Some of my favorite pictures from Christmas

Adam took a Monday off of work in December and we went to Des Moines to get our family photos taken, Christmas shop, and let Tyler play in some of the mall play areas. We also had a great lunch, fun snacks, and enjoyed a scenic drive home to look at the Christmas lights. It was a long but fun day.

Tyler LOVED riding on the train at Merle Hay Mall. There was no one else in line, so we indulged him in 3 rides so he could sit in each car. It was a highlight of his day!

He also got a long chat with Santa at Jordan Creek Mall since there was no line there either.

Over 3 weekends in a row of Christmas family gatherings, there was lots of time to play with cousins, and a little slumber party time too. Tyler & Kelsey...

Hannah

Tyler & Sarah

The weather was so mild, that Tyler even lucked out to get a tractor ride from Great Grandpa Geer - they drove around the farm lot, up past the pond and all the way to the top of the hill behind the farm!

Hannah working on her leg strength at Grandma Linda's

Opening presents....

 

New hat!

New book voiced by Grandpa Howard (The Three Little Pigs)

Excited about toys from Santa

Santa Train 2011

We surprised Tyler on a Wednesday night in early December with an early Christmas present. He opened up new Thomas the Train Christmas PJs and a ticket to ride the Santa Train in Boone. He had just watched the Polar Express movie for the first time a few days earlier and talked non-stop about everything on the Polar Express, since he lives trains so much, so this was pretty exciting, especially when I said we were leaving RIGHT NOW!

Ready to board the train.

Can you tell how excited he is?

Enjoying the cookie & hot chocolate.

This is how Hannah enjoyed the rocking train ride.

Here comes Santa

Tyler got a silver bell from Santa's sleigh, just like in the movie!!

They asked the kids to model their PJs down the aisle of the train in-between reading stories and singing Christmas carols. Tyler didn't hesitate at all.

It was a great family night out!

Some of December 2011

I just became a Thirty-One Consultant and my started kit arrived in December. It was a fun day - like an early Christmas present! The kids had fun playing in the big box too.

Hannah has inherited a habit from her grandmother - she is the most comfortable sleeping with something on or near her face. She likes to pull a blanket over her eyes, or bury her face in something soft as she falls asleep, if she can't find a blanket, she will throw her arm over her eyes instead.

6-month old Hannah in her Simpson College shirt

6-month old Tyler in his

Playing together

Showing off their Simpson pride in front of our Christmas Tree

What Tyler does when he is distraught over being stuck in his room for rest time. (Tear apart his room and slide the pieces under his door to show us his displeasure)

November 2011

Since I am way behind in my posts, I thought I would try to get caught up on this snowy Saturday morning. Here are some photos of our photos from November...

The Iowa 4-H Camp (where I used to work) had a "wear your camp t-shirt" so we took this one and posted it to their site.

Hanging out, cuddling on the couch, and watching TV

My Mom has saved some of the clothes I wore when I was little. I put Hannah in some of them and tried to pose her to look like my baby photos in the same outfits so I could compare them. The photos turned out cute - she was patient with me until nap time. But the baby photos of mine I scanned in are on my mom's computer still. Hannah is 5 months old in these photos.

How Tyler spends his mornings at home

Hannah Update

Here is Hannah's 4-month picture from October. We started giving her cereal last month, she wasn't sure what to think at first by by now she has become a bigger fan of the daily spoon & bowl routine.

Halloween 2011

Last year Tyler got to be Thomas the Tank Engine for Halloween. He was only 2 so didn't really understand the tradition so I picked it out for him. I took him trick 'o treating and had no idea how much he would enjoy it. He did great and when I said it was time to head home, he said, "Oh Man!" for the first time. Then over the summer he saw his costume in the closet and asked to go out to get candy again with his bucket. It is hard to explain to a 2 year-old that the holiday is only one day a year. Here is a Halloween 2010 photo BEFORE the candy.

This year he was all prepared and kept telling me he wanted to be the engine named PERCY (Thomas's best friend), so I found a Percy costume. Then he kept changing his mind going back & forth between the two engines. He ended up being Thomas for the ghost walk in Clarinda and Percy for the Boone Trick 'o Treating night. He loved going to people's houses and saying trick or treat this year! About half way thru the neighborhood we found Tyler's friend Juliana with her dad so we joined forces for the rest of the night and finally snapped a picture of him in his costume for Halloween 2011 AFTER the candy this time.

Hallowgiving 2011

My hometown has a ghost walk on Saturday when kids in their Halloween costumes walk around to the businesses on the square and collect candy. We participated for the first time. Even Hannah got dressed for the occasion - no candy for her though.

Pretty Page County Courthouse in the background

Thomas the Tank Engine was running out of steam by the time we had waited in line for the walk to begin.

Each year on the last weekend of October, my dad's side of the family comes together near my hometown to celebrate an early Thanksgiving. Since it is close to Halloween - we have dubbed this event "Hallowgiving." Close to 50 family members come for a day full of family fun and lots of great food. Sometimes all that food and fun and wear the (big and little) kids out!

 Quiet time for some of the kids, including Tyler and cousin Kelsey

 Betsy and Kelsey enjoying the afternoon craft - painting a pumpkin jar.

 Trust and Faith painting together

Conner

 Kelsey

 Katie

The next day we went on a dry creek bed walk on the Geer Family Farm. Tyler and Kelsey hunted for treasures for their baskets.

 

 

 Grandma & Kelsey checking out a wolly worm

 

 Climbing under....

 ...and over

While in Clarinda my family aslo got a family picture taken on the farm for my parent's Thanksgiving letter. Tyler and Kelsey played ring-around-the-rosey after the photo shoot.

 

 Then it was snack time in Great-Grandma's kitchen

 Then we braved the windy day to go collect some field corn for my Mom's squirrels to enjoy over the winter. This field had been damaged by hail, so there was a lot of corn on the ground to find.