Merry Christmas!

We have been blessed with so many wonderful gifts of family, friends, and so much more than we need. Happy Birthday, Jesus!
(Sorry no pictures this time :)

Weekend Away

Izaac & Bella were invited to my parents this past weekend. I don't know all of details of what they did, but it looks like they had fun :)
Casey and I enjoyed a quiet and relaxing weekend of going out with friends and being lazy--just what we needed!
Thanks mom & dad!!!

Halloween Weekend

Here is our little ladybug and our scary pirate. Izaac had decided on the pirate costume about a week before Halloween, but three days before, he completed the costume by knocking out one of his very slightly loose front teeth at school. Bella also had a costume change, like girls should, and wore a princess dress trick-or-treating to her aunt and uncles' houses.

This weekend we also had 2 of our new couple friends from Creighton come with us to my parents' for the weekend--Dave & Dahlia and Dan & Chealse. We had so much fun! It was a little cold outside, but we still had some good long walks and some time at my parent's land and just some nice relaxing. We are so thankful for our new friendships.

Even grown-ups enjoy a game of "Red Rover"

Bella loves to be outside

Izaac had some good tree climbing time

Changing Seasons

We have been really enjoying the last few weeks. Izaac's birthday was great, we had a really fun visit with Grandpa & Grandma Green & Uncle Cass (which I had great intentions of taking many pictures of and doing a blog on, but of course didn't), and a wonderful trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend and quite a bit of "Daddy Time".

The pumpkin patch was loads of fun that you can only experience in the Midwest.

Pig Races

Corn Box

Haybales


Tractors

And of course, Homer :)

There was also a corn maze, pumpkin cannon, lots of animals to feed and pet, haunted houses and the hayride to the pumpkin patch. We had a really great morning there hanging out as a family and with our friends.

I feel like the last few weeks we have gone from swimsuits to winter coats and hats overnight and when I went to look at the pictures I have on my camera, I realized I was right! So here are the pictures of the dramatic change in seasons.

The day before it snowed, I started thinking about the possiblity and bought a couple of shovels. It turned out that Izaac's small shovel was a great sled to go down our hill in our back yard, since I hadn't thought of a real sled...I'm sure we'll have another opportunity to use a real sled!

Birthday Party

Our little boy turns 6 tomorrow! I can't believe it. He is such a sweet, big boy and we are so blessed to have him as our son.

When we found out we were moving to Omaha last January, Izaac started planning his 6th birthday party at Grandpa Kuiper's land. The weather was iffy all week, but we were blessed with a cool, rain free day last Sunday and we got to have Izaac's party at the land with lots of my relatives and complete with hotdogs, smores, cake, games, a hike, 4 wheeling and a pinata. It was so much fun! Happy Birthday, Buddy!

The Weekend

Casey has been working really hard and doing really well in his classes. He has another big test tomorrow in Anatomy, so hopefully that will be a good score too. We do get to see him from time to time. This morning after church we went to a little lake with a trail and went for the 3 mile walk around it. Izaac biked and Bella rode in the stroller and we stopped half way around for a picnic snack. Very fun!



Yesterday, we went on a "hike" with Izaac's Awana class. It was actually at the same lake we walked around today, but we didn't go all the way around. Izaac is doing such a good job at Awana and learning about 3 new verses each week.



Then yesterday afternoon, the kids and I went over to our friend, Dahlia's house and baked cookies with her and Chealse, whose husbands go to school with Casey. The cookies were delicious and I have eaten way too many!

If you would like to know what we look out at every day, here is a picture of the view from our backyard.


Izaac loves to take pictures with my camera and when it's digital, who cares, right? So here are a few pictures from Izaac...

Hide & Seek and Shoes

Ok, this is not the most interesting blog update, but I have 10 minutes and a few pictures, so why not, right? Bella has been LOVING Hide and Seek lately. She is actually very good and hides somewhere new almost every time. Here are a couple of shots of her hiding under her bed and under the dining room table.
Izaac also learned to tie his shoes a couple of weeks ago. Here is a picture of his first tied shoe :)

Zoo Trip

I just realized that although we did see a lot of real animals at the zoo, I only took pictures of the kids on statues of animals. Oh well, you didn't really want to see the zoo animals anyway, right?


Cheetah Izaac

Monkey Bella swinging from a bar in the aquarium.

The kids playing Connect 4 together...so sweet :)

Bella's "Cheese" every time she sees the camera