The Brown Family Visits WI!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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