New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve we went over to the Bell's house. They have a little girl, Grace, with whom Charlie and Jack love to play. We had a ton of good food and wine and had a really nice evening. We even all made it to midnight....except Grace!

Charlie Turns Six!

On December 29, Charlie turned 6. We had a very busy day planned, starting with eating Charlie's blueberry lemon birthday breakfast cake. It was so good!

Next we headed to the movies to see Alvin and the Chipmunks with Nana Pam!

The boys loved the movie and then we headed to Red Robin for lunch where Charlie opened his gift from Nana and Papa. They got him a little digital camera/video camera. He loved it! Then everyone sang happy birthday to him where he wouldn't even crack a smile! He can be so shy!

We got home after lunch where I hoped the boys would take a little nap. No such luck! Doug got home and we quickly opened presents and had Scooby Doo cake. Charlie's main present was a new bike, but he also got a few other things like a cookbook, about which he was super excited! Then we headed to dinner with Sherry and Des at Old Chicago! After dinner we were on to the Qwest Center to watch the Creighton and UNI basketball game.

The day after Charlie's birthday, we had the neighbor boys over for lunch. The boys made their own pizzas and drinks that were in Charlie's new cookbook. Then during lunch, Charlie lost his second tooth!

Christmas Day 2009

On Christmas Day, the boys were up even earlier than usual! Charlie was good and only peeked downstairs a few times to see what Santa had brought for them. He waited patiently until we were all up and dressed. The boys ripped through their presents in a short time, and then we spent the day playing with everything. With all of the snow we got, all of our family Christmas party plans were canceled and postponed until the following weekend. So, we had the opportunity to stay in our pajamas all day long and hang out. It was nice. Doug and I even put the boys to bed early that night and watched a movie and had a bottle of wine. That was the best present ever--just getting to hang out and relax.

The big present we got this year was the Wii. The boys have really enjoyed it and have gotten good at playing it. And it has bought Doug and I some quiet time upstairs. We've watched a few movies!

The boys were also really excited to get some Hawkeye and Steeler attire. They love to cheer for these teams with their Dad!



The day after Christmas, the boys went outside to play while Doug shoveled. There is quite the mountain of snow on the side of our driveway.

Christmas Eve 2009

December 2009 has been the month for snow. On Christmas Eve we started getting blizzard-like conditions. Despite that, my parents and sister and Nate still made it over for dinner and presents. In the end, I think we got something like 14 inches of snow. It was crazy and things seemed to shut down for a few days.
We celebrated Charlie's birthday with Julie and Nate while they were here. She got the boys some fun gifts. One of Charlie's favorites was a cd player and High School Musical cd. He loves to play it as loud as it will go. Not looking forward to those teenage years.

Christmas with the Fisers

The weekend before Christmas we drove up to Cedar Rapids to visit Doug's family. We went up Friday night and got home Sunday.

The boys got lots of presents and we had fun visiting with Doug's family. We didn't do a very good job of taking many photos. Jack and Charlie also had fun hanging out with their cousin, Kiley.

Christmas Preparations!

I am not sure where to start in talking about all we did to get ready for Christmas. There was the gift buying, cookie making, decorating, snow playing, movie watching, card sending, etc. It seemed like so much work, but a lot of fun as well.

I guess I will start with making Christmas ornaments. Charlie brought home a magazine from school that had directions in it on how to make the salt and flour Christmas tree ornaments. We decided to do this and had a great time. I think the recipe made 50 ornaments or so. I decorated a few, Jack and Dad a few and Charlie about 40. He sat in the kitchen until he was done decorating every last one. Then we set up our old Christmas tree in their bedroom and decorated it with all of the ornaments. This is something we will do next year as it was a lot of fun.

Then was cooking making. I didn't get many photos of this, but I got a photo of the boys counting out Hershey's kisses for the peanut butter blossom cookies. Charlie was so cute and serious about counting them all out. Then they both helped to unwrap them all. They took this job very seriously!

Next came new Christmas jammies for the boys. This year they were green flannel with sock monkeys on them.

Next came the first big snowstorm/blizzard of December 2009. This happened mid-month and we had three days off of school. They boys had fun playing outside and helping Daddy shovel, sort of.

One night before Christmas we made Christmas trees out of our food for dinner. We used french toast for the tree, bacon for the trunk and powdered sugar for the snow and sprinkles for the decorations. The boys enjoyed this and ate it all up.Doug and the boys did the Gingerbread house one night. It went pretty well. Each year it looks a little better.

Charlie had his kindergarten Christmas program. It was really nice and they sang some really cool songs. Some were traditional and some not so much. I couldn't get any really great photos because it was really crowded and the view wasn't so great.

I think that is about it. I am sure there is more we did of which I didn't take photos. There is definitely stuff that we didn't get to do that I had wanted to! Maybe next year!