After Christmas we took a trip to Iowa City to see the Do Family... and to our surprise, Grandma and Grandpa Wilson came along too! :) We hadn't seen them since before his heart surgery, so it was such a GREAT surprise to see them and everyone!  We went out for dinner and visited for a couple of hours and then headed back home. Iowa City is a great meeting place since it is about the same distance for each of us! :)

Playdate!

Over Christmas break we got to have a playdate with our friends, the Erickson's!! We meet with Kim and Kyle often for playdates, but since it was break time, Jessica and Parker got to be involved to! Minus the few meltdowns... we had a good time!! :) We LOVE getting to spend time with the Erickson's!! :)


It's great spending time together... our kids are so close in age... and generally get along very well and I LOVE getting to chat with Kim!! Jessica and Parker are both 7 and Kyle is 5 and Owen 4-1/2!
 
Kyle...

Jessica & Drew...



My goofy boys wrestling...

Arrrrrr!

We have a PIRATE in our house!!! ha!! :)



Hamann Christmas

We drove to Battle Creek to spend Christmas day with the Hamann family... after we finished our own Christmas at home. We opened presents, had a delicious lunch, and spent the afternoon visiting with everyone before heading over to see Great Grandma Hamann and then heading home. Everyone agrees, that we had a GREAT Christmas and got EVERYTHING we wanted and more!! :) THANK YOU to the Hamann/Edsen families! :)

Our little ham! ;)

Visiting Great Grandma! :)

Wishing everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

Christmas Morning...

Santa came to visit the Hamann boys... even though there was a little fear that he may not since Parker and Owen had been fighting so much lately! THANKFULLY he made it and even left the boys a letter telling them to keep trying to get along with each other and he told them how proud he was of all of their accomplishments throughout the year!! :)

We didn't get many pictures... we were busy videoing Drew's first Christmas! :)

Canadian Christmas! :)

This year we got to spend Christmas with my Aunt Carolyn (a.k.a. Auntie Carolina) and Uncle Daryl!! They came to visit from Canada and we had such a GREAT time with them!! :) We celebrated Christmas with them on Christmas Eve and my Mom and Aunt made a delicious dinner for us all! Here are a few pictures from our celebration...

Exhausted!!!

Nina and Drew had a LONG day!!! It was time for a nap! ;)



Visiting SANTA...

We took the boys to Valley West Mall for our annual visit to SANTA! They always pick Valley West so they can ride the train and see Santa -- 2 for 1! ha! We had to wait in line for a while this time... we waited to late to go see him this year, but it was worth the wait!! :) Drew wasn't scared at all... he was pretty interested in Santa actually, it was so cute! :) Here are a couple of pictures from our visit...

Train ride...

Letters to Santa...



Owen's Preschool Program

Nina Wilson, Nina & Papa Hamann, Grace and Caroline, Uncle Bubba (Matt), Nick, Drew and I all attended Owen's Christmas program at school on Tuesday... only to see our spirited little boy NOT SING A WORD!!!!! Owen, you ask? Yes, Owen! He didn't sing or do any of the actions AT ALL! A reminder of Parker's preschool years!!! :) Last year he sang with all his might, talked during the program and reminded me to clap NUMEROUS times... and this year NOTHING! :(  I was so sad... everyone came and he didn't want to perform! I guess it shouldn't have surprised me so much considering he did tell me that morning that he would only be singing 3 of the songs... when I asked why, he replied that he only wanted to sing 3 of them and that was it! So here are some pictures of my little boy not singing! :(

Teacher Gifts...

I had a hard time coming up with teacher's gifts this year for Christmas... I usually do screens for them, but Owen has all of the same teachers as Parker did at preschool, so I had to come up with something new! After lots of searching online, here's what I came up with...

A jar of "Reindeer Cookie" mix (which were DELICIOUS), almond bark pretzels that the boys helped me make, a cookie cookbook, a spatula and of course a snowman screen ornament! 

The boys helping...



I am a BIG fan of home-made gifts... so this was so much fun for ALL of us!! The boys loved helping and I included a picture in the cookbook for Owen's teachers of him helping! :)