Merry Christmas 2011!

We had a wonderful Christmas! Grandmom, PopPop, and Uncle Brian drove from Chicago and arrived here on December 23rd.  Christmas Eve was filled with the kids church service at 3:00, dinner at Biaggi's and I played the flute at church at 7:30.  The kids were tired and went to bed in plenty of time for Santa to come and drop a load of presents at our house!  The grownups enjoyed the famous Neuman Christmas punch and playing baggo outside in the driveway on Christmas day.  It was such great weather this year!

Kevin was thrilled to receive a dinosaur pillow pet, Transformers, Imaginext dinosaurs and Monopoly Junior.  Katie can't talk too much yet, but I can tell she's happy with her new rocking horse, shopping cart and dolls.  Both of the kids received bundles of new books, we are all happy to refresh the collection.

Oh - I almost forgot to add how much fun we have been having with the TinkerToys.  You can see in these videos that we made it into a microphone.  The kids also received some toy instruments:  drum, piano, guitar.  Here is a video of some impromptu Christmas caroling!





We spent the remainder of last week "relaxing" at home.  Nate went to work for a few days, but otherwise we were home and played many, many games of Monopoly Junior, dominos, Crazy8's, read all the new books, battled with dinosaurs, played babies, rocked out with the instruments, learned how to transform all of Kevin's robots, and kept Katie from climbing up the Christmas tree (when all she was really trying to do was kiss the ornaments that she thinks look like puppies).  Whew - I'm exhausted and glad we are back to our regular routine this week.  I need a nap!

Anxious & excited

Just checkin' things twice...

Don't you wish you were as cool as these kids?

Katie - video 19 months

What have we been doing lately?

Getting ready for Christmas, of course!

Last weekend Kevin sang in the kids Christmas program at our church. The 3 and 4 year olds sang "Away in the Manger" and "Go Tell It On the Mountain". They kids were adorable. We were stuck way in the back, so this video isn't too great, but you get the gist...

We were so proud of Kevin, he sang nicely and followed the teacher right up front (some of the kids are still really nervous - in fact, one kid puked - right in the middle of the program). Very memorable! After the Christmas program, we rewarded Kevin with dinner at McDonald's. (We have been on a McD's detox for a few months because Kevin is addicted to the toys!). After dinner we took the kids for a ride touring the Jolly Holiday Lights in downtown Des Moines. This has become a fun family tradition.

Katie, posing in one of her Christmas outfits:

Trying to get them BOTH to stand still is always a challenge:

Our tree is up, lots of cookies are baked and I am done shopping! Whew... time to enjoy!

Katie is a pirate, posing in the shirt I made for her (reversible, with snowmen on the otherside):

Upcoming events - Kevin's school Christmas party is this Monday. As part of a year end service project for the school, Kevin and I are dropping off the donations of breakfast casseroles and hard boiled eggs to the DSM Salvation Army headquarters next week. Remember a few weeks ago, the kids got the tour their mobile canteen truck? Well that was such a hit, his school decided to partner with Salvation Army and we continue to make donations each month.

Kevin & Nate have a role in the Christmas Eve church service. Kevin and a few other boys will play the role of shepherds and Nate will read their lines (very difficult for 4 year old boys to memorize a script!) I am playing the flute that night too.

Merry Christmas!

Katie - 18 month stats

We enjoyed a fun week in Chicago for Thanksgiving. The kids enjoyed lots of time with Grandmom & PopPop and visiting friends.

I took Katie for her 18 month checkup today. 18 months, 25 days:

26.4 pounds (75th percentile)

33.5 inches (89th percentile)

Here she is just being silly :)


The Spradling's came for dinner Sunday night. Katie brought lots of books to Uncle Joe:
Isabel loves to read books:

Baby Tyler is now 6 weeks old.

The weekend before the IT came

IT, that is SNOW! The dreaded four letter word hit Iowa earlier this week.

Prior to that, we had a great weekend outside - check out the kids -

(Katie has now decided that it's okay to wear hats & headbands. She would not let us take this one off. I think this headband looks like a bandage).

Kevin took this one from the top of the playset :)

5K Halloween race

I have not ran a race since Katie was born, so I decided to run our local YMCA Halloween 5K. I helped my friend Jill finish her first race. It was a good thing to do in order to offset all the candy. Any Chicago friends want to run this local race with me & Nate on Thanksgiving morning?