Sunny Day at the Zoo!

Thursday was such a nice day to be outside so a group of us headed to the zoo! It was a very enjoyable day and ALL of the kids were so good! The zoo really wasn't super crowded other than at lunch when it was a little chaotic. But all and all it was a really good day and we had a lot of fun!

Macie, Gavin, Keegan, and Maison

Momma and baby elephant!

Eric and Andrew being Mr. Moms:)

Even though they stink we still love the penguins!

Keegan and Maison

Andrew, his mini me Gavin, my mom, Macie, Keegan, and me

Buffle Head duck that Eric would love to see when he is duck hunting!

Snow Day!

This Mintert household was super excited to wake up to snow this morning! After waking up to some cartoons and eating breakfast, we bundled up and headed outside. Keegan loved playing in the snow! And I mean LOVED it! He just dived in and rolled around. Keegan especially loved the sledding part of it. He laughed so hard so we did it again and again! Shadow loved running around in it and chasing the sled! Even Lexi was out there with us and she even had her turn on the sled.  Eric and I were so happy to see that Keegan so far loves the snow since we both do!

Crawling around in the snow!

Shadow loved having someone to play with in the snow!

Packing the snow together.

Shadow

Keegan and Eric

Sledding!

Lexi sledding with Keegan and I!

Christmas 2011!

Keegan had a great first Christmas with all of the gatherings with family members! We first started celebrating Christmas the weekend before when we went to Keegan's Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Pflum's house! We had a great time up at the farm and it always so nice to see the Pflum side of the family!

The Friday before Christmas we went to my mom and dad's for our immediate family Christmas. It was so much fun watching Macie, Gavin, and Keegan get so excited with all of the presents! They would open a present and then see what each other got. They then just walked around and played with each others presents. Keegan just wanted to play with Gavin's fishing pole and climb on top of Macie's play food that she got for her kitchen. Becky had gotten Just Dance 3 so we had to play it. It is so much fun and such a work out! I don't know which is more fun, playing it or watching other people play it!

For Christmas Eve we went over to Keegan's Grandpa and Grandma Mintert's house for Christmas with Eric's immediate family and then later with both Susie and Mike's side of the family. Keegan loved being around Maison and all of his cousins! He thought it was just so much fun watching them run around and play!

Finally Christmas day Keegan woke up to presents from Santa Clause and then we headed to church. Later in the day we went to my Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom's house for Christmas with the Stewart's. It's always a lot of fun over there and there is always some tournament that the guys are in. This year was put put golf.  Keegan loves to see all of his cousins and tries hard to keep up with them! My cousin Trey is dating one of my best friends Kristy, so it works out perfect that I get to see her at almost every holiday! I couldn't have planned it better if I tried :)

Welcome to the choas!

  

Keegan with Gavin's fishing pole.

After opening presents Macie still wanted to play with tupperware!

Gavin getting into Keegan's bag.

Gavin with his mohawk hat!

Keegan standing on Macie's present.

Becky and Macie

Eric and Keegan playing Just Dance!

They both loved it!

Maison and Keegan

Goofy smile!

Discovering what Santa left him!

He seems to like it.

Ready to BBQ!

Ava, Kristy, and Gavin

Keegan loves discovering new toys!

Macie and Keegan

I love Macie's smile!

Christmas Cards

Keegan made Christmas cards for both his Grandpa and Grandma Pflum and Mintert. We put him in the bath tub and let him finger paint all over the paper. Clean up was super easy! All we had to do was rinse out the tub and then we gave him a bath. His two favorite things in a row. Being messy and no one telling him not to, and bath time!

Christmas Lights!

We went to Rock Springs Park over in Alton to see their Christmas lights display. We were very impressed and highly recommend it! Of course the battery in my camera was dead but I at least had my point-in-shoot with me to take some pictures.
 One display that was really cool is when you went over this little bridge, it looked like a  tiny version of the Alton bridge! They did a very good job of recreating it!

About three-fourths of the way through you can stop and see Santa Clause and feed some animals. We weren't gonna see Santa since Keegan has already seen him this year but since he was in the same building that you get the food to feed the animals, we decided to get a family picture. We put Keegan on Santa's lap and Eric and I squatted down on each side of Santa. Well, Keegan still didn't like Santa so Eric picked him up and held him which was know big deal. Well, I wish I would have picked Keegan up because then Santa asked ME to sit on his lap. I haven't sat on his lap in a very long time! But I decided to not fuss about it and just sit down to get our family picture taken with Santa. Afterwards we went out and fed some donkeys and baby goats. And of course my back up camera went dead right when I was about to take Eric and Keegan's picture with the animals. Oh well maybe next year I will make sure I charge them before we go.

As we were about done, there was then a Christmas tree contest that all different grades from different schools competed in. So they gave you a piece of paper to write down your vote that you then turned in at the end. There were some very good ones and was a little hard to choose from.

We had a great time and will definitely be back next year!

The pictures do not do the lights justice.

I loved that they had American Flag!

This sea serpent with the castle was super cute in person!

Our family picture with Santa!

If this baby goat had a bath, I would want to give it a huge!

Swimming in December!

My mom, Macie, Eric, Keegan , and I went to the Rec-Plex to go swimming! My goal is to take Keegan swimming throughout the winter so he stays used to the water and is not scared of it next summer when he is more aware of what is going on. Well I don't think that will be a problem with Keegan or Macie. They both loved it! 

At lunch with their crew hats on in front of the Christmas tree!