Snow?

Well, all of you who live in Midland know that we had a nice big snowstorm and school was delayed for two hours (YAY!!!) but now we have green grass and pretty flowers and all that jazz. WHO NEEDS IT?!?!?!?! I can honestly sing along with Bing Crosby, "What is Christmas with NO SNOW?" Not much fun, I'll say! Oh well, I can always hope we'll get some by Christmas Eve.
"But it's December the...um...fourth, and I am longing to be up north..."
sigh...

Santa Parade!

   Well, Mom hasn't uploaded the pictues yet, so this is going to be a boring pictureless post until we get the pictures on here. Meanwhile, I'll just tell you about it so we don't forget about it.
   We went to the Santa Parade today and the whole family (well, except Dad) marched. Mom and Samuel went with the Chippewa Preschool float (Samuel's preschool) and I and Andrew went with the Nativity Exhibit and handed out flyers. It was very fun, and I think all of us enjoyed seeing the floats and walking with friends. We had a great time!

Samuel's birthday!

On November 7th, our little resident Superman had a birthday. Yep, that's right-Samuel just turned five years old!

Samuel posing in his Superman pajamas...

Anyway, Samuel had a birthday party with friends, presents, and BLUE DRAGON CAKE (made by Mom...) how good does it get? :)

Here we have Samuel with some friends-David, Levi, and Aaron Leonhardt...(plus the cake, which I have personally dubbed Puff the Chocolate Dragon.)

Closer detail on Puff. :) Note the "scales," which my totally awesome and dedicated mom added ONE BY ONE with the star-tip frosting thingy! Three cheers for Mommy! Also note the tissue paper wings and the dragon "treasure hoard..." I helped make those!

Well, I thought it would be only right to end with a gallerey of Samuel pictures which I have been dying to use but which I never got around to finding a place for. I call it "The Best of Samuel, 2011."

A budding architect testing out one of his creations. 

Everybody loves dress-up!

Armed with the tools of his trade-turtle basket and "fishy hat" foremost among them-the bold explorer set off into the untamed wilds of...the back yard.

Behold the terrifying leopard and tremble at his prescence! Well, maybe not so much terrifying as cute...but don't tell the leopard I said that! :)

Helping decorate for Halloween with a handmade "ghost"

One of my favorites... my two cute little brothers together.

We love you so much, Samuel! You are definetely our very favorite FIVE-year old around. Happy Birthday baby brother!

Vacation in Utah

Here is Michael in his silly dinosaur hat. This is the only known photograph of one of the dads in a silly hat, as Uncle Keith has forbidden his to be shown to the world on pain of death. Shhh... don't tell Dad. :)

Samuel, on the other hand, was not shy at all about showing off his ferocious "swamp thing" hat. Very scary!


While at Keith and Camille's, we had a "silly hat day." We went to the hospital to cheer Grandpa up. Here is everybody showing off their hats!


We took the newest member of the family on the trip-Charlie the four-pound wonder Chorkie. He was very happy to see his sisters Lucy and Roxy.

The Vegetable Room. Need I say more? (Andrew and his Schramm boy cousins)