Christmas

We celebrated Christmas at our home on December 22nd. So the night before we put out a piece of Jesus’ Birthday Cake for Santa and some celery for the reindeer. Faith thought she needed to taste test the cake before she would go to bed.

After the kids went to bed, the fun began for us because Santa came to our house!!! He needed to come a little early being that we would be in Iowa for Christmas. The next morning, Faith was the first one up and we went downstairs and she walked right past the tree, then all of the sudden stopped, turned and sat down next to the presents. I didn’t wrap up the Little People House and accessories, so she spotted that right away and wanted to play with the car that was in the bag. Once Noah woke up, he was all about opening the presents. It was so fun watching their expressions when they would open a new present.

December

December seemed to keep us busy…we built a gingerbread house, seen Santa, Grandpa and Grandma Nielsen came down to visit, went downtown to Union Station and Crown Center, dressed Faith up in her Christmas dress for church, celebrated Christmas at our home and back in George with the family!!!

Here are a few pictures….

Happy Father’s Day 2011

If you are friends with my on Facebook..you’ve already seen this, but here it is again! Happy Father’s Day to my Dad in Heaven who taught me to be very resourceful! (Notice his duct-taped shoe!!) Love you and miss you Dad!!!!

And a Happy Father’s Day to Rick!!! He’s gone for work right now, so we can’t celebrate with him, but we wish you a very Happy Father’s Day and we’ll do something special when you get back!!! Here’s a couple of pictures of the kids…these are things they HAD to have learned from you!!!

Easter

Hope everyone had a great Easter!!!! We took in a few egg hunts over the last week. We had our neighborhood one during the week and then went to one on Saturday morning.

We colored Easter eggs Saturday night. Faith played with some plastic eggs, while Noah dyed the eggs. Obviously, 18 eggs wasn’t enough…he had to re-dye some because he wanted to keep doing more!

We headed to church Sunday morning and they had an Easter hunt and some crafts to do for the kids. We also had a lily in front of church in remembrance of Dad. After church we went to Bass Pro Shop (the fish store, as Noah calls it) and they had a little egg hunt for the kids. They also had pictures with the Easter Bunny, but as soon as Noah seen it, he didn’t want anything to do with it. We knew Faith wouldn’t like it, so we just passed on that. They enjoyed playing on the boats instead!!!

Christmas Vacation – George

On the 27th, we loaded everything up and headed to George. We stopped in Emmetsburg to see a friend, so that helped the break the trip up a little bit. That night we celebrated Christmas with my Dad’s side. Noah got a little farm set and Faith got a cookie jar toy and they both got an ornament with their pictures on it. It was also Ryan & Dee’s 7th anniversary!!!

The 28th we headed to Ryan & Dee’s farm to go sledding!!! Noah was actually more interested in seeing the cows, so after a couple of trips down the hill, Rick and Noah went to look at the cows. A few days before we came back to Iowa, he said he wanted to see Reid and Ryan’s cows and that it was cold so we needed to cover the cows up with blankets. So maybe he was concerned about them! Here’s a picture of Renae and Noah coming down the hill…Renae said she was trying to be dramatic for Noah’s sake!!

That night we had Christmas with my Mom’s side. Mom vetoed my vote to not dress Faith in her Christmas dress. So Faith got to wear it one more time! The grandkids sang “Jingle Bells” for everyone…at least they attempted it!!! It was pretty cute. Noah got a game and Faith got a sippy cup with her name on it.

The 29th was spent as a little more relaxing day, but I did get my hair cut…7 inches cut off!!!! It really needed to be cut…I haven’t had a haircut since a month before Faith was born (and she’s now 9 months old)! That night, we had our family Christmas!!! Noah got a Thomas match game and a bath towel and toy. Faith got a pink tea set and a glow worm (this brought back memories for Renae and I because we each had one when we were growing up).

That night, Noah didn’t really seem to be himself and after everyone was getting ready for bed and leaving, Noah threw up all over me – I’m not good at handling puke!! We thought it was too much junk food over the last week mixed with being on the go so much. Well, after throwing up a few times, we figured it was probably the flu. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep that night. Faith also got sick during the night, but we figured that they’d be better by the morning for our trip back to Kansas. They seemed to be fine for the first 4.5 hours, but then it all went down hill after that. First Noah was sick a couple of times…and we only were 1/2 successful at getting the bucket to him soon enough. We pulled over at a gas station to “get cleaned up” and to empty the bucket. Once we were back on the road, he’d do it again and then Faith decided she wanted to join in a few rounds. I’m just surprised I didn’t join in…it took about everything in me to keep from throwing up.

As soon as we got him, I started the bath and just let them soak for awhile while Rick cleaned out the car. I’m just glad that Rick can handle it!!! I’m not sure what kind of bug Noah picked up, but he’s still throwing up every once in a while and now we can add diarrhea to the list! They both seem to have that right now. I’m really hoping that they get over this bug pretty soon…I think I’m doing laundry non-stop right now.

Besides getting the flu, it was great to be back with family over Christmas! It was nice to get back to a little warmer weather and not see any snow!!! I’m pretty sure we decided on the way home that Christmas needs to be at our house next year! I’m sure we’ll change our mind and forget about the car ride back…eventually!!!