Our Christmastime in Iowa

We have been all over the place this Christmas Holiday. Here is a bit about the trip to Iowa.
It was great to see the family. We took a nice picture for my mom's Christmas card.


Grandpa and Grandma got to play with Caleb.


John made Caleb laugh and Caleb helped him play on the computer.



Caleb read books with me, and tried on some hats.



We had a busy- but very fun Christmas time. On Christmas day, we hung out with my brother Chad, and went snowmobiling with him and my parents at my uncles farm.
I can't wait to see Chad again, he is moving to Denver this week.





I had a lot of fun. I got an old snowmobile- so it didn't go quite as fast, but I didn't mind:) Here is the flag from the back of mine.



The end for now.
I will report more on the Shaler Christmas later:)

testing...123

I'm trying some different ways to do things on blogger...so enjoy what you see, and don't expect much:) We had a great Christmas holiday-by the way.
John and I got J.T. a mini bowling set for Christmas. He doesn't quite get the ball part.:)








I also love taking care of Camille while we are here. (when she is happy:)-which is most of the time

creative ornaments

I had this idea that I wanted to make ornaments that used scrapbooking skills, but didn't look like cheesy Sunday school ones(which I'm sure mothers love). Speaking of Sunday school, I was one of the leaders for this month and we took the kids to hand out cookies and sing carols at the nursing home. I was the only one who felt comfortable leading the music, so I was the one sitting in the front row, doing the actions -as reminders for the little guys. (Away in a manger...) It was pretty funny.

Back to ornaments. I would have liked to deck them out with pretty ribbons and scrapbooking embellishments, but I also understand the beauty of simplicity. So here is my compromise. What do you think?

The many faces of John...

While attempting to take Christmas pictures, I realized that while I don't take perfect pictures, John's fake smiles are hilarious. I did a bit of research into the pictures I have, and found that this has been a lifelong battle with the camera:) See for yourself.

We did get a few good ones.
But I'll save those for another time:)

Real snow...

Last time when I mentioned "the snow" it was fake snowflakes in the window. Now it is a lot more real.

I love it. I made chili soup and cinnamon rolls, and stayed inside all day on Saturday. John ended up having to plow snow, but he did get to come home for a few hours to sleep, before he went out for another 12 straight hours. I got to see him in action as he plowed our street so I could go to church this morning.


Oh for fun.
In other news, I learned how to make some jewelry on Friday. I made some earrings that I am pretty excited about.
See.

60th post!

Not near as exciting as some other 60th's, but still exciting to me.

I felt like a small town person for the first time in a long time the other night.
We live in Milliken, a small town (5000 people). We have maybe 3 resturants including "Joe's Taco Shack", and a small diner on main street. There is no grocery store, no pizza places, and not a whole lot of anything except liquor stores. I love the city recreation program, and it is quiet here. Plus, we can still see the mountians from our house.

I work in Windsor- a growing town with anything I really need (including 2 major grocery stores), I bank and go to church in Greeley, and I shop in Greeley and Loveland. All of those being about 15-20 min. away...so it doesn't really matter that Milliken doesn't have anything.

This week a Dollar General opened in Milliken. It is close to our house, like if we got in the car it would take less than 2 min. to get there. We can see it from our corner. I really wanted to go there just to check it out. That's when I felt like a small town girl.

For those of you who live in Sioux Center it is like when the "superwalmart" opened. I'm sure half the people in town drove down there just to check it out.

So I convinced John I needed something, and we drove down there. The place wasn't big, but it was nice. A couple with a child was there buying cough syrup, another lady was buying food products, and the cashiers were wearing santa hats. It was nice have an easy place to get something little. But, I didn't need anything, and most of the time I probably won't.

After wondering around looking for about 5 min I walked back out to the truck empty handed. Just checking it out:)

Happy Christmastime!!!

To commemorate the beginning of December, I present...

The tree:

The snow:

The little drummer boy:)

I couldn't get it flipped.

Andrew and Lindsay's wedding

We had a blast at Andrew and Lindsay's wedding (Andrew is a close friend of John, and we really enjoy hanging out with them!)
Here are some pictures.

The decorations were simple and elegant.

After the ceremony we were hanging out with the flower girl Megan (She goes to our church and loves John). The microphone was still on from the music, and John told her to say "Hi Mommy" into the mic. When she did and it was LOUD, she got this BIG smile on her face:)

We had a great time.


In other news, my Dad gave me a present that he made. He is into scrollsawing now, and when I saw one like this at his uncles house this summer I really liked it. It is a dutch boy and girl with a clock. It is about an inch thick. I was trying to explain it to someone, but I thought I should just take a picture. Thanks Dad!

We are thankful for...

Family, Friends, and other people's kids:)
It was a long drive to Iowa (without any crazy weather-thankfully), but it was well worth it. We got to hang out with family, friends, and have some awesome Iowa food:)
John got to meet Caleb for the first time, and had a lot of fun with him.

He even tried to teach him to play the xylophone.

Caleb was busy eating or being tired a lot, but he was really happy in the morning, or when he was by Grandpa or Grandma:)




We also visited some of my close friends. I got to see Sarah and Dan's baby Rebecca for the first time. (but she was sleeping when we took this picture)

On Saturday we got to visit Sharla, Andy and Aiden. Sharla's kitchen has awesome bright colors!

Aiden was a little shy at first, but after a while he really warmed up to John, and was giggling like crazy. I didn't capture the funniest moments, but here they are having fun doing "super baby".



Thank you to Mom and Dad for the fun shopping trips (even at 6am), the tours of the town, the awesome food (especially the leftovers), and the good times hanging out.

The dreaded school pictures...

have always been a problem for me. When I was in 3rd grade I chopped 6 inches off my hair and got a perm- the day before pictures. I was a friz-head:) I couldn't find a picture of that...but I did find a picture of puffy-bangs Angie.

In fact, being in my 6th year teaching, every year when it is picture day I usually have forgotten and look pretty thrown together. Then of course I hide my staff ID card away so I don't have to look a the picture every day.
But...there are those breif few times when my picture actually looks pretty decent. For example, 2nd grade (at least I think it was 2nd grade) I had gotten a new sweater with rainbow colors, and I knew I looked pretty in it. So pretty that I knew my teacher was going to ask me if I got a new sweater. She did, and I said yes!


And now this year...I rememberd to do my hair for pictures. Yipee...I can leave my staff ID card on my desk for the world to see.

and...since I had a picture...I decided to try this website out to be funny.

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

I don't think any of them look like me.
This one was fun too...
%1

Back from state...

At our hotel this morning...we saw an older man with a white beard in the elevator, then another man with a white beard in the hallway, and another round man with a white beard walking into the lobby. Louanne, the teacher with me said..."there must be a santa convention" jokingly. About 10 min later in the lobby, 3 more guys with white beards walled in...and when I walked by the conference room I saw a sign that said "Welcome to Santa School!". Ha!

So my VB team going to state was monumentus because it was the first time the school has ever been to state in volleyball. Of the 8 teams going to state we had the # 7 seed. We played pretty well, but the other teams were significantly bigger (physically) than us, and it was a level of play that was hard to match. There was a nice article in the paper about us going to state, and it quoted me a bunch.
Here are some pictures from state:





Also, The fun stuff was a blast- care packages, evening devotions, watching 5 courts at once with fans all around, and leftover snacks:)


And now...I need to clean the house and get to all the other things I haven't done for 3 1/2 months:)