Christmas-y Happenings

We got into the Christmas spirit at our house this past weekend by participating in a couple of things that were happening around town. One of them was called the Jingle Bell Jog that was held at the elementary school. It didn't work out for Aaron or me to take the kids, so our pal Jay was nice enough to take Jenna and Brody. Jay showed up at our house in a santa hat and so the kids had to put theirs on too. They even got little bells to put on their shoes. Getting ready for the race...

The race was a fundraiser to get an old train depot moved to State Center (hence the RR crossing stuff). I am in LOVE with this picture of Brody. His face is so him. :)

Jenna is cartwheel obsessed!!! If there's space, she will do cartwheels. She's seriously out of control.

When all was said and done, the kids (and Jay!) ended up doing 2 miles. I would say that's pretty darn good for little legs. Jenna ended up getting second place in her division. I think they all had a really good time!

They held a breakfast with Santa on Saturday in a nearby town. I killed two birds with one stone by taking the kids down and also getting pictures for the paper. We had to BEG Brody to sit on Santa's lap. He said he wanted some transformer thing that turns into a fire truck. No clue what that is... :)

Jenna had no fear. She wants a hula hoop and a DS. We'll see what Santa brings her... :)

We are getting in the Christmas spirit! If only it would snow!! SIGH. Anyway, the Huneckes are headed our way this weekend and we are really excited to see everybody.

Concert Weekend

We had a sort of laid back, sort of busy weekend. Saturday was kind of a lazy day, but Sunday was pretty busy.

Aaron, who has been reffing a lot of basketball, reffed Friday night and Saturday afternoon. The kids and I had movie night on Friday night. Our movie of choice was, "Santa Claus." That was the first time the kids had seen it and they loved it!

Saturday, I decided it was time for a craft. I found cottonballs and so I thought they would enjoy making a Santa. This is what happened when we started...

...the kids thought it would be fun to have a "snowball fight" with them. The finished products:

For some reason lately, it seems we are eating a "breakfast for supper" meal about once a week. I was not in the mood to cook Saturday night, so we had pancakes and bacon. I saw this idea on pinterest, to make rainbow pancakes. I made the batter and let Jenna and Brody each pick a color. Brody chose blue; Jenna "violet" (those are her words, not mine!).

I swear, if you want your kids to think you are the best ever, just add food coloring. The kids LOVED this. Oh yeah... Jenna won't eat pancakes without chocolate chips these days and Brody just follows suit.

What happens when you leave Brody alone with food color for five seconds... :)

Because it is going to be so cold this week, we decided to break down and try the winter coats on the boys that we bought LAST season when they were on sale. They are just a bit too big. LOL

Saturday we got rain. Lots of it! Unfortunately for us snow lovers. The kids seemed to think we got about six inches. Notice the grass...

They thought there was just enough in our neighbor's driveway.

Sunday was Jenna's first concert at school! She was a nervous wreck all day. Jenna is so her mother's daughter. :) Here she is lining up:

...and singing. It was so cute and fun to watch. And would you believe it?! Jenna survived!! :)

Grandpa Larry and Linda surprised Jenna by coming to her concert and then were nice enough to watch the kids so Aaron and I could get some Christmas shopping done. We got all four kids done! Woo-Hoo! And it's not even December 23rd.

Bowen's Tricks

If you come to our house you will hear things like, "Bowen!" "BOW-EN!" "No-No!" (Turn your back for 3.2 seconds) "Where did Bowen go? Bowen?!"

Ok, you get the idea. This little nugget is strong! And with that strength comes many new tricks, like crawling. Legit crawling. None of this belly flopping, leap-frogging stuff he's been doing. Arms and legs moving the way they need to. He's getting fast too.

Trick number two is pulling himself up on things. Like chairs. And his crib. I almost had a heart attack last week when I came in to get the boys and he was standing up looking at me.

Doesn't he look guilty?

And now, he's just showing off!

He decided to take a break. Snapped this cute pic.

I love baby toes. :)

See what I'm saying on the strong thing? That's quite the plank for a 7 month old!

And taking pictures is a challenge because he's always coming at me! LOL

This is one of his favorite places. Under the coffee table where he either pulls on the cord or crawls behind the chair where I can't reach him. Stinker.

It seems like everytime I feed Blake Bowen tries to climb THROUGH the high chair.

This time it turned out ok when I took the picture last nite. Today? He face planted into the kitchen floor and got his very first bloody nose! One of many I'm sure.

This kid has zero fear. ZERO. He is going to keep us on our toes and I'm sure him and Brody will be best friends!!

Decorating the Tree

After we got home from Omaha, the kids were ANTSY to decorate the Christmas tree. Aaron took the older two with him to get some new lights and they put those on on Friday evening. They wanted to continue decorating, but Aaron and I were exhausted from lack of sleep the prior nite, so we promised them we could put the ornaments on first thing Saturday.

So, first thing Saturday, Aaron laid out all the ornaments for the kiddos and they got to work. It was so cute to watch. Listening to Jenna and Brody discuss how to put the ornaments on and where to put them on cracked me up.

We also put our tree in the basement. Even though we're down there, we're not down there as much as we are upstairs, so with the twins, we thought it might be a safer bet. Jenna showed Blake the tree. He just stared at it. I think he liked the lights....

Brody gets to work...

Bowen. He LOVES the tree. Time will tell how much he really loves it. :) For now, he just stares at it.

We did have a minor meltdown. As I type this I can't even remember over what, but the face was too funny to not put this picture on here. Don't mind me in the background with my mismatched pjs still on. ;)

We have some branches that are currently sporting three or four ornaments. I resisted the urge to change it. Everytime I look at those branches hanging on for dear life, I smile. I think there's eight in this small space. :)

My randomness...

Is there anything prettier than a tree filled with lights? I think not!

Jenna and Brody's big ta-da!!!

What's your tree like? Are you a random assortment of homemade and store bought ornaments like the Burdorfs? Or, are you matchy-matchy right out of a magazine or have a theme to your tree?

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011. I think it's definitely safe to say that this year more than any other year our family is SO GRATEFUL and SO THANKFUL for what we have. It's hard to believe that a year ago we had no idea we were having twins, let alone the journey and challenges that we have faced since last April. We have so much to be thankful for and are so very blessed!!

We headed to Omaha for a couple of days to spend time with Adam, Jill, Addy and Aubrey. Frank and Linda also made the trip from Sioux City. Adam had to work for part of the day, so we just took it easy and enjoyed each other's company.

Here's Jill, the hostess with the mostess! She did awesome with the Thanksgiving meal!

Grandma and Grandpa with the twins

Our niece Aubrey. She's adorable. Blue eyes. Wild curly hair.

Not only that, she has good style. How cute are these shoes for a 1-year old?!

I read on a blog somewhere this week that everybody needs to make sure they take a family picture over Thanksgiving. Don't worry if everybody is not perfect. Or you all don't match. Or not everybody is looking directly at the camera. This is just you. In the moment. I LOVED this idea.

Soooo.....Here we are with our families. After a long day of Thanksgiving. After a big meal. After playing outside. After we put our sweats on. After pie. After naps.

Adam, Jill, Addy and Aubrey

And all six of us. I love Bowen's serious face. I love that Jenna has costume jewelry on. I love that Brody is smiling but not looking at the camera. I love how much Blake looks like Brody. I love how I'm leaning into the picture awkwardly like I tend to do. I love how Aaron is ridiculously photogenic like he always is.

I am so thankful for Aaron. There is no way I would have made it through this past year without him. He is my rock and always assures me that everything is going to be ok and will work out for the better.

Quick Trip to the 'Kee

Last Sunday my dad invited us up for a Thanksgiving meal since we won't be getting together when it is actually Thanksgiving. We drove up and back on Sunday. The kids traveled so well! We had a great time listening to the radio, reading books and enjoying some naps.

Anyway, after a nice, big, filling meal my dad took the kids outside to play. I helped with dishes and then headed out with my camera to see what they were up to. My dad had gotten out this...

Our old wagon. All metal. I love this thing. Built to last.

Grandpa Larry posing with Jenna and Brody.

Bailey! I always love when we see my dad because we get to see Bailey too. I love this picture of her.

Anyway, once I figured out what my dad was up to I said, "Uh...I don't think this is a good idea dad."

His response, "It'll be fine." I didn't like the sound of that so much. My dad has a sloped sidewalk on the side of his house and he thought this would be fun:

Ok, so judging by the expressions (which are priceless!) it was fun. But, it gave the mom a heart attack!!

Then they had the idea to hook the wagon to the tractor and that might help with their lack of steering skills with just the wagon. Brody LOVES tractors. Any tractors. Doesn't he looked determined?!

And then Miss Jenna had a turn. Look at her tongue! :)

...And away they go down the sidewalk.

Meanwhile inside the house...

Daddy and Bowen must have had so much food that it wore them out. :)

Turkeys

At our house we are thankful for crafts! And creativity! The kids really enjoy craft time, so I told them I'm going to try REALLY hard to be organized and plan something for one day a week after school.

Since it is Thanksgiving, I figured the obvious thing to make would be a turkey. After picking up Jenna from her early out, we went home and got started. The feathers for the turkey:

Brody starts putting his feathers on. He is getting so much better at sitting and doing things like that. I think it must be preschool that is helping.

There was a lot of discussion about how to arrange the feathers on their turkeys. So funny to listen to both of them.

Brody took this picture of my turkey and insisted it be put on the blog. :)

The finished products! I think they turned out really good and we hung them up in the kitchen. Jenna's already asking me what we're doing next week for craft time. Hmmmm....