Nate's Birthday

Nate turned 4 in January! My baby isn't much of a baby anymore! We celebrated with a family trip to Legoland and Rainforest Cafe the weekend before, and then with dinner with his grandparents and one of his little buddies.

This is how he wanted his cake decorated. :)

Bath time sillies

My Lil' Dragon

Nate started Tae Kwon Do lessons last month. He usually complains about going, but then has a blast while he's there. In his "Little Dragons" class they earn a new stripe color on their belt every two months, so he's already earned a yellow stripe.

trying it out for the first time

His first broken board. It was foam, but for his first round of testing he broke a narrow real wood one.

My ninjas practicing their moves

The boys are also taking a homeschool PE class at a nearby gym, and Charlie just started baseball practice last week. He's excited to play on the same team as he did last fall.

Armed Force Bowl

Dave does some work for the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, and this year he got tickets for us to attend. The football game between Air Force and Rice was really secondary to getting to see helicopters and tanks and honoring those who serve in our armed forces. 

I decided to watch the flyover, instead of worry too much about getting a photo of it, so this is all I got.

Seven paratroopers flew into the stadium before the game, and the last one, who brought the American flag and the game ball, was a double amputee. 

The apache helicopters took off and flew around the stadium at halftime.

Christmas Day

The boys and I drove back to Texas with my parents and we arrived home on Christmas Eve. Just in time to have a leisurely Christmas morning at home.

New bikes!

Lego assembly

It was pretty cold that day, so the boys tried their new bikes out in the garage.

We went over to Dave's parents' house for dinner.

Playing in the snow on our White Christmas

December

Making gingerbread houses

Making cooking 

Checking out the presents

The boys and I went home to Iowa the week before Christmas. We enjoyed some wonderful family time and a pretty good blizzard. The boys loved playing in the snow, and my mom surprised us all with a wonderful sleigh ride in perfect winter conditions. It was the type of thing they write Christmas songs about.

Celebrating Grandpa's retirement

Family photos

Photos taken this fall by the wonderful Amanda Jameson. Check her out here.