Decorating the Tree

As is our tradition, Thanksgiving weekend we get all our Christmas decorations out. I put the tree up and lights on after the kids were in bed one night and then we decorated the tree the next evening. The first ornaments to go on the tree are the new ones for the kids. Matt & I look for specific ornaments that match the kids for that year. We get the camcorder out and share why they are receiving their ornament. We do this so that we can remember for years to come!

Katie received this book with glasses...She still loves to read and continues to write when given a chance!

Alex's ornament is a bear cheerleader. Bear is their school mascot. Alex took a cheerleading course from a local VBS this summer and LOVED it. Not only did she enjoy it, she did a great job!Will still loves his firemen! Whenever Maddie gets bored, I ask if she wants to brush my hair. That normally does the trick! She loves to brush, dry & style my hair. So for her ornament, we found a brush & hair dryer!That evening, we kids sat and enjoyed the glow of the tree - with all of their favorite ornaments!

Swim Lessons

We've heard wonderful things about the swimming program at Blackhawk College. We knew that it was time to get all 4 kids into the lessons. We signed them up for their first session last October and they will be starting another session next week. We are hoping to go through a few sessions before summer so we can have fun while traveling as well as visiting our local pools.

It is nice having all 4 kids in the same pool, at the same time. They all love going and have improved, just in one session.

John Deere Commons

This is a new exhibit at the John Deere Pavilion. Very impressive!!

Can sculpture facts

Height: 17-foot-3
Length: 80 feet
Weight: 170 tons
Number of cans of food: Approximately 320,000
Additional bags of rice and pasta: Approximately 10,000

Another fun fact: In order to replicate the color scheme of an actual S690 combine, the sculpture's designers picked what type of food to use for each part of the sculpture based on the color of its can. For example, the black wheels were cans of black bean chili while the cans making up the green body were mostly spinach.

One final fun fact: The cans of food in the sculpture could feed about 150 families for a year and after the sculpture is disassembled, they will be distributed through the River Bend food bank to nearly 1,100 families in the Quad-Cities area.

Maddie riding her two-wheeler bike

Maddie learned how to ride her two-wheeler this fall!! Much thanks to Alex for working with her.

Halloween 2011

In our quest of keeping our lives simple, I looked at the outfits that our kids already had and tried to come up with costumes from them. For the girls, it was easy. Mom made their "Little House on the Prairie" dresses a few years ago and I asked them if they would like to dress up in these dresses for Halloween. Will had visions of being a superhero...but I remembered his Daniel Boone coon-skin cap from this summer and thought that would be a perfect compliment to the girls' outfits. Only problem was finding him some clothes...thanks to Goodwill (and Mom's sewing talents), we completed our costumes!! I even found metal buckets for the girls (just like the lunch pails from years ago).

Here's the crew before heading out...my 4, Deb's 3 and my cousin's little boy (the skunk).
First stop - "Aunt" Barb & "Uncle" Willy's (my parent's neighbor)


One of our last stops had these "legs" under the garage door...Will & Emma were so worried and had to investigate!