Christmas in Iowa!!

We headed to Boone, IA for the Christmas holiday. We had a great time playing in Aunt Jenny's and Uncle Chris' (Bones) giant shed/garage - sledding in the snow and opening presents.

Here is Drew posing for one of several dozen photos for his Aunt Jenny - he was modeling with different poses - hysterical.

Drew also got to 'sled' behind the four wheeler - the snow was so thick we were safe that the sled couldn't slide into the 4 wheeler - :) - mother of the year - he had a blast playing but once up and able to run and play - not so much, a little too deep of snow and he was packaged up like a snausage.

We headed to church and tried to grab a photo quickly :) - Drew had all of a 15 minute nap that day - nice -

While opening of presents, Drew was much more into paper than presents or puzzles - he and

the boys ripped up all the paper (along with Baba's help) and then kept throwing it up in the air like it was snow - nice - very messy but fun. Baba got all three of her grandsons to sit still in the same pj's for pictures.

Ho Ho Ho - The end of a year......

So here we are, caught up for the calendar year - I think the New Year's Resolution will support regular updates of the blog - they will be short but often (I hope). We got the house decorated the last weekend of the month, lights all over the outside like the Griswold's Christmas Movie. We finally moved to a 'fake' tree to allow for dogs and small children's hands. After the next several years will move back to a real tree.

This month has come and gone - with traveling to a lull - we had some company the first weekend of the month from New Orleans. Scott McCoy, Michael (Scott's partner), Scott Jr. and Jen all came for a visit and to watch the Saints vs. Bengals game. This was also the weekend we got lots of snow. The football game was so FRICKIN cold - I am bundled up and only my eyes can be seen.

We spent the next few weekends shopping for Christmas gifts, attending Holiday parties and spending time with friends. The Herrington's went in on adopting a family for Christmas with us. We had a family of 6 to shop for and were able to budget to buy three of the children bikes (the 4th was a newborn - not needed :)). We are headed to Iowa for part of Christmas while Laura heads to Dallas - we have a friend staying at the house and watching over the dogs.

The snow came in thick last week - John bought a sled for Drew and ran around in the COLD with him - we are now nursing a runny nose but he had SUCH a good time. He looks like the kid off of A Christmas Story that is so bundled up he can't walk - LOL.

Laura and Drew have been helping run errands and we finally got the garage so emptied out we could fit all three SUV's inside away from the snow. Drew is still bundled up though for errands while the car warms up.

We got the Christmas shopping and wrapping done quickly so we could celebrate Christmas before we all leave on vacation. Lots of gifts for such a small family. When Drew got up from his nap yesterday we opened presents - he got lots of music items and a big yellow tonka truck. I think he got the hang of unwrapping presents which made it so much fun to watch.

I will post more pic from Iowa where I am sure I have no idea how snowy it can get.