Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

Wow! Where has the year gone???!!!?? I can't believe Christmas is already this week! Thanks to all of you that have been following my blog this past year. I feel so blessed to have such a great family and great friends!! I can't believe that Maddy is almost 5 years old and Colby will be turning 1 soon -- I have loved my time at home with my kids and I'm looking forward to another crazy, fun-filled year next year. Things are always changing and there is never a dull moment around here, that is for sure! Our family has truly been fortunate to be able to live on one income and we are definately thankful for all of the blessings God has given us.

I have added many updates from the past month to the blog and I'm sure I will have many more Christmas updates soon! Until, then, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas with your families and many blessings in the year to come!!

My Top Five Blessings from this past year:
1. My faith
2. My wonderful, supportive husband
3. My 2 healthly, happy children
4. My sisters and brothers, mom and dad, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews and mother and father-in-law
5. My great friends (and my kids' friends) and support system

A few more Thanksgiving pics.....

Dana and Adam:

Lizzy and Diane:

Colby and Adam:

Colby and Adam:

Thanksgiving update -- very late!

So I never got around to blogging about Thanksgiving and I really didn't want to leave it out, so I am doing it now ;-) Better late than never, right???!!!?? We went to Sioux City to my brother Dick and his wife Dana's house. It was a great time and Maddy got to see many of her cousins, which is always fun. Colby had a great time seeing his little cousin Adam who is only 6 weeks older than him. His cousin turns 1 on Christmas day. Very cool! Here are some pictures I captured from the day:

Maddy making mini gingerbread houses:

Maddy and cousin Steph working on the gingerbread houses:

Colby exploring the house:

Maddy holding Colby; what a surprise ;):

Colby and cousin Adam playing:

Princesses on Ice....

I decided to surprise Maddy this year and take her to Disney Princesses on Ice the Sunday after Thanksgiving. She was super surprised and absolutely LOVED it!! We had pretty good seats and I'll have to say it was rather amazing. We have never gone to a live show like this before, so I was pretty impressed. We had a great time!



Maddy wore her Snow White dress to the show. There were tons of girls dressed up there. It was cute:


All the princesses came out at the end. Really cool:

Hellooooo Santa!!!!

So we took Maddy and Colby to see Santa at the mall and were totally expecting the worst out of Colby. We were all ready with the camera in hand and the plan was to put him on Santa's lap and then quick take the photo before he started wailing -- well, to our surprise, Colby took a liking to Santa and just stared and stared at him and no tears at all!! I couldn't believe it! Of course, then I had to talk Jeremy's ear off all the way out of the mall about how we should have had them dressed up and what a great Christmas photo we could have gotten, etc..., etc.....anyways, just another lesson in the fact that your kids will never fail to surprise you just when you think you have them all figured out :-)

Kennedy Family Christmas

We had the Kennedy Family Christmas the weekend of Dec. 12th. It was in Des Moines and almost everyone was able to make it this year. It was a great time of gift exchanges, food and of course, the annual bowling tournament!


Jeremy holding baby Finn. Awwwww....doesn't Jeremy just look like he's so ready for another one ;-)


Maddy and Cara at the bowling ally:


Grandma with some of the grandkids at the bowling ally:


Good ol' uncle Joe:


Maddy and Joe in the tent:

Maddy's Christmas Program

Maddy had her Christmas program at preschool last week. She was very excited and did a great job. Colby loved watching the kids sing and was clapping through the entire program! Here are some pictures:




Maddy and her friend Annelise -- She loves to tell me that Annelise is from China and always asks why there are so many people that live in China.

Maddy and her teacher Mrs. Graen. She loves her teacher this year!