Daddy's Big Helper!!

Ryan decided he wanted to help daddy shovel the sidewalk last night...it was the cutest thing:) He refused to come inside until dad was finished. His poor cheeks were so cold and red when they finished.

Mattie Turns 7!!!

Mattie turned 7 on December 2nd...we can't believe it!! We had a small family Birthday party for her and then had her friends come over a little later. They made crafts for the majority of the party and then told ghost stories and ran around the house:) She got some great gifts including some new clothes, snow boots, pajamas, barbie dolls, learning laptop, password journal and a new desk. She really enjoys writing so we thought she could use a desk in her room.

Ryan's 2nd Birthday

Ryan had a wonderful Birthday party. We had a lot of friends and family show up. He got a lot of neat gifts. We bought him a tool bench which he absolutely loved!! We couldn't get him to stop playing with it to open the other gifts...bad idea to give him that gift first :) He was pretty shy when it was cake time...I don't think he liked everyone staring at him and singing.

Halloween 2009

Well, it was a freezing cold Beggar's Night this year!! Ryan only stayed out for about 20 minutes and Mattie for about an hour. We did have fun though! Mattie was a "Wicked" Witch and Ryan was a "Nice" Tiger :)

Pumpkin Patch

I took the kiddos to Williamson's Pumpkin Patch close to our house. They had a lot of fun there. Mattie loved to take pictures of the animals and Ryan loved to carry his little pumpkins around with him. Mattie decided it would be fun to drag me in this dark maze in which I had to crawl through holding on to Ryan's hand and 3 pumpkins....it was a nightmare getting out of that thing. Ryan was so afraid of the dark...poor guy :(

Ryan at the Park

Here are some pictures of Ryan playing at the park with Aunt B and Uncle Luke. His favorite was the swings, of course.

Go Hawkeyes!!

We had a fun day over at Mike and Heidi's house watching the Iowa-Iowa State Game. Mattie and Ryan played the bean bag game and then decided to hose everyone down with water :)

Mattie starts First Grade!!

Well, Mattie started First Grade. She really enjoys her teacher, Mr.Herrick. She has a lot of the same kids in her class again this year.

More Okoboji Pictures

Okoboji Summer '09

So I know I haven't written anything for a long time but I am definitely going to keep this up to date now...I promise :)

Anyways, these are some pictures of us on our second trip to Okoboji this summer. We had a great time and the weather was absolutely beautiful. Shawn and Virginia bought a boat. We went on the new nature walk near their house which is filled with giant wooden bugs...it was really cool. Mattie is pretending to be chased in one of the photos-that was Papa's idea!! We also celebrated Shawn, Larry and Ellie's birthdays while we were there and had a fish fry. Busy, busy. Mattie loved spending time with cousin Ellie and Ryan had a fun time making mom run after him.