Cold

I know what you're thinking- two posts in one day?! It turns out I have some extra time today because church was cancelled. It's too snowy and cold to get to church safely. We've had crazy weather here for the past few weeks. Earlier this week we had some freezing rain that encased everything in ice and made everything slick and then it started snowing Thursday afternoon and didn't stop until late Saturday night. Andy has already shoveled three or four times since Christmas and we're running out of places to put the snow. One of the unusual things about Omaha (or maybe just the area where we live) is that we get very strong winds and we're at the top of a hill so we have nothing below us to block the wind. We get some huge snow drifts when it snows because the wind blows it around so much. Here's a few pictures we've taken this week.

This is Andy standing at the end of our driveway. It snowed some more after this was taken.

This is our neighbor's house. You can see how the wind has blown huge drifts around. It snowed quite a bit more after we took this and the snow completely covered the porch. They are out of town and Andy was nice enough to go out and shovel their driveway and porch so they could get in when they get home. He's so thoughtful.

Ice on our Christmas lights. Everything was encased in ice.

I don't think our tomato plants are going to make it. What do you think?

Merry Christmas

We hope all of you had a very merry Christmas. We certainly had a great day. Andy is working hard in the ICU this month and we've missed having him around more often. He was able to get off early on Christmas Eve and doesn't have to go back until Monday, so it has been nice to spend time with him. We stayed in Omaha for Christmas this year and it has been nice and relaxing. We miss our families more this time of year, but it has been nice to not have to worry about traveling in the bad weather.

Eden was very excited to get lots of "Princess Stuff" for Christmas. Santa really came through for her this year. He took good care of Andy and I as well. One of Eden's favorite gifts this year was a small tent that she loves so much we had to move it into her bedroom so she could sleep in it.

Andy wins the prize for "Biggest Present" this year a couple times over. Eden gave him an air hockey table and he also got a ladder (now he doesn't have to borrow the neighbors to take the Christmas lights down). He also got a new leather jacket and a remote controlled helicopter which has been buzzing around our kitchen for a couple days now. Thank goodness for vaulted ceilings!

Santa brought me some beautiful new dishes, a digital picture frame, a new coat and a fun Wii Fit game. For those of you who think that exercise isn't fun (as did I until recently) you should try out Wii Fit. It's been a lot of fun.

Christmas was wonderful and we were sad to see it go, but he're looking forward to another great year to come. We hope the rest of the year is peaceful and safe for you and that next year brings new joys. Have a Happy New Year~

One more week until Christmas!

Guess who's getting excited!
I guess it is about time to post another blog. We've been so busy lately getting ready for Christmas, it just hasn't happened. We've had some requests from family lately to post some pictures of our house decorated for Christmas and so for those of you who care, here they are.

Our living room with the tree. For those of you who heard about her huge Sleeping Beauty ornament, it is the big pink thing on the tree.

Andy put up lights this year. They look really great. I just wish he hadn't done it in the dark on a windy day. BTW, this is not what our yard looks like anymore. We now have 4 and 5 foot piles of snow everywhere.

The shelf by our stairs. We love those nutcrackers!

Eden has been asking how many days until Christmas since the day after Thanksgiving so I decided to make her an advent calendar so she could see for herself. I found this idea from a blog I love called allsorts and started to make it the last couple days in November. Each pocket has a number and inside is a chocolate and a little tag to hang off the pocket. Eden loves doing her calendar every day. She doesn't like sharing the chocolate.

Eden was very excited for our ward Christmas party this year. If any of you remember last year, "Santa" was not well liked by Eden, despite him being almost a fatherly figure for her. This year, we talked about Santa for weeks ahead of time to prepare her to sit on his lap. She was a little afraid but she wanted to be sure he knew what she wanted for Christmas. She waited patiently in line and was only a little afraid to sit down. She made sure to tell Santa what she wanted ("Princess Stuff") and was super excited to get a candy cane when she was done. It may just be a small thing, but we're really proud of her for doing this all by herself. We love our cute little bug. She is such a fun girl.

Where has the time gone? Part 3

Five days after Eden and I got back from Utah we were packed again and loading up the car with Andy to drive to Houston to visit Matt, Karla, Alex and Noah. The drive is about 14 hours so we stopped in Oklahoma City overnight. I was anticipating a really boring drive (Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas don't sound like the most exciting part of the country) but I was surprised how interesting most of it was. There was a part of Kansas that was so bleak it made Wyoming seem interesting (I know!) but other than that, it was pretty fun. Houston was really nice and we were more than happy to leave the Omaha autumn weather to go to 70 degrees.

Eden and Alex picked things up like they had seen each other the day before and for the most part, they played really well together. Andy and Matt spent a lot of time playing Rock Band together (sorry again, Karla). I had a lot of fun talking with Karla and holding little Noah. We played some fun games and stayed up way too late every night eating junk food and laughing. We got to visit the zoo and the children's museum.





We also went to NASA and saw the Saturn V rocket (these pictures don't do it justice- it's absolutely huge) and see the Gulf of Mexico as well.

As we were leaving Houston we stopped briefly to see the Houston temple. It was really pretty.

On our way home we stopped for the night in Oklahoma City again and before we left in the morning we stopped at the Federal Building memorial. That was really interesting and touching. I'm glad we were able to see it.

Reflecting pool where the street in front of the Federal Building was.

You can see in the background a bunch of chairs. They are set up where the Federal building was and there is a chair representing each of the people who was killed in the bombing (some of the chairs were smaller than others, representing the children).

We got home about 5:30 on Halloween night. Eden had just enough time to get her costume on and Andy took her trick-or-treating. She had a blast and raked in the candy.

Where has the time gone? Part 2

After pumpkin patching, Eden and I took a quick trip to Utah for my friends wedding. We were there for just over a week and it was a lot of fun. The day we left Omaha, it was snowing and we had been told Utah was quite cold. When we got there, it was really nice and we had great weather the whole time we were there.

Eden had a lot of fun playing tea party with Grammy (and I didn't get a single picture of it!) and I had a lot of fun shopping with my mom and sister. I love seeing my family and I miss them when we leave.

Visiting with Andy's family is always an adventure. The kids love playing together and they are so fun to watch. Eden always loves jumping on Sha-sha's couch (something she doesn't get to do at home).

But the real fun begins when the kids go to bed...

Trying to get 4 children and 2 adults to look at the same camera at the same time while smiling is an almost impossible task- but we try it everytime we all get together.

Arica and I had fun walking around Gardner Village and looking at all the witches. Eden had fun, but would not let me take pictures of her. This is the best I could get...

However, I have been told I need to get in front of the camera more often and post pictures of myself on the blog so here are a couple pictues of me for your viewing pleasure:

Just a couple of witches- I'm the one on the right.

I got a much needed haircut while visiting with my parents. Eden was eager to take my picture when I was done.

We had a really fun time but we were missing Andy so we headed back home...

Where has the time gone? Part 1

We've been pretty busy the past month or so and I haven't gotten around to blogging for a while. I have to play catch up now. I'm thinking this is going to take a few different posts- I have a lot of pictures!

We took a trip to Vala's Pumpkin Patch in October. We were told it is THE place to be if you want a great pumpkin patch experience (and we did, I guess). They had tricycle races, pig races, rabbit town, hay rides, storybook villages, an old mine, a teepee, campfires, camels, goats a couple of unidentified smelly animals, and a pumpkin smashing dragon. It was really a lot of fun, although we went on a really cold evening and I think we would have frozen were it not for the campfires and the hot cider. Eden had a lot of fun looking around but her favorite thing was the Sleeping Beauty display in the storybook village (no surprise).

We even managed to get a pumpkin or two!

Eden isn't so sure she wants to be here...

Really big rocking chair- really hard to get out of!
Ernie!!!

We met a few famous people...

Happy Birthday!

This past week has been busy for us, but also a lot of fun. Andy's parents flew in last Thursday to spend a long weekend with us. Andy's birthday was on the 11th and we had a good time. We spend the weekend playing Beatles Rock Band and looking at animals at the zoo and the wildlife safari. We had an interesting experience with some large dive-bomber bats and some girly screams. We drank Sprechers root beer and ate cotton candy, played games and cheered for the Utes (go UTES!) and we laughed until we cried. A good time was had by all.

Eden's birthday was yesterday and she was all about the princesses this year. She asked for pretty much everything she could see that had a Disney princess on it, and she's so loved (aka spoiled) that she got most of it too. She played at the park with some of her friends in the morning and then opened her gifts after lunch. In the evening we had cake and ice cream and wanted to watch a princess movie she got for her birthday.

Eden shows us how old she is

Belle!

I can't believe my little baby is already 3 years old. How does the time go by so fast? It seems like I was just getting used to her being 2...

Last hurrah of summer

Last weekend Andy had a few days off so we decided to go to on a mini vacation in central Nebraska. Andy and Eden wanted to go camping and I'm more of a hotel girl. We decided to compromise and get a little cabin at a KOA. This ended up being a much better idea than a tent as it was extremely rainy both nights we were there and I think we would have been washed away in our tent.

We spent Friday in Grand Island looking around and found a really neat park with a playground called Kid's Kingdom. It was huge and had a castle, a pirate ship, a tree house, a fort, a barn and probably some other things as well. Eden really had a lot of fun playing there.

On Saturday we went to Hastings to celebrate the town's Kool-Aid Days. Hastings is the original birthplace of Kool-Aid, which is Andy's beverage of choice most of the time (unless there's a Dr. Pepper close by). We really had a lot of fun. We got to visit the World's Largest Kool-Aid Stand (with over 14 flavors of kool-aid) and play carnival games and meet the Kool-Aid man. Eden got to play in a bounce house and get her face painted too. In the evening they had a classic car show and then a band called Yesterday and Today played Beatles music and they set off fireworks. We had a good time.

(That's part of the Kool-Aid stand in the background) They had every flavor of Kool-Aid imaginable. My personal favorite is Mango, but it's hard to find in stores.

Of course, after that, it was back to work for Andy. I've only seen him briefly a few times since then. We're hoping to go back next year!