What are you going to do in Iowa for a WEEK??

When my brother in law Mike found out that Colby's parents were coming to visit us for a week he asked them, "What are you going to do in Iowa for a week?"   I guess Iowa isn't a huge vacation destination?  Despite less than perfect weather conditions, we had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Frost.  To answer Mike, this is what you do in Iowa for a week:

Visit the Science Center and build your own lego car.

Think about driving to St.Louis to see the arch, but decide to build your own instead.

Play with cheap hotwheels toys.

Drive up to the spillway at Saylorville Lake.

Eat deep fried mushrooms that are the size of your fist,

then finish off your meal with a five layer chocolate cake.

Eat at lots and lots of midwestern restaurants with amazing food.

Drive to Illinois to visit Hyrum and Joseph at Carthage jail,

and see them again by the Nauvoo temple.

Learn how much work it was to live in the 1840's.

Go swimming with these three handsome boys.

Visit an ancestor at the old Nauvoo cemetery.

Visit the Nauvoo temple.

Have two cute little buddies accompany you everywhere.

Drive to Winterset, Iowa to see the actual "bridges of Madison county,"

and the birthplace of John Wayne.

Get all tuckered out from a wonderful trip!

Thanks so much Ron and Susan for the visit, we had so much fun!  Hopefully next time you come it will be warm and nice and green.

Happy Birthday Carter Ben!

Our little Carter turned three yesterday.  I can hardly believe that it's been three years since he joined our family.  Carter is such a sweet little boy, we love his beautiful smile and funny little personality. Happy Birthday Carter!

Carter at one day old, look at all that dark hair!

Carter when we brought him home from the hospital.

Three years later.

Carter and Ammon in their birthday hats.  

This year we decided to have a combined birthday party for the boys. They had a great time

playing games, opening presents and having Transformer cake and icecream.

Carter got Leonardo dressups for his birthday, he thought they were great!

We hope you had a great birthday Carter!  We love you.

The Big Five

On Sunday,  Ammon turned five years old!  I can't believe how fast the past five years have gone.  Am I really old enough to have a five year old?  Ammon is such a sweet boy and we enjoy having him in our family.  We are so grateful for him and the joy that he brings into our home.  Happy Birthday Ammon!

Isn't this the cutest little face?  Ammon at one day old.

Our little buddy five years later.

Ammon with his birthday presents.

Ammon loves Transformers!

Ammon and Carter.

Ammon got to pick his birthday dinner.  We were surprised when he chose to have salmon, rice and rainbow jello. We also had a yummy funfetti birthday cake.

Winter bike ride and fun visitors

On Sunday, it warmed up a little for us and we were able to let the kids go outside and ride bikes.  There was TONS of water in the parking lot and Ammon had a blast riding his bike through the puddles.  I was hoping that it was finally the beginning of Spring, but unfortunately we woke up Monday morning to 3 more inches of snow.  It was nice while it lasted!

This picture of Colby and Carter makes me laugh.  All I can say is: like father, like son.

This weekend we also had some fun visitors.  Our friends, the Bomstas came to visit us from Ohio.  The kids were so excited to have a "sleepover" with Evelyn and Brielle. Unfortunately, I only took one picture all weekend, but we had a great time with Bomstas and were glad that they could come and visit. 

Prom Night

No, that title is not a typo.  Colby and I went to prom last night.  More well known as the DMU Winter formal. I went with pretty low expectations (honestly, I was picturing a gymnasium with streamers and balloons) and I ended up being very impressed.  The gala was held at the Polk county convention center, it was decorated very nicely with formal tablecloths and chair covers and huge centerpieces on the tables.  (Colby's friend Bryce said, "wow, this is nicer than my wedding.")  The food was wonderful!  They had a chocolate fondue fountain, fancy cheese and crackers, fresh fruit and about fifty different kinds of cheesecakes, cakes and other desserts. The best part about it was it was free!  (well, it came with the small price of paying $25, 000 a year in tuition). We had a great time, and I even got Colby to bust a move on the dance floor.

 

Colby was thrilled that I made him take this picture. These are actually real flowers, not just a cheesy backdrop- so it was one step up from the Junior prom.

Adams and Olsons enjoying the dance.

Just one of my many mad dance moves.

Skye, Celeste, Shauni, Sara, Auprielle, Kelly and Lisa. 

Bryce and Natali Jolley, who we were able to coerce into going out with us before the dance.

Some of the great decorations. 

Shauni, Auprielle and Lisa.

Kelly, Sara, Natali and Shauni

Zack and Lisa Nance.

Bryce and Natali.

Some of you may laugh at the idea of us going to a formal dance (I did at first and so did the lady at the jewelry store and everyone I work with.) But we had a great time and I am really glad we were able to go.  Now if I can just talk Colby into taking me again next year.

Happy Valentines Day

Once again, we have had many fun celebrations for Valentine's day.  The boys both had parties at preschool and we had a party at our house for their friends to come over. The boys were also excited to get presents in the mail from both Grandmas. We now have tons of candy, cookies and other treats at our house!

Carter waiting for his turn to hand out Valentines.

The kids at preschool checking out their Valentine loot.

It's party time! 

I decorated more cookies myself than all the kids put together. 

Decorating cookies.

Totally unrelated to Valentines day, but still funny....   Carter has started getting himself dressed in the morning, it is really nice that he can get dressed without help and he is excited to be independent.  Yesterday, I was in a hurry to go to work in the morning, I rushed the kids out the door and was gone all morning running errands.  We went to the YMCA, Target, Hyvee and Ammon's preschool before I realized that Carter had his pants on backwards.  Luckily, the camouflage made it harder to tell that they were on backwards!

An Icy Weekend

This weekend had an "icy" theme.  Friday night, it was our turn to watch kids for the babysitting exchange. We had an ice age party where the kids made marshmallow igloos, did ice experiments and of course, watched ice age.  Saturday afternoon I commented to Colby that I thought our townhouse was cold, our thermostat was set at 70 degrees and according to the atomic clock, it was 62 degrees inside. I didn't think much of it and I left for work. When I got home from work at 10:30, it was 52 degrees inside.  Colby said, "I think our heater is broken."  Of course, I couldn't find the after hours maintenance phone number and I thought it was too late to harass the neighbors for it, so we went to bed with a space heater in the boy's room and 4  blankets, sweats and slippers on in our room.  When we woke up this morning it was 43 degrees in our townhouse.  I immediately called Nances, who saved the day with the maintenance phone number.  Once I called, the nice maintenance guy came over and promptly fixed our heater. It is now slowly warming up. It is now a balmy 56 degrees and my boys are running around without their shirts on (staying close to the space heater of course!) 

The kids at the ice age party.

Playing dress ups.

Our Marshmallow igloos.

Driving our cars on sheets of ice.

I apologize for yet another weather related post.  After this weekend, I am really ready for Spring and even more ready to move somewhere tropical!

Snow Day

I know I have blogged about the weather a lot lately, but it seems like some days it is the most exciting thing happening around here.  Today was one of those days. We had a busy day planned today including working at the YMCA this morning,  crazy opposites day at preschool this afternoon and a personal progress activity tonight (that I still wasn't totally prepared for) sometime between all of that I had hoped to go to Lisa's and work on my sewing project.  I was actually relieved when I woke up at 6:30 to find that Colby was still in bed (after I know he had  already gotten up showered and told me goodbye at 5:00) and discovered that we had gotten 9 inches of snow overnight.  I wasn't excited about more snowy weather, but I was pumped that Colby's school was closed and he got to spend the whole day with us.  Work, preschool and Young Women's were also cancelled and my stressful day ended up being really nice.  We were able to spend some quality family time, made a big breakfast, cleaned out our closet, ran errands, played games with the kids, let the boys play in the snow and talked to Grandma and Grandpa Frost on the webcam.  I wish more days were like this!

It takes a really cute kid to make snow boots look this good.

Ammon was excited to go out and play in the snow.

Oakley, Ashlyn and Ammon playing in the snow (poor little Carter missed out again.  He hasn't taken a nap in 6 months and he was napping today when the kids went outside.)

We're so grateful for good friends!  Thank you Lisa for letting Ammon come over and play while I was stressing (unnecessarily) over my YW activity.

Our Robot Creation

Last week, the boys and I started cleaning out the garage.  The kids were great helpers and had a great time climbing and hiding in the little nooks and crannies of all our "stuff."  Ammon claimed these boxes that I was ready to throw away and made a robot out of them.  I love how creative kids are!

I must add that this huge "robot" is still in the boys' bedroom.  I haven't figured out how to get rid of it without breaking Ammon's little heart.