2 year well visit. I had been noticing that she seemed awfully tall lately, and sure enough, it was confirmed! She is 36.5" tall, which puts her in the 97th percentile for height! What a big girl!! She's quite a bit taller than even Mikaiya was at this age and Mikaiya is still very tall for her age. I guess these girls got the the tall genes in the family! Braenna is also up there in weight, she is 31 lbs and 6 oz, which puts her at the 92nd percentile for weight. Overall, she's pretty well balanced out though and is quite big for her age!!

She is also doing all of the items on the 2 year checklist at the dr, so we are very proud of her. Her words are getting better and better, although there are still a few things that she continually repeats that we cannot figure out. She is definitely a 2 year old...her little personality is very set in its own little way already. This morning I got out her shoes and she looked at me and said, "No mommy, no sneakers!" and then proceeded to find herself two (unmatched) dress shoes that she insisted she wanted to wear. We finally got the sneakers on her, but not without a fight! And yesterday I got her dressed in the morning while Mikaiya dressed herself. When she saw that Mikaiya was wearing a dress, she started taking off her shirt and saying, "Dress, mommy, dress" and she wouldn't give up until she picked out her own dress, the third one I offered her. Whew...I think we're going to have our hands full with this one!! Good thing she is extra sweet to go along with that little bit of sassy she has in her!

Braenna's 2nd Birthday Party

2010-06-06T10:36:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that the time has already come and gone to celebrate our baby's 2nd birthday! Braenna had a great time at her "bee" themed party despite the 100+ degree temperatures here in TX. Here are the girls posing for a nice picture before the party:

I made "bee" cookies (oreos with yellow striped frosting). Braenna cannot wait to get a bite out of this one! She spent most of the day in just her diaper because it was so hot...worked out well for eating the messy cookie though too:

She had a blast opening her presents!

And here she is waiting very patiently for her cake:

The cake turned out sooooo cute! I was very happy with it. Braenna was not so sure about everyone singing Happy Birthday to her, but she made it through without bursting into tears. Here she is trying to blow out her candles:

We have so many pictures to share, I couldn't fit them all on here. Here is the link to see the rest:

Click here for pictures!

Braenna's School Party

2010-06-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Braenna's 2nd birthday with her little friends at school on Friday. She had a lot of fun! Here she is waiting for her cupcakes to come. I think she looks like such a big girl in this picture!!

We got the cutust little cupcakes with lady bugs on them...here's Braenna taking a bite:

And the aftermath...

She had a lot of fun as did her friends! Big sister Mikaiya even came over from her class to share in the celebration!

May Photos

2010-05-31T19:01:00.001-07:00

Here is the link to the rest of the pictures from May:

Click here for photos!

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-05-31T18:42:00.000-07:00

We had a very busy Memorial Day weekend! The weekend started out with Aiden's 4th birthday party on Saturday. The girls had a BLAST, as they always do when we get together with all of our friends!

We went to the Frisco Rough Riders baseball game on Sunday. It seemed like a great idea and fun for the whole family when I bought the tickets a week or so ago...little did I know it would be 98 degrees that day! We got a great deal, 4 free hats and 4 McDonald's value meals were included with our tickets. Here is Mikaiya modeling her hat:

Unfortunatly, Braenna's day wasn't quite as good. She overheated very quickly and while Mikaiya and I were of getting snacks, Jeff tried to calm Braenna down. An usher ended up coming down and telling Jeff he could take Braenna up to the shade right as Mikaiya and I came back. She didn't calm down there either and he ended up taking her to First Aid to cool down. They gave her an ice pack and it was her new favorite thing:

She did get to have some fun though. Here she is about to "High Five" Daisy, one of the mascots. Mikaiya was curled up in her seat with her eyes covered during this part of the day...she still hasn't gotten over her fear of people dressed in costumes.

Here are Mikaiya and Daddy enjoying our wonderful seats in the shade thanks to the incredibly nice usher who did a great job of watching out for people!!

We didn't do a ton on Memorial Day, mostly had some nice family time. Here are the girls posing for pictures out back. We are loving the flower bed we put out there last year!!

The rest of the day we spent outside. Here's the girls playing in their tubes NEXT TO the pool...they'll get it eventually!! Haha, no really, Mikaiya gets it, she was just joining the fun with Braenna. Mikaiya even got to go use her tube over at Riley's house later in the day too! It was a fun day!

ABC's Video

2010-05-31T18:35:00.000-07:00

This video is from lunch on Sunday. Braenna has been really into learning her ABC's and Mikaiya is really into helping her! Here they are signing the ABC song together. It's kind of hard to hear Braenna over Mikaiya, but she is actually singing along too!

Mikaiya's First Dance Recital

2010-05-31T18:31:00.000-07:00

Mikaiya has been taking ballet and tap at school through a company called Kinderdance. She had her first recital this past week. It was pretty cute to watch! They started off with the "tots" (2 year olds) and we got to watch most of them go running to their parents before they even started. There were a couple that really got into it, but for the most part they didn't like it. Then we moved on to Mikaiya's class which was the bigger girls. They actually did pretty well! We are still working on getting the pics from the recital off of Jeff's camera phone. Since it was in the middle of the day on a school/work day, some of us were a little disorganized and managed to leave our camera/video camera at home! Here is a picture of Mikaiya in her recital outfit when we got home...they did a little dance with their bears, so she wouldn't take the photo without her!!

Mikaiya's First Trophy

2010-05-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

We went to Mikaiya's end of the season t-ball party today at her coach's house. She had a blast playing with her little t-ball friends, but the highlight of the afternoon was getting her first ever trophy! She loves it and is so excited to have it as you can see in this picture:

She was also awarded "best dressed" as you can see by her selection of outfits to wear to an outdoor party with her t-ball team...which is almost all boys!! We were sad to learn that in TX they don't play in the summer, but she will be back at it again when fall comes and hopefully we can end up on the same team because apparently her team was the only 4-5 year old team to not lose any players throughout the season. We had a great coach and a great team!!

Sisters

2010-05-23T17:43:00.001-07:00

The girls are really getting good at playing together. I thought I would share one of my new favorites of them playing. They like to push their little chairs around on the wood floors and this time they lined them up so that they could both sit together...too cute!!

Summer is here...

2010-05-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

...And out comes the pool! We actually got it out last weekend! Mikaiya is a fish again this year, and frustrated that the pool isn't deep enough to swim in. Maybe someday we'll have a real pool, in the meantime, she's making the best of what she has:

Mikaiya playing on her tube:

Splashing around in the pool:

This is about as close as Braenna would get to the pool...she's not quite into it yet:

April Pictures

2010-05-01T13:47:00.001-07:00

April was one crazy month here in the Stampf household, and there are tons of pictures to prove it! Here is the link, hope you enjoy!!

Click here for pictures

Mikaiya's First Home Run!

2010-04-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Part of the fun of learning to play baseball is that in the T-ball league, they don't have outs or keep score yet. So, each week, whichever kid bats last in the lineup gets to hit a "home run". Here is video of Mikaiya's very first home run:

Mikaiya's Four Year Stats

2010-04-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

We took Mikaiya in for her 4 year well visit yesterday. She did very well. They tested her hearing and vision, both were perfect! She had 3 shots...she did about as good as you could expect a 4 year old to.

We were validated in thinking we had a big kid...she is about 43 pounds (91st percentile) and 43.25" tall (97th percentile). No wonder she towers above all her classmates! She has a couple of very close friends who are tall as well, so we don't realize how tall she really is in comparison to other kids her age until we actually get her measured. Looks like she's going to be taller than mommy someday!!

March Photos

2010-04-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind again and just realized that I never uploaded March pictures! March was a fun filled month with Spring beginning and even a TX snowstorm! The girls had a fun visit with Grammy and got to celebrate their birthdays a little early while she was here. It was very nice for everyone! Here is the link to the pictures for the month:

Click here for pictures

Mikaiya's 4th Birthday Party

2010-04-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we hosted Mikaiya's 4th birthday party at the house. It was almost an exact replica of her 3rd, but just what she asked for! We had a princess themed party with a bounce house, castle cake and lots of friends and family. Here is the birthday girl all ready for the festivities:

Here are Mikaiya and Braenna getting ready for the party:

Mikaiya and daddy in the bounce house:

And here is the birthday girl with her cool castle cake. She loved it!!

Mikaiya's 4th Birthday

2010-04-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

Mikaiya celebrated her 4th birthday on Friday. It was such a busy day! Here she is at her class birthday party. We actually did it on Thursday this year since Friday was the parade and egg hunt:

After the parade and egg hunt and nap, Mikaiya got to open her presents from Mommy, Daddy and Braenna, Nana and Pop, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Jen and Max, and Uncle Kory, Aunt Teresa, and Emily. She had a lot of fun!

We also went out to dinner for her birthday and went to Red Robin. She got a balloon and a free ice cream sundae along with a little birthday song from the staff. Here she is posing with her sundae. Believe it or not, she didn't even eat it all!!

Easter Parade and Egg Hunt

2010-04-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

On Friday at school, the girls had their annual Spring Bonnet Parade and Easter Egg Hunt. The weather did not cooperate this year, so the kids paraded around indoors from classroom to classroom in their Easter bonnets that they made themselves (with the help of their teachers of course!!). Mikaiya had a great time....Braenna required mommy as an escort.

While each class was out parading, the Easter bunny paid a special visit to their rooms and hid eggs:

The girls were thrilled to find the Easter eggs hidden throughout their rooms when they came back. Braenna was really interested in what was inside, and Mikaiya was happy to have found the biggest egg!

Here is a picture of the girls getting ready to go. Hopefully we'll get some better ones on Easter too!

First T-Ball Game

2010-03-30T18:05:00.001-07:00

Mikaiya had her first T-Ball game last weekend. She had a blast...no tears at all! Here she is all ready to go...please note, they really don't make baseball attire to fit 4 year olds!!!

Here's a shot of her out in the field ready to catch the ball:

And here she is all ready to hit a home run (haha!!):

Sorry the pics aren't great and that I don't have more! I spent the whole game chasing around an almost 2 year old while Jeff was out on the field helping the kids. You can take my word for it though that she did great and had a lot of fun with her new T-Ball friends!!

Mikaiya Practicing

2010-03-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

This video is of Mikaiya practicing in the back yard last night for the big game today! She did great today...I'll post some pics later this weekend!!

E-I-E-I-O?

2010-03-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of Braenna from yesterday singing Old McDonald...sorry, you have to bear with my singing as well, but it's worth it!!

February 2010

2010-03-07T11:09:00.000-08:00

Well another month has passed here in Texas. It was a fun one for the girls with several snow days and 7+ inches of snow! They also had Valentine's day this month and enjoyed opening presents and eating lots of candy! We had a Superbowl Party and Rylie's birthday at the Schwendeman's and Sarah's birthday at the Renshaw's! It was a fun month and we got to spend lots of quality time with our friends!

Braenna has really started to turn into more of a little girl and less of a baby this month. It is so fun to watch her change so quickly. She is quickly becoming obsessed with the potty...not that she has actually used it yet, but she is constantly wanting to sit on it and is really starting to understand when she has to go. Just a few days ago she walked up to me and said "poo-poo" (which she says A LOT!) and so I checked her, told her she didn't go and went on with what I was doing. About a minute later she walks up and says it again, I check her and sure enough, she went! So, I guess it's time that the Stampf household get back in gear for potty training...feels like we just did this not too long ago!! Braenna is also getting really good with her words. This month she started repeating things that people say and she is really remembering them. She says please and thank you at the right times now and is very into whose something is...for instance "Daddy's shoes" or "Kaya's baby". And yes, Kai has become Kaya as her language develops. I'm sure before long she will call her Mikaiya just like everyone else does. And the cutest thing, this morning I sneezed and sneezed and sneezed (spring has sprung!) and after each sneeze, Braenna said, "Bess Ooo". So cute!!

Mikaiya is doing well too. We had her parent teacher conference this month and were told that she is right on track and on the more advanced side of her class. This is good to hear because we are just never sure what she should be doing at this age. She is one of the youngest in her class, so I have already been pushing with the management at school that when they do their next "move up" to the next class, I want her staying with her friends. She usually gets left behind because she is 2 months younger than the large group in her class. She goes to Pre-K next, and she will do Kindergarten after that and since she will be with kids that age when she goes to Kindergarten I want her with them when she goes to Pre-K. I'm not sure why they don't do "move ups" based on ability and not age, but for some reason that doesn't seem to be the case. Regardless, I've been assured that she will move to Pre-K in June with all of her classmates. She also starts T-ball in March. She has been doing ballet and tap for awhile now, but has been asking to play something with a ball...so T-ball it is! This should be interesting!!

Well, now that I've writtin a book (and here I thought I had nothing to say this month!!), here is the link to our February pictures:

Click here for pictures

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T16:44:00.000-08:00

I just had to share my new favorite picture of the girls:

Happy Valentine's Day from the Stampf girls!

Lots of Snow in Texas!

2010-02-14T10:36:00.000-08:00

Starting last week Thursday we got an official snowstorm here in TX! This is about the first real one I've seen. We ended up with about 7" by Friday! The kids really loved watching the snow come down! Everytime Braenna looks outside she says "Snow!". It's really cute. That really is about all she wanted of it though. We did get her all dressed up warm and send her out...she screamed the entire time:

Mikaiya got all dressed warm to go out too (notice the princess cowboy boots...give us a break, we never get snow, therefore our kids have no boots!!):

Mikaiya had a great time playing in the snow and went out multiple times. Here is one of the three snowmen her and daddy made:

It's really funny down here, since it snows so infrequently, there are snowmen EVERYWHERE when it snows. We drove through the neighborhood yesterday and there was seriously like one snowman per yard minimum! I think everyone really enjoyed all of the snow. It's a couple days later and there's even still some left!

January 2009

2010-02-05T17:28:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe that January is gone so fast! We had a fun month here! The girls are really interacting well these days which is just so cute to watch! They play together pretty much every night! Some highlights this month were Jacob's first birthday party and their very first haircuts that weren't done by Grammy or mommy. They both did great!

Braenna is growing like a weed! She is now 20 months old! So hard to believe. She is learning approximatley 1 new word per day and is really turning into a chatterbox. The cutest thing ever is that she is calling Mikaiay "Kai" and everything is "Kai's". It is so cute! She adores her big sister! She is the most loving, sweetest little thing you could ever meet. Her favorite thing to do still is cuddle with mommy, which is great, except when it's 2 am. Lately I feel like we have a newborn and not a toddler with her sleeping habits! She's been sick on and off a lot lately though and also has 4 teeth working their way in. Poor little thing just wants some comfort! She's up to almost 30 pounds now and is a great eater, just like big sissy! My only complaint is that she has got to be the messiest eater I have ever seen!! Food is EVERYWHERE when she is done! She is just so precious though, and aside from the tantrums, this is a great age and we are enjoying every second with her!

Mikaiya is such a big girl now. She is every bit of 4 even though she's not quite there yet. She loves to write her name and her letters and is starting to really get into sounds that letters make. She still loves to read and spends at least 30 minutes every night after we put her to bed "reading" (ie. looking at pictures!) in her books. She continues to amaze us constantly with how smart she is...I know everyone thinks that about their own kids, but it really is amazing how much they learn and how fast! Mikaiya is really enjoying preschool and is constantly talking about when she gets to move up to Pre-K. She is very excited to move to the "big kids" class.

Here are some pictures from this month, hope you enjoy!
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2873268002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/

December Pictures

2010-01-03T17:41:00.000-08:00

Here are the rest of our pics from December! What a busy month...almost 600 pics total!

http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2710515002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Christmas 2009

2009-12-26T18:06:00.001-08:00

Christmas 2009 was great to our family! The month of December was a flurry of Christmas activity with Christmas parties, tree lightings and a visit from Nana and Pop. We were lucky enough to have Nana and Pop visit in mid-December to celebrate Christmas with us early this year. The girls had a great time with them and we had a fun Christmas celebration!

We opened presents from our families and each other on Christmas Eve morning. Mikaiya loved "helping" Braenna to open hers! Braenna really got into it after awhile and we couldn't stop her from opening every present she could get her hands on!

We had our Texas Family over for Christmas Eve festivities. We are up to 9 kids now and 10 adults. It was a full house, and a bit on the crazy side! The best part was that it actually snowed! We couldn't believe it, snow...in Texas...on Christmas Eve! It was a lot of fun! Here are Mikaiya and Rylie out in the snow:

And the snow coming down in the backyard:

Apparently it was even a little cold out for the local wildlife. On top of all the people in the house, we had a nice visit from a bird at one point in the night! Just imagine 10 adults trying to chase down a bird while 9 children watch in awe. It was very amusing and one of the more memorable events of the evening!!

We woke up Christmas morning to find that Santa had arrived...and boy was he good to the girls this year! Here they are in their jammies in front of the tree before we opened presents:

And when we looked outside on Christmas morning, we were shocked to see that the snow had actually stuck around for Christmas day! We got a beautiful, white Christmas! It's amazing how you tend to take something like that for granted when it's no longer a given that it snows on Christmas!

We hope that this holiday season was as good to you and your family as it was to ours! I have really tried to relish in the holidays with the kids now, knowing that this time will be gone before we even know it! We had so much fun with the girls, and watching their eyes light up with each gift that the received and gave! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Here are the rest of our Christmas pics:

http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2646675002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Santa Visits Daycare!

2009-12-26T17:52:00.000-08:00

On December 18, Santa and Mrs Claus stopped by daycare for a nice visit! The girls got their picture taken with them...this is the picture where Braenna is the most calmed down:

Santa also visited the girls classrooms for group pictures. Braenna didn't cry in this one, but her teacher said the only way they stopped her was by holding her. As you can see, Mikaiya is quite the ham in her class!!

Work Christmas Party

2009-12-23T13:45:00.001-08:00

December 5 was our work Christmas party. The girls got right up on Santa's lap and posed for a picture without any tears! We were shocked! Mikaiya even told him exactly what she wanted him to bring her for Christmas this year...a train, a hula hoop and a doll house. Luckily, that's exactly what she's been saying all season, so Santa's got it covered!!

There was a train set up at the party and Mikaiya had a blast watching it go around:

Braenna had a blast dancing around to the Christmas music and Mikaiya made a cookie, cards and several other crafty things. This is always a nice little party and best of all, it's FREE to all employees! What a deal!! And the girls had so much fun!!

City of Murphy Tree Lighting

2009-12-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

On December 4 we attended the City of Murphy Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony. It was COLD...well, for TX anyway! It was actually pretty chilly! The girls got all bundled up and we walked down to the City Hall for the festivities.

The girls posed for a picture at Santa's Workshop and apparently someone from the Murphy Messenger (our local paper) took one too and it made it into the paper! Here's my copy:

Santa was there and the line was a little long for Braenna to handle, so we didn't see him. We did get to see his reindeer though!

And after the tree was all lit, the girls posed for a cute picture in front of it for us:

Christmas Pictures

2009-12-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

We got our Christmas pictures back on CD last week. Thought I would share them with everyone! It was fun getting them taken, although you can tell from the pictures that a certain toddler was anything but cooperative! Here's the link:

http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2278689002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

November 2009

2009-12-01T18:21:00.001-08:00

What a fun month we had in November! The month started out with a visit from Grammy and Grampa. The girls had a great time and I think Grammy and Grampa did too! We went to the zoo and had awesome weather (for November!). It was like spring out every day. Here are a few pics from the visit:

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with great friends...thanks to the Schwendeman's for hosting us! The girls had a blast! Mikaiya and Rylie are really fun to watch these days...they can entertain each other for hours, which is great for the adults!!

We also put up our Christmas decorations this month. The girls had so much fun putting the ornaments on the tree. It was like a mad dash to see who could get them up the fastest! It was great fun for mommy and daddy too...trying to catch the breakable ones before the 18 month old chucks them at the wood floor because she thinks they're a ball was really a challenge!! It will definitely be a fun memory as the girls grow up. Here are a few pictures of them helping out with the decorating:

Here's the link to the rest of our November pictures: http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2129060002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

The Picky Eater

2009-11-23T17:01:00.000-08:00

This is too funny...Braenna decided that she did not like her stir fry that we were having for dinner tonight. Watch what she does...and listen closely to Mikaiya's narration in the back ground! They always keep us laughing here!!

Bath Time Fun

2009-11-23T16:55:00.000-08:00

It's been forever since I've uploaded a video! Here is one of the girls playing in the bathtub a few weeks ago. They came up with this game all by themselves and were just having a great time!!

October Photos

2009-11-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

What a fun month we had this month! So much going on! We travelled to NY (pics posted earlier this month) and then the month continued to be busy from then on! I feel like we've been catching up ever since!

The girls are doing great. Mikaiya is still loving preschool and we got to have her parent/teacher conference this month. She is doing very well in her class and is quite the little leader. We are so proud of all she has learned in such a short time. She's getting really good with recognizing and even writing her letters. She is also now a PRO at controlling the mouse and LOVES to play on her Fisher Price Cool School computer or to log onto PlayHouseDisney.com and entertain herself!

Braenna is growing up so fast! She is really talking a lot now, although we don't understand everything she says! She was saying something all weekend that we couldn't figure out and finally realized she was saying (and signing!) "pumpkin"! It's her new favorite word! She is really starting to understand things too and follows simple commands very well. She has also turned into a bookworm just like her older sister and cannot get enough of reading!

Here is the link to our pictures for this month:
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1868024002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Beauty and the "Bee"

2009-11-01T06:01:00.001-08:00

Here are some pics of the girls from Halloween this year. We had themed costumes this year...Mikaiya was Belle, aka Beauty, from Beauty and the Beast. Braenna was a Bee, mostly because we call her "B" all the time! So our theme was "Beauty and the Bee"...haha!!

Here are the girls together all dressed up:

Here is Mikaiya, looking beautiful as Belle:

And here is our adorable little bee:

September Picture Link

2009-10-17T17:38:00.001-07:00

Here is the link to our September pictures:
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1744900002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

It was such a busy month again! We had Jeff''s birthday, Taverly's Birthday party, Alina's Birthday party, the Plano Balloon Festival and the Murphy Maize Days all this month. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

New York Trip

2009-10-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

We had a great trip to NY October 7 though October 13. That's my excuse for being so behind on everything at the moment ; ) I promise, I will eventually load September pictures!!

We got to do a lot while we were there. Jeff and I took a nice two day trip to Foxwoods Casino and Resort up in CT all on our own. It was so nice to get some one on one time with no screaming toddler or chatty preschooler. Thanks so much to Nana and Pop for letting us have that time! I'm pretty sure they enjoyed their alone time with the girls also...I know the girls enjoyed it!! We also got to spend time with John, Jen and Max while we were there. It was so great to see all of the cousins together and it's always great to get together with the whole family. We went to the pumpkin patch and to Bear Mtn Park. We got to have a nice mini "reunion" with the Stampf side of the family while there too! It was so nice to see everyone! Here is the link to the pictures from our trip:
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1733833002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Football Season Begins

2009-09-21T18:33:00.001-07:00

Our poor girls are so confused! Are they Bears Fans?

Or Steelers Fans?

Princess Party

2009-09-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, Mikaiya went to her friend Taverly's fourth birthday party. Braenna got to go too! It was a princess themed party and all of the girls were told to where their "most royal attire". Let's just say that is right up Mikaiya's alley and she had a lot of fun picking out her princess outfit. Here she is all dressed up for the party:

Here is Braenna (and Daddy!) at the princess party:

Here are all the girls at the party:

Daddy's Birthday

2009-09-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

We had a fun day on Jeff's birthday. He got to open presents in the morning, we went out to lunch and then Mikaiya and I made him cupcakes to celebrate. Here are some birthday pictures...

Mikaiya's New Trick

2009-09-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

I am once again playing catch up! Here's a video I've been wanting to share from the weekend of Jeff's birthday.

This is Mikaiya's new trick, we are so proud!:

Braenna 1 Year Photos

2009-09-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late with these, but here are Braenna's 1 year photos and some family shots that we had done. The ones in the beginning are the ones that the photographer modified, the rest are all the proofs. Enjoy!

http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=517440002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

August 2009

2009-09-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

Yet another month has passed. It's hard to believe how fast time goes these days. Our little angels are getting bigger and bigger by the day.

Braenna is getting cuter and cuter! She is still obsessed with the stairs and is getting very quick at climbing up them. She hasn't figured out the down thing yet...mostly because we haven't let her try. She is getting to have quite a few little personality traits. For instance, when she is done with her food, she tips her plate over (if she hasn't already done it earlier in the meal) and proceeds to "sweep" all the food off her tray. You'd think we'd catch on, but she is QUICK! She has also become our dancing queen. She loves music and as soon as she hears it she starts clapping and dancing. It's so fun to watch her come up with her own little moves. She is getting to be pretty quick on her feet these days too and loves when Mikaiya and daddy chase her around the house. She also moved up a class at daycare this month. She has entered the world of "Young Toddlers". She likes it...I'm still adjusting : )

Mikaiya is doing well also. No big changes for her this month. She's been loving her swim lessons with Amy (our neighbor across the street) and is getting really good at going under. She is still really enjoying preschool and she's really getting into her letters. She can now recognize a lot more than just the ones in her name. Yay Mikaiya! On to reading next month...haha! I know it will be before we know it!!

Here are the pictures from this month...
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1389229002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

A trip to the park...

2009-09-02T18:50:00.001-07:00

We took the girls to the park last weekend. It was finally"cool" enough here that we could go...less than 100...woohoo!! They really had a great time though. Here's some pics I thought I'd share:

Peek-a-boo

2009-08-23T17:46:00.001-07:00

It's so great, Braenna is finally getting to the age that she can interact with Mikaiya. Today they were playing peek-a-boo through Mikaiya's easel. It was so cute! Braenna was having a great time and Mikaiya just LOVES to make her laugh:

Butterflies!

2009-08-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

We took the girls to the butterfly exhibit at the Heard Natural Science Museum that is here near our house. It was a pretty small exhibit compared to others we have seen, but it was actually nice because it was not crowded and they got to spend a lot of interrupted time looking at the butterflies. Here are some pics that we took:

Naptime

2009-08-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from last weekend. I thought they were too cute not to share. Braenna fell asleep Sunday afternoon, so I covered her up and laid her on the floor.

Mikaiya saw her and decided to join her. Before I knew it, they were both asleep.

So cute!!

July Update

2009-08-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I might be just a tad late...again! We had a busy July that started off with our trip to Hayward (see previous blog). Things have calmed down some since then, but have still been hectic. We came home in time to get to meet two new little additions to our circle of friends; Eryn Olivia Schwendeman was born on July 8 and Megan Michele Renshaw was born on July 15. It is always cool to get to hold the itty-bitty newborns and get our baby fix!

The girls have been doing well. Mikaiya is...well...3. Whoever said 2 is terrible was a liar! 2 was nothing compared to 3! We still adore our little angel, but she has learned new and exciting ways to try every last ounce of patience we have on a daily basis. She still amazes us with how smart she is. She officially moved into Pre-School this month and is mastering all of the new skills she is learning at school. She is becoming an expert with scissors and is getting really good at tracing letters. She can even write several of the letters in her name on her own.

Braenna has quite the little personality. It is her way, or no way. She is into everything these days and is now a pro at the whole walking thing. She loves to explore the cabinets and climb the stairs. We have now had to put a gate up at the bottom of the stairs, which we never did for Mikaiya. Funny how different they are! Braenna is also talking a lot now. She has down several "B" words now like book, baby, bottle, and ball. She also is saying NO and daddy (not da-da) as of the last couple days.

Well, that's probably enough for now. Here is the link to the July pictures:
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1089145002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Hayward 2009

2009-07-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

So we just got back from our Hayward trip on Monday. We had a very nice time. We did however learn that vacation with a 3 year old and a 1 year old is anything but relaxing!! The weather was not great, but I still think that a fun time was had by all. We did so much in the week we were there. We went to the girls first carnival, saw the animals at the Wilderness Walk, Mikaiya caught her first fish, we had Braenna's birthday party, had Katie, Bruce, Andrew (4) and Jenna (2) visit, swam in the lake and spent lots of quality time with our family. Here are a few pictures of the trip.

Wilderness Walk:

Mikaiya's First Fish:

Braenna's Birthday Party and her first taste of ice cream cake:

Riding in the Boat:

Swimming in the lake:

And hanging out with cousin Emme:

The full highlights can be seen at:

http://photos1.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=717228002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

June Pictures

2009-07-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

I have some catching up to do! I'm a little behind again. Here is the link to our June pics (minus Braenna's bday and our trip to Hayward):
http://photos1.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=734023002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Braenna Turns 1

2009-06-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

It's so hard to believe how fast this year flew by! Braenna has been a special edition to our family. She is the sweetest, most loving little girl. She has the most precious smile and just melts my heart on a daily basis. She is truly a blessing to our lives. Despite her rocky start, she has turned into a vibrant and healthy 1 year old. At her 1 year check up, she was in the 75th percentile for weight and the 95th percentile for height. She is such a big girl...but no competition for Mikaiya at this age! This year has brought so many first for Braenna. The most recent have been crawling, pulling up and her first steps. She learned all of these things in about two weeks! She is getting very close to officially walking and has gotten up to as many as 12-13 steps at a time. She loves to get into things and her new favorite thing is to climb the stairs. She is such a cutie! She is also starting to talk, with her favorite word still being "uh-oh". I think she is also saying "more" now although it sounds more like "ma". We can't wait to see what this next year and many more to come bring for our sweet little baby girl.

Here are the pictures from her 1st birthday: http://photos.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=293982002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Braenna's First Birthday Party

2009-06-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the birthday girl all dressed up for her party:

Here is a nice family pic:

Braenna and Mikaiya:

Braenna showing everyone how she takes steps:

Braenna about to eat cake:

Midway into cake eating:

The aftermath:

My New Ride

2009-06-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

We got a new vehicle this last week! I upgraded my Chevy Trailblazer for a Chevy Traverse. It's got third row seating which is something we have been wanting for quite awhile now. We got an unbeatable deal, so we decided to do it. Here are a few pics:

May Pictures

2009-06-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to our May pictures: http://photos.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=192352002/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

I will try to write more after Braenna's big 1st birthday coming up this weekend!

Mikaiya and the Laundry

2009-05-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

Thisi s hysterical...Well, maybe only I think it's funny, but I thought I'd share anyway. So there was this pile of a variety of clothes (socks, undies, pants, shirts, etc...) on Mikaiya's floor. They were all clean and I just hadn't had time to put them away in her drawers. I go in this morning to get her up and notice that the pile is significantly smaller...I think to myself, hmmmm, maybe Jeff put them away and just didn't know where the rest went. Well, then Mikaiya starts talking to me about socks going with the socks, undies with the undies, pants in the pants drawer...and it clicks...Mikaiya put them all away! YES!!!! Does this mean she can officially put up her own laundry? I have to say, I was pretty surprised and think it's just hysterical! What a little Type A personality we are raising...can't imagine which Type A parent she gets all that from!!

Braenna is 11 Months Old

2009-05-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

So I am once again behind...this time on both my blogging and on taking pics of my little girl! I just got to taking her 11 month pics today, only 10 days late! Life is just so crazy! Braenna had a good month this month. She is now up to a whopping 22 lbs, 10 oz...hard to believe that Mikaiya was over 25 lbs at this age. I'm not sure where she put all that weight!! Braenna is finally deciding she might want to crawl like a normal child instead of scooting on her butt. Nothing against the scooting, she gets where she wants to be without delay, it's just kind of funny to watch. She is also working very hard on walking. If she had her way she would be on the move by now, but she doesn't quite have her balance yet because she is just so excited to be standing that she falls down. She has such a cute little personality and her favorite new activity this month is dancing. She loves to bop around to music. Too cute! Here are a couple of pics (notice her cute little ponytail!):

April Pics

2009-05-01T18:21:00.001-07:00

Here's the link to the rest of the April pics. Even with Mikaiya's birthday pulled out there are still over 100! Sorry for so many, but it was a busy month here! Enjoy!

http://photos.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=47682140/a=3342801_3342801/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

Cori's Family Visits

2009-04-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, last one for today, I swear! I just wanted to post a couple of other pics from my family visiting. Teresa and Emme came down last week Saturday and left today (Sunday). Mom and Casey flew in on Thursday and left today. It was great having everyone here! We were some busy people with 3 little ones running around! Here are a few pics:

The girls having tea

Mikaiya opening her birthday presents

An attempt at a pic with Grammy (I hope someone else got a good one!!)

Our trip to San Antonio

2009-04-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we packed up the girls and headed down to San Antonio to go to Sea World! Aunt Teresa and Cousin Emily flew in to come with us too. It was quite the adventure. We had to rent a mini van (I know, I know) to get us all down there. I hate to say it, but that thing was great...except that it was a mini van!

We had a great time at Sea World. We actually ended up spending most of Sunday at the Lost Lagoon, the water park inside Sea World. We really thought all of the girls were way too young for it, but they had a really good time.

Then on Monday, we fed the dolphins, watched the "Believe" show with Shamu and saw the rest of Sea World. We had a really good time. I will upload pics later this week and post the link!