A Day of Sledding Fun

Ever since our first ice storm, seems like we are getting weekly snow storms. I don't mind the snow, but the ice is horrible. Jason and the kids built a fort out front in hopes of avoiding piles of dog "you know what".

We spent an afternoon sledding at Grama Shari and Papa Ed's house. Papa had to plow a path for the sleds because the drifts were too high! Papa almost buried Maison in the snow! Yikes. The first run down, I rode with Jason. When we reached the bottom, the sled stopped, and I kept going right over the top of Jason. He ended up with a face full of snow! Whoops.

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Happy Birthday Papa Ed

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We celebrated Papa Ed's birthday at the Wasserbaun Holiday Inn at the Amana Colonies. Everyone had a great time swimming! Papa's favorite card is always the one his Uncle Vic and Aunt Peggy send. It's always loaded with random things from rubber bands to expired coupons. He looks forward to that card every year.

The Schmidt Family Christmas

We arrived at Grama Shari and Papa Ed's house much earlier than expected on Christmas Eve. The kids got the key ready for Santa and climbed into bed. Maison started complaining of a stomach ache. OH NO! I asked him to come home but he wanted to stay.

Jason and I went home for a good night's sleep in our own bed. My brother called early the next morning to report that Santa had made it. So we brushed our teeth, put our shoes on and headed over to open gifts.

Poor Maison, he was feeling so yucky! In the video you can see his progression. He starts off opening gifts and pretty soon he is lying on the couch. He stayed on the couch the whole day and night!

Santa brought Libby a doll house, Maison a magnetix roller-coaster, and Jason and I ISU football tickets.

We all got lots of great things for Christmas! My parents also cut back on the number of gifts, which helped. The kids are playing with their things daily. The roller coaster got set up right away and is still set up, the movies have all been watched more than once, games have been played (Maison is is master Toss Across player), the doll house is in Libby's room, play-dough has been played, Moon Sand has gotten all over the kitchen floor, L-Max games played, and lots of pictures drawn and erased on their cool dry-erase boards.

We've eaten out, Jason has organized our game closet with shelving from Lowe's, and our ISU wreath is hanging on our patio door. Decided not to put it on the front door, as our neighbors who are Hawkeye fans like to play pranks on us.

Thank you all for all of the great gifts!

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The Allen Family Christmas

We headed up to Rolfe for Christmas on the 19th. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins. Unfortunately we had to cut our trip short due to the stomach flu! I didn't feel good on the 23rd and Jason got it on the 24th. We ended up coming home early in hopes of not passing it on to everyone else. No such luck! Grama Mary, Papa Dan, Auntie Erin, and Uncle Jeremy all ended up sick for Christmas Day. YUCK!

The kids really enjoyed their gifts. Libby's favorite gifts ended up being a bath robe, ratatouille pajamas, a kitty bathroom bag, and the movie Chill Out Scooby-Doo. She continues to live in the jammies and robe! The bathroom bag has become a purse!

Maison's favorite gift was a red lantern. Jason has it plugged into a remote control outlet. It is hanging above Maison's lofted bed and he can turn it on and off with a remote! He also lives in his ratatouille pajamas and uses his bathroom bag to store everything but bathroom stuff!

Jason and I ended up earning an Engineering Degree over Christmas Break. Jason's dad was given a Juke Box. Sounds great right? Well, they dropped it during the unloading and it wasn't working. Jason and I worked on that crazy thing everyday we were up there. After a couple of new fuses, some sodder, a mini repair job after Jason broke one of the selection screens, and a crash course from the manual, we got it reprogrammed and running. Only broke a couple of discs in the process. I hope Dan won't miss The Spice Girls or Pink Floyd.

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Our Family Christmas

We had an early christmas this year. We always have our little family christmas before we leave to go to Jason's folk's house. Then we make the long trip back on christmas eve night so we can have christmas with my folks on christmas morning. It's quite the eventful holiday!

Jason and I decided to approach christmas a little differently this year. We took the idea of the gifts from the 3 wise men, a special gift, a practical gift, and a gift to enrich their christian faith. It was the best christmas we have ever had. Maison and Libby each got an i-dog, an mp3 player, and a Veggie Tales Movie! Less is definately more!

We hope everyone has a wonderful christmas!

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Christmas Photos

This year we decided to have a friend of ours, Elli, take pictures of the kids for Christmas. Getting them in their natural element, thinking it would go much smoother. They did a great job and had a lot of fun. Check out Poor Girl's Photography to see more about Elli and her photography. She is amazing!

Sleigh Ride

After our first round of ice last weekend, we finally got a few inches of snow. We went to Grama Shari and Papa Ed's house for some sledding. The weather was a cool 14 degrees, no wind, and fresh powdery snow for sledding. Perfect conditions! I don't know who had more fun, Papa or the kids?

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New Member of The Allen Family

We recently added a new member to our family. Woody and his brother were rescued from a Davenport animal shelter. He and his brother are pure-bred Brittany Spaniels. Jason and I went to meet them Wednesday night. It was a very tough decision to separate the dogs, but we felt our house could only one more dog. Libby loves him and wants to bring his brother home, Gracie is unsure, and Maison has a new roommate. So far so good. If you know anyone that would like to give Woody's brother a good home, let us know or check out http://www.americanbrittanyrescue.org/

Chicken Pox For Christmas

Tonight was Libby's first performance as a dancer. I spent the day charging every set of batteries we have, 12 total, just to be on the safe side. (Didn't want a repeat of the dress rehearsal.) We had to be in Cedar Rapids with Libby dressed and ready to go by 5:30pm. We began getting ready at 3:45pm. The infamous ponytail was the first step. I figured everything after that would be cake. Took about a half an hour to tame that baby-fine hair into a ponytail, applied a tiny bit of makeup, and got her dance outfit on. We loaded everyone up in the car and headed north to Cedar Rapids. I was really impressed with our timeliness. We even had enough time to run through the drive-thru at McDonald's. Seems a little too good to be true. We got arrived right at 5:30pm. One would think we had plenty of time to get Libby situated and grab a great seat, since the show didn't start until 6pm. Not the case! The gym was absolutely packed and the only seats available were in the balcony 3 rows from the top! Luckily Libby still managed to locate us in the crowd!