Christmas Surprise!

We decided to drive to Utah and surprise our families for Christmas. We split our time between Salt Lake and southern Utah and had a great time. Except for the flu bug, which we aparently brought with us (and passed on - SORRY!), we loved being with family. Thanks to both our sisters for helping orchestrate the surprise - it was perfect!

Here are a few pictures of the kids. All our family pictures ended up on other cameras so we'll have to post some later.

Mom's Little Helper

Paige is really into "helping" lately. She helps put laundry down the chute, puts her trash in the garbage, puts her clothes away and even helps with the dishes. Of course if we're not watching her closely then we find toys at the bottom of the laundry chute, clothes in the kitchen drawers and silverware all over the house but at least she tries!

Christmas At Our House

We've been promising the grandparents we would post pictures of our Christmas decorations. So here are a few pictures of what Christmas looks like at our house this year.

A picture of the tree with all the presents. Yes, we are spoiled!

This is the new nativity the kids gave me for Christmas (I got to open it early so we could add it to the Creche display). It's an African nativity - pretty neat!

The nativity that sits on top of the piano. The stars hanging on the wall are ornaments made out of shells.

The stockings hanging over the fireplace - just waiting for Santa's arrival.

Don't you wish you were our neighbor?

We decided to make treat bags to take to our friends and neighbors. We made chocolate dipped pretzels. Don't they look yummy!

Bet you wish you were our neighbor, huh?! But if you were then this is what you would have woken up to this morning....

10 NEW inches of snow (look at that pile compared to the telephone pole and bush). Today was suppose to be the last day of classes before Winter break but with the snow, school was cancelled today. Dylan was just a little bit excited!

Nativity Display

Bill and I were put in charge of putting together a display of nativities at the church. When we lived in Corvallis the Stake would always do a big Creche display every year, so that was our inspiration for starting one here in Sioux City. It was a small event this year but we hope it will get bigger every year. We had a total of 73 nativities displayed - many of which belonged to my mom. When we only had a few people from the ward sign up to display their nativities I called my mom, who collects nativities, and she shipped us 3 boxes full. Needless to say, most of the nativities were hers. THANKS MOM!!!

Up on the Housetop

Bill had today off from work so we decided to get the house ready for Christmas. He was in charge of the outside, I did the inside. Bill and Dylan went to the store to get some lights. When they came back Dylan said, "Mom, me and Dad argued at the store. He wanted white lights but I wanted colored ones. So we agreed and got colored ones." What a good Dad.

6 Steps to Cook a Turkey

If you're looking for no-fail directions to cook your Thanksgiving turkey - look no further! Dylan came home from school today with the following step-by-step directions.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Music Apology

So Bill called me this morning and said "Do you know that one of the songs on our blog has a cuss word in it?" I was like WHAT?! The song has now been deleted but my apologies to anyone that may have heard it. I had listened to the song many times on the radio and never realized they had edited it. When I added it to our blog, I listened for the first few seconds to make sure it was the right song, but evidently I should have kept listening. Sorry again for anyone who may have heard a good song ruined by a bad word!

Winter has arrived

We woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow. Dylan has been wanting to build a snowman for weeks - now may be his chance.

Here is a view of the backyard.

(The 2 buildings are our neighbors' garages)

Here is the view from the front windows.

(This is from inside our house).

Wheelchair & "Crunches"

Dylan hasn't been feeling well all week. Today I had to go and pick him up from school because he had a fever. When he got home he asked me if I would take him to the doctor so he could get a wheelchair and some "crunches" (this is what he calls crutches). I'm not sure how he knows about crutches but either way I told him maybe we should start with a nap and go from there. Funny kid!

Hide & Seek

Hmmm....I wonder where Paige could be hiding?

SURPRISE!!!

Blogging Bandwagon

So after much encouragement we've decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon. Being that we now live in Iowa and all our friends and family live elsewhere we thought it would be a great way to keep in touch. So here's a brief overview of us.

We moved to Iowa a year ago so Bill could start his first "real" job as a Biology professor. He teaches at a small, private college here in Sioux City and has loved his first year. I have been able to stay at home, which is a blessing (or sometimes not, depends on the day). I started teaching piano lessons after we moved here and now have 15 students. It's great fun! Dylan turned 5 in September and started kindergarten. He loves going to school everyday and then coming home and re-creating whatever project, lesson, activity etc. they worked on that day. Paige is our little spit-fire, little being the operative word. She will be 2 in January but is still wearing size 12 month clothes. What she lacks in size she makes up for in energy. She goes non-stop all day. It's hard to keep up with her. We often refer to her as "hurricane Paige" due to the path of destruction she usually leaves behind!

These are the best pictures I could find. I'll post more soon!