Christmas Memories

Thank you hugs all around
The Toy Story Landfill to go with all his new figures.

"This is just what I wanted!"

A new doll and a armoire for all her doll clothes and shoes.


We had a great Christmas weekend spent with lots of family! Friday night was spent with Ryan's extended family. We were sad that Grandma Elli could not be there, but she recently had hip replacement surgery and was still in the hospital recovering. This was the first Christmas in a long time that we were able to spend Christmas weekend with both Ryan's family and my family. That was an added blessing to us and the kids. We had a busy, fun-filled weekend. We hope you were able to have a joy-filled Christmas as well!

This pic pretty much sums up how Luke & Jaren felt about their gifts...a Nintendo DS!

The Buzz Lightyear gun he wanted to go with his costume.

Grandpa Wayne reading the Christmas story to the kids.

Luke got a new remote-control helicopter from us. He's having a blast with it...as is Ryan.:)

Reagan has been asking for an Easy bake oven for months. She was super-excited and has already whipped up some cupcakes for us.

A new doodle bear for Lauren.

Drew received most of the Heroes and Villains from the Toy Story 3 movie.

New bedding for their big kid beds!

Ryan and I aren't supposed to get each other gifts. I made this little picture of the kids and gave him some pistachios though. He totally surprised me with a new Cricut (a super fun craft tool for me to use). I think I'll have to do better next year!

Toy Story bedding (do you see a theme with Drew!)

The kids all got new hats from Grandpa Mike and Grandma Renee (we think they're all super cute...except for maybe the Cyclone one).:)

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

The kids had their Christmas program at church this Sunday and they all did a phenomenal job. This was Drew & Lauren's first time in the program and they've been asking for weeks when they got to go sing on the stage. Drew looked so excited as he walked up front and saw everyone else up there. He had a huge grin on his face! This was also Reagan's first year that she got to stay up the entire program and sing all the songs. We were excited that Pella grandpa and grandma got to come and watch the program also. We are counting down the days until Christmas. I think I have pretty much all the presents wrapped and under the tree, and I started making Christmas goodies this weekend. I didn't want to start to early or I knew they would all be eaten before our get-togethers.:) We're looking forward to a fun week!

Catching Up

We've been busy around here and it seems the month of November flew by. Here's a quick catch-up on what we've been up to.

Pinterest is one of my new favorite things to peruse after the kids go to bed. I made the JOY artwork on the mantle. The best part was it was under $10!:)

Reagan and Luke had their school Christmas concert last weekend. We tried to take a couple of pictures by the decorations, but it didn't got super well. Lauren was grumpy and refused to even pose for us.

Drew & Lauren designed and built this tower using all our blocks. They were quite proud!

We decided to get a real tree this year, but it has been non-stop trouble. The thing is ginormous and we had to hunt down a tree-stand to fit it in, because ours was too small. It hits the ceiling, so we weren't able to put the star on top this year.:) We have cement blocks holding the stand in place so that it stands upright. Now we discovered that it's not sucking any water, so we had to remove it out of the stand and cut some of the trunk off. Ugh! I think I'm sticking with artificial from now on.;)

Every night in December the kids unwrap one Christmas book. Luke read the story to the other kids on this night.

Luke with the other 1st and 2nd graders at his program. We couldn't get any good pictures of Reagan at all.

Drew helped Ryan hang the lights on the tree out front. He's been wanting to wear his "glasses" alot lately.

My cousin Shelley and her daughter Anna invited Reagan, Lauren and I to go see a Junie B. Jones play at the Children's Theater in town. It was a lot of fun and the girls had a good time.

The kids are waiting for a big snowstorm to come our way. We received a couple of inches one day, so Drew & Lauren quickly went and played before it all melted away.

Ryan participated in the Living History Farms off-road race this year. He and a bunch of co-workers ran together with their matching Occupy LHF shirts and picket signs. He was filthy when he got home and had to throw his shoes away, but he had a great time.

CANDY!!

The cutest little cowgirl and superhero you ever did see. Drew's look cracks me up.

The original plan was for Lauren to be a butterfly, but then when Drew decided he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, she just had to be Jessie the cowgirl from Toy Story. I had a terrible time tracking down a costume, but our friends Heather & Chayse gave us this one now that Chayse has outgrown it. She was beyond excited!
Straight out of Top Gun and he knows how to act the part.:)

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue...complete with laser!

Her cute little hat kept blowing away so it only lasted for pictures.:)

We got to use the spaghetti and meatballs costume again, because last year we didn't trick or treat in our own neighborhood.

Candy time!

All five of the kiddos. Anna was a lovely Japanese girl complete with chopsticks in her hair.

The kids went trick or treating around our neighborhood last night. They had a fabulous time and returned home with bucketfuls of candy. I am positive this will last them until at least Easter! Our friend/cousin Anna comes to our house on Sunday evenings, so she got to come with us. Ryan was a trooper and took them all out while I stayed home and handed out candy to the neighbor kids. It turned out to be a great night, so there were lots of characters out and about, but I didn't see any other kids in the same costumes as ours.

Picking Pumpkins at the Patch

At the beginning of October we headed up to Northwest Iowa for Ryan's cousin wedding. While were there we had to make a trip to Pumpkinland. We had never been there before because we usually aren't up there around pumpkin season. The kids had a fun time and we got some pumpkins for our front porch. I didn't get a picture of the pumpkins after they were carved, so that will have to be a different post.:)

The kittens were a huge hit with the kids. There was a sign that said "Please don't put the kittens on the ground because they are fast." They were right.:) We saw more than one that had to be caught, one of which was dropped by one of our children.

This was taken either at the beginning or the end of the cornmaze. The bigs went with Grandpa and Daddy through the maze while Grandma and I hung back with the littles. There was a little munchkin maze that was more their speed.

So many pumpkins to choose from!

I'll take that one.

Scooping out the goop

Lauren telling me what kind of face to create.

We tried some carmelized pumpkin seeds this year! They were nummy.