Go Badgers!

It's not very often that the Badgers show up in our neck of the woods, but when they do, you can bet on a certain group of Badger fans being there to cheer the team on!  Right before Christmas, the top ranked men's basketball team came to Berkeley to play the Cal Bears.  We all dressed in our red and made our way over to Cal to watch the game! 

So overwhelmed by the excitement that they couldn't contain themselves

Sorry for the goofy lighting, but at least you can see the excitement starting to settle in!

Perhaps too much excitement? 

No shortage of brotherly love at least!

Did I mention our seats were in the second to last row in the entire arena? Kinda perfect spot to be with the wee ones. 

The Badgers won, of course, and we finished the evening with some pizza before heading it home for the night.  All in all, a very successful outing for the boys' first live sporting event!

The tree.

That was probably the easiest part...getting the tree off the roof. 

Perhaps trimming some branches off the bottom wasn't so bad either. 

But trying to birth this thing thru the front door proved a little tougher than initially expected. 

Yes, the pregnant lady is equating this process to labor. I was entertained just watching. Fortunately he didn't destroy the entry way too badly. 

As I mentioned, getting it off the truck was the easy part. The only time Gravity was working in our favor. 

And while the tree rising was going on downstairs, a little elf decided to "decorate" upstairs. 

It stands! 

Over the next week, Andrew and the boys worked hard to get the tree decorated. 

And this little elf was glad to bark orders from up high. 

Pointing to his first placed ornament!

The only picture I was able to get of both boys in front of the finished product. Clearly they had more important things to do than smile for the camera!

Happy 60th Mom!!

We decided to surprise mom with a weekend in Tahoe for her 60th birthday this year. Found a house just the right size to fit us all, and moved in for the weekend! We had a great time eating, playing games, gawking over our cute kids, enjoying the hot tub, and wandering over to the lake (which was shockingly and sadly very low). We did manage to sneak in plenty of photo ops, however, including this years Christmas card pic! Thanks to our resident family photographer, Casey! 

Cheers!

Arjen enjoyed getting to sleep on the top bunk. 

Gus found the bottom bunk cozy too. 

A little love from my Gus. 

Casey should be standing in water. 

Not a bad park view!

The family pic. Even got the dog in it this year!!

Snuggle time with Sloane!

Arjen teaching Sloane the ins and outs of video technology. 

No 60th birthday is complete without a TMNT card! 

Soakin' with his aunties. 

Too much cuteness!!

She was getting love from everyone!! 

Happy birthday Mom!! We love you dearly and are so grateful for the life you've given us!!

Christmas is coming!!

Okay, I'm a couple weeks late getting these pics up. Found our tree this year at what you can essentially call a drive-thru tree lot.  Drive in, you're handed the saw, drive around until you see the tree you want, park, then go cut it down, drive out, pay, and be sure to return the saw. Poor man's Apple Hill choose-and-cut experience. Nonetheless, it did the trick for us, and we found our big-but-not-as-big-as-last-year's tree. And, the boys got to see santa. 2 for 1! 

The tree!!

Someone was set on getting to hold the saw and helping to "cut down" the tree. (Fortunately some workers showed up with a chainsaw!)

Thankfully Baba and Dave came along for the now annual excursion. We needed all the help we could get to hoist that beast up on to the roof of the truck!

Arjen explaining the transformer he would like for Christmas, while giving Gus a little brotherly support. 

No screaming kid, but we were hard pressed to get anything remotely close to a smile from Gus. Arjen at least humored us. And Santa, well, looks like he maybe was ready for a break!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving was indeed happy this year!  We had another delicious dinner with a lot of family, with so much to be grateful for.  We missed having Grandpa and Grandpa Anderson with us this year, but know they were in good company back home in Wisconsin. We did have a new family member join us this year though…Miss Sloane! 

The Crossmans!

The boys did great this year, actually sitting at the table with us for most of the meal! As is our family tradition, we went around the table with everyone sharing something they are thankful for.  Generally this results in some happy tears as love is shared.  The boys kept it light however, Arjen was thankful for toys, and Gus thankful for AutoBots.  Guess we need to work a little on getting outside the egocentric circle of preschooler life.  

The heads of the table

Sorry for the blurriness here, but I was somewhat proud of my selfie skills! Missing Shannon, Sloane and the boys in this pic, but you get the idea…just a "small" group of 18 for dinner this year.  

As much as I love Turkey day itself, the day after is almost more my favorite.  Nowhere to rush to, the jammies can stay on for an extra hour, and these days, its fun to catch the proud Baba playing with all of her grand-babies! 

Making faces with Sloan-ie

Arjen tried negotiating for nap time under the leaves (or what's left of them)

Gus showing his creative imagination with Baba and the Moose autobots (incase you haven't picked up on the theme here, almost anything is worthy of becoming an autobot if it means Gus gets to play Transformers!).  They quickly turned into princesses Elsa and Anna though.  Frozen remains a close second behind the Autobots!

Thanks to all of our family and friends, near and far, for sharing your lives and love with us!  We are grateful to have you in our hearts!

Reading Rainbow

The boys have been obsessed with Transformers lately.  To say obsessed is to put it mildly.  Arjen got a Transformers RescueBots book for his birthday, and it has been read every night since.  Along with a Decepticons book kindly passed on from their cousin.  One night this past week, Arjen said he wanted to read it.  And so he did, sort of.  The memory on this kid is amazing.    Little did we know that Gus was also ready to start "reading." 

These videos are uncut and lengthy, but how do you delete bits of your children "reading" a book out loud for the first time?  

So you think you can dance?