thanks April

So, Maggie has a SERIOUS Dora thing going on right now. She is a woman obsessed...Dora goes everywhere with her, when it's time to eat, or sleep....in the car...you get the idea.

Jax, Maggie and I were over playing at my friend April's house the other day. Her little girl Elin (who is Maggie's age) had a little backpack with Dora instruments in it. Maggie was in love with it and kept hauling the instruments with her as she toddled around April's house.
On Sunday we received the Dora backpack and instruments as a gift to Maggie from April. Elin was apparently not that interested in them, and Mags was...well more than interested. She was so cute when she saw the backpack...and wore it around all Sunday evening.

Thanks April for making Maggie's day. :)

Here is the look I got when I asked if I could take her picture...I think she thought I was trying to take the backpack.

poster making

There has been a bit of poster making going on at the King household this week. Lia's school was having a poster contest that she was quite excited about. The posters were to advertise an upcoming family fun run at the school. The kids were encouraged to decorate their posters with things that keep their bodies healthy.

When we turned her poster in she was the only Kindergartner who had entered...so chances of taking home a prize look promising.

Here is sis hard at work..

and the results..

Jaxon also got the creative juices flowing

by making a poster of our house and some wolverine claws..

(do you like the HaRRy PotTer look he has going with the cut on his head?)
and some pictures of the ninja turtles for his friend Nick..
and I also got in on the action by making A LOT of these posters for a youth activity at church
our basement was covered...and messy too as you can see

posters everywhere!

hopefully the cute teenagers remember to hold their torches high :)

fun times

soon to be a private blog

we are going to make our blog private here in a week or two. if you would like to continue checking in with us please leave us a comment that includes your e-mail address and we will send you an invite.

we love keeping in touch with friends and family this way so please don't be shy!

* if you would rather not leave your e-mail address in comment form feel free to send us a message - tykelking@aol.com

a "COLD" day

now everyone has heard of a snow day......
but today in Wisconsin we are having a "COLD" day
lia and jax are both home due to the fact that school was cancelled on account of insane temperatures
today we are looking at a high of -2 , will wind chills that could dip below -40
sort of begs the question "why do we live here?" :)

we hope it is a bit toastier in your neck of the woods

artist of the month

lia was recently selected as the artist of the month at the elementary school.

as you can imagine she was thrilled. she has such a darling art teacher, she's so creative and comes up with great projects for the kids. thank heavens for teachers who go out of their way to make their students feel special...right?

here is a picture of the bulletin board in the office. lia's snowman painting is in the center! :)

way to go sis - we love you!

over the break

we were grateful to have a break from every day life and enjoy some time together over the Christmas break.

we missed our extended family terribly of course, and hope to be with them next year.

i love it when we are both home with the kids and have nothing we have to do
it's great when we can just have fun together -

over the holidays we..

took a trip to funset boulevard (sort of a glorified chuck-e-cheese)
went to a few movies (high school musical three and Madagascar 2....yes we have children)
went sledding
hung out in our jammies
played games
sang some karaoke (mostly high school musical and hannah montana...sweet)
painted the master bedroom blue
rung in the new year by watching kung fu panda and eating treats

here are some pictures of our sledding day

look at my bundled up Wisconsin baby..

if only she could walk in those pants/boots without falling flat on her face

up the hill they go

and down they come

jax and i get set to take off

ty braves the hill with all three children

and here they are in a pile at the bottom...

i love this particular photo - so cute of ty and the troops

the hill we were sledding on is next to an outdoor skating area. the day we went it was actually fairly warm and slushy so no one was using the ice. the kids had a great time sliding around on the rink, and it made for some great pictures.

ty and mags hit the ice
jax and lia dancin'

and slidin'

and helping each other up

and then here we are at funset boulevard -

eating at the batman table...hmmm i wonder who wanted to sit there

perhaps the funniest picture EVER of maggie.

i asked her if i could take her picture and this is what i got

jaxon in the ball pit - his favorite attraction

coloring on the big paper

(may i make mention of lia's pants right here, if you ever go shopping with my daughter i can guarantee you will be walking out of the store with the loudest item they have! these are one of her latest finds! )

more fun

puppet show by lia

swinging maggie

this child is definitely growing up to fast for my liking..look how big she is!

hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to your new year! :)

jingle bell rock

i realize it's a bit late to be posting about Christmas, but i'm still trying to play catch up. this video was taken the sunday before Christmas - we were hanging out at the house letting the kids sing into tyler's microphone. i believe lia's instructions for this tune went something like this -

"ok, dad, i want to sing jingle bells...but i want to like rock it...do you know what i mean when i say rock it?" oh...you have to love her -

enjoy :)

other highlights of this video include jaxon's awesome 4 year old dancing and tyler laughing the entire time!