Happy Birthday!

I am a horrible wife for not giving my wonderful husband a timely birthday shout-out on the blog. John celebrated his birthday (I'll let you guess how old he is) on the 24th and thankfully we were all healthy to celebrate his special day. Given his birthday was on a Tuesday, we celebrated with his family on Sunday. We headed over in the afternoon and feasted on Deb's spaghetti and rum cake before John opened his birthday goodies.

While he wasn't all that excited for his birthday, we were all excited to celebrate and recognize what a great husband, father, son, etc. John is. One of the best parts of my day is when he walks through the door after he gets home from work - not to mention seeing first-hand the love he has for Kate. We simply couldn't ask for a better husband and father! We love you so much!

Kate helping Daddy open his gifts

Alright, a Grill Daddy!

And the most comfortable Packer pants known to man (yes, I've already tried them out).

You can't go wrong with Lambeau Field barware.

And rum cake!

Rotavirus Running Rampant

We've had quite the difficult week since waking up Saturday. Poor Kate had gotten sick in her bed and then it continued all morning. Since then she's gone from getting better to worse to better to worse. We just can't seem to get ahead of these symptoms and while she's a little fighter, it still breaks our heart to see. So much so, that Shelly and I both had little stomach bugs that lasted all day Saturday. However, I woke up Sunday fine whereas Shelly was far worse and wasn't able to go to work until today.

This is our first time experiencing Rotavirus (funny, I thought Kate had a shot to prevent it.....how does that happen?) and its been awful. It seems as though both Shel and Kate are on the turnaround so we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Lastly, we went to my parents house last week for the Badgers Rose Bowl game....which turned out poorly, but we had a good time anyway. Here's some pics:

Woah....that's a big Santa!

Kate, in utter shock at the final score!

Winter Days

Well, we finally got some snow just in time for Christmas. New Years weekend Kate finally got to enjoy it. Here's some of our favorite pics.

Really Mom & Dad, the Coat with the Don King Hair?

Alright, I'm Ready....Let's Go!

Faster Dad, Faster!

Last but not least, enjoy this hidden gem of a video. Kate and Brooke battle it out for queen tongue-sticker-outer.

Happy Everything!

There is certainly a lot to celebrate lately! First, I would like to wish our dear nephew, Benjamin, a happy belated birthday! He turned the big 3 on the 30th! He wasn't the only one that celebrated a birthday on that day though. His uncle, Godfather and my baby brother also turned another year older. I won't share his age since his response to my birthday text stated, "Thanks for the reminder".

We also had a very Merry Christmas and hope all of you reading did as well. We spent Christmas Eve at the Weiland's and then headed to West Bend on Christmas morning to celebrate with the Burch bunch until Tuesday. We certainly missed the Virginia Burch's, but were so thankful to see the rest of the family.

With all of the traveling and getting off of our schedule (Jen, I know you can relate), we decided to ring in the New Year at home - just the three of us. Being the party animals we are, we were all asleep before midnight. However, I could tell when the clock struck midnight as I awoke to fireworks going off all around our house. Much to my surprise, John took no part in it.

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May 2012 bring you much love, happiness and laughter!

I was able to snap this picture of Kate and Grandma & Grandpa before she ran for the hills.

Kate and Grandma having a good time.

Opening up a gift from Uncle Greg, Auntie Laura, Brookie and Choo Choo

What Christmas wouldn't be complete without a little Jersey Shore trivia game?

We're normal.

Like mother...

...like cat.

Belated Thanksgiving Post

Given that Christmas is a week from today, I suppose we should recap our Thanksgiving. Typically I have to work the day after Thanksgiving so we enjoy the holiday with John's family in Green Bay, but this year I had off so we spent it with my side of the family. We celebrated the holiday with some of my dad's side of the family in Eau Claire. It was fun to see my relatives and visit our college alma mater.

After we enjoyed a delicious meal and a Packer win, my parents, sister and niece and nephew headed back to my sister's house near Minneapolis for the remainder of the weekend. We enjoyed watching Toy Story (about 3 times), going to the park, and of course, playing with Chuck.

We'll post a few more tonight, but until then enjoy some pics from that weekend and we hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

The Three Amigos!

John & Kate Get Ready to go Down the Slide

Daddy & Daughter Walk Home from the Park

Girls Weekend

This past weekend, Kate and I had a girls weekend. John went up north on his annual "hunting" trip (a.k.a. drink beer and watch football) with his brothers, dad, uncles and cousins on Saturday which left Kate and I to fend for ourselves.

We had a busy day on Saturday that started off with a playdate with Kate's best friend at daycare, Paige. Kate and Paige are only 2 weeks apart in age and they have such a great time together. I've been told that they hold hands as they dance during their daily morning song and each time I drop off Kate we are greeted by Paige as she says, "Hi Kate". It's so sweet and I'm so glad that she is making friends.

Sidenote: We had her Parent/Teacher conference last Thursday (yes, you read that right) and we were told that she's not too fond of the male form. She has a little boy in her class and she wants nothing to do with him. Of course, the first thing out of John's mouth was, "All right!".

After her playdate, she took a longer nap than normal and upon waking up we headed right to the mall to meet my friend Amber who I haven't seen in about a year. We had a great time shopping and catching up, but before long we had to head home as Kate hadn't had dinner yet.

After dinner, I was so excited to introduce Kate to one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time: Home Alone. Unfortunately she was more interested in her balls, books, rings, etc. so the movie had to wait. God bless DVR!

It was so much fun spending some one-on-one time with her, but we also couldn't wait until John/Daddy got home!

Kate and I Napping

We're Starting To Work on Using Utensils. Can You Tell?

Great Aunt Jill, Thank You For The Balls!

The "I'm Up To No Good" Smirk

Happy Halloween From Our Little Lady(bug)!

The past few days have been rather busy for the Weiland bunch. In preparation for Halloween, Kate's daycare threw a Halloween party this past Thursday. We got our little lady dressed up for the big event which was a lot of fun! They had different games in each room and one room was strictly reserved for dancing which Kate absolutely loved.

On Saturday night, the three of us got dressed up and headed over to our friend's house for their annual Halloween party. The food, drinks, decor and company were all fabulous and Kate certainly enjoyed staying up past her bedtime. A big thanks to Fred, Wilma and Pebbles for hosting!

Finally, John came home early from work yesterday so he could take Kate trick-or-treating at Mimi and Papa Joe's house. They had yet to see her in her costume so they made a special appearance before all of the other trick-or-treaters arrived. They were delighted to see the cutest ladybug standing outside of their front door! Trick or Treat!

Our Little Lady Bug..."flying" Around


Kate and I "Fishing" for Ghosts

Kate Putting the Balls in the Buckets
(as Her Teacher, Ms. Mary, and I Look On)