Winter is Here

This past weekend winter finally decided to arrive. Over the course of Thursday and Friday we received over a foot of snow. Of course that meant that Branden got a snow day on Friday :) Saturday and Sunday were beautiful sunny days, perfect for playing in the snow, so we took full advantage.

Saturday we bundled the kids up and tested out the snow shoes we had gotten for each other last Christmas. There is a forest preserve right behind our neighborhood and it was the perfect place to enjoy the fresh powder.

Annika ready to go. She loved the goggles because they made everything look pink :)

This helped satisfy my desire to go skiing

After church on Sunday, all of the families with kids decided to hit the sledding hill. Annika was a little nervous to go down the hill, but the couple times we made her go down with us, she smiled the entire time.

Branden and the new sled he received for Christmas.

Ready to take a trip down the hill!

The group from 2nd Reformed

New Years in Charlotte

Since Branden had the week after New Years off of work this year, we decided to fly with both kids down to Charlotte, NC for a week to visit Aunt Jody, Uncle Rick and cousin Will. Aunt Jenna came along too!

We kicked off our week by attending a "Mad Hatter" New Year party. We shared a babysitter for Will, Annika and Henrik and rang in the new year with style.

For most of the rest of the trip, we just had a lot of fun planning outings with the kids and watching them play. Each time Annika and Will are together it gets more and more fun. Here were some highlights:

THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

PIZZA NIGHT!

iPad TIME!

WATCHING PEPPA PIG IN OUR PJ'S

We are always sad to say goodbye after our visits, but are already looking forward to the next one. Thanks for having us Tureks!

First Teeth

A few days after Christmas Henrik's first teeth popped through! Unlike his sister who waited until after her first birthday, his decided to appear at five months. He must be working on getting more because he continues to be quite the drool monster.

Christmas Celebrations

After a busy holiday season, I have a bit of catching up to do!

A VISIT FROM NANA AND PAPA

A few days before Christmas my parents were able to come into town for a quick visit. We had a fun 24 hours that included a trip to Godfather's Pizza, staying up too late to look at crazy Christmas lights, and Papa attending Annika's school Christmas party.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE JOHNSONS
Christmas weekend was spent in Kalamazoo with the Johnson family. We enjoyed being at home for the holiday -- attending Christmas Eve service at our church and relaxing Christmas morning at our own house. Grammy and Grampy and Jenna came to us for stockings, presents and Christmas brunch. Some favorite gifts included a fantastic playhouse from Grammy and Grampy and a new kitty named Jellycat from Santa. After Christmas morning we spent the rest of Christmas weekend at the Johnson's house, relaxing, playing games and having fun. The big Christmas bummer this year was that Annika got sick Christmas Eve and was under the weather with a fever the entire weekend. She managed to perk up a bit for presents Christmas morning, but unfortunately it took a bit of the magic out of Christmas for her this year.

HENRIK'S FIRST CHRISTMAS
Christmas Day Henrik turned 5 months. He continues to be an incredibly happy little boy, full of smiles and giggles. He marked his 5 month birthday and the Christmas holiday by enjoying his first "real" meal of rice cereal and did great. It is yet to help him sleep through the night, but I'm sure we'll get there soon!

Peckenpaugh Christmas

2 weeks ago we celebrated Christmas with my family. Due to busy schedules this time of year we crammed in a week's worth of Christmas fun into a 24 hour celebration. As always, it was wonderful to relax and spend time together at the cottage.

Henrik & Kayla's First Christmas!
Annika LOVED Opening Presents
Decorating Christmas Cookies
LOTs of Fun!!

Giving Thanks

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving in Naperville, celebrating with family, eating delicious food and having lots of fun!

We are extremely blessed.

Pumpkins!

This weekend we had a wonderful time packing in a lot of Halloween and Autumn fun. We took a walk in the crunchy leaves in the woods, had a blast pumpkin carving and overdosed on sugar while decorating Halloween cookies. Here are some highlights from our pumpkin carving. Annika is the only kid I know who would insist on eating the gook and seeds from the inside of the pumpkin. She said it was yummy...I'll take her word for it!A photo of Henrik "helping" select our pumpkins a few weeks ago