These are some surveys that my kiddos have created. If you have time, take one and enjoy.
Sports Craze by Dalton and Tyler
Sports Craze by Dillon and Caleb
Cooliesto Food by Jill and Cassie
Popular by Jenna
Favorite Things by Kristen
SPORTS by Casey and Clay
Christmas Craze by Tyler
College Football by Lincoln and Ben
These don't work yet, but will hopefully in a couple days.
Food by Forrest
Turtles and Bears by Mia, Maddi and Kali
Music Mania by Max
We are trying to get some pictures for a Christmas card, but we are not having much luck. Believe it or not this is actually happy faces on both kids.
We have been talking about this day for awhile. Ally knows what she is going to ask Santa for and about his raindeer and how he is coming to our house. She is soooooo excited. We got to the Santa stop and there and we were #199 and #200. One of my students were passing out the numbers and she said that they were on #75. Her mom was running it and almost pushed us up, but I couldn't do that. If I knew that it was going to be an hour and a half, I might have taken the offer!
Drew and I were walking around looking at things. I should him where Santa was and he said - mommy go now. I told him he needed to wait his turn. A little girl got off Santa's lap and Drew said - Mommy my turn now!
I always ask how the kids do at preschool and they tell me that they do everything together, but at the same time are DEFINITELY siblings though. When I see them in the halls they are always holding hands. Tonight when they were getting ready to see Santa, they held hands. Ally is a good sister that helps her little brother.
So what did she ask for: Backyardigans radio, Uniqua doll, and Dora bracelet. Drew was speechless but excited.
Who let thses goons help make cookies with their runny noses and coughs? Oh well these goons are the only one that are going to eat the cookies!
We enjoyed a great day of Christmas shopping last Saturday. Ally and Drew stayed home with their favorite babysitter - Stacey. At supper that night, Ally fell asleep at the table. Must have had a hard day playing.
I am amazed on how many people haven't seen Cars. It is Drew's FAVORITE movie. Grandma Rhonda bought him a Cars hat with Mater on it this fall - since ours were in storage. There was a flier in the DVD case with the cars on it and he carries/takes it with him EVERYWHERE, even to church.
If you didn't know, Drew has many tractors or other farm equipment. He doesn't allow Ally to touch them. Besides driving them around and making "tractor" noises, he likes to stand them on their hind ends. In the movie, Mater and McQueen went out one night to "tractor tip." They snuck up in front of the tractor and honked their horn to scare them. Then the tractor woke up scared and took off too fast and ended up on its hind end.
It's cute when he does it.
On a side note: Thanks dad and mom for the combine with a removeable corn and bean head. I put that thing on at least 100 times tonight. The auger is still attached and Mommy is the only one that can put it on for some reason...
We were quite surprised tonight by our little Van Gogh. Ally begged to paint after supper. As any reasonable parent would say - it is getting late let's do it another time. She continued to insist so we attempted to keep Drew occupied and got out the watercolors. Here is her masterpiece. We were quite surpised. I am sure this one is going to be in a frame somewhere in our house soon!
Jason joined in after awhile and this is his beautiful picture. Any bidders????
Drew finally got tired of racing his tractors and cars and saw Ally showing off her paper. He yelled - I paint too! Goodness I don't know how they do it in the preschool, but he got going also and created the below picture. I stood close by holding onto the water cup and reminding him to put it in the color AFTER he dipped it in water.
Conversation on the way home tonight... (you can tell where this is going right away!)
Ally: Mommy, Do we have a chimney?
Mommy: Why do we need a chimney, Ally?
Ally: So Santa can bring our toys down. Where is our chimney?
Mommy: ummmm let me call Daddy....
Later at home discussion comes up...
Ally: Daddy, do we have a chimney?
Daddy: Yes - don't you see the fireplace?
Ally: Yep ... conversation ends
If I would have know it was that easy I would have answered it, but I was afraid she would want to see it when we got home. Ours is a pipe that only a squirrel could get through. Santa would really have to do a miracle!
Jason was walking in last night from hanging up more Christmas lights. Yes - he is Clark Griswald. Shivering he asked, "Why did we want to move back to Iowa? Did we really complain about it not being cold enough?" No snow and still FRIDGED! Ally continues to ask why she has to wear her coat in the car. Duh - you have no fat on that little bum to keep you warm!
Ally and Drew get to be in Uncle Jared and soon to be Aunt Allison's wedding in March. Jason is too, but he doesn't get to wear a pretty dress. We are so excited for them! Now we get to start buying noisy toys for them too!
We have had a great 4 day weekend. It all started with Turkey Day! Ally was so excited and kept asking when Turky Day was going to be here. We headed to Uncle Ken's in Newton for the big celebration. After lunch (which was great) except that Ally and Drew barely ate anything unless you consider all the corn off of Jason's plate.
Mom, Donna, Troy, the kids and us went to the park to play. We had fun running around on the fort. It had a boat, a wagon and lots of tunnels to climb through. Jason got stuck in one tunnel and had a headache from hitting his head.
Ally was driving the jeep. Keep dreaming girlie!
Drew loves the merry-go-round. Ally is getting really good at pushing him around and around. I get so sick but not them. Maybe I am getting tooooo old!
Mom was checking out her balancing routine. She wasn't too good at it - but I was!
After we got back to the house, the Shepleys got there. The Daddys took the kiddos out to Uncle Ken's "farm" to ride tractors and HORSES!!!! Mommys stayed back to search the Black Friday ads for good deals - none were found.
Here is Drew with Grandpa Charlie.
Now Ally's turn - finally she wasn't first!!!
This is Mallory (She is 6 wks older than Ally).
This is Lydia riding her horse - she looks like a pro!
It is Christmas time!!! That means LIGHTS!!! We don't try to out do our neighbors, but it is always nice. We just try to improve on the previous years lights. Jason was up putting up the lights and Drew was sleeping. Ally was out and about playing when she realized that Jason was on the roof putting up the lights. It took her over 15 minutes to figure out how he got up there. She kept running in the house going up the stairs, running down, back outside, back inside, up the stairs etc. I asked her what she was doing and she told me that she was trying to get to Daddy to help. I giggled realizing that she had forgot about the guest bedroom - the window that Daddy had crawled out of. The door was shut.
Finally I showed her how to get out. Yes we are TERRIBLE parents, but she sat in the corner of the roof and handed Jason the hooks. She didn't move, but had a blast.
Drew and Ally fight like brother and sister. We have tried to sit Drew in time out, but didn't work because he would just get down. Now that he has gone to school, he has figured out what time out it. I think that means he might have had to sit in time out a few times. I am pretty sure he was in trouble for throwing food or hitting Ally. It was hard not to laugh at him because he was being so silly.
This story is way past due, but too cute to forget!
On some Sunday nights we head to my Grandpa Melvin's house for supper. We hadn't been for quite awhile since we moved to IC. We had to take my van to the shop (again - surprise surprise) and then headed to Grinnell. About half way there, Ally asked for a "wippy."
Of course our response was - NO you don't need to play with it! She said that she needed to wipe off the food. Huh???? I turned around in the truck to Drew's face COVERED in brownies. The brownies were sitting on the seat between them. Neither of us thought they could reach them or see us put them there. Well we were obviously wrong. The brownie had a hole in the middle and a big mess in the truck.
Ken still ate the brownies or at least parts of them that little hands hadn't touched!
I have several blogs from this weekend that I need to post, but I had a great memory on why I love IA grocery stores!!!!
Fareway is the greatest store on earth. It might be outdated. They all wear white shirts and black ties (Morman family own the store.) Their store is not high tech. I remember the last time I shopped in Ames, I think they still had to type in all the prices. So in the past 6 yrs they have upgraded to scanners.
You might ask why do I love this store???? Service. I had 2 kids that refuse to ride in the cart anymore and wanted to walk out holding my hand. Okay I am for holding hands, but I had a small bag of groceries and Jason's breakfast drink - mountain dew. When I got up to the check out the girl - said "carry out." YEAH!!! You are NOT allowed to push the cart out the door. You can carry your groceries, but the carry out boy pushes the cart or carries your stuff! He followed our little scrambling threesome as we headed out to the car. He put it in my van and said - Have a good evening - all as I got the kids in their carseats.
What a great night~
Ally got the flu on Tuesday night. I think the kids have something secretly planned against us. They plan to get sick when Jason is about ready to head to WI. Ally told me her head hurt on the way home from school. She put an ice pack on it when we got home and said that made it feel better. At 10:00 her supper came up - man she needs to chew! Along with that lovely picture she had a high temp.
Jason stayed home with her today because he was leaving for WI the next day and couldn't stay that day. My kids are INSANE for a sub and I was already out one day this week. Last two times it was Drew. I think they have it out for us!
While Jason and Ally were home, Jason made her some toast. He called into the play room, "Sweetie, your toast is ready, come eat with me." She yelled back, "Daddy are you talking to me or are you talking to yourself?" Hummm does Jason talk to himself?
She must be feeling better though. When I put her to bed, it took over 30 minutes to tuck in ALLLLLL of her babies. They each have their own Turkish pillow and a blanket. They each needed their dolly and a kiss. Oh she has quite the imagination! She also was in bed when I heard her crying. YIKES - I haven't had to clean up throw up by myself for a long time! Turns out - she misses her daddy and was hystarical. She is now in my bed waiting for her daddy to come home. She did get to talk to him and have him sing her good night song.
Moral of the story.... if you can't sleep, call us Jason will sing you the good night song.... nope that's not it - Ally loves her Daddy. She told me that she is his favorite little girl!
Amy S for some reason HATES meatloaf. I don't really get her and this just adds to my pile of questions. Well last night we had meatballs. Would Amy eat those. It is the exact same ingredients as meatloaf, but in little balls instead of a LOAF (which is what grosses her out).
Just a thought for pondering... Amy you have any reactions?
Most of you reading this have never been to a sale barn. I don't even remember if I have been to a sale barn. My mom is reading this going - gee wiz Brenda - you have many times. It has obviously not left a lasting impression.
Jason was the kind and brave husband on Saturday afternoon. He took BOTH kids to the Club Calf sale over an hour away. My dad was selling 3 calves to inspiring 4H kiddos for next year's fair.
I didn't go, but I hear that you get popcorn and other goodies and can cheer for your grandpa when he comes into the ring.
I enjoyed my time unpacking both kids' room and going to Bread Company for a warm and quiet bowl of soup and my favorite sandwich. YIPPEE for great husbands!
Ally was having quite the day. We were unpacking stuff. Jason and I were working our best to keep them busy so that they wouldn't undo our hard work. It was kind of nice out side - upper 20 to lower 30s. We bundled the kids up and let them ride their bikes outside while Jason was hanging cupboards in the garage for his manly tools.
We are the last house on the street so the sidewalk ends into a muddy lot next to us. We got quite a bit of rain on Friday along with the water that Jason had put on the sod. Ally hasn't mastered stopping on her bike and fell off the end of the sidewalk. 
Not the terrible part though. She sat in it trying to get out and sunk her tennis shoes in the mud. Scarred for the morning, she lost interest in the great outdoors and came into bother mommy who was trying to unpack the plethera of toys that we hadn't seen in 5 months!
The funny part came 5 hours later when she wore her farm boots out to go fishing in the yard. She marched around the house - I hope that she wasn't trying to knock down the walls! You can see the little footprints in the mud. Well yes again she fell down in the mud in the same spot as before. Trying to pull her boots out she sat down in the mud and dirtied another pair of pants - EEKS!
Oh well - this episod sent her to the couch to watch some tv - without her pants!
Many know that Jason is deathly afraid of bunnies. No one can understand it. It has more to do with the scary stuffed animals rather than real soft cuddly ones. We went to the mall for supper. Drew and Ally saw the merry-go-round and HAD to ride it. Drew picked the animals and led Jason to the scary bunny.
Sorry the pict is so bad - it is from my cell phone.
One of my crazy 7th grade boys decided to dress as a "nerd." He caused more of a distraction and laugh than anything which is typical.
Well, I think it is about time that I add to the Worst Mom of the Year sagas.
Yesterday I was putting the kids in the truck to head home after school. I had both kids buckled in and was getting ready to get in myself when I realized that I had hit the lock button on the car and locked my poor kids into the car buckled into their seats. Of coarse my keys were in the truck with my phone. I was also locked out of the school, but luckily a janitor had just come out into the hall and saw me.
I ran into the school and grabbed Sandi (a good teacher friend) and her cell phone. I tried calling Jason, but he didn't answer because it was a Miron forward and not his wife's number. Arghhhh what to do. Another teacher flagged down the principal on his way out and we stared at the truck wondering what to do. The kids didn't know what was going on and were laughing. Luckily it was also 65 degrees out instead of the normal November weather.
After about 30 seconds, Brad (principal) tried Drew's door again and it was OPEN!!! Drew had his socks and shoes off and was playing with the door locks! Ally was too. I felt awful. I am known (mainly by my husband) to lose my keys and lock them in the car. I guess we need to find the magnetic box and put in under the vehicles again.
Cell phone - Jason did answer the next call when I called him from my phone.
Most of you know that Ally is silly silly silly - or at least says very silly stuff. Here are a couple of the most recent sayings!!!
On the way to church, she was babbling like a crazy child. Jason finally asked her to sit still and be quiet for the last few minutes. Her reply to his request, "Daddy, I am not done talking yet."
Last night at supper she was drinking Kool-Aide. Hers was gone so she was asking for more. To show us shee needed more, she tipped the cup upside down and the left overs dribbled out the cup. Her reply, "I don't know why I did that....I sorry, sorry sorry" (covered with lots of hugs....)
When we went to bed we found Arabella (cabbage patch doll) and Little Kitty outside of Ally's door???? When we put her to bed they were tucked in under wash rags (her "little blankets for dolls" I am cheap and can't find all of our old baby blankets yet). In the morning we asked her what happened and she said she didn't want them sleeping in her room. Wish I could do that sometimes.
There are so many more. Look forward to me getting pictures from my mom about Love-A-Lots birthday party on Tuesday.
The sod guys came and laid some sod last night. We have only done the front lawn and part of the back yard. The builder is suppose to come back in the spring and seed the rest, but we are checking into prices about more sod.
Shutters will hopefully get painted this weekend and put up. I will update then and give pictures of the inside. Right now it looks like WWIII. I got the kitchen 100% complete last night except for a box of rubbermaid containers that I can't find.
It took Jason over an hour to find the sprinkler. A lot of boxes untaped!!!
I am not quite sure how sweet home is yet, but we are finally home! We moved today. I didn't have school on Friday (conferences comp day) and Jason took the day off to pack. At 8:30, the truck from STL arrived and the guys started unloading. Meanwhile Jason finished packing the truck in Brooklyn and by 11:00 he was on the road.
By 4:00, the trucks were unloaded and now we have paths between rooms. Who knows when I will ever park my van in the garage. I don't have pictures because I didn't take any in the confusion, but I will get some day light picts soon.
Now we need to get change of address cards out so that we are forgotten at Christmas! Ally was thrilled to get Quinn's birthday invite - even though she is heading to a calf sale that day with Daddy and Drew. We are pondering the noisy toy we can get him.
Off to put up a curtain so we don't scare our new neighbors!
This year was a sad Halloween, but a lot of fun. We usually head off to church for the Fun Fall Festival - where it is warm, but that trek was a little out of the way this year.
We went to Victor with Grandma Rhonda to trick or treat. It was bitter cold with a little wind to top that off. This is their first house - an old friend from church, Ed! They were so excited. Too bad that they won't eat most of the candy! I still have candy from 4th of July!
Drew was so cute saying, "Tick or teet." and then his adorable, "tank ou." They were really great and enjoyed the cold night.
Ally was Uniqua from the Backyardigans.
This is obviously not my kids. My niece, Kaylee, is the bunny. Don't these kids look like they really are excited about Halloween and going to get candy??? Also if you notice in Kaylee's hand in a HUGE candy bar - I can't imagine that she is going to get to eat that one!
This year we actually did something with our pumpkins! Last year we bought the pumpkins and set out one Sunday afternoon to carve them, but Ally was grossed out by the innards and Drew just wanted to run through the gunk.
This year - Drew didn't feel like participating and watched Backyardigans instead. That was okay - knives and Drew aren't a good combo!
Ally was excited. It did take awhile to convince her to stick her hand in the pumpkins, but finally she bravely pulled some stuff out. Wiped her hand off with a rag and plunged back in for another scoop. We wanted to put "Willis" on one pumpkin, but Ally kept saying - "That's not how you spell my name. You spell it A-L-L-Y." Then she wiped it off the pumpkin. We finally gave in and made some cool faces.
Drew decided that he could go outside and enjoy the glowing pumpkins. Someone (or something) else enjoyed the pumpkins last night. The candles were on the side walk - actually we know that a racoon was on the patio and was messing with the pumpkins. Guess they weren't scary enough.
I have been looking forward to when the railing for the stairs would be finished! It looks awesome. I am sure the kids will have a blast throwing things down.
The deck is getting the final touches on as I type. The house inspection is on Tuesday afternoon which means it has to have everything done TONIGHT!!! It isn't great trying to do it in the middle of the night, but we have tooooo many things on our plate at this time. I went to help finish screwing the deck boards on tonight and some stair treads. The kids ran around and then climbed into the truck to watch a movie. 
It was beautiful all day. After we got home a COLD FRONT came in. I think the temperature dropped a good 25 degrees since I left North Liberty. Jason said that it was getting hard to hold onto things. It will be so nice when we are in the house - sitting by the fireplace - with nothing to do????
My little guy had quite a memorable birthday. I am not sure the memories are good - except for the Cardinals winning. I picked him up from Sherry's at about 3:45 and no more than 15 minutes on the road came our first surprise - PUKE...
My kids are known for their untimely puking in the car, but really on his birthday. I think God has a sense of humor to see what I would do. We were on our way to the house to see the weekly update - then to Grandma Rhonda's for pizza. I had his PJs from the morning so he was styling with the dinosaurs. I was hoping for a car sick boy, but come to find out - we got a 3 day plus more of yucky sick all for Drew. This made him want his mommy (not daddy) more than ever. I am so exhausted and frustrated of trying to figure out what he wanted make him comfortable.
We didn't cancel his party, and I hope no one gets sick out of the deal. We had fun at Great Grandpa Melvin's house. The kids wore their costumes. I love to go Grandpa's and cheer him up. He loves to watch the kids play. I know he enjoys the company.
Back to birthdays....Presents, cake, candles, we had the typical party. Drew is in tractor heaven and "farms" daily. He even has a "Gandpa" for the combine. Thanks everyone for the special weekend!
If you haven't heard or don't really care - I am going to tell you anyway! Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 1 in the World Series. OH how I wish I could have been in STL with people who really care, but instead I laid on the couch exhausted with my honey. I fell asleep somewhere in the 7th inning, but my loving husband woke me up for the top of the ninth. It was great. I was bummed for the rainout - but hey now Drew has a win on his birthday too!
Two years ago - Where were you in history???
Many remember this to be the day the Cardinals were swept by the Boston Red Soxs in the World Series! That is hard to forget and a memory close to our hearts, but most importantly we remember that Drew came to our family and hasn't left! I wanted to put the scale pictures up to remind people that he was a womping 9 pounds 2 oz, but they were inappropriate!
I remember that I was on my way to the grocery store to get party supplies for our World Series get together. Let's just say that Jason suggested that I go home when my water broke in the parking lot. At the hospital I was getting an epidural during game 3 and we had to turn off the t.v. We lost that game and Drew was born several hours later in the middle of the night.
The next day we had lots of visitors. The pictures are of our World Series Game 4 party. Jason & Julie (& Austin kind of) and Chuck, Amy & Trip. I remember Trip sitting with me on my bed so still watching the game. The boys went out to get real food instead of hospital stuff. On Drew's first birthday the Cardinals failed to redeem themselves, but this year they have a chance to win it again. There is NO CHANCE that they can lose it on his birthday this time - so who knows what will happen tonight - A victory hopefully!
Well we might not be in the house yet! BUT we finally have brick. Supposedly he was suppose to come 5 weeks ago, but the way this contractor goes it is amazing anything is getting done. 
Supposedly (I say that a lot!) he told Jason that he was going to do the inspection early next week. Which means we might be in by middle to late next week. I will believe it when the last piece of siding is put on. Oh 2 guys finally showed up to work on that again. They do have the carpet, lighting, heat registers and stuff, and plumbing stuff finished up. We are waiting on the guys to finish up the stair case and the appliances and tape and paint the garage and landscaping - and of course the siding....
If you ever move to Iowa and want to build a house, we definitely have one man that we will recommend not using - even though he has done a beautiful job!
When I was little I used to play school all the time. You can get my mom going on all the silly things that my imagination would come up with when I was young. I was telling Grandpa about it and he said - "I think that sounds familiar." I responded - "Don't think it sounds familiar - it was familiar!"
I loved to play school and gather all my dolls and read or teach to them. I guess school has rubbed off on our little Ally. She puts all the dolls down for naps (using my dish towels as blankets). Drew helps put Ernie down. As you can see in the background, she has the beds made. She rubs their back like Terry does for her at school!
The sometimes reads to them. The story she is getting ready to read was about the puppy sitting on the other bed. Also you can notice the backpackets hanging on the dresser.
I guess Ms. Joanna and the other teachers at school have touched my darling little girlie's life. Role models start early in life!
I usually change Drew when he is wet, but Rachel noticed that he was getting a little droopy. He didn't really care and kept running from me when I had the diaper. "No No Mommy!" It made for some cute pictures at least. They will be quality for his wedding someday!
Okay Anderson - I get the point. Oh I have been so lazy about downloading the pictures on my camera. My camera told me I ran out of room on my memory card. Yikes that hasn't happened ever!
We went with Jason a few weeks ago to work on the deck. Ally and Drew played in the dirt in the back yard. They had fun climbing, but it was COLD!!!! The wind was blowing from the North Pole! The ground was hard and Jason had quite fun trying to dig the holes. When he tried to pour the concrete into the holes, Drew had to help making a mess which sent us home!
I don't know if you read my comments, but read the update on the one about JR is still fighting. There has been some great news this weekend!
Oh what a day! The cold has hit! This morning I went downstairs in search of coats. Ally didn't understand why she had to wear a coat in the car. I couldn't find Drew's even though I know that we have one - so I decided that we needed to get to Iowa City to get him a coat before it gets much colder than mid 40s.
The afternoon didn't go quite as planned though - God seems to have a good sense of humor. I got out of my really exciting meeting and noticed that one tire was low. I was in Oxford which is a town of no more than 500. I thought there was a gas station, but would it have air for my sad tire?? They did have air, but it didn't seem like my tire was filling very quickly. I stopped the air and listened and heard someone whispering..pssssssss. Then I felt the air pouring out of my tire. Great! Jason had put his phone on vibrate in his coat pocket during his meeting. I have very little signal in the middle of nowhere.
I headed into the gas station which was nice. The clerk said there was a tire shop across the street. She walked me to the back door and said that he was still open. I walked over in hope that he wasn't busy and would fix the leak in my tire. He could do it, but he had to finish the job he was on and go get his son outside of town who ran out of gas. He was pretty old too. He got it fixed and I was on my way to get the kids.
We made it to the interstate. When I was getting on, a man was pointing to my poor tire. Great - now what. I was talking to Jason at the time heading to the house and get Drew's coat. Jason had to head up to change the tire. I think that I probably could have changed it, but I am deathly afriad of big semis on the interstate. Also did I mention that it was flurring????? That is what the white blurry specs are on the pictures.
The rest of the night was unadventurous. Jason was working on digging five 48 inch deep holes by 16 inches wide holes in the hard clay for a deck. Not to mention that it was freezing. We got our stuff and headed home with McD's to make everyone happy.
