"like living in a park"...

"like living in a park": when bobby and i were first looking for a house we found an ad from our realty company that had the caption, "like living in a park". Bobby and I giggled and said that it sounded lovely, especially the part about the homeless guys asking for change and dogs pooping on your lawn. Our realtor smiled and added, "I wrote that caption." Whoops! Well, anyways...today's adventure to Edinborough Park reminded me of that. The Park is located inside an apartment complex, so people actually live in a park - minus the homeless people and dogs, of course ;).

It was really fun! Take a look! scooter fun
this is REALLy high up...can you see the people's balconies behind their heads?

sophia by a small waterfall

this is one of the facilities in edinborough park...and of course, the favorite of all the kids!

one of the girls' favorite slides (steep and fast)

liv loved the rock climbing hill!

sister had to follow, but then realized she couldn't do it as well as livia...

tired out after all that fun...notice the cracker partially eaten in her hand?

happy new year...

happy new year: we have had a terrific break! We were able to have 3 christmases at our house, as well as 2 others. Here are some pictures from our holiday break. thanks for the waffle cone maker, grandma leonice!

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we had the urbanski/johnson/withers christmas on new year's day at our house

shawn -nesha - leonice - stephanie
all the cousins - danyka, avery, cailyn, sophia, livia, and brayden
(it was too difficult to get a "nice" picture, so I opted for the "silly" shot)

robes from the urbanski's

sophia and grandpa

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bobby and i didn't make it to a wedding in renville because of the freezing rain, so we decided to have supper at zellas instead. Thanks Auntie Susan for babysitting!

bobby and me on new year's eve

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christmas eve

leaving milk, a cookie, and a carrot for santa and rudolph on christmas eve

christmas eve at the maurer's...santa even made an appearance!

livia with one of her decorated christmas cookies

sophia getting ready to decorate...or eat, whichever strikes her fancy!

thanks, auntie lorie for letting us decorate cookies...

a true teacher through and through!

livia and noah playing with their kung zhus/zhu zhus

christmas 2010...

christmas 2010: it was another successful christmas at the withers household. santa came right on time and left the girls way too many presents (as well as mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, grandma nancy, sederholm family, aunties...and all the other wonderful relatives that bought us gifts!).

Here are pictures from Christmas Day 2010. livia with her presents
sophia with her presents

she got the pillow pet she wanted!

cue sophia's enthusiasm!

too much fun!!

sophia wearing her new pajamas from santa, holding her blue horse she asked santa for and candy from her stocking

remember fashion plates???

candy and barbies go hand in hand at 7 o'clock in the morning

family photo after church at the woods'

"we're so excited to open our gifts!"

family gift....livia REALLY wanted a wii

sophia listening to the movie on grandpa's headphones...can you hear me now?

odds and week-ends...

odds and week-ends: we celebrated the windschitl family vacation on saturday in hutchinson. We played "Minute to Win It" games, did a "P" letter gift exchange, ate, drank, and were merry. Here are some pics...cousin nate is trying to get a oreo cookie from his forehead to his mouth without using his hands...check out sophia's face!

second cousins: greta (4), livia (5), and sophia (2)...

notice how greta and livia dressed up, but sophia loved her christmas dress so much that all she wanted was a necklace! too funny!

odds and week-ends...

odds and week-ends: between all the snowstorms we have been getting, we had a birthday party for "auntie jenny" and "uncle jim" last sunday. We also had a visit from Santa on Friday evening before bedtime.

You can imagine how the girls must have been! that face on livia is actually one of surprise ("i cannot believe this!")
sophia, livia, grandma nancy, and auntie jenny playing elefun

sophia, livia, and grandma nancy

waiting for our guests, so she decided to read

(oh, it makes this teacher and mommy so proud!)

we set out the christmas dishes for our guests...i loved how they looked!

growing up too fast...

growing up too fast: sophia hit a milestone on wednesday. Our deal with her was when she went #2 on the potty, she would get her "princess bed". Well, it happened at daycare on Wednesday, so daddy and Sophia picked up the bed from grandpa and grandma's house (where they were storing it for us) that evening. We are all excited (and a little sad) for this milestone. Our little baby is growing up... ready for bed on wednesday evening...she has slept great each evening!

so proud!

livia and sophia in liv's room...

livia wanted to share with you her snowflakes we made

weekend fun...

weekend fun: we had a nice and relaxing weekend. We completed quite a few projects and had a few adventures on Saturday.

Here are a few pics from the past week and weekend... the first of december marks the beginning of the cherished advent boxes....

er, or is it advent packages??
we had to make a snow blob, since the snow was too fluffy...

sledding down rockethill

we made rudolph cookies