The blur of January & February...

Very little posts coming in January & February from the Finkler's (unless Larry somehow manages to take over blogging?!) - reason being that is my VERY busy season at work. Closing the books at year end for the Marina on my own is always a feat in it of itself - esp the more docks we add, the more we grow, etc. and in addition to that, the double whammy is preparing for a financial audit as well.
I seem to think every year it gets better and it does, but truth is that it started from a very rough place to begin with. I'm confident every year will get better though, have to hold on to some hope out there!
So life around the Finkler house in Jan & Feb is full of 'Mom' closeting herself in our office. The children fare well enough, but the little one growing in my belly sure doesn't like late hours in the office. She would much rather be sending her Mommy to sleep around 9PM every night. Happily I would go but procrastination is never a good choice...
Come the end of Feb, beg of Mar, we do intend on taking a family vacation. Most likely to a water park in the Dells - another reqiurement of the 'spot' is that it must have a nice spa as well. Any recommendations, please let us know.
OK that's it for now. Back to work I go!!!

Lexie @ 15 Months

The 4 year old artist at work on his sister's hair...


Another successful rest time for Josiah, not so much for Lexie!

No she was not going outside anytime soon but had to complete the look :).

Bedtime Fun

Children all bathed and put away in bed by 7.30 this evening - but alas, as always happens, I hear the scurrying of feet upstairs on the hardwood floors. And as usual, the culprit is Noah. This time he comes out of the bathRM with toothpaste smeared all over his face. I ask him just what he was doing (as if the evidence was not obvious enough itself) AND the answer is, "I was looking for Josiah's sticker." Hmmm...good try but I just didn't buy it.

Back to bed we go - again.

Noah is forever and always trying to get out of bed. For several months it seemed he always had to go to the bathRM just one more time after we just had him on the toilet.

And another one of his latest excuses is that his bed is so sleepy that he just can't stay there...?!

Sometimes I'm just laughing so hard at his antics it is so difficult to discipline him and I'm reminded of just how fun it is to have the privilege of parenting this child. :)

Sledding Excursion @ PETS

We recently went sledding up to Pets, the big hill, for the first time that the boys could remember this past Wed. Larry was off from work so we packed up the whole family along with my sister's family as well and headed off to our adventure. There is nothing quite like getting outdoors in the snow to tire these boys out (and the little girl as well...)!


Uncle Gary getting the boys prepped.



Karen pulling the boys.

Sledding together on the tobaggon!

Lexie eating snow


Wondering where everyone is at!

(we are waiting at the bottom of the hill)

Lexie completely crashed out tired from her first sledding trip.

Chicago Weekend Away

Larry & I recently took a weekend away to head downtown to Chicago. We stayed at a Westin which was within walking distance to everything that we would have wanted to go to. It was a really NICE time away. We got in late Friday night after eating at one of my favorites, the Cheesecake Factory, on the way down in Old Orchard. Saturday was spent traipsing ALL OVER the entire shopping magnificent mile of Michigan Avenue and heading over to Macy's on State Street as well. Yes, we went everywhere that day it seemed. Definitely managed a Starbucks break somewhere in there. Lunch at PF Chang's (again one of my favorites!). And then back to the hotel for room service and a movie.

Sunday was the big showdown between the Bears & Packers - but really we all knew that it wouldn't quite be of a showdown caliber - if you are a Bears fan like me you would have hoped more for the Bears to at least not have a blow out! My Dad and brother came to pick us up at our hotel and drove over to Soldier Field for the game - during the salute to the American flag, there were 2 air force fighter jets that flew overhead...there is something fairly emotional that happens to me in the midst of those moments for some reason, I just believe more so than not that I am incredibly thankful for the freedoms that we have and we so often take for granted and really give so little thought to - anyways, that tangent to say that I am reminded of all those that have gone before us in that moment to make our freedom possible and for the life that I live today possible!

All predictions came true for the outcome of the game sadly enough - thankfully I did not make a bet with my husband as to who would win. I have learned my lesson after years of making bets and LOSING. Even before we were married, we bet on the games and I always ended up having to clean his whole bachelor pad because the Bears lost! Still a true diehard Bears in spite of it.

The evening finished out with racing back to the hotel, heading for home to get back to our church's performance of Carols by Candlelight - Josiah's first real 'part' to play in a nativity scene. He played the part of Joseph (which consisted of looking at baby Jesus held by his cousin Zoe (Mary)) and he even had a costume made for him! He did a great job, even with strutting all the way down the aisle to the nativity set :).

Here's a shot from the game of us, I realized how rare it is these days that we take pictures of US - it's always all about the children! Somewhere we've got to get it documented that we are growing older too!!

Some Recent Photos!

Just trying to update the blog with some recent photos of the children, enjoy!

Josiah's favorite pose these days...

Mr. Handyman!

Slightly afraid for Alexandria with this one.

This is often a Noah expression where I wonder just what is this kid thinking?!

And then I discover these faces and realize I will probably never know what Noah is thinking...

A true Viking

Lexie has much to learn about caring for her baby doll!

What a cute 14 month old! :)

Snowboarding?

We've talked over the years regarding the children at what age we would try to take them skiing or snowboarding. We recently ran into one of Larry's friends that works in the winter out at Wilmot Mountain and has already been taking his younger children snowboarding. Well that kind of sealed the deal with Larry of how soon you could try to take them so hopefully this winter we'll try to put both Josiah and Noah on some snowboards and see how they do.

When Josiah was talking with Larry about snowboarding this morning, he asked him if he could have a Star Wars snowboard - Larry told him no, as they didn't make any star wars snowboards. Josiah's next comment / request then was - 'Well what about VW snowboard, you like VW's, right Dad?'. I wonder how did this 4 year old get so clever as to know JUST how to make a request to his Daddy for things?!

We all know that Larry has an obsession with VW's, just was hoping that it wouldn't rub off on the children...