Winter Fun

I know there are lots of people out there who complain about our cold weather. But Iowa winters just aren't fun unless you have snow and ice to play in! I'm so thankful to live in an area with four distinct seasons! Some of the kids' favorite winter weather activities are being pulled behind the 4-wheeler or Ranger on sleds, building snow forts and tunnels and ice riding on the pond. Mark put ice screws in Ethan's dirt bike tires and he's having a blast! He loves to be apart of what the big guys are doing!

After spending 40 minutes getting all four kids bundled up and driving over to Grandma's, this is the sight I saw. The guys just finishing up for the day. Bummer we just missed watching them!

Ethan zipping around the pond.

Amelia likes to get in on the fun too!

Amelia's 3-wheeler died, so Grandpa gave her a push back. It's a 1983 model so I'm not sure how much life it has left! :)

Anton isn't too fond of his snow clothes, and for good reason. Every time I set the poor kid down he tipped right over. :(

A boy happy to be outside enjoying the weather!

Christmas 2010

It's been a busy week filled with cooking, cleaning, family get-togethers and church services! It seems we've been in and out of the truck all week, and this week looks to be much of the same! We're very thankful to have most of our family close, so that we can see everyone during the holidays!

Dressed and ready for the Sunday School Program at church.

Amelia couldn't wait to wear this pretty dress from Grandma VDB!

Do you have enough help opening your present Anton?

Ethan loved putting his Lego combine together!

So glad my kids aren't the only ones that do this! :)

We love you Logan!

Amelia likes dressing up dolls, and had fun making a little closet out of a box for all of these dresses.

Alex sporting his new John Deere fur hat!

I think he "accidentally" left it at my house. So if you join us for some sledding sometime soon you may find me wearing this furry hat! :)

Horsing Around

Here are a few pictures of the kids entertaining themselves. We only have a couple days left until school is out for Christmas break and I will get to do a little more entertaining! Ethan is especially looking forward to a break from school! He is very excited to help Mark and be outside! We also have several Christmas gatherings planned, a overnight hotel stay in IA City, a birthday party and hopefully lots of outdoor fun in the snow or at least on the ice!

Amelia proudly showing me her snowball.

Amelia & Ethan thought it was hilarious to throw little snow balls on the roof. They would watch them roll down, getting bigger and bigger before falling off the edge.

I love you my sweetness! Kiss, Kiss :) Anton LOVES cats and I think they love him too!

I'm not sure why our kids like to play on the stairway, but they do. Now that Anton climbs the steps I have to keep an extra watchful eye on them!

Anton at 10 months

It seems like the more kids you have, the faster they grow up! At least that's the way it feels in our family, Anton is 10 months old already! He continues to grow and grow, and is quickly catching up with Eljiah. I'm guessing he's around 22 lbs already!

Balls of any size are a favorite for Anton. He especially loves to play catch!

He loves to eat! But the poor guy is gumming everything, still no teeth!

Anton is my first kid to ever mess with the Christmas tree. He knocked it over once right after I got it set up and twice the next morning after it was decorated. I tied to the ceiling with a bungee cord that I hooked to a plant hook.

We have 5 cats and Anton loves them! He's even started kissing pictures of the kitties in this book. It's SO cute!

He's an outdoor kid for sure! Most kids will bring you shoes to show you they want to go outside. Anton just tries to put on a hat. :)

What a mess maker! Pulling out bags, emptying out drawers and cupboards, unrolling the toilet paper, dumping toys out of the toy box..... to name a few. :)

Dirt Work

With the nearly 50 inches of rain we had this spring and summer, lots of work was needed to get the fields back in shape. We're thankful Mark has kept busy with his track hoe this month! It helped (financially) make up for the lower than normal crop yields. It's wonderful how God provides and gives us opportunities to support our family! Not only does Mark enjoy working with his track hoe, he is good at it which makes it all the better! Mark cleaning out our neighbors ditch.

It's amazing how much dirt he moves in just a couple hours!

When we brought Mark some coffee time Elijah and Amelia took a little ride.

Elijah LOVES track hoes! His favorite toy right now is a little toy track hoe. He also has a little semi with a trailer that he uses to haul his track hoe around the house to different "jobs". Another fun thing he does is sing. He makes up little songs with one to three words that he sings over and over. Most songs have track hooooe, track hooooe in them. :)

Girls Night Out

My sister-in-law Suzanne had a special birthday this month so we thought it would be fun to take her out. We had a fun evening out with only the sister-in-laws! We spent our evening in Des Moines getting our nails done and going out to dinner. It was a very fun evening and I look forward to our next night out! Thanks to all our babysitters!

Cassia, Suzanne, Kristen, Becky, Me & Emily

All of us getting our nails done.

Hmmm, the CAT dealership doesn't look like a usual stop for 6 ladies on a "ladies night out" trip. Seems we didn't totally get the evening totally off, but at least we were helpful and brightened up the CAT guys evening a little. :)

Dan & Ang's Wedding (Part 2)

I've gathered a few more pictures from my sisters wedding. She has nearly 1,000 pictures to choose from! If you have facebook she is slowing getting them online if you want to check more out there.

The entire wedding party.

Amelia ended up carrying her little flowers as well as the ring bearer pillow for Elijah, who wasn't sure what was going on. :)

A good looking family, Ang, Dan & Ben!

Ethan was so excited to tell his cousins that he now has 3 uncle Dan's and 2 cousins named Ben! :)

As if our outdoor pictures weren't cold enough!

Actually the short ride to the reception wasn't too bad. We had coats and blankets to keep warm with.

Me with my handsome hubby!

After a fun couple days celebrating with Dan and Ang we headed home. We had lots of interesting sights, a few horse and buggies and at least 50 or more dead deer strapped to trailers or cars.

NICE! Welcome to Missouri Ang! :)

Dan & Ang's Wedding (Part 1)

Last weekend my sister Angela got married. We traveled to central Missouri to a little town called Bunceton for their wedding. I was very excited to be her matron of honor, Amelia was a flower girl f(this was the third time this year) :), and Elijah was a "fill in" ring bearer. I'm looking forward to getting many more pictures from family and friends to post soon.

Ang bought all of us scarves and gloves as part of our gift. They were very much needed! It was a cold and windy day!

She married a farmer so it's only fitting to take pictures around the farm.

My nephew wasn't thrilled about the whole wedding/traveling thing. So we decided to put his tux on Elijah and have him walk down the aisle with Amelia.

Ang picked the most beautiful flowers ever! These are our bouquets sitting on the bar.

Ang and I in front of an old barn in their yard.

The wedding party at church.

Dan made this bar out of barn boards in part of a day. It turned out very well went perfectly with the rustic fall decorations around the shop.

Ang and Dan in front of their old barn.

One of the my favorite things about the area is the beautiful old barns everywhere!

We've had nice weather for the past couple Sunday's which makes being outdoors a priority! Mark's motocross tracks have been busy with riders enjoying the few mild days of fall. Last weekend we had over 30 riders with a bunch of spectators and the Sunday before brought several new faces as well. Motocross riders weren't the only ones out enjoying be beautiful day, Gary Hanson (GJ Hanson Photography) was also at our place taking pictures of the guys riding. He was very kind to give me some pointers on photography and even sent us a CD of pictures he took of Mark and our family. Here are a few of my favorites from Gary.

I love the leaves behind Mark!

Mark and Brad

Mark rounding a corner.

Amelia looking cute!