Turkey Claus

After stuffing ourselves at a Thanksgiving Feast in Cherokee, Iowa (Thanks very much G'pa and G'ma Henn!) We made our way over to Storm Lake to visit Santa's Castle. This place was fascinating and the kids had such a good time. Each little room had moving characters for the kids to watch. They were quite fascinated! A special thanks to uncle Greg and aunt Joan for buying our tickets. The kids each got a picture taken with Santa and his bride. Each kid also got a little present from Santa and special photo by themselves. As you can see from the photo, Jesse wasn't too really sure what to think. But, he took it in stride and pretty much rolled with the whole thing (we are learning that about him).
We had a great thanksgiving and we were really thankful that none of the kids even have so much as a sniffle right now. AMAZING!

Kaylee's Fall Program

Kaylee sang a solo in her Fall program last night.
She did so well! We had a good time and the kids sat and watched so good. It was very fun.
Enjoy the video! Layne

How big is Africa?

You'll want to click on this photo below to get the full effect.
We saw this on our Chicago trip in the Field Museum-Africa Exhibit. It really blew us away!
Layne

Chicago Trip

A short post to say we just returned from a mini vacation to visit cousins in Chicago! What a fun trip. We rode the train into the 3rd largest city in the U.S.
Here we are at the tracks, just about to board the train.
Went to the Field museum. It was really great!
I'll post more pictures soon, and maybe even some video.
Layne

A "SpooKtacular" Halloween

We had such a fun time last Wednesday on Halloween!
We started last Sunday and carved pumpkins,
That was really fun, it was such a nice day, we just sat out in the driveway and each kid just took turns drawing out their face on the pumpkin with a sharpie. Daddy then did the cutting out and the digging out! They were good sports about getting their hands all goopy with the pumpkin guts.
Wednesday, Tanya had a helper come over so she could be at the parade with Kaylee and Isaac at Clark School. She got to spend time with each of them in their classrooms, playing games and stuff. She took some good pictures there too. Wed. night, we got our costumes on, which was no easy task, loaded up and headed over to Aunt Susie's house for our annual Halloween appearance at the Jones' House. It was a hit as usual, but a little early. We almost missed uncle Mike! Then, it was load up again for Bopie's house for chili and chicken noodle soup. It's a bit of a tradition. The soon had trick-or-treaters banging down their door and the kids could no longer stand it! We rolled into the street and started collecting candy. It was so funny to watch Jesse trying to keep up with the other 4 dashing from house to house. Most of all, he couldn't really figure out what was going on? There were hundreds of kids on Valley Dr. (literally!) I kinda like it the DST thing pushed back so it can still be light out when trick or treating.
About 7pm, we loaded all 5 back into family truckster and headed to South Sioux, to Colonial Manor nursing home. This was my highlight of the night. To see G'ma and G'pa Matney light up when the kids walked in there was priceless. She also had little bags for each kid and each of them got a mango (which made Levi so excited). Then, they went from room to room, while G'ma Matney bragged to each resident about her great grandbabies. The kids were sharing their candy with the residents, Erin would ask "Can you have candy?" so cute.