Blizzard of 2011

Tuesday night we got hit with "The Blizzard". It created beautiful snow drifts and lots of wonderful snow to play with. The kids and I built a big fort in the front yard with tunnels and chairs. They had fun climbing on the huge snow banks and we were even able to sled down some little hills in our front yard. We were snowed in for a while since our van was parked in the garage and our alley wasn't plowed for several days. Finally, all our neighbors came out with shovels and we cleared our whole alley. It was a pretty cool community moment.

Harvest Time Friends

A couple weekends ago I hosted Girls Night In for friends from church. We looked back on 2010 and talked about expectations for the year to come. We also played my new favorite group game, Telephone Pictionary.

A Weekend with Sandy

Jadon's preschool has a class pet named Sandy, a stuffed monkey. Each weekend, Ms. Beth draws a name of the lucky student who gets to bring him home for the weekend, play with him, and take care of him. Jadon had a chance a few weekends ago. Leah got really attached to Sandy and Jadon took a little more interest in his chimp. They fed their monkeys play food at mealtimes, made beds for them at night, played with them, and took them special places. Typically, Jadon and Leah don't play with their stuffed animals to this extent, so it was a good experience to broaden their horizons.

Dale, Nancy, and Avery's January Visit

Dale and his family came back for a week in January. We had a pizza party with the Joneses on Sunday and Nancy, Amie, and I took the kids to the family museum on Monday. This time the big attraction was the stage. They have a juke box, dress-up clothes, tap shoes, and a stage with a catwalk. The kids hung out there for a long time, playing songs and dancing. That night we took them to Jungle Bungle. The following Friday, Larry and Cindy babysat all 5 kids, while the couples and Deb went out for dinner. It's so nice when we're all together.

Flemings and Rouses

On Saturday, January 8th, Jeff and Charity and Travis, Melissa, Eliana, Moriah, and Elijah came to Sterling for a visit. We hadn't seen the Flemings in a long time and it was good to reconnect. At first the girls were running around playing together and Jadon felt a little left out. Then he and Moriah discovered their common love for "How to Train Your Dragon" and played dragons together for most of the night. In this picture, the kids had just put on a little show, with Eliana as the director. Our kids had so much fun that night and so did we!

New Year's Eve- Tori's Wedding

Tori is a girl Brian and I got to know when he was pastoring Faith Family Fellowship. Her family was very involved. Tori is one of the most fun and godly girls I know. She just got married on New Year's Eve and we had a great time at the wedding, the reception, and in between :) Brian and I spent most of the evening with 2 couples we are the closest to hear in Sterling, the Petersons and Johnsons. I failed to get a good picture of all of us, but I really got inspired to use the camera when all the funky hats came out at midnight (a Gaumer tradition). We went outside to ring in the New Year and make a lot of noise. What a fun night!

Notice the accent colors are a rainbow- pretty cool!

Those cowboy hats from my parents came in handy.

The Johnsons look so cool and colorful!

Noon Year's Eve

Brian gave the kids and me a membership to the Family Museum in Bettendorf, so we decided to use it right away. We met up with Amie, Kylie, and Dylan at the museum for their kids' New Year's Eve party. We played all around the museum and then visited stations where they made noise makers, poppers, and party hats. At 11:45am we all gathered in the main hall. There was a brass band playing lively kids' songs and a big clock counting down to noon. At 12, the kids pulled open their poppers and everyone shouted "Happy New Year!" It really was a Times Square experience for kids- very fun and well done.