Jackie Moon and Bella Buttonian: December 2009

Christmas in Iowa

This year we spent Christmas in Iowa with Nathaniel's family. We braved the roads and snow and made it up there on Christmas Eve afternoon. That evening was spent playing games and eating Christmas Eve dinner. Aunt Kaisha and Uncle Jake were back from Florida so we were excited to spend some time with them! Christmas morning Santa came for a visit. The kids were shocked and excited to see Santa had come to pay them a special visit. He brought them stockings and Christmas ornaments! After present opening we spent most of Friday lounging around and moving from room to room grazing on food. Jack and Bella also enjoyed watching Madagascar while we were there. A couple of weeks ago Jack and Bella went up and spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and sat through an entire movie in the movie theater. Very exciting. Jack told us that he watched TV. HAHA!
Saturday morning the kids got to go out and sled in some of the beautiful Iowa snow before we headed back home. When we got home, we had our own family Christmas here where Jack's highlight was his new "Mack" truck (from the movie Cars), Doc (also from Cars) and Optimus Prime. Bella fell in love with her new Barbie, nail polish and little laptop they each got. We've been working really hard on counting and singing the alphabet and these little laptops have lots of fun games to help the kids learn more! Bella already said "S" this morning and pointed to it on the screen. Go Bella! Jacks counting to 11 now without a second thought. I can't believe how big they are getting!
We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and has a fantastic New Year. We're so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives!!!
I have added a lot of updates to the blog today so make sure to scroll down and read them all. This holiday season was just so hectic and trying to keep up proved nearly impossible!

Christmas with Popi and Nana and Jack and Bella's Christmas program

Popi and Nana had the right idea this year when they decided that they would spend the holiday in Mexico. I have to say that as I sit here in over a foot of snow I am a little green with envy. Before they left for their holiday they came to celebrate Christmas with Jack and Bella. It also happened to be the night of the kids Christmas program at school. We were picture and video taking fools as the kids sang "Shake your fluffy tail feather" and "We wish you a merry Christmas." It was all very cute! Bella really enjoyed doing the dancing and singing. Jack stood on the end and didn't do much but clap with the audience when everything was done. I think he was a little nervous!
After the program we came back to the house and celebrated Christmas with stockings and presents. Jack and Bella got some cool stockings from Popi and Nana with their names on them. I went ahead and ordered Nathaniel and I stockings from the same place so now we have our complete set! You'll notice in the pictures that Bella is wearing something on her head. That's her crown that she got and insisted on putting on....upside down.

Four Wheeling in Iowa

The first weekend in December we headed up to Iowa to see Grandma and Grandpa Norgren. While we were there Jack and Nathaniel rode the new four wheeler that Grandma and Grandpa got. Jack is in heaven when we go to Iowa between getting to ride in the combine, on the tractor, on the mower and now a 4-wheeler! Bella doesn't like the big noisy things and is quite content watching from the window but Jack can't get enough of all of it! Look close and you will notice he is waving in a lot of them.

Wanted to add a picture of Nika. She's Nathaniel's parents old dog and very sweet. The kids love her!

Thanksgiving at the Lake

Thanksgiving this year was an exciting one as we all got to spend it at Popi and Nana's new lake house! We talked to the twins about it a lot on the drive and as a direct result of that, they said all weekend "I'm at the lake!" We had a great time there with our Ohio family, Popi and Nana and Uncle Johnny. Nathaniel and I were able to get most of our Christmas shopping done while we were down there, along with take in quite a bit of college football. We spent Thanksgiving night on the resort at Tan-Tar-a where we had cocoa and cookies and got to see Santa "fly" in via firetruck bucket. There was also a pretty spectacular fireworks display that the kids really enjoyed. We can't wait to go back and spend more time at the lake house (especially when it warms up!
!)