Merry Christmas From the Schwedskalas

We are in the middle of our Christmas Vacation. My family left our house yesterday afternoon and we traveled to Cheesesconsin and are awaiting the arrival of Redner Cousins to get the Schwed-Red-ner Christmas party going.

Friday afternoon before Christmas my brother, sister in-law and nephew Elliott showed up in Hutchinson. Shortly after Dave showed up with Isaac from daycare and we watched the big boys get off the bus. Then I had to work one last night shift before my Christmas vacation started. Uncle Henry also had to work Friday night shift too so my mom and dad had planned to come Saturday morning.

That night I got a text from Dave that Isaac seemed off and by midnight he had a fever. I got home in the morning and we decided the pathetic little dude needed to go to urgent care. All he did was whine and lay on me when I got home. The nurse practitioner diagnosed Isaac with a hat trick- double ear infection, influenza and strep throat. She told us he was going to be sick for 5-7 days and we should stay put for Christmas and cancel visitors. There was no way we were sending my family home so extensive hand washing and isolation it was after we picked up the expensive tamiflu prescription and cheap antibiotics. 

We set up the toddler bed in our room with cartoons and lots of fluids. Isaac's fever broke the next day on the morning of Christmas eve. We kept him in isolation all day but by Christmas Eve dinner he was bouncing off the walls and almost completely back to normal. We called it a Christmas miracle and released him from captivity to play with cousin and brothers. And just in time for matching Christmas jammies- Star Wars this year!

The boys were spoiled on Christmas morning and got what they asked Santa for- Elliott a Brown Line, Isaac a white light saber, Eli a nerf gun and Adam a Darth Vader light saber and BB8 watch. 

We spent Christmas day with my dad's family in Coon Rapids. There was southern food, escape room game playing and cuddles. 

We didn't have a very white Christmas but the lake was frozen so we had a lot of fun skating across and around the lake. And of course there is always hockey!

Isaac Says What

I love the little wrong things my boys say when they are young. Each boy has had their own little mistakes that I refuse to correct and today is an Isaac installment.

"No I amn't"- Amn't is my favorite Isaac made up conjunction.

"Tired clothes" aka pajamas

"That's awake shirt mommy." Me being told that is not a PJ shirt.

Isaac also has not slept in his bed since our camping trip so we don't tell him to go to bed- we tell him to go to floor!

Birthdays

Well it's August and the boys annual well child check is finally scheduled, which makes me realize I missed posting about their birthdays.

Eli turned 6 late April and we held a bowling- bug themed birthday in early May before school got out. April/May can have such unpredictable weather and it was great not to make a mess of my house right before we left on vacation.

After we got back from our family adventure vacation out west camping and hiking in the National Parks I knew I wanted to throw Isaac a camp themed 3rd birthday. The weather did not agree with us and the morning of the party we spent in the closet waiting out a big storm. Most of our friends and family still came, but the majority of the party was indoors. I didn't take a ton of pictures, but we had a campground complete with tents in the playroom. There was a build your own trail mix station plus ribs and other nummy lunch food. Near the end of the party it was dry enough to sit by the campfire and the party was a ton of fun!

Adam turned 8 on a Monday night. We celebrated with just the family that night at pie in the park. Then a couple Fridays ago just Adam, Nate, Nate's Mom and I went to the Science Museum for his "party". It was an appropriate way to celebrate Adam's 8th birthday. Afterwards we spent the night at his friends house in Wisconsin with the rest of both families and we were all able to catch up and chat.

You Weren't All Bad 2016...

I haven't been blogging as much this year as I used to. All of the bloggers I used to follow have one by one stopped blogging. I feel like I use instagram instead of creating small little blog posts and as my kids get older the stories I tell are no longer about any young child, but truly about them and who they are becoming and they may not want that forever on the interwebs.

But regardless I like to do a recap picture post to remember the good stuff that happened this last year. 2016 started out great with a vacation to Arizona. We adventured, swam outside(!), hiked in Saguaro National Park and took in some Huskies hockey (and they won the tournament!).

February we traveled to Bemidji for Hockey yet again. And we got a picture with Paul and Babe!

March we wrapped a hockey season for both brothers with the boys first tournament a Mite Jamboree. It was so fun to watch them play together and even get a chance to play on our rink in the backyard! 

April Dave and I traveled to North Carolina in April for his cousins wedding. We decided to tack on a visit to Congaree National Park in South Carolina before flying home to our buys.

In May we went to a Preschool graduation. Eli mom was not okay with you leaving preschool!

We also started going canoeing in May on a nice warm evening!

June meant a cousin weekend with a lot of birthday celebration!

July we went to the cabin a couple times and spent the 4th of July canoeing with my mom's family in Wisconsin.

 The summer was cut short and the boys started school in the middle of August, but not before we took an awesome week long family trip- we started with a long weekend at the cabin and then spent a couple days in the Apostle Islands and then went to Michigan Tech for my 10 year anniversary. And our annual weekend trip to Shanty Days.

In September I went from one Cub Scout to two!

October we celebrated our 10 year anniversary with a family weekend trip to Mankato.

November- you know the month where it's starting to get dark and cold so I'm not sure we really did much! There was some really nice sunsets once all the leaves were gone though!

December we started hockey and got ready for hosting my entire family for a week. Here is the adorable picture we sent out for our Christmas card!

17 has always been my favorite number and I'm hopefully that 2017 will be a great year for the Schwedskala family.