Racers...start your engines

Luke had his first Pinewood Derby race for Cub Scouts this past Saturday. We had a great time watching his car "Big Blue" race. Grandpa and Grandma Van Mersbergen were able to come cheer him on as well. He ended up getting 3rd place in his Tiger Cub den out of 10 racers. Ryan and Luke did a great job working on his car and have a nice shiny trophy to show for it.:)

Some of the tiger cubs waiting for the race to begin.

Luke's car is the blue one on the far left.

Showing off his car and trophy at the end of the morning.

Frozen Noses

We headed down to Pella last weekend to take the kids sledding. We were going to go over Christmas break, but a case of the stomach flu kept us indoors. My parents have a great hill for sledding down. It's a beast to climb back up, but it's a riot going down. Lisa & Kurtis were out of town and their 3 oldest were staying at Grandpa & Grandma's, so we had a fun winter party.

This was actually after the last time down. Drew finally decided he could pull his own sled up. He made it most of the way, too. The other times he would ride on the sled and we would pull him up or he would catch a ride on someone's shoulders.:)

Grandpa Wayne, Lauren, Drew, Luke, Jaren, Bethany, & Reagan. Erica got too cold by this point so she went inside.

I got Lauren to go down twice with me, which is an improvement from her one time last year. She didn't scream all the way down either! She preferred to make snow angels instead.

Reagan ready to fly down on the tube.

This was Drew's typical ride up the hill.

He went down head first on his belly everytime. He loved it. We finally had to make him come inside, because we were all getting cold!

Weekend getaway

Mom and Dad Noteboom treated us to an overnight stay in Omaha last weekend. We surprised the kids and told them we were going to run errands on Saturday morning. It took 45 minutes of driving for them to finally ask where we were going. They were pleasantly surprised when we pulled into the Children's Museum parking lot. They were even more surprised when they saw Grandpa and Grandma in the lobby and Aunt Elise and Uncle Adam in the parking lot. We had a great time at the museum. There was a ton for the kids to do. The science room was a big hit with all kinds of balls and air features. We then headed to a fun hotel with an indoor water park area. The littles loved the climbing and it had a zero depth area, so we didn't have to worry so much. It also had a fun enclosed water slide that went outside. Luke probably went down the thing 30 times and tried to recruit everyone else to ride as well.:) We were able to order in pizza and relax that night. The kids all went to sleep right away after a busy day. We went to church together the next morning and hit the Old Market area for a couple of hours before heading home. It was fun to get away. Reagan was asking if we could go again this weekend! I'm pretty sure they'll be suspicious for awhile now every time I tell them we're going to run errands.

Ready for a new year!

We have been having a rough month of December. We had a great Christmas with our family, but we've been having a lot of sickness and injuries in between. 3 weeks ago Lauren and Drew had colds and Lauren ended up with an ear infection. Then the week before Christmas she fell and hit her head on the coffee table. She ended up with a huge goose egg and a black eye. Two days before Christmas, Reagan got a stomach virus and as of yesterday, we're finally all over it (I hope!!). I'm the only one who didn't end up catching it, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'm in the clear now. The grand finale was Lauren falling off her booster chair on Tuesday and breaking her clavicle. She's now in a sling for the next 2-3 weeks. She is not a fan of it and I don't blame her. It's hard to play with toys one-handed and it's hindering her hair twirling ability.:) Thank goodness it's almost 2011. Here's to a healthy and injury-free New Year!

Cookies and Christmas Fun

We've been busy baking and preparing for Christmas. The kids love to help me with the baking, but it sometimes gets to be a little much when they're all around the island. I put them to work unwrapping all the kisses for the Peanut Blossoms the other day instead. Surprisingly, not one of them ate a single one. I couldn't believe it! I did reward them each one for their hard work.:) We also made our cut out cookies today. They won't win any awards for beauty, but they taste really good! It's one of my favorite traditions, because I remember doing it with my mom every Christmas and I'm sure my kids will do the same with their kids one day. We've been busy with our advent calendars, nightly Christmas books, and even went to Jolly Holiday Lights this year, which the kids got a kick out of. We've already celebrated Christmas with the entire extended Noteboom family and Ryan's parents and are looking forward to celebrating in Pella on Christmas day. I love the whole month of December, so I'm actually a little sad that the fun is getting close to coming to an end for another year! I signed the big kids up for softball and baseball this morning though, so I guess now we'll start looking forward to spring.:)

The kids got new pajamas and toys from their Great-Grandma Marge and Great-Grandpa Orville.

Even the animals praised him!

Luke and Reagan participated in our children's Christmas program last Sunday at church. It was about Christmas through the eyes of the animals. They all did a great job and it was worth the trip on the not so nice streets to see all the children praising God and celebrating the birth of Jesus!

The first snow of winter!

The kids have been waiting and waiting for it to finally snow. It did last weekend, but then it was too cold to play out in it! On Monday it reached 12 degrees, so I decided to let them venture out for awhile. They had a great time and enjoyed some well deserved hot cocoa when they came back in.

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