1st Snow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

These are the moments to remember forever:

August Photos

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

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

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

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

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!