Christmas Catch-up & January

We've been BUSY! I know, that's life, right? But we've REALLY been busy! Our house went up for sale this week (sigh). I'm going to miss our sweet home where we brought 2 babies back from the hospital... so many changes since we bought it 4.5 years ago.

That means we've been CLEANING... carpets, walls, cupboards, ceilings, etc. I wish I had some before and after of my closets - I'm really quite proud of how organized they are now.

But I've skipped over CHRISTMAS... so here are the kiddos Christmas Eve and Day:

We got more snow Christmas Eve (perfect) so you know what that means :)



And running around without a COAT for Cooper - crazy boy. The tempurature was in the teens when he kept running outside - I don't think he feels cold sometimes.

Christmas morning in our humble abode after Santa visited:

I think the biggest hit were the tents for Caroline & Cooper (told you Randy).



Ahh, another succesful holiday. Cooper is already talking about what he wants NEXT Christmas. I'm counting on that he will forget most, if not all, of the items he wants right now.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thankful

I am thankful for my kids who LOVE chocolate AND donuts. This is what happens when you combine the two:



I am thankful for my sweet little boy, who is growing up too fast. When I tell him to slow down he laughs at me and asks if I will cry. I tell him eventually and he laughs some more.
Here he is taking swim lessons at our Rec. Center. He loves the water.

I am thankful for my strong little girl. I knew she was a fighter from the womb but I'm amazed at how tough she is every day. Cooper wrestles with her and she thinks it's the best thing in the world. She's always so tough when she gets her laser treatments done - back to her old self by mid morning.

I am thankful for my husband. He WANTED to take me to the Notre Dame vs. Utah game even when all of his friends where flying SOLO. We had a great time despite a tragic loss - I always have a great time with you, honey!

I am thankful for friends. Here are a few but I have many more who are so supportive and caring. They are my family that I CHOSE and I love you all.

Halloween Fun

In Iowa there is a place called Bloomsbury Farm. I've heard about it each year but never went. Well, this was our last chance so Randy and I packed up the kids, he was a good sport, and spent the day getting lost in corn mazes, shooting corncob cannons, and playing in corn kernels.

Caroline amazes me at what a good sport she is. Cooper can wrestle her to the ground, jump on her, etc. and she will still laugh and think he's the greatest playmate.

Family picture moment:

This is just a random picture of CJ I snapped while the two of us were at the mall together (Cooper was at preschool). We had some time to waste so I let her walk around and just followed. She had so much fun looking in the windows at the displays and I know she felt like a big girl to be out of the stroller.

I planned the Medical Partners Halloween Party this year and it was so much fun!! To plan it and to attend. We frosted sugar cookies, made "ghosts", colored treat bags, put on spooky tatoos and ate pizza. I love this party because it's at the hospital so Randy was able to stop by between surgical cases and snap a picture with us.

 We went to several parties but I guess we were having too much fun because the this is the BEST picture I took of my children in their costumes.

I dressed up as Wendy and Randy was a pirate but can you believe I didn't take a single picture with me camera! I will have to get it from a friend who did and post it later. Randy let me put eyeliner on him and everything. I love Halloween.

Support the Utes

I wanted to post our Utah vs. Iowa State experience even though UTAH has been grossly disappointing as of late :( I had high hopes for the rivalry game this year, but we will see...

November 27th.

Our good friend and fellow resident of Randy's, Bryan, is an Ames, Iowa native. He scored us some tickets and, in true Iowa style, we tailgated with friends before the game.

I love that Caroline is reaching for the pizza in this picture.

And Cooper tried to reach for something else when I wasn't looking. He'll catch on that moms see everything:



Want to know the best way to keep kids happy at a football game? Get them a bottomless fountain drink:

You would think they had never been exposed to soda! I think this kept them both busy for a good 1/2 hour.

And here I am with my good buddie, Kara, and her sweet baby girl. When we moved to Iowa 4+ years ago neither of us had children. Wow, how life has changed!

One last cute picture of the munchkins - and the final score was Utah-68 Iowa State-27.

October Begins

In October Cooper played on his FIRST soccer team - all 3 and 4 year-olds. Most of the time Cooper wanted to dance on the field and do cartwheels instead of run after the ball. Randy made it to one of the games, but couldn't understand how I could watch him goof off and dance so much. He told Cooper that the other team were all "bad guys" and he had to NOT let them get the ball in the net. Cooper marched to the goal and stood with his arms out to make sure that didn't happen. But then he wouldn't move. His Coach asked what he was doing and he told him, "I'm not going to let the bad guys win, coach." Way to teach your 3-year-old, right? We decided to CHILL out and just let him play after that. By the last game he was in there kicking the ball - I think next year will be much better - but I did like laughing at his performances.

We visited a few pumpkin patches in October. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the kids:

I can't believe they actually sat still for me on this last one - so cute! I have a hard time capturing these moments because my camera is TOO SLOW :)

More on October to come...

Meet me in Saint Louis

If you've never been to St. Louis you are MISSING OUT! Randy had a conference there in September and the kids & I tagged along for a quick weekend trip with him. I WISH we would have stayed longer because this city has some great FREE things to do for families. But, trying to squeeze it all in... here's what we did:

There is an amazing Children's Museum that puts ours in Iowa to SHAME and since I have a membership we were able to get in FREE. My friend, Shawn, and her children joined us while here husband was at the conference as well. Here's Caroline and Jane playing in the "house".

There was also a GIANT beanstalk that snaked up 3 flights of stairs. Cooper couldn't get enough of it.

There were water rooms, a maze, slides, an outdoor pond and all kinds of things. We only had the morning, ate lunch and then were off to the Zoo, which was also FREE.

Lots of cool animals to see. The day was HOT and STICKY so we all appreciated the drinking fountains.

Already it was time to pick-up our guys then we went downtown and grabbed dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory (not free).

We snapped a picture by the ARCH (arch not shown, too big to fit) and drove home, whew - I'm tired just remembering this!

So if you have a chance to go to this city, take it, you won't regret your choice. Just watch where you park. Despite all of our FREE activities I did get a parking ticket at the Zoo - oops!