Thick in the season of Iowa baseball

Sam's baseball team has played for the past six weeks and goes until July! The Hiawatha Kids League is a class act and Chris is coaching his first year!

Magical May Moving & Money

We started off the month of May with a new house. At the left, you can see our garage is empty enough to fit one car in AND there are very few boxes left.


Below is our family room...complete with Katie playing with her toys.





Kitchen and dining room and over there is our living room - Hooray!

Sam and Basketball

We have a future basketball star on our hands. Sam has developed a love for dribbling, shooting and playing ball since he participated in the 1st grade Y winter basketball league. It's amazing to watch how his skills have developed over the past three weeks. He'll spend time out shooting and dribbling every day for almost an hour, at least. He's almost better than mom, and definitely better than dad! We'll be looking into a portable hoop for him as opposed to the one attached to our garage.

35th Anniversary

Today we are traveling to Farm Country to celebrate my parents 35th Anniversary. What an accomplishment! Of course, we were supposed to travel tomorrow, but the onset of a winter storm forecasting six inches of snow and ice made us quickly reassess our plans. My parents don't travel much, they have a hobby farm, which keeps them close to home. The kids are always excited when we announce a trip to Farm Country...the trips are always pretty quick, with just one overnight, but it's always so awesome to spend time with my family.

Divorce is so prominent in America today. I am not even sure what the statistics are anymore, but I've seen and heard from many close to me the devastation and havoc experienced by having to go through this experience. I'm so proud of my parents and happy as they celebrate this monumental event. Happy 35th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

We spent Christmas at home in Cedar Rapids this year. Over the past few years, we have traveled to Bear Creek to visit my parents on Christmas Eve and then head home for church on Christmas Eve. With the wintry weather and the longer distance, this was our first Christmas at home. On Christmas Eve we went to 3 p.m. family church and then stopped at the deli to pick up some yummy food. We frosted cookies for Santa and then let the kids open a few presents. Such joy and energy over the prospect of opening presents! Christmas morning, the kids woke up to find the tree surrounded by presents. They were content to open their stockings until Chris returned home from work at 800 a.m. Such patience. Sam was up at 4 am! After presents, presents and presents, we tried to restore some order to the house, opened up the packages and played until Chris returned home at noon. Then off to chinese buffet for our traditional Christmas dinner. I don't think the Chinese celebrate Christmas anywhere as they are always open! After our return home, naps were in order and we all took a nice long nap.

Christmas Joy

Samuel and Katherine both were involved in the Christmas program this year at church. Their first formal Christmas program-the program itself was an awesome celebration of the Jesse tree - and the best children's program I've seen in my thirty plus years. It included a "hand sign" dance, vignettes, songs by each class, dancing and narratives, as well as a couple of solos. All of this put together in one week by Dan and Megan Dyrland. This photo is of the children eating a half dozen of sugar cookies in between performances. The 11:00 service had much more energy. We feel very blessed to have found a church which offers so much to our family.

Katherine's 4th birthday

Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH2fPnBSK9o

Our little princess turns 4 this weekend and Chris turns 34. Lots of cake and celebrations.

The wintry weather mix of rain, snow and cold arrived just in time for the celebrations to begin. Nana and Ken bravely drove to Cedar Rapids from St. Louis to spend the weekend with us. Kate began asking at noon on Friday when they would arrive. It continued all afternoon until their arrival around 7 p.m. It's always wonderful to visit with them and to have an extra set of hands to help out.