Sledding fun with the family!

The whole family bundled up to go sledding (minus Justin, who stayed in the tahoe with Maddox). We had an awesome time and I think us "big kids" had more fun than the "little kids." It was challenging because of all the snow! It was so deep and hard to sled if there wasn't a path and I can honestly say that walking up the hills with all that snow was harder than any workout that I've done lately! :)
Here are some pics from our sledding adventure:



We all took turns taking pics on the snowpile.
Yep...that's me sporting my dad's OLD snowmobile
suit..circa 1980-something. :) But it was warm!!


Daddy & Jenna trying to climb up the hill - hard work!


Aunt Mandy & Brody give it a go.


The next few pics are a little blurry because we had the wrong lens on the camera. This is my fave of Jess flying off her sled.


Jess took Jenna down and they hit deep snow & tumbled - notice all the legs in the air!


Mommy & Brody...our sled stopped and we didn't.


Mitchell found a snow board and gave it his best shot.

Half of our Cherokee Christmas

After we were unable to go to Sioux City for Christmas with Aaron's family on Wednesday, we decided to try to make it to Cherokee for Christmas with my dad on Saturday. The roads were good until we hit highway 3, then they were pretty sucky. So, we had to putz along at 35-40 mph and our normal 2 hour 45 min trip turned into four hours, which was to be expected since they had about 20 inches of snow up there!

That being said, we were so glad we got to make the trip. We had SO MUCH FUN!! After we opened gifts and had a good meal, my brother, Mandy and I were subjected to an embarassing trip down memory lane. My dad found old tapes from 3rd and 4th grade music contests and it was quite the treat. Oddly enough we all sang a solo, so we had to watch those and the outfits and hairstyles were hilarious.

We rounded out the evening playing hearts, which is a Hunecke favorite. It was sometime after midnight when we got to bed, which is pretty late for us, but definitely worth it! Sunday morning I sort of informed everybody we were going to go sledding, so we headed to the school for some sledding (more about the sledding in another post).


Highway 3 - completely covered and no travel advised the last 20 miles. I kept telling Aaron that the trees were really pretty with all the snow!


Aaron got some hunting glittens (my word for gloves/mittens).


Justin and Maddox sporting the hat we got him that says, "Daddy's Little Hunting Buddy"


Dad opening his much-needed gift from all of us - new dishes!


Brody opening gifts.

Jenna adores her cousin Maddox.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Burdorfs! We didn't make it to Sioux City for Christmas Eve/Day because of the weather, so we were in State Center by ourselves. We were very sad we couldn't see the Burdorfs, but we made the best of the situation at home.

We set the timer on the camera after we had been to church to try and get some family pictures. It was fun and funny! Take a look:

Our "formal" picture -


I told Jenna we should be silly and pretend to be reindeer.
Take one-

Jenna does it, but Brody doesn't.

Take two -

Brody gives it a good effort and Jenna doesn't. Oh well, we got some good laughs out of trying!

Happy Holidays Everybody! :)

Church Program

On Sunday, Jenna was part of the Christmas program at church. She was asked to be one of the angels and she basically just had to sing one song and walk to the front of the church and then stand by the manger. I was nervous that she wouldn't walk up, but the older girls kind of pushed her down first and she went with no problems. We were very proud of her!

The kiddos before church

The angels walking down the aisle.

Jenna and her friend Jackson, singing a Christmas version of

"Twinkle, Twinkle." Jenna just wanted to sing the regular

version. :)

Old-Fashioned Christmas on Main

State Center held it's annual Christmas event - Old-Fashioned Christmas on Main - last Friday night. I, of course, had to take pictures for the paper, so we were out and about enjoying all the events that were going on. Here are a few of our photos:


Santa was in town! Doesn't Brody look excited?! At least there
were no tears.

Daddy got to hang out with us before his basketball game.
Here they are at the library for the professional storyteller.

I was trying to take a picture of the kids listening, but as soon
as Brode saw the camera he looked at me and said, "cheese!"

There was a petting zoo for the kids. Jenna loved this rabbit,
which was sooooo soft and cuddily!

Thanksgiving

The first Hunecke grandkids pic...Jenna & Brody just love "Baby Maddox!


We had a short, but great Thanksgiving! We had plans to go to Swea City to my grandma Beadle's, but she came down with the flu on Wednesday, so we had to change our plans Wednesday afternoon. Because Aaron had baskektball Friday morning we couldn't go too far.

We ended up heading to my mom's for Thanksgiving. It worked out great because Brooke and her kids came down and Justin/Mandy/Maddox came down for supper. It wasn't a big crowd, but it was fun to just catch-up. Friday morning we were on the road by 7:15 am to get back for practice, but it was definitely worth it to see family!

The rest of the weekend we relaxed, which was so nice. Aaron had practice Saturday and I had to help with wrestling pictures, but we were able to sneak in a nap with the kids and get the Christmas tree and other decorations up throughout the weekend. All in all, a great holiday!

Happy 30th Birthday Daddy! We love you soooo much! (And can't wait for cake tonite!)

Children's Message

At church on Sunday during the children's message Jenna went up front for it. Our pastor singled her out and asked if she'd like to play a game with him. Now, although Jenna is very outgoing, she tends to get shy when she's in front of a lot of people. Much to our surprise she was very cooperative.

It went like this: Our pastor was talking about knowing your "Father's" voice and with the kids he meant father as in their dad. Jenna had to turn her back to the audience and random people in the congregation were shouting out, "Hi Jenna!" and after every one our Pastor would ask Jenna if that was her dad. She knew Aaron's voice right away.

The funniest part had to be when he was explaining how the game worked and Aaron realized he had to participate. He was pretty excited. :) Afterwards Jenna was imitating everybody's voice and it was hilarious because she would make her voice low for the old men. We were very proud of how outgoing she was though!

H1N1 Vaccinations

The Story County Medical Center was holding an H1N1 flu clinic on Thursday for those people that are in the priority groups. Since both the kids are, I figured that I should probably go over and try to get them vaccinated.

It was crazy! The clinic started at 4 PM and when we got there at 3:45 all the parking spots were full and we had to wait outside. Luckily, we got inside quickly, but the line seemed to stall after that. We ended up being there for about an hour and 15 minutes. The kids did great considering it was hard to keep them occupied with absolutely nothing to do but stand in line.

Jenna got the mist and did wonderful! Brody had a shot and cried for a couple seconds until I pointed out that they had suckers and then he quit crying immediately! :)

Basketball

Well, basketball season is officially underway at the Burdorf household. Aaron started practice on Monday and they have been going from about 4:45-7:30 PM every night. Hard to believe, but after only a week of practice they have a jamboree next Monday. Craziness!

We miss Aaron a lot already, but we know he loves to coach and this is his last year (for sure!), so we have to keep that in mind. :)

Crazy-Busy Weekend

We had a really busy weekend at our house! Friday night the kids and I drove to Ft. Dodge and stayed with Mitch's mom and step-dad so we could cut down on our Saturday drive time. Thanks to Dave and Collete for the place to sleep. :) Aaron didn't go with us. He helped our friend Jay in the field again this past weekend.

Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to Ringsted for Mandy/Maddox's baby shower and to watch the Hawkeye game. Unfortunately, the Hawks lost, but the shower was really nice and it as great to see the Huneckes! My nephew is precious and Ireally just wanted to be a baby hog (but I wasn't)!


Mamma Mandy showing off one of her gifts.

Sunday after church the kids and I headed out to the farm for the kids' first tractor and combine rides. Can I just say they LOVED it? At one point Jenna said, "Daddy, this is just so cool!" We all had a good time and we even had a pizza picnic in the field for lunch.


Getting ready for their first tractor ride!

After we came home and had naps, Jenna wanted to go and jump in the leaves. So, Aaron raked her a pile and we also burned some of them. As you can see, they had an absolute blast!

Smells Like...

The kids and I went to the library on Saturday afternoon and by the door they had a couple of pots with mums in them. Jenna found them and our conversation went like this:

Jenna: Mom, come smell these flowers they smell good!
Me: Do they? What do they smell like?
Jenna: Basghetti! (spaghetti)
Me: The flowers smell like spaghetti?
Jenna: Yeah!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! We did our trick-or-treating last night, so that's why we already have pictures in our costumes. This year I once again escaped buying a store bought costume (yay!) and ended up with a cowgirl and farmer.

Trick-or-treating kind of sucked because it decided to start raining right before 6 PM. Not only that, it was really windy too! To top things off, Aaron had his basketball coaches' clinic last night, so I had to go by myself. It was miserable! But, the kids did great! Jenna did her "trick-or-treat" and "thank yous" like a pro and Brody loved to grab candy (most of the time more than one piece!).

Here are a lot of pictures of the kids. It was kind of a fiasco and it was hard to get them to both cooperate at the same time. Enjoy!

This was her "giddy up" look!

Brody did great with the hat - kept it on all night!

The best pic of the kids together - and I'm in it.

Treadmill

Ever since I ran the 5K for the Rose Festival last summer I have been itching to get a treadmill. With winter approaching, it made me want one even more and wih Aaron coaching basketball and the cold, it's hard to find time to workout.

Aaron had been looking on Craig's List and finally found one in Clive. It's a few years old, but it works great. So, now I will be able to use it early in the morning or after the kiddos go to bed and be able to work out without worrying about what I'm going to do with the kids, which will be GREAT!

Pumpkin Carving

We spent our Saturday afternoon carving our Halloween pumpkins. Jenna was very excited about it, but I was worried since last year she didn't like the gooey stuff and wasn't that into it. This year she did great and loved it! By the way, Brody is MIA from the pics because he took a really long nap! Check out our pics below:

Aaron getting ready to cut the tops off.


Jenna pulling out the seeds.

Aaron's design - his "monster".

And mine...it's supposed to say boo!

Jenna and I roasted pumpkin seeds when we were done. She sure loves to help in the kitchen!

Sickly Brody

My poor baby boy has been a little under the weather the last couple of days. He got a fever at daycare on Monday and then Aaron stayed home with him yesterday. His temp was up to 103, but got back to normal after the Tylenol kicked in. Finally, last nite he was laughing again, always a good sign!

I just hate fevers! They scare the crap out of me and when you call the doctor's office they tell you that if they are acting normal/eating/drinking not to worry much and that fevers usually last about 72 hours. How can you not worry? Your baby doll is burning up!

Anyway, we made it through the nite with just one dose of Tylenol and he felt way better this morning. I hope he's over whatever he had and have been disinfecting like a crazy person in hopes that Jenna, Aaron, and I don't get it.

Cherokee

The kiddos and I headed to Cherokee on Saturday morning by ourselves to visit my parents and Jess/Mitch. Aaron stayed in State Center to help our friend Jay in the field.

My dad recently had hip replacement surgery and I think is doing remarkably well. He has to walk with a walker and it's slow going, but if he can walk like a normal person again (no offense Dad!) it will be worth the long recovery.

We also had fun hanging out with Grandma Jo and Jess and Mitch. We watched some Hawkeye/Viking football and just relaxed. Jenna was very excited she got to sleep with Grandma Jo Saturday nite. I asked if she slept ok and she said, "Grandma snores really loud!" Oh, the things kids say!

Apple Orchard

Burdorf Clan

We had a really fun weekend because the Burdorfs came to our house! Frank and Linda came on Friday nite and were nice enough to watch the kids while we went to the football game and froze our butts off.

Saturday Adam, Jill, and Addy got here after lunch and we spent the day catching up and watching some football. We even took a break in the afternoon to let the kids burn off some energy in the gym. Also on Saturday, we found out that Adam and Jill are expecting baby #2 in May!! We are so excited for them! Mandy and Justin will be having their baby any day now and Adam and Jill are just starting out - we love it!

Sunday we bundled up and headed to the apple orchard in Cambridge. It was so fun! They had animals, tractors, three little pigs houses, giant pillow for jumping, apple sling shot, corn pool, and sledding. The kids (young and old) had a great time! I'm going to try to post some pics, but am having some issues with the CD, so I'll get those on as soon as I can.

We LOVE Wisconsin!

Aaron and I both took last Friday off so we could take a long weekend in Wisconsin with the Romans. We love to visit them and always have such a great time!

Unfortunately, the weather kind of sucked so we couldn't go to the Cranberry Festival like we planned, but we did do some shopping, watched some football and hung out at the Landing for a few drinks.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

You had to stick your hand in the bear to get candy! Jenna was leery at first, then loved it!


Brode pimpin' the Hawkeye stuff and Uncle Steve's boots.


The leaves are so pretty up there right now.


Wisconsin wears 'em out!

Oktemberfest

At long last, I finally have a free second to post about our weekend! We went to the Oktemberfest parade in Marshalltown this weekend. It was a great parade, kind of long for Jenna, but otherwise good. Brody loved to move and groove to the marching bands and we got a potload of candy.

In other news, my dad, on the way to the Iowa State football game was wearing-gasp-a CYCLONE shirt. Never in my life did I think I would have seen that. What happened to Go Gophers?!?!

Here are couple pics from the parade:

Lovin' the parade...

And, not so much...95 entries was too much for Jenna!

Little Monster

The other night after bath time I was brushing Jenna's hair and realized Brody had left the room. Aaron said he didn't know where he was either, so we both went to look for him. In a matter of about 2 minutes he managed to do this (and yes that is water still in the tub!!):

Apples!

We just parked Brody by the tree and let him grab the apples.


Running to her daddy!

We headed over to Nevada to pick apples last Saturday morning. It was such beautiful day and we picked about 12 lbs of apples. Over the weekend I made apple butter and apple dumplings and we've probably already eaten a few pounds of apples for snacks. I still haven't attempted a homemade apple pie yet...but I will. Maybe. If I get really brave. :)