Merry CHRISTmas

 

family pic at my parent's house

car show t-shirt quilt

Nile's big present - a 3DS

Hayden got some great new Wii games

the aftermath of our Christmas eve candle lite service

 

Christmas morning

Cousins!

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Christmas this year.  We are so blessed to have most all of our family close and be able to see everyone for the holidays.  We still have to more Christmas get togethers to go.  One Sunday night and another in January.  Then the weekend after the kids start back to school we will be heading to a hotel/indoor water park with Jeremy's family.  The kids are very much looking forward to this!
On Christmas eve we went to my parent's house to open gifts and eat dinner.  Hayden was asked to read some scripture for the Christmas eve service - which starts at 11 PM.  The boys didn't think they needed to rest so you can see by the picture above neither one made it till the end of the service.  Pretty much right after Hayden was done Nile fell asleep and Hayden follow 15 mins later.  Aubrey had been running a temp and was at home in bed asleep with Grandma Cathy staying with her.
Christmas morning we slept in til 8 AM and everyone was feeling much better.  We opened gifts and stockings and had a nice morning of playing with our new things and getting ready for Jeremy's family to come to our house that evening.  I was very excited to host this year since we finally have a house large enough for all of us!!  We opened gifts after Aubrey woke up from her nap and then we had dinner and the kids and adults played.  My children are so lucky to have two set of grandparents that they are very close to and love them so much!  Jeremy and I received a luggage set - just in time for our big trip to Florida in a few months!

From our family to yours - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Snowpocalyps??

Well yesterday I spend a lot of the day running errands in preparation of the "blizzard" that was supposed to start late that afternoon.  The fridge, freezer, and cupboards are well stocked and we were ready.  Unfortunately it didnt start doing much until well after the kiddos were in bed asleep.  We didnt get too much snow but just enough to slow everyone down and cancel school.  The kids and I bundled up after a late breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes with homemade syrup.  We headed out in the snow for less than an hour I would say.  The wind was blowing pretty good and the snow didnt stick together so we couldnt get a snowman made.  Our neighbor boy came over and offered to shovel the driveway and I happily accepted.  I scooped the front walk to the door and that was enough for me.  After coming back inside we decided to watch The Grinch and I made some chocolate chip cookies for us - plus a plate to take next door as a thank you.  We had a yummy lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup.  I got a griddle at Wal-Mart on black Friday and I love that thing!  I think it is impossible to burn something on it and I can make more at a time than I could on the stove top! 

Today after lunch the boys both helped me do some vacuuming and I got all the laundry caught up while Aubrey napped.  They are now happily playing Wii while I blog and think about starting supper.  I am very excited to be able to host Christmas with Jeremy's family at our house this year since we finally have enough room for everyone as well!  Nile has been coughing a lot these past few days and Aubrey has a little cold but I am praying that we will all be healthy for all of our gathering the next few weeks!  Hayden was asked to recite a passage of scripture at our candle lite Christmas Eve service so we have been working on that as well.  Blessing to all during this wonderful season - remember that the true meaning for our celebration is that our Savior came to Earth as a little baby to die for our sins!

First snow of Christmas 2012

Christmas program 2012

Last night was our church Christmas program for the kiddos in the 3 year old class up to the 2nd graders.  This year was bitter sweet because it was Hayden's last year.  The 2nd graders get to do the "acting" in the program and wear cute costumes.  Hayden was the "start".  I also was in charge of the music and actions this year and I have to say the kids rocked it!  You never know how it is going to turn out after watching them fidget and complain in practice but they always do a fantastic job at the final performance.  The kindergarten class, which I teach, also got to be involved this year.  They took gifts that God gives us and gave them to baby Jesus at the manger during one of our songs.  They were super cute!  Next year Aubrey will get to be in the program!  That is a scary thought to me too!  She talked through the whole program and gave Jeremy a hard time because she wanted to come up and sit with Mommy.

Goin to the Chapel...

Today Aubrey was looking at my rings and asking which one was my "married" ring.  I showed her and told he she can have one when she grows up and gets married too.  She proceeded to go get her play jewelry and find a ring.  She said she was getting married and I ask who she was going to marry.  She said Mommy.  I told her she has to marry a boy.  So she picked Daddy.  I reminded her that I am married to Daddy.  Then she said brothers.  I asked which one and she said Nile.  And then after she marries Nile when they get home from school she is going to marry Hayden.  I suppose it wouldn't help to explain you marry someone you love - who is also not from you immediate family!  Oh well.  It was a fun conversation I want to remember!  She also has her "Tangled" wand to help her marry her brothers.  Too funny!

Weekend in Omaha



Several months back I brought a Deal Garden promo for a water park hotel in Omaha.  It was a great deal including two nights stay, pizzas, and breakfast.  Not to mention the awesome water park area!  We headed out shortly after school last Friday.  Aubrey was asking me the entire day if it was time to go swimming at the water park!  The drive was fine, it was nice to see how they would do in the car for three hours, that will be pretty close to our flight to Florida in a few months!  Between the 3DS, laptop, and iPad the kids stayed entertained.  We grabbed some dinner to go and checked in to the hotel.  After we were done with supper it was time for a little swimming.  We had an hour till closing and that was just perfect.  Sorry I don't have any pictures of Hayden and Jeremy at the water park.  They were off tackling the big slides most of the time.  Nile, Aubrey and I hung out in the shallow area and lazy river a lot.  Saturday after breakfast and some fun in the arcade we went swimming again.  This time we ventured over to the small pool with basketball hoops.  The hotel had floaters to use for free so we suited Aubrey up and she had a blast "swimming" back and forth between Jeremy and me.  The hot tub was just the right temp and also connected to an outside tub so we had fun inside and outside in the water.  After a yummy lunch at Olive Garden we did a little Christmas shopping at a nearby strip mall then back to the hotel for a movie and naps (the kids watched the movie while I napped!).  We had pizza in our room for supper and then back swimming for the final time.  All in all it was a great mini-vacation!

  

Nile going down the smaller slides - he LOVED these!

SPLASH!

my middle man!  such a fish!

the little lady - she did not want her pic taken



Nile out cold - he was the first to sleep both nights - if you know Nile you know that isn't normal!

Aubrey pretending to sleep

Hayden hanging out watching some TV

Christmas Pintrest project

If you are like me you get a few Christmas cards in the mail starting this time of year.  I have not been able to find a "good" way of displaying them all in the past.  We still receive some traditional cards but more and more we are getting the photo cards, like I prefer to send - they come with our note already on them and no one has to endure my horrible penmanship!  I start out putting some photo cards on the fridge but in this house that is hallowed ground!  With our new house comes a new, smaller fridge due to how the kitchen is set up.  The boys bring home more papers than I can keep up with and between a few family pics, school calendar, and monthly meal menu there just isnt enough room to go around.  Then you have the traditional card which can be placed neatly on the kitchen table - until they have to be moved for each meal and then set up again.  Or on the tv stand but then moving again for dusting or when the kids knock them down.  You get the picture - everything just seemed like a pain...until I saw a pin on pintrest that I knew would work for me!  It was super easy, low cost, and with the new house I had the perfect location!!  Today I finally got some painters tape - Thanks Mom! - and put it all together.  It took less than 5 minutes to do and i LOVE it!
Supplies - Christmasy ribbon
clips or clothes pins
painters tape

The whole project

closer view - we havent gotten too many cards yet so I added some other pics - I suppose it is still November!

zoom in to the project on just one cabinet, and my beautiful goddaughter's announcement!

Layla's baptism

This past Saturday night we headed up to Pomeroy for my college roommate's daughter's baptism.  I had the honor of being a sponsor/Godmother!  The five of us first headed to DSM shortly before lunch to see if we could find any good deals leftover from Black Friday and get a few things from Costco.  As luck would have it we let time get away from up and were later than we wanted leaving DSM to head to Pomeroy.  Long story short, Jeremy drove fast and got us there safely and I changed my clothes in the car heading down the highway.  Luckily it was getting dark already!  We made it to the service just in time.  Then we headed over to another small town, Manson, to Pizza Ranch for some dinner.  My children were quite entertaining to the group since they were the only other small children.  At least they were relatively well behaved and didnt embarrass me too much!  They also all wanted to hold baby Layla and not share her!  Layla was born on October 2 and is my friend Jaime's first born and my first born Hayden was born on October 3!  I am sure we will be making lots more trips up to Pocahontas to visit and hopefully they can make it down to see up here in Pella too!

 

Their birthdays are one day apart - and 8 years!

Nile and Layla - as you can see they all wanted a chance to hold her!

First atempt of Aubrey holding Layla with Mommy's help

Aubrey was in love with her!

My daughter, my goddaughter, and me!

finally got one with both of them looking at the camera!

long ride home!

Thanksgiving and Football

my boys enjoying a Hawkeye cookie in their school Thanksgiving attire!

Even if our Hawkeyes didnt end up with a great football season the cookies from the bakery were still delicious!  Dont worry I didnt let them eat it all in one sitting.  And I of course had to taste test them both just to make sure they were good!  Aubrey got a Miss Piggy cookies and licked the pink frosting off! 
On to basketball and wrestling season!!

Santa!

Aubrey was not a fan of Santa so Mommy got to be in the picture too!

trying to think of something to tell Santa to bring them

Last night was the festival of trees downtown in Pella.  The weather was wonderful.  All we needed was a light jacket and we even walked from the Opera House to Meryl Lynch where they were having a holiday party for clients.  No need to make supper last night!  Lots of yummy snacks and desserts.  It is fun to see all the trees different organizations have decorated to be auctioned off.  All the stores were open as well but we didnt have time or need to stop at any.  Last year I dressed all the kids up nicely and planned to take a pic of them with Santa.  Well Aubrey would have nothing to do with him so I ended up having to hold her similar to this year - only thing was I was wearing a Hawkeye t-shirt and jeans while everyone look nice and holidayish.  This year I planned ahead and decided to get out of my sweats and into a nice top and jeans.  I also didnt bother dressing the kids up.  Nile was excited to get a candy cane and all three kids enjoyed some crafts as well.

Aubrey's turn

It look s like the fever bug the boys had a few weeks ago has claimed another victim.  Aubrey is now running a temp around 101.  She is hanging out on the couch watching movies in her jammies under her zebra blanket.  Hopefully the fever wont hang around quite as long for her as it did for the boys.

cheese!

looking cute eating some cheetos last week

A sign of things to come?....

No this is not a political post.  Last week we had some kind of bug at our house.  Monday after school Nile wasn't feeling well and stayed home the rest of the week.  Then Tuesday after school Hayden came home and took a nap.  He stayed home from school until this week Tuesday.  They weren't terrible sick - like cant keep anything down or anything like that, thanks goodness!  Mostly they just had temps that would fluctuate between 99 and 101.  After a week of lots of water and ibuprofen they seem to be doing better.  Still a little coughing but nothing too terrible.
Now starting yesterday morning my lower back has been hurting.  I am hoping it goes away on its own soon since the ibuprofen isn't helping much. 
I am hoping that these illnesses and pains aren't a sign of the winter ahead.  I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.  I know that we have so much to be thankful for and I am hoping we can all stay healthy for the upcoming holiday season!
Blessings to all!
Allison

carving pumpkins

We carved the three pumpkins Aubrey and I had picked up from Hayy-Vee at the beginning to the month last Saturday night.  As you can see the kids arent really excited to clean out the "guts".  I think I ended up doing pretty much all of the work on these three.   We did decide to clean off some pumpkin seeds and roast them at home.  The boys had tried these at school and church and I hadn't had any for years so I thought we would try them.  Pretty easy to do and turned out well.  Needless to day my hand was pretty sore and tired after carving three big pumpkins while the kids watched a movie!  Oh well - it is just once a year and they loved the final produce!

final products
a witch flying, a kitty face, tigerhawk

pumpkins we carved at the fall fun day last week Sunday
a bat, a funny pig face, yellow angry bird - don't judge these were all free hand!

Happy Halloween

This year we had a Pella football player, a Hawkeye football player, and Tangled princess.  The boys really wanted to be Mario and Luigi but I couldn't see spending $40 for a cheap costume.  They were happy enough to football players.  Hayden has been a Hawkeye player several years but Nile had not so he was happy to be one this year.  Hayden got a cool Pella jersey with Rozenboom on the back for Christmas so this worked perfect for his costume.  Aubrey could hardly wait to wear her princess dress.  She actually wore it all day around the house a few days before Trick or Treating. 

the kids at the Halloween party at our bank

kids by all our jack o lanterns

so hard to get them to all look and smile!!

Fall Festival 2012





Every year one of the local churches in town hosts a family fall festival at a local farm.  It is tons of fun for the kids and FREE!!  We love to go every year.  This year it looked like Jeremy would actually be able to join us since there was an away game on the Saturday it was scheduled for.....but then it rained!  So instead of having the festival last weekend we enjoyed a family day at home watching the rain and a Hawkeye victory!  So today I took all three kiddos out to the farm with Grammie to help out and we had a great time.  This was the first year I let Aubrey paint her own pumpkin and she LOVED that!  It is very colorful!  Nile attempted painting a face on his pumpkin and Hayden painted IOWA HAWKEYES on his.  They also have lots of fun games to play and things to play with.  Aubrey loved the train ride and playing in the soy beans.  Hayden had fun running around with a school friend.  Nile saw 5 kids from his kindergarten class.  It is a great event for families to come and just have fun together.  Hopefully next year we will all get to go together as a family!!

 

Aubrey painting her pumpkin







 

 

 

Nile painting his pumpkin



Hayden painting his pumpkin with friend Cashen



Aubrey and Nile playing in the soy beans



Nile launching a little pumpkin



Time for a train ride!



everyone on the hayrack ride