Snow Days!!

We had quite the storm this week and Maddy got out of school early on Tuesday and had no school on Wednesday! It did warm up a little later in the day on Wednesday, so Maddy got to play outside for awhile with a couple of her neighbor friends:

Sledding on the snow drift!


Warming up with hot chocolate:

Play Hard, Sleep Hard......

I have to give Colby some credit here for being an exceptional sleeper. Even back when he was a newborn, he would take these super long naps and I always wondered why and how could he sleep that much!!! Well, after almost 2 years of wondering this and questioning if something is wrong, etc...I have come to realize this is just how his body is! Our doctor has re-affirmed this and told us to just enjoy it and stop worrying! Ha!

When he is awake he plays so hard and never stops moving, exploring (aka: getting into things he shouldn't :-)), learning, jumping, running.....And when it's time for him to sleep he crashes (and most days, so do I! ;-))

Here is a picture of Colby right before I woke him up from his nap the other day(which has become a regular occurence, since he ends up sleeping so late!)


Colby and his crib tent! Thanks to Josh and Missy for letting us borrow this! Colby can pull his body up out of his crib with just his arms alone and we are not ready for a toddler bed yet!!

My LIttle Helper....

Colby has been loving helping out around the house lately. He loves to throw things away for us or get his own cup, bowl, spoon,etc...Lately his "help" has gotten a little pricey as earlier in the week he dumped a bunch of Chuckie Cheese tokens down the kitchen drain and 2 of them got stuck in the garbage disposal and we couldn't get them out. After calling the plumber and spending $80, we were able to use the sink again!!

Here he is helping me with the laundry, one of his favorite things to do!!

Cool Picture -

We had 2 deer behind the fence in our backyard this past weekend. It was neat to watch them through our Living room window:

Weekend Fun ---

We had a fun weekend at Shane and Julie's wedding reception Sat. night and seeing family all weekend long. Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy stayed with us Friday night and we also got to see everyone else (minus Dick and Dana and family) at the wedding reception Sat. night. It was a great time and Maddy and Colby loved the dance!! Colby didn't stop moving and turning in circles! It was too funny!! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the reception as it was dark and the pics didn't turn out on my camera. Here are a few other pictures from the weekend, though:

Maddy and Colby enjoying Grandma's company:


Grandpa and Maddy using Maddy's new microscope:


Grandma reading books with Colby:


Colby and Finn eating lunch together:

SNOW!!!

We are getting LOTS of snow right now in Des Moines and the kids were out last night having a great time playing while Jeremy was clearing the driveway and sidewalk.

Colby really hasn't been out in the snow much at all this year as it's always been too cold, but last night he got some good time outside. Of course, he refuses to wear mittens, so I eventually had to drag him inside kicking and screaming because his hands were so red and I didn't want him to get frostbite!

No school closings or late starts here in WDM, though ---- We had to risk the roads today, which were NOT good at all!! I guess it has to be pretty bad before they will consider closing down a school around here ---

Maddy doing some shoveling:


Colby loving the snow:


Working hard; He would not put the shovel down once he started:


Look at his poor red hands!:

Happy New Year!!!!!

2011 is now upon us! Wow! I never thought I would be one to say that I am "recovering" after Christmas or I "made it through" ---- It always sounds so depressing and sad to me when people say that; Not nearly what Chrismtas is about! However.........after combining traveling with kids 2 times and sicknesses, I can officially say that this year "I survived Christmas"! Ha!!

We had quite the Christmas Extravaganza!! We traveled to Sioux City the weekend before Christmas and my entire family was there, which was great (and rare these days!). We went out to VA to see Jeremy's family for a week over Christmas. Lots of traveling, lots of family and lots of presents for the kids!! It was so nice to see everyone!!!! We really did have such a great time and are so blessed to have such wonderful families and cousins for the kids to play with!!!!

It was great for us to have almost 2 weeks of family time and now we are back into the swing of things with school for Maddy, work for Jeremy and Colby and I running around town doing all sorts of things!

Pictures to come soon!!

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS FOR MYSELF:
--Consistent work out schedule including lots of running and Pilates (my new thing right now!)
--Scrapbooking and photo books for the kids (need to get organzied and caught up -- using Colby's naptimes for this!)