Start of the Holiday Season

We are pretty excited about the holidays. It's hard not to be when the stores have trees and lights up and even lights are being turned on in the neighborhoods. The kids have started their wish lists, I have actually been shopping for a few months now, and we're having Christmas with Ben's side in a few weeks! And I only have to work two days this week - that's definitely something to be excited about.

Yesterday the kids and I went to The Festival of Trees with Grandma and Grandpa T. We all enjoyed the trees and the gingerbread houses. Audrey, Grandma and I then went to the Teddy Bear Tea for the second year in a row. Audrey loved it. Luke and Grandpa hung out at the festival and Luke was a model train conductor for a while. He said he had a lot of fun.

I really liked this gingerbread house.

Snoopy on his dog house, made out of gingerbread!

Twirling

As we were driving away from Grandma and Grandpa's house Audrey said, "This was an awesome day." Then she fell asleep. :-)

Year in Review - Part II

Did you all enjoy Luke's first blog entry?! I did...and I learned that he got in trouble that day by doing origami instead of his language arts! He is pretty good at origami so it's good to see him taking an interest in something other than video games and reading. No, it's not a bad thing that he reads a lot, but it causes problems when he reads at the wrong time - like while eating breakfast and getting dressed in the morning. Everything takes twice as long to do when you're reading! We're working on encouraging him to read at appropriate times. :-)

So, where did I leave off on the year in review? Oh yes, our 10th anniversary on July 13th. Now we'll start back up with August-November's events...

We spent Ben's birthday at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. Love that place.
(Audrey took a good picture, didn't she?)

Buffalo at NSNWR.

Lego exhibit at Reiman Gardens.

Reiman Gardens

First day of 1st and 4th Grades!

Luke's 9th Birthday.

Audrey, Nicole, and I ran/walked The Color Run! It was Audrey and Nicole's first 5K!

We started finishing the basement in September and in October we started priming the walls!

Pretty tress in NE IA.

Visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa.

 

Dorothy and Sonic the Hedgehog trick or treating.

Their scary faces, obviously.

Most of November has been spent priming and painting the basement. We're nearly finished, just need to do some touch-ups. We're very happy with the color; it's called silvery moon.

Family room; the utility room is the door on the left, the middle door is a
walk-in closet that will be used for toys and games.

Family room looking toward the hallway; walk-in closet on the left, the bathroom door
is just showing behind the column, the other doorway leads to the main storage area. The hallway
leads back to the bedroom.

Bathroom; that's our tile piled in the shower. Tiling the floor is our next project.

Guest bedroom/sewing room. The bigger opening is the closet, the other opening is a nook
that I think will hold a dresser I am in the process of refinishing.

 We're hoping we will have the basement completely finished next spring. We're doing the rest of the work ourselves with help from friends and family (we hired a contractor to get us to the point of being ready to paint). Now that the painting is mostly done we're looking forward to the holidays!

School Dayz by Luke

So...um...hi. So, a long time ago my mom, Katie, suggested that I start a blog so I can "express my feelings" and talk about school and stuff, so I'm going too talk about whats happening at my school and how I feel about it, starting with what happened today. So.....here I go.

       Today at school I was very happy because two of my favorite things happened today. One, I had art class, and art is one of my favorite classes, and two, I had E.L.P., the Extended Learning Program, witch is a special class for gifted students, like me. The unit we're working on...WAIT A SECOND! I FORGOT TO MENTION WHO ELSE IS IN E.L.P.! Now... as I was saying there three more people and their names are: Drew, Morgan, and Ellie. The unit we're working on is "The Art Of Capturing Light And Shadows" and we're doing our VERY FIRST independent project, and I'm researching how animals produce light, and I found out that that's called "luminescence" , but more on that some other time. Today I got in trouble FOR MAKING "ORIGAMI!!!!! Oh and also for doodling pictures of "Clocks With Personality", witch is a really good doodle, but my teacher, Mrs. S, doesn't appreciate a good artist [plus origami master. If you like origami and Star Wars then go to origamiyoda.com.][I'm serious.] Ooookay, it looks like I've covered everything, so this is Luke, signing off for the first time.................................................................................  

Year in Review - Part One

You know when you get out of a habit and it's so hard to get back at it? Guilty. But we're going to change that. Right now. Here is part of our past year in pictures starting with Christmas 2011 and going through July. I'll be back soon with the rest of the year. :)

The American Girl doll - Audrey named her Violet Rose.

Luke got a Nook. Everyone probably already knows this.

1st Place in the Pine Wood Derby!

Great weather in March.

Easter

Tee Ball!

6th Birthday!

Last day of kindergarten and 3rd grade.

Meeting our new friend, Wade.

Colorado Vacation!

Grandma & Grandpa went with us to visit Kara in CO.

We did a lot of fishing this summer!

Audrey caught the big one! (With some help from Andy and Jess).

Celebrating our 10th anniversary fishing with the kids. :-)

p.s. Thank you Jenni for kicking me in the butt and getting me back on my blog. :-)