Friday's Funny

Little Ms. Dress-up!

Friday's Funny-pj's

Aren't kids in pj's the best?!

These were a birthday gift from Aunt Twyla to Ms. Haven...and she wears them quite proudly!

our little "snow belle" :)

holiday baking 2010

Yesterday I had the privilege of making some yummy holiday treats with Tami & Kendra-it was quite fun! I made sugar cookies; Kens made a Paula Knapp holiday tradition, candy-cane cookies (which I unfortunately did not get a picture of but were lovely & very yummy); and Tam made caramels.

In fact, Tami lovingly made caramels as yesterday was her first, humble attempt at them and she stirred them into fruition for approx. 3 hours as she didn't want them to burn; she then let them cool for another hour, and finally, cut & wrapped each of about 140 caramels for the final hour! She definitely won the patience prize yesterday!

this was towards the beginning of the caramel stirring campaign-she's still smiling!

aren't they cute? :)

Note: holiday baking is WAY more fun when done with friends!

Friday's Funny-"boohks"

a very common occurrence around here...Haven and her "boohks".

we took her into Borders the other night...bad idea.

this would be equivalent to her "candy" store as she still hasn't had candy and also because it's WAY more fun for her...she was so busy looking at books, taking them off the shelf, handing them to us to read, and then getting distracted by yet another book...oh Haven, to know what's going on in that little mind of yours!

she's also struggling from a cold (you can tell in her eyes) that's kind of got her down, so she likes lots of snuggling & book reading!

Friday's Funny-memories

Awh, just clicking through my pictures of New Zealand makes me long to go back someday. The pictures hardly do this country justice-such amazing topography all within a country the size of Colorado. I student taught Down Under right before I graduated from Iowa State back in the Fall of 2002. Yes, I look a bit younger and my body, well, a bit "younger" as well :) Traveling & teaching overseas was definitely a highlight of my college experience. I traveled over there with 3 other girls from Iowa State and it made for quite the fun times & memories.

Enjoy!

by the majority of my pictures, you are going to think I really didn't "teach" anything!
such a different climate of education, as the first week after we got there, the administration gave us use of their school vehicle, the week off, and said "go see our island"!
so after packing up our little Mitsubishi and buying a tent, that's exactly what we did!

we hiked

went whale watching

went horse back riding

took a helicopter tour to the top of a glacier

such amazing sights & colors...my old 35mm hardly does the sights justice :)

I do have evidence I did teach-teaching geography, history, agriculture in a completely different country was challenging at times!



before we headed back to the states for graduation & the holidays, we got a free weeks stopover in Sydney, Australia...such a rough life, I know!





this was the Olympic flame from the stadium of the 2000 games in Sydney...great memory as my cousin Nick won his pole vaulting gold medal there!


the Sydney opera house-amazing architecture inside!



and last but certainly not least, skydiving!
we went tandum skydiving (that's Phil by the way) while in New Zealand...12,000ft-right out of perfectly good airplane...one of the coolest, most exhilarating things I've done.
let's just say my mother was NOT impressed when I called to tell her what I'd done...her words exactly, "Katie-you spend your money on the dumbest things!" :)

our Christmas tree

Tuesday night we set out to find our family tree-not quite as "dramatic" as the Grizwolds, but exciting nonetheless! Arlan had brought home a venti hot chocolate from Starbucks so we bundled up Punkers and off we went to The Red Barn here in Morton. It was snowy, cold but fun outing as the workers had our small tree shook, clipped, and bagged in no time at all-so quick in fact, we hardly got to visit the reindeer they have penned up at their site. They even have a small Eli's coffee stand on weekends-I highly recommend this place!








One will notice, it's a much shorter tree than previous years as we decided not to "fight the fight" and buy a smaller tree so little hands wouldn't touch/pull/play with the tree for the next 4 weeks. It's up on a table so now we will just have to keep her away from the presents! :)

Thanksgiving in Lester

Last Tuesday night we traveled out to NW Iowa to be with my Kellenberger family for the holidays. We had great traveling weather (something that is definitely NOT a given this time of year in that state) and even better time with family.

Mali & Maden

Haven giving Mali a hug...
Haven had just woken up from her nap so doesn't look to into, huh? :)

Haven reading her "boohks" while Grandma scouts the Black Friday ads

Haven showing us proudly how old she is :)

we were also able to celebrate Thanksgiving with my Doorneweerd family at Uncle Butch & Aunt Kathy's...a good ole' game of Bid was in order.
(or for those of you in Illinois I've taught to play, it's also referred to as "Katie's dumb game")

Grandpa, Grandma & a scowly Haven