Tradition: Christmas Cookies 2015

It’s a tradition we started when we were newly married to bake Christmas sugar cookies and spell out the year. This year it was a little harder with a 18 month old running around our feet the entire time, but we tried to snap a few photos! Though this year we had to decorate them a few days later…

2015 – Year in Review

How is it already December already? It seems like we all were just making our new years resolutions and our little baby was still immobile! 2015 was pretty great for us, we made it a priority to create family time, no matter where we were – at home, at the park, or at the beach. Here’s what we’ve been up to…

Drew – He’d describe his year filled with intense, fast paced projects at Milwaukee Tool and lots of homework while he works on getting his masters at Marquette. He also traveled to China twice this year, but is always glad to come home!

Vanessa – Focused on improving her photography this year and launched her own photography business during the summer. She’s also works part-time as a graphic designer at an e-commerce company.

Emerald – She learned to eat real food, crawl, walk, talk and well has turned into a little human and is no longer quite a baby. She keeps us on our toes, but are so thankful for how much joy and laughter and craziness she brings to our home. Some of her favorite things this year were: the beach, walks, swings, splashing water, bubble guppies and trying to take ornaments off the tree.

We can’t wait to see what 2016 brings!

Halloween 2015

Our fall fun list included: going to a pumpkin farm (check), carving pumpkins (check), and now trick or treating (check x 3). We went trick or treating three times this year actually – once at the zoo, once at Daddy’s work and another time in our neighborhood, just real quick up and down the court we live in. Emerald’s baby friend Amelia even came as a chili pepper, we named them Sweet n’ Spicy.

Peck & Bushel – Apple Orchard 2015

As much as we wish summer could stay, we always have fun doing the typical fall activities. This weekend we headed out to Colgate and picked some apples. It was exciting watching Em just run around the orchard. She finally discovered she could eat the apples and it didn’t leave her mouth until we had to go and we took it away, holy tantrum. She loves her apples!

Labor Day 2015

Labor Day typically marks the end of Summer for us, but Drew was already back to school so we partied like it was still summer… corn on the cob, the kiddie pool and hanging outside. I love these types of days!

Summer Days – Splash Pad

There’s only a few days left of summer, and in Wisconsin those could easily be cut short thanks to cool weather – so we’ve been making it a point to explore our city. Today was the Lake Country Rotary Splash Pad in Hartland.

The water was freezing, but Emerald was still a champ and thanks to daddy for running through the cold water for her to have fun. She was shivering at the end, poor girl! Can’t wait to come back next time when she’s full fledge walking!

Summer Days – Lake Michigan & Sheboygan

Emerald and I went to visit Becky, Reese and Charleigh on Wednesday in Sheboygan. We visited Deland Park which has a beautiful beach – and the water is so blue, as if you were at the ocean. The beach was also empty thanks to cooler temps and off and on rain, but that didn’t stop the girls from having fun! The water was very chilly, so they stayed pretty far from it.

They chased birds, chased each other, played with the few toys we remembered to bring and a stick. Within an hour, we were ready to go home and give them baths, they were COVERED in sand! Can’t wait to visit again!

Date Day – Summer 2015

After deciding to both take a vacation day to do something fun, we decided to spend the day exploring different cities and sites around our extended neighborhood.

To start we headed to Lion’s Den Gorge in Grafton, WI after hearingĀ Morgan visit there last fall. It was about an hour away from our home in Pewaukee, but it was as if we transported to Hawaii (kind of, minus some palm trees) for a moment. It’s a quick hike through the park and down to the beach of Lake Michigan.

Next we drove thru Cedarburg to see what was all there, but thanks to a sleeping Emerald, we just took it all in from our windows.

We then dropped off Emerald at my parents, to enjoy a little date night. We hit up some mini golf (you can guess who won), then ate dinner and explored downtown Delafield by walking around the city and by Lake Nagawicka with some ice cream.