It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Sunday afternoon the boys helped us decorate the Christmas tree. Casey really got into putting the ornaments on the tree. Caleb enjoyed throwing them...he broke 4. It was a lot of fun. I love seeing their eyes light up with excitement about Christmas.

Thanksgiving week

Matt had some vacation days to use up so he took the entire week of Thanksgiving off. We decided it would be fun to spend some time at my dad's house in Spring Green so Matt could do some deer hunting and then we would take the boys to the Wisconsin Dells for a couple of days. To make the trip even more fun we brought Casey's favorite person, cousin Hannah.

Matt and my dad got the opportunity to hunt both Sunday and Monday morning. Although they didn't shoot one, they had a good time. Matt came awful close to shooting a 10 pointer!

While they were out hunting Sheryl and I had a chance to play with the kids. My parents have so many toys! Sheryl is a bargain hunter and finds a lot at second hand shops and rummage sales. Here is Caleb playing with one of the favorites...a bus.


By Monday morning the kids were getting a bit stir crazy so we decided to get them out of the house and head to the park. It was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed the fun new equipment. While we were at the park we could hear gun shots in the distance...that is as close to the hunting fun as I need to be!


On Tuesday we packed up the kids and headed to Wisconsin Dells for a couple of days. We got a great deal on a room at the Polynesian Resort which is one of the oldest water parks. Nobody else must have thought it was a great deal though because we were the only ones at the resort! We had the pools to ourselves which was great. The kids enjoyed going between the small pool, the big pool and the hot pool. The hot tub being the favorite.




Our favorite part of the trip (our meaning Matt and Joy) was our adventure at Knuckleheads. It is an arcade similar to Chuck E Cheeses. Matt and I had as much fun as the kids playing the games. At the end the kids got to cash in their tickets for prizes and then we enjoyed a yummy pizza buffet. That afternoon the boys slept awesome and Hannah and I went to the Outlet Mall to do some shopping. That was fun too. She got to pick out her birthday present (princess pajamas). It's hard to believe she'll be 5 at the end of December!

Here you can see Hannah and Caleb playing ski ball.Wednesday we headed back to my dad's house to help them prepare for our big Thanksgiving feast. This year there were 15 adults and 7 little ones. What a group! We all had such a fun time of fellowship and food. My dad and Sheryl really know how to put on a feast!

The kids had their feast a bit early.
Casey is thankful for his brother...awe.


I am thankful for my amazing man!

Long time, no blog!

I have not been able to blog for awhile now because we have been so busy having fun!

The week before Thanksgiving my sister had a birthday so the boys and I went over for a pizza party. When it was time to eat the 4 big kids walked over to their normal spots at the kid table. Caleb just followed right along and decided that it was time he sat with them. Hailey and Riley fought over who was going to sit by him so we stuck him in the middle. It worked out well because he couldn't get up! Lucy didn't eat with us, she just joined the fun for a quick picture. Aren't they a cute bunch? That week we also had family night at Stonefire Pizza. Casey had filled his chart with stickers so we owed him a trip (he regressed with his potty training, but we are back on track). This was the first visit there with a walking Caleb. He loved it just as much as his big brother. Casey's favorite was the train room and Caleb enjoyed the slide and the water table. Mom and dad enjoyed the buffet!

We let Casey decorate Caleb's face in the face painting room. Poor Caleb!

30 THINGS TO DO IN OUR 30’S

When Matt turned 30 last March we decided it would be fun to come up with a list of 30 things we want to do in our 30's.

Here are the things we have done off the list so far:

• Matt ran and I walked a 1/2 marathon
• Matt has begun the tradition of a father/son yearly camping trip
• Camp at Kohler Andre (Matt and Casey went in September)
• Climb Turtle Peak at Redrock National Park in Las Vegas

These are the things we hope to accomplish in 2010:

• Take a vacation to Mexico (Nikki will be getting married there in February)
• Camp at Peninsula State Park (July)
• Take the boys to Little Amerika amusement park (no I didn't spell it wrong:)
• Visit Shedd Aquarium with the boys (again)
• Visit Washington Island

Then at some point in the next 8.5 years we need to do the following:

• Bath in hot springs
• Go parasailing
• Go camping in the boundary waters
• Take the family to Disney
• Go to a Packer game
• Go on a Canoeing/tubing trip
• Take a trip to New York
• Go on a short missions trip
• Serve in soup kitchen
• Take a Cruise
• Swim with dolphins
• Go Paint balling
• Go to the Fireside Christmas Show
• Eat in the Hyatt
• Take the boys to Great America
• Joy will get Lasik Eye Surgery
• Family to the Badger Game
• Family will go to a Christian family camp
• Date night at a Broadway show
• Family to Sea world
• Matt has always wanted a Real shave

Trainfest

Last year Matt took Casey to Train fest at the state fair grounds and raved about how awesome it was. So this year we decided to go as a family. We also invited our friends who have a son named Luke who is also a fan of trains.

Here are Luke and Casey watching Casey's favorite set up this year, the floor train.

Here is the group hanging out. Notice, Luke and Casey's eyes are glued to the the trains.

Here is Caleb standing on his stool watching the trains go around the tracks

Caleb appears to be more interested in flirting with Eva than watching the trains!

Here are the big boys hanging out with their dads. I think Casey spent 90% of his day on Matt's shoulders. He had an awesome view from up there!

Precious Child

"Precious Child"
written by: Karen Taylor Good

In my dreams, you are alive and well
Precious child, precious child
In my mind, I see you clear as a bell
Precious child, precious child

In my soul, there is a hole
That can never be filled
But in my heart, there is hope
'Cause you are with me still

In my heart, you live on
Always there never gone
Precious child, you left too soon
Tho' it may be true that we're apart
You will live forever...in my heart

In my plans, I was the first to leave
Precious child, precious child
But in this world, I was left here to grieve
Precious child, my precious child

In my soul, there is a hole
That can never be filled
But in my heart there is hope
And you are with me still

In my heart you live on
Always there, never gone
Precious child, you left to soon,
Tho' it may be true that we're apart
you will live forever...in my heart

God knows I want to hold you
See you, touch you
And because there's a heaven
someday I will again
Please know you are not forgotten until then

In my heart you live on
Always there never gone
Precious child,m you left too soon
Tho' it may be true that we're apart
You will live forever ...in my heart

THE END

We love and miss our little girl, Madilynn Marie Buntrock. Especially today, on her 5th birth date. Life goes on, but the hole is never filled. I can't wait to wrap my arms around her someday and thank her for being our guardian angel.

Happy Halloween

We went trick-or-treating with my sister's family on Saturday night in Waukesha. Casey was a lion, Caleb was a monkey and the girl's were different Disney princesses. Casey was not too happy about wearing his costume at first, but once the bucket started to fill up with candy, he was fine! Caleb seemed to be confused and a bit timid about the whole thing but went along with it.

Here is the group, ready to go

Heading off to our first house

Got to stop for a family photo

Cousins or best friends?

FUN TIME FRIDAY!

One of my favorite parts about being a teacher was coming up with fun inventive ways to keep my classroom excited about learning and well behaved (we call this good classroom management in the field of education). One of many things I used was something called FUN TIME FRIDAY. Every Friday afternoon we had a 30 minute block of free time set aside for the students who had earned it during the week. Those who didn't had to sit at their desks and think about why they were not able to participate and what they could do to make sure that didn't happen the following week.

By Friday I was tired as a teacher but I still had to teach! I always made sure that Fridays were full of fun and learning that was a little more laid back. So ending the day with FUN TIME FRIDAY was awesome.

I think it is also fair to say that by Friday, moms are tired too! So I decided to have a laid back Friday with my boys filled with a little bit of learning and fun. It helped that Caleb slept in until 9:00am! I planned a fun activity for Casey and I....baking and decorating pumpkin cookies. I really wasn't sure how much Casey was going to enjoy this activity but it turns out both boys stayed engaged and had fun for then entire hour...teaching success!

Pouring ingredients

Rolling out the dough

using the cookie cutters to create pumpkins

decorating the cookies

taste testing

The rest of the morning was spent watching Dora's Halloween, playing and relaxing.
What a nice Friday.

fall festivities

Today I was able to join Casey and his classmates on a field trip to Jim's Pumpkin Farm. It was really muddy so we weren't able to take a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch, but the kids still had a good time.


Tonight was family night in the Buntrock house. We had Casey's favorite dinner (ranch chicken and pasta), took a walk and played at the park. Then we came home and took baths and cuddled up with popcorn and apple cider to watch "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". What a fun night.

Large cokes and chicken nuggets

Matt and I have been saying that we stop at McDonald's way too often. Well on the way home from church yesterday I decided to pick up Casey's favorite meal from McDonald's, a chicken nugget kids meal with chocolate milk. As we pulled into the parking lot Casey noticed that this particular McDonald's didn't have the large yellow M. He went on to share with me how some have play lands and others don't. When I was finished ordering he let me know that I had forgotten to ask for ketchup. As I drove away I told myself...we definitely have had way too much McDonald's! So Matt and I have decided not to go to McDonald's for a month...not even for a large coke (our favorite)!