Well, it happened. It really did. Mikey stepped out of his world of being four and stepped into a new world of being five. It really is amazing to see how much he has grown this past year. He is such a gentle little soul and reminds me so much of his daddy. We had a smaller celebration this year and took Michael to Stonefire which is like Chucky E Cheese on steroids. Wow! It was mass pandemonium, but Mikey had such a great time with Zoe, Gracie, and Lily. As expected the entire ride home consisted of asking when we would be able to go again. The jury is still out on that one! :)

Here he is in all of his five’ness. The mark on his lip is from what else but a light saber. I was going to take it out, but this is exactly what he looked like that day and I wanted to capture him just as he was….light saber battle scars and all. :)

A wee bit excited at his new Star Wars Republic Gun Ship.

Michael at five:

Adorations: Star Wars, anything to do with sports, transformers, going to the movies, the beach – his favorite place in the world, music, his Darth Vader shirt.

Vices: Starbucks, chocolate milk, lightsabers, blueberry muffins

Oh his playlist: I Gotta Feelin’ by Black Eye Peas, Down by Jay Sean, Star Was soundtrack, Wattcha Say by Jason Derulo, Kids by MGMT. We have never had a children’s song that he has ever liked – quite amusing.

Favorite movies: Star Wars, Clone Wars, Up, Transformers, Horton Hears a Who, Where The Wild Things Are

Just a few pictures from his night at Stonefire.
If you could just concentrate more on the beautiful little five year old face and less on the ridiculously horrible light, I’ll be your best friend forever. Promise. :)


Mikey and Lily – two of our favorite little people.

Michael had the highest score out of all of us at Skiball. We were all laughing hysterically at the insane amount of tickets he received.
His cute little face handing over his tickets. Yes, that is a Sponge Bob Square Pants wristband. I know everyone wants one!

He stood and stared at the air hockey table forever. He finally caved and played annnnd had a blast!

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B. He kicked Daddy’s butt!

…and someone else I know was having a bit of fun too…

Blowing out his birthday candles.

To Mr. Michael – Thank you for making each and every one of our days brighter, for having such a big heart even at the age of five, and for letting us see how beautiful this world is through your eyes.

We love you so much!! xoxo

(This was actually taken as we came out of Starbucks. He was complaining that he couldn’t see…funny boy. It makes me laugh out loud just looking at it. :)

Telling me he does NOT like the snow. I’ve changed my mind since my First Snow post and fully agree with him.

Singing in the car. Note: Car was NOT moving. This was before I even got in. :)

Looking cute at Starbucks.

Enjoying a donut which is a real treat in his universe as we don’t normally let him have them. BUT it was a snow day and I told him he could do whatever he wanted and so a donut it was!

Apparently this is him being scary.

I love this sign at Starbucks. I love their whole “WISH” marketing they’ve got going on. It made me laugh that as I was taking it Michael was asking me if God had a million heads because I told him he’s everywhere all the time. His eyes bulged out of his head and he said, “Whoa. He’s BIIIIGGG!”
I also love the coziness of foggy windows….

Mikey and I put the tree up today. Finally. I pulled out the retro tree and found this note from my Grandma. I cried at seeing her handwriting and knowing this will be a special thing for me every year to see it. My dad’s handwriting is also on the tree box which was another special treat for me today. I felt like they were both here.

Michael used the branches as light sabers. I was in no way shocked by this. He also asked me to take a picture with the “Wish” star for his grandmas. Sweet boy.

He also wanted another picture of the “Wish” wand and I just happened to like it.

We then had a late lunch by our decorated tree…

…and ended the day by watching Star Wars. What else?

Today was a snow day for Mikey and lucky me I got him alllll to myself today. We slept in late and then he waltzed into our room and said, “Ummmmm what time are we going to Starbucks?” I just laughed out loud…just another reason I love him so! So, we did just that. We put on our winter gear as the snow was falling today and went out for a morning treat. He sat across from me acting a lot more five and a lot less four and I don’t know how that happened. :( ( I will do his birthday post soon, but Brady wants to help too.) We came home and watched old Christmas movies as we put up our tree. It has been a bit more difficult for me this year to get going on all of my holiday activities, but his face lit up when I pulled out the tinsel branches and ornaments. So I lit all of our candles, put on the old version of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and away we went. Michael was so proud of himself when he was done. He came over, grabbed my waist and said, “I Love You…and our tree.” Sweet sweet boy.
I do have a great disdain for snow, but I’ll take a snow day any day if it means getting to snuggle up to his beautiful face all day…

Much Love,
Krysta

I’m not particularily sure how to start this blog post. This family is so special to me and I A-DORE these beautiful girls with all of my being. Their mom, Becky, is one of my most favorite people in this world for many reasons. 1. Because she’s hysterically funny and my face and stomach both hurt after spending the day with her. 2. She’s a wonderful mother to her three girls. …and 3. When Becky and I used to work together, I would tell her stories about my father, funny things he had said, the music he loved, how she had a larger than life presence like he did. She would say, “I can’t wait to meet that man.” Well, sadly the day never came. And so at my father’s wake, I was standing and thanking people for coming when all of the sudden Becky and her husband Steve walked in. I was so surprised. It’s a 5.5 hour drive from Milwaukee to my hometown. I went over and asked her what she was doing here. She said, “I couldn’t bear the thought of not meeting your father. I told you I would and so here we are. ” So together, we both walked up to see him… They turned around and drove 5.5 hours back to Milwaukee that same night to make it home for work the next day. She will never know how much those moments meant to me….how happy I was and am that she got to meet him…
Zoe, Gracie, and Lily are not only beautiful, but they have the most outgoing personalities. Per usual routine we laughed the whole time. Zoe spent the entire time chasing Lily. Gracie was throwing Lily in the air, and Lily was dancing and loving being chased. Steve, Becky, and I just sat back laughing. I can only hope my girls are as beautiful as they are and I can only hope that Brady and I are as good of parents as Steve and Becky are to these amazing girls.
Highlights of the shoot:
* Zoe wearing my fur boots and deciding that she would just wear them home and give them to me later. I was perfectly fine with it and a little upset that they looked better on her than on me.
* Gracie dropping Lily on her face. Literally. I was waiting for the screaming and crying to begin. But Lily being Lily, got up and started laughing hysterically!
* Lily busting out the model poses you see above.
* The location. The shoot was by a lighthouse which is a couple of blocks down from our house on the Lake. The snow had just fallen earlier in the day and the sun had just set. It was so beautiful and hearing the girls belly laughing made it all the better. I had one of those “ah ha” moments where you just sit back with a full heart.
Steve and Becky – thank you for being the wonderful people that you are and for being so good to Brady, Michael, and I.
Zoe, Gracie, and Lily – You girls rocked this shoot and I can’t even begin to tell you how gorgeous the three of you are inside and out. You hold such a special place in all of our hearts.
Much love to all of you. Always.
Krysta

I must say that I thoroughly enjoy the coziness of the first snowfall each year. Now, I can’t commit to saying that I will love the 28 snowfalls thereafter, but for now I really am just enjoying! :)

Much Love and Happy Weekend!

Krysta

My favorite.

Kate’s idea. Love the blowing fluff… :)

Rattler is unaware of the fact that he is not a small lap dog. He tries to be though and I dig it. :)


I say baby makes four because you can clearly see there is already an adorable four legged baby that runs the show!
I actually went to school with Kate and Craig. As life usually goes, I didn’t know either of them that well while we there. They were both in the same marketing classes that I was in and we had a lot of mutual friends, but it wasn’t until we were leaving that Kate and I ran into eachother while we were out one night. We were discussing our plans for after college. I had no clue what I wanted to do or where I was going. However Miss Kate already had a job lined up even though she had one more semester of school left. She told me I should take a look at the company. So I did. …and I got the job. Hence my move from Minnesota to Milwaukee. I guess you could say I owe Kate a lot as she was the reason that things fell into place for me and is the reason I have the wonderful life I do with my two boys today. The rest is really history. Kate and I ended up on the same sales team and became inseperable. We were known as the blonde boppsey twins around the office and often got made fun of for our loud, boisterous voices on sales calls. I know, I know…it’s shocking. I can’t believe it myself. :)
Kate and Craig truly are two of my favorite people. I love being around them simply because they are such beautiful, kind, gentle souls. Kate has the ability to put me into fits of belly laughter within minutes of meeting. Yet, she is one of the sweetest, smartest, giving women I know. I also know that the baby girl that is about to come into this world is so incredibly blessed to have the parents she does. She will grow up with two examples of what it means to be a genuinely good person…and she will be so so loved.
Kate and Craig…thank you so much for letting Mikey and I spend the afternoon with the two of you and Rattler of course. When we got in the car Mikey said, “I like both of dem (them) because they’re nice. And they have a puppy. And they gave me a tootsie roll. And……” The list goes on and on.
I would have to agree. :)

Much Love to both of you,
Krysta