Christmas Vacation 2017

Christmas Vacation this year was lots of fun!  We are blessed that Jon always gets the whole 2 weeks-ish around Christmas off of work so it's some good family time we always look forward to!

For most of the break we were in MN at Jon's parents house.  We also convinced Jon's sister, Amberly, and her family to fly out from Utah and Jon's brother, Matt, from Texas decided to join the fun with his two girls as well!  We had lots of good times chatting with family, Christmas shopping, doing crafts with the kids, sledding, going out, and eating good food that I didn't have to make!  The kids loved all the cousin play time.

The main bummer of the vacation was that Zach was sick for most of it.  He had a fever for several days and then developed a deep cough.  We are pretty sure he had the flu but it just wasn't as bad because he'd gotten his flu shot.  He was a trooper though and still managed to have a good time with us most of the time

We were able to go sledding two times while we were there.  All of the family loved it!  The first time we went wasn't quite as cold as the second time so we were able to stay out longer playing in the snow and even found a sled big enough for our whole family to go down the hill at the same time.  The second time was still lots of fun but it was super cold so the kids only lasted about 20 minutes.

Something I always look forward to when we visit MN is getting to go out to movies and/or dinner with just the adults.  This year we went to go see the new Jumanji one night and went out to half-price apps at Applebees another night.  Both were lots of fun!

Christmas morning was a bit chaotic with all the kids in a small space but everyone had a good time and was spoiled with plenty of presents.  Katie's favorite present was her art set that I put together for both her and Colton.  Colton's favorite present was a two-headed dragon he got from Santa.  Zach mostly just liked the treats but he really liked his singing Daniel Tiger as well.

Jon and I mostly just picked out a lot of our own presents this year.  One of my favorite gifts was my Ninja Blender.  I love it!  It blends my smoothies so smooth!  Jon also bought me some cute clothes I like, some earrings, and even some nice abominable snowman pajama pants for memory sake :)  We opened some of our presents after we got back home to Iowa.

 We left MN on the 29th in order to spend a few days relaxing and celebrate New Years at home.  We ended up having to leave at 5am because a bad snowstorm was coming in.  We were able to escape most of it but the last hour of our drive was pretty snowy.  We stopped for gas and a bathroom break quick on the way home and some random man came up to me and told me that someone had done something kind for him and he wanted to pay it forward.  He asked if I would mind if he bought each of my kids a small Ty stuffed animal.  The kids were all so excited and it was such a kind and sweet reminder of what the season is all about!  We ended up getting 4-5 inches of snow in that storm and it was fun to be at home and relax while watching the snowfall.  We also finished opening the presents we had left in Iowa.  We even broke down and took the kids to buy a fish, their first (and probably only-ever pet). :)

The kids with their stuffed beanie babies from the kind stranger :)

For New Years Eve we enjoyed our traditional appetizer dinner and chocolate fondue and even added in cotton candy and snow cones this year.  We pulled out sleeping bags into the living room and watched Minions with the kids and at about 10pm we watched a Netflix countdown and called it good.  New Years Day I made a turkey dinner, baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, and fruit salad.  It was yummy but I sincerely hate preparing turkey.  It.is.gross.

Overall, it was a great vacation and we were sad when it was over!

Christmas Photos 2017

A Christmas Tradition in our house is that every year we get our kids a Christmas-y church outfit and on the first Sunday of December we give it to them and then take Christmas pictures in front of the Christmas tree.  Some years have turned out better than others, but it's always fun for us to see how they've grown from Christmas to Christmas.  Given how much we've moved, it's also been a fun reminder for us to look back and see where we lived each Christmas.  Here our our Christmas 2017 pictures from our Duggleby house in Davenport, IA: Colton 6ys, Katie 4 yrs, Zach 2 yrs.

Halloween 2017

October this year was a very busy and crazy month!  I was in charge of planning the Ward Dinner and Trunk or Treat, Jon was extra busy at work, I wasn't feeling very good as I was in my first trimester of pregnancy, the kids all got sick with pink eye and then the pukes for about 2 weeks, and with all of the school and home events going on it was just a crazy blur!  However, despite all the busy-ness and sickness, we were still able to fit in some Halloween fun throughout the month!

We had fun painting our pumpkins early in the month, but sadly daddy was too busy with work to join in the fun this year! 

We made it to Pride of the Wapsi for our annual pumpkin patch trip!  It was crazy hot and we had to wait in line for a ridiculously long amount of time just to get in, but we still had a good time once we were inside.  As always, the favorites for the kids were the slides and the barrel train.  Zach loved the corn crib but wouldn't really let me take any good pictures.  My favorite, as always, was the yummy kettle corn!

As mentioned earlier, I was in charge of the Ward Trunk or Treat this year and although it was a bit stressful, I think it turned out really well!  We had a great showing and the Nacho Bar was a hit!  Katie was sick with the pukes and Zach was dealing with pink eye so only Colton was able to come to the Trunk or Treat with me.  We were sad not to have the whole family with us and Katie was pretty sad to miss the candy, but Colton was a good big brother and offered to bring her pumpkin around with him so she would have some treats when she felt better. 

Thankfully everyone was feeling better by the actual Halloween.  The whole family dressed up this year.  Jon and I went as Anna and Hans, Colton was bat (in my first homemade Halloween costume), Katie went as Shimmer (a genie from Nick Junior show Shimmer and Shine), and Zach was a monkey.  We walked around the neighborhood together and got a good load of candy.  It was a bit chilly but we all had fun!