Christmas 2014

 Christmas this year was good to all!  We spent Christmas Eve at the Newman's eating chili and oyster soup, lots of presents, and then Christmas Eve church.  It was so nice to go - we seem to have missed it the past few years!  Santa visited us at Grandpa John & Grandma Julie's.  We headed to grandma Pete's Christmas day, stopping at the Harts for a Strickland gathering on our way home.  The next day we spent at Grandpa Knute and Grandma Denise's.  Great few days home!  Once back, the boys found that Santa had come while they were gone!  We had fun just the 4 of us opening stocking presents, and Tyler was super excited to see the 10-in-1 game table in the basement the big guy left!

Blake at church - he entertained Kevin, Cindy, and Nichole for quite a while!

Santa!

Grandpa helped set up Blake's airport - I don't recall why Blake has no shirt on, though!

Visiting Grandma Hallquist wore him out!

Tyler got John Deere legos and the men just had to get them put together.  Notice who is watching.....

The boys got me a TMNT shirt to match theirs (& daddy's)!

Winter fun and Christmas prep

Looking at these pictures seems forever ago, even though this was only 5 months ago.  December seemed like a month of baking, shopping, wrapping, decorating, and lots of mommy & boys time!  We cut down the tree and decorated the house after Thanksgiving, put lots of presents under as the month went on, and baked lots of goodies for teachers, neighbors, family and friends.  Tyler had his Christmas Sunday School program and sang well.  Andrew went back to Stanton for two long weekends hunting, leaving the boys and I on our own.  That meant coffee & doughnut trips, shopping and play-land, and lots of movies!

They each get to open one early each year - pj's!

Selfies!

What a great mom I am!

I know you wish you could go eat donuts in your PJ's!

So.... this is what happens when the boys go hunting, so Traci and I drink wine.  Tyler entertained himself (behind Blake) with computer games, and Blake wanted to get into the fridge and this is what he found.  We thought it was pretty funny!

Birthday parties

Family parties are a must when you're 5!  We celebrated with the Hallquist side at Aunt Carrie's with the traditional St. Louis Cardinals ice cream cake.  The Newman side had presents, food, and TMNT cupcakes.  Lucky little boy!

Tyler is 5!!

Our little boy turned 5 in November!  We celebrated at home with a menu he chose, presents, and balloons.  He got to bring an ISU cookie to school, and we had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles party for his friends.

Neighbor Jacob painted this for us - a request by Ty.  

Find the toys hidden in shredded paper!

Some of his loot - he wore it the rest of the day while doing legos!

CA part 3....

Grandma's request for the trip was a small road trip to 

the Doris Day restaurant in Carmel.  We saw some whales in our stop to view the ocean, then wandered the warf and saw seals and birds.  The trip home was decent with very little naps, but we survived!  We got home just in time for Tyler's 5th birthday the next day!

Blue sucker AFTER the bath!

CA part 2 - Halloween

We had the fun of trick-or-treating while in CA.  Blake had to try on Emma's old pumpkin costume, then decided on their Turkey costume because it was chilly.  Tyler was Spiderman, Chase was Bumblebee, and Emma a nice witch.  They ran for over an hour house-to-house.