Our Snowboarders!

Almost a month ago, Logan got a snowboard for his birthday, and he's been itching to use it ever since!  Well, last weekend, Jeff took the boys to Horseshoe Bend Hill, just outside of town, and the boys got that board broke-in!  Jeff said there were plenty of wipe-outs, but he said they are going to be pretty good little snowboarders!  They had a BLAST!  Now Landon is hoping for his own board for Christmas!  We'll have to see if he stays on the nice list or not!  ;-)

Santa's Village

We are now officially ready for Christmas since the boys got a chance to visit with Santa Claus today at Santa's Village and tell him everything they are wishing for this Christmas!  Santa's Village was located at Boji Bay Funhouse and Pavillion in Milford this year.  While there, the boys also enjoyed chatting with Mrs. Claus, sliding down the huge slide inside the pavillion, and jumping in the bouncy house!

Logan's wish list for Santa included:

Flat screen TV for his bedroom

Ice skates

Steeler's football helmet

Landon's wish list for Santa included:

Flat screen TV for his bedroom

Green Bay Packers jersey

Green Bay Packers football helmet

It was a fun time for the boys, and they are just so happy they got to see Santa!

Merry Christmas!

Ready for Christmas!

This is our favorite time of year!  We love snow (though we haven't had hardly any yet), we love time with family, we love Christmas movies, and we LOVE the winter holidays!  After a great Thanksgiving, the boys were eager to help me decorate our Christmas tree!  They also had a great time decorating their own Hawkeye themed miniature trees that they each have in their bedrooms.  Another thing the boys are always willing to help with each season is decorating their big sister's grave out at the cemetery.  I wish this was something we didn't have to do, and I wish she was here with us instead, but it makes me so happy that the boys are always sure to include her even though they have never met her.  It was Brooke who taught Jeff and I so much about the true importance in life, which relates to the true meaning of Christmas..."stuff" or "things" are not important...faith, hope, peace, and love are.  And while our boys will have more than enough gifts to open this Christmas, we are also sure to help them remember the true meaning of the season.  Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Spoiled Logan! Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Remote controlled battling robots

Logan has become a Vikings fan...mostly because his friend likes them  :)

WWE wrestling ring and figures

Hawkeye robot

Reading his card from Grandma and Grandpa Umscheid

Cool Hawkeye poster to hang in his room!  The  best part of a Hawkeye football game is "the swarm!"

Yay!  Hunting clothes!

Logan loves corvettes AND model cars!

Grandpa Mick surprised Logan with a .22!  The look on Logan's face was priceless!  Especially after earlier in the night, my dad jokingly gave Logan a VERY used BB gun.  Dad thought Logan would be bummed that he only got a BB gun for his birthday while Landon got a .22 last month for his birthday, but Logan LOVED the BB gun!  When my dad gave Logan his .22, Logan wasn't totally sure he wanted to give up the BB gun, but decided the .22 was a better gun!

Proud new owner!  Proud Grandpa, too!

My parents and all their grandkids

Happy 9th Birthday, Logan!

Make a wish!

Donna, Ryan, Dallas and Amanda got Logan a totally COOL book about how to fold all types of paper airplanes, and the book is full of neat paper to use for making these airplanes.  The book was a total hit!  So fun!

Logan Turns 9!

Logan turns 9 tomorrow, and I was sitting here looking through pictures from the time he was born on up until now, reminiscing special times with this special boy!  Time is going TOO FAST!  He is getting so big and independent!  Although, I will say, I find enjoyable and unenjoyable things about every stage that my kids go through!  Logan is such a hard worker and SO creative right now!  I love watching him grow as a learner!  Logan gets into plenty of trouble at home, but he is sweet as pie at school, and that's how it probably should be!  This boy has seriously been a ray of sunshine for Jeff and I, and we love him just the way he is!  

Look at how much Logan has changed in his 9 years on Earth!

1 Month

1 Year

2 Years

3 Years

4 Years

5 Years

6 Years

7 Years

8 Years

9 Years (Not quite 9 when this was taken, but almost!)

Landon's Birthday Party With Friends (Only about a month late)!

Due to such a busy weekend schedule for the month of October, Landon finally got to have his birthday party with his friends today, a little over a month after his real birthday.  Hey, it could be worse!  We rented the party room at AmericInn in Okoboji and swam at the pool there with about 6 of Landon's favorite buds (and of course his big brother, too).  Thankfully, Jeff was willing to swim with all of the boys and kept them busy playing catch, pool football, and having jumping contests. My mom was also gracious enough to come and be an extra set of eyes with that many young, energetic boys swimming in a pool at the same time.  After about 2 hours of swimming, the boys all got back into dry clothes and we had cupcakes, snacks, and took time for Landon to open all of his gifts!  It was a fun afternoon with a great group of boys!

The Whole Gang!

Silly boys!

Dillon

Yandel

Trigg

Griffin

Caleb

James

Scrapbooks

I must admit, I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping up on the boys' yearly scrapbooks!  I have been using an online scrapbook company called Artscow.com!  You can call that cheating if you want, but I call it WONDERFUL and easy to use!  All I have to do is upload my pictures to the artscow.com website, and then I can pick out the backgrounds and embellishments I want to use on each page!  There's no paper and glue and all of that mess to get out and clean up!  Thank goodness for this program!  The books are a little expensive, but considering I only make one per year per boy, it's really not bad.  Come graduation time, this mom will NOT be frantically trying to finish scrapbooks (I'm sure I'll be frantic, but not about scrapbooks)!  :)  Here are the links to the most recent books I have just finished up for each boy.

http://www.artscow.com/gallery/book/logan-mhu4i3uwszdu

http://www.artscow.com/gallery/book/landon-1kjuv72o4o3u