HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARKER

Our Parker Matthew turned 9 on November 20th! We are still in shock and can't seem to understand how this has happened... but we are so GRATEFUL that we have had this little boy in our lives for the past 9 years! We had a little celebration on his actual birthday at home... we gave him a few presents and then headed up to Sioux City for his birthday dinner at RED ROBIN!! :)

Here he is sipping on freckled lemonade at Red Robin! He even got a FREE sundae too! :)

Then we had his BIG celebration with friends and family at the Rec Center! Parker wanted to play basketball for his birthday... and have a Chicago Bulls theme... so that's what we did! He invited 5 friends... they played basketball, had cake and ice cream, broke a pinata, and opened gifts!! It was a fun time!

Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Nina and Papa Hamann's for dinner! We were missing Dan and Kim this year since they had a wedding in Mexico (I wouldn't mind attending a wedding in Mexico in November)!! :) Don and Jane had the girls... so all of the cousins got to celebrate together!! :) Don and Jane have a FUN tradition at Thanksgiving... we all get a present and that present is an ornament for our family Christmas tree! The boys get SO excited about these ornaments... because they always pick out ornaments of things they LOVE! Parker and Owen got football players this year and Drew a mater!! :) Nick and I got a family ornament that we can add our picture to! Nina Hamann should be so proud of me... I went back and added pictures to ALL of the past ornaments she has gotten us!!! Now every ornament has the proper year picture of US!! :) THANK YOU Nina and Papa for having such a great tradition and for getting us these great ornaments each year... we LOVE them!! :)

All of the cousins... 

Baking Bread

Owen's teacher invited me to bake bread with the class!! The class had been reading the story about the Little Red Hen and she baked bread... so they got to too!! :) 

I gathered all of the ingredients and sat down with groups of 7-8 students and we learned how to make a loaf of wheat bread! The kids LOVED it... and I did too! :) Everyone got to help add ingredients, stir and knead the dough. Later that day Mrs. Meisner baked the bread and then they each got to take their own mini loaf home!

MOPS Craft Fair

Jodi and I helped out in the kitchen for the craft show fundraiser for MOPS! It was a FUN day and we got to see some super fun ideas from the vendors!!

Keokuk Trip

 We FINALLY got a chance to get to Keokuk again!!! It has been FOREVER since we have had the chance to go... with purchasing a home, remodeling and my back surgery in June! We Left on Thursday after school and spent Thursday-Saturday with the Wilson family! We did our usual trip to HyVee for Friday morning breakfast and got to see Uncle Merlin and Aunt Marlene too! Our boys were being GOOFY as usual... Parker was taking the other 2 for a little ride...

We made a HUGE meal out at Grandma and Grandpa's house Friday night... we had Meatloaf, homemade mac-n-cheese, au gratin potatoes, baked beans, rolls, pies, etc. It was AMAZING as usual. Grandma's recipes... my hands!! :) It was so nice getting to visit and spend time with my grandparents!! Here are a few pictures we took before we left.