Hockey 101

John enjoyed his first experience playing hockey today. For Christmas, Grandpa Ted gave John & Brielle a hockey goal, 2 hockey sticks & 2 hockey pucks.

Christmas Eve in a Winter Wonderland

It snowed the prettiest flakes all day on Christmas Eve, and it truly felt like a winter wonderland. We spent the day at Grandpa Ted & Grandma Carol's house... taking full advantage of the beautiful day & all the fun activities that we can do there.

Tim, Alexia, & I went snowshoeing across the lake.

We went sledding down the "bobsled chute" that Grandpa Ted spent several days building. The bottom of the chute leads right onto the ice rink, so it was fun to land on the rink, slide all the way across... then off the other side of the rink, ending back in the snow!

Here are Alexia & Brielle:

Here's Tim:

Here's John:

I was having some trouble steering this sled... :)

...and so Alexia showed me a better way:

We also enjoyed Grandpa's ice rink for the first time:

John did awesome on his new pair of double-runner skates. He didn't need us to hold his hands at all.

Winter ATV rides

First, Tim & John went for a ride.

In the above photo, you can see the awesome ice rink that Grandpa Ted has made for us this year.

After John got back, Brielle was ready to go for her ride.

Both kids had a lot of fun and were excited to tell Grandma & Grandpa about it as soon as they got back into the house.

2 1/2 tomorrow!

John will be "officially" 2 1/2 years old tomorrow. He is quite the talker. The other day when Larry, our painter, was here to touch up a wall, John talked to him for 15 minutes straight. Here are some examples:

Tim: "John, do you want to come upstairs or stay down here by Larry?"

John: "I'll stay by Larry, Dad."

John: "This is our piano. Grandma plays 'Dinah won't you blow your horn'. You play piano?"

John: "Grandma Berning lives on the farm. She plays 'Dinah won't you blow your horn'."

Larry: "How old are you?"

John: "I'm 2. I'm John Joseph Berning."

Making cut-out cookies with Dad

(Yes, Jolene, Tim beat me to making cookies with the kids this year... again! But he did not wear the new apron:)... )

And she does her own hair :)

How 2 & 3 year-olds frost a cake...

Let it snow!!

In the past 24 hours the Dubuque area has received 8+ inches of snow. John and Brielle were very excited to go out and play. As we were getting their snow pants and jackets on John discovered his snow pants make noise when he walks. After getting dressed Brielle demonstrated how she will make a snow fairy, aka snow angel.


Once outside Brielle created her first snow fairy of the year while John helped shovel snow while our neighbor Joe helped clear the snow from our driveway with his John Deere tractor.

har-monica

Brielle: "Mom, I found this."

Me: "What did you find?"

B: "This..."

Me: "That's a harmonica."

B: "Oh, like Grandma Carol's mom's name, Harmonica?"

Me: "You're close. Grandma Carol's mom's name is Monica."

B: "Oh... Monica."

Then for the next couple of hours she still mixed the words up and called her harmonica, "Monica."

Minnesota Trip- part 2

Here we are at the Children's Museum in St. Paul. We spent a fun 3 hours there.

This is the first record I have of Brielle drawing a picture of herself :)!

(But it was Tim who wrote her name).

The following morning, we spent one hour at a model train museum. The kids loved this place too. They watched the model trains go around & around, through mountains & tunnels, over bridges & rivers.

Minnesota Trip

A few weeks ago, we had a great weekend in Minnesota. We visited friends & family and did several fun outings with the kids. Here we are at a conservatory that had many different gardens to walk through. The kids had their first experience with tossing coins into a "wishing well." John, being the BOY that he is, had to throw his coins really hard and they usually went completely over the fountain and bounced across the stone floor on the other side.

Tim taught Brielle what happens when you hold your finger close to the water where the Koi fish swim :).

Here are John & Brielle with my aunt Nancy and my cousins Julia & Maggie.

Ice Skating

This morning, Grandma Carol and I took Brielle & John ice skating at the new community ice rink.

We laced up the kids' skates and they learned how to walk around on them for a few minutes.

John & Brielle held our hands for awhile, and we skated several laps this way. Brielle liked trying to twirl and put one leg up in the air. Funny how early girls pick up on that.

They let go of our hands for a few seconds here & there. They each fell one time, but made quick recoveries:).

We tried the "chair" method too. They both used the chair for support while skating. After awhile, John wanted to sit on it and rest :).

We were lucky that we were the only ones there!

John thought it was pretty cool to sit where the "hockey boys" sit--- on their bench.

Thanks for the great idea, Grandma Carol!