Reading Goal...almost!!!

**see bottom of blog for book list**

For those of you who follow my sister's blog too, you probably saw that she is close to finishing her 12th book this year! Good for her! :) And if you KNOW my sister, that's not really a shocker because she's totally driven and motivated and when a goal is set, it is MET! Don't you agree??? (can we say over-achiever??? ha! love ya, sis!)

Well...to everyone's surprise, I'm actually not that far behind her. I'm on my 12th book - at the beginning of "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford. So far so good but let's face it, I'm NOT going to finish by Friday at midnight. ha! While I officially did not meet my goal, I was close and had a blast reading all 11 books this year. About a month ago, I posted a request for good books on FB and received awesome feedback. So according to the comments left from all my friends, I'm totally covered for 2011 too!

A big thanks to my Kindle-obsessed Mom for surprising both Sara and I with Kindles of our own for Christmas. It's almost a guarantee that during a phone call with my Mom she either mentions the Kindle, how much she loves the Kindle, the awesome cover she purchased WITH the attached light, what books she just purchased for her Kindle, have I purchased my cover yet, etc. (love ya, Mom!)

Anyways, just a little rambling but thought I would share - happy reading to all and Cheers to 2011!

Ski Bums

We were lucky to have Matt's sister in town visiting us over Christmas. She arrived the Tuesday before Christmas and on Wednesday we packed up the car and headed to Stowe, VT for a fun little ski getaway. It was a BLAST - the kids had a great time skiing with Aunt Jill. They were so excited to show off their "skills". If you have never been, Stowe is a beautiful New England ski town with lots of quaint shops & restaurants. I wish I would have taken more pics of the town, etc but oh well, it gives us an excuse to go back again soon. :)

A side note: HGTV's Dream Home 2011 is in Stowe and I will be entering our names into the contest to win each & every day starting January 1st!!! Wish us luck! :)

Here are some pictures of our trip...and I think we have successfully turned Auntie Jill into a ski bum! :) Jack continues to amaze us with his fearless skiing - he even went down a run that Mommy would NEVER even attempt. ha! Thank goodness for Matt - pretty soon, the kids will be skiing with Daddy and leaving Mommy on the greens. ha! After a 2 hour lesson, Reagan was riding the chair lift and skiing down all by herself. Go girl!

Sibling Skiing

view of beautiful Mt. Mansfield

enjoying a beautiful day on the slopes

Aunt Jill & Reagan enjoying a ride on the Gondola

of course we HAD to hit the Ben & Jerry's factory tour! yum!

Daddy & the kids

taking a break for a quick picture!

daddy & Jack

Aunt Jill and Jack

Christmas Jammies!

I just had to post these pictures of the kids in their Christmas jammies - compliments of Nana & Papa (thank you!!!). I always try to have cute pj's for the kids during the holidays - although it's getting harder & harder to find them as my little ones grow! ugh!

They are adorable and as you can see, the kids love them too!

Waldner Arena - Part 1

We've fully embraced living in the Northeast by taking the plunge - putting up an ice rink in our backyard! The kids are SO excited...Reagan can practice her twirls and spins (jk!) and Jack can play hockey with his buddies. Matt has even put up a little firepit so that we can make smore's and keep warm on the frigid nights that the kids insist on skating!

(HUGE thanks to my Dad for helping Matt put it together - they did a GREAT job even though we had to have a professional come in and fix it! ha!)

I won't go into detail about the headaches this rink has given us...but it's up & the water is in it. Now Mother Nature - PLEASE bring us some cold temps!!!!

Here are some pictures of the rink being set up...and once we start skating on it, I'll add more pics to the blog!

a shot of the firepit too!

beginning stages of the rink

Our first Snow!

It didn't happen here in Boston...no, it happened on our first ski trip of the season - in Mont Tremblant, Quebec! And it was beautiful. Matt and I decided to take the kids up north to try out our new skis...and what better time to do that then Thanksgiving weekend! So we packed up the car with ALL of our stuff (I don't think we left anything behind!!!) and made the 7+ hour trip up to Mont Tremblant. It's about an hour north of Montreal and it is a breathtakingly beautiful place...so if you ever have a chance to visit, DO IT!!!!

Reagan and June (her ski instructor)

A ski diva in purple! :)


Heading up to the top of the mountain

In the gondola -ready to hit the slopes!

view from our room...cute village!

Gobble Gobble...let's hit the slopes!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We hope you have a wonderful day spent with family, friends, good food and lots of laughs.



This is where the Waldner gang is headed...tomorrow morning...Montreal or Bust! It's ski season...woohoo! Don't worry, I'll take LOTS of pictures of our first ski trip of the season. This is a picture of Mont Tremblant...a beautiful mountain just an hour north of Montreal. Tomorrow morning we will embark on an approx. 8 hour trip...the longest car ride we've EVER done with the kids. Oh boy...

Boo to You!

This is a little late...but hope everyone had a fun & safe Halloween. It was COLD here...brrrrr! But the low temps did NOT stop the kids from having fun & collecting some loot! Here are some pictures of the kids on Halloween...

Our house was ready for trick-o-treaters!

On her way to get some candy

Captain America sitting next to his pumpkin creation

The peacock and Captain America

Happy 6th Birthday to JACK!

Wow, 6 years old???? Where does the time go??? Our little baby is now 6 years old...happy birthday to Jack!


What was his birthday wish? To have a bowling costume party! And that's what we did...here are some crazy pictures of his party! 12 little boys + cake & ice cream + bowling + friday afternoon = W.I.L.D.!!!!!! and fun! :)

disregard the chewed up goldfish in his mouth! eeck! :)

matching cake & invites!
the little peacock!

captain america to the rescue!

Lookin' like a stud!

I thought I would share this picture of Jack from this past week...as of last Monday, he is now required to wear the "winter" uniform at school. And as we were getting ready to walk to school, I snapped a pic of him b/c I thought he was lookin' so snazzy! Don't you agree?



And while I had my camera out, I got a cute picture of Miss R posing for me! (which is really hard to accomplish these days!)


Happy Fall to everyone!!!!

Reagan's buddies...

I just wanted to post this picture of Reagan and her school (carpool) buddies...I thought this pic was sooo cute! Just look at the silliness in their faces - and they are so excited to go to school! Aren't they cute???

Love it!

Hockey Hunks

Had to post this cute picture of Jack and his buddy, Connor! We are in full swing with hockey now...I'm at the rink Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays - and that doesn't even include Matt's league he plays in one night a week! The Waldner Family is putting some serious time in at the rink...but everyone is having fun with it!

Go Blackhawks!!! (that's Jack's team name!!!)

An apple a day...

Each fall, we head to an apple farm and pick some (okay, MANY) apples to eat, bake, and let spoil, ha!! And I'm not going to mention how much dough we drop on this little fall tradition (but it's family time and you can't put a price on that!!!! )...but it's so much fun and the kids LOVE to pick their own apples and then come home and bake something yummy with them! This year we tried a new recipe - caramel apple cupcakes. They were so-so - I won't post a recipe, don't worry! But we redeemed ourselves when we made a few loaves of Apple Bread which the kids love!

Here are some pictures from our apple picking adventure!

Jack taking a bite out of the apple!

Reagan's favorite apple that she picked!

Yea - we love apple picking!

Daddy & his kiddos

Chef Reagan mixing up the cupcakes

And off she goes...

well, not really but very close! Reagan is signed up for skating with her good friend Kingsley. They had their first class last week (forgot the camera - oops!) and today was their 2nd time on the ice in this class. Miss K did a great job taking off on the ice but Reagan was a different story. Last week she was so brave and did a wonderful job. Today must have been an "off" day for her - oh well! She spent most of the time either holding on to the teacher's hand or off the ice with me. She did finish with the rest of the class...and after purchasing her some "girly" skates instead of the black "boy" hockey skates she was using - I am hoping that next week goes much smoother. I was told that it's easier to learn to skate on a flat blade instead of the curved blades that were on her hockey skates...so let's hope they are right & she loves it!

Tanya, her teacher is giving her a pep talk!

Cheese!


Reagan wanted "pretty" skates like Kingsley

getting ready to skate!

Run to your local library or bookstore...

and grab Lift by Kelly Corrigan! You will not be disappointed...I just finished it and am reading The Middle Place by the same auther now! A very special friend bought it for me and I just loved it...

Soccer Star!

Today was a start to something new for us...Soccer! Many of you have already introduced this sport to your kiddos, but we (mainly Matt - ha!) have been holding out for as long as we could! :) It's a big deal here to sign up for "Kindergarten Soccer" aka Kickers - and Jack was very excited to try out this sport! He loves to kick the ball around our backyard and wanted to show off his skills on the field for everyone else, I guess!

It was a beautiful fall day, so it was a perfect setting for us to enjoy our first soccer match. And I use the term "match" very loosely...mostly a bunch of kids running after a ball with no goal in mind. ha! The priority of the Kickers league is to have FUN - and Jack did!!!

Check out the pictures...

Jack's cheerleader!

Go Jack Go (in white jersey & red socks)

he's got some skills! :)

Buddies

Future Soccer Star

Reagan's a Lucky Duck!!!

This past week, Reagan started her 2nd year at preschool. She is now in the Lucky Duck class (Jack was a Lucky Duck last year) and has 2 fabulous teachers that we LOVE LOVE LOVE!

I would love to post a great picture of our little Reagan on the first day of school BUT...she refused to "pose" for me outside our house or in front of the school. Here is the picture I have of her outside the school...

Wish you could see her outfit - she DOES look really cute today! :)

So here are more pictures from Orientation Day (with Mommy) and the first day of school...she is soooo excited to start school!!!!