Moving to the Farm

Yesterday my dad told me I hadn't updated the blog since Halloween - I thought he was being dramatic. I hopped on tonight to prove him wrong and then it happened, the one time a year I am wrong and it had to be at midnight on a Friday night. So here I am updated pictures when I should be sleeping - only for you GPA Terry - only for you :)

The reason that I haven't updated the blog is because we had some big news - we MOVED! Josh accepted a new position at an algae plant (he thinks it should be referred to as a farm so hence forth it will be called the algae farm) in Shenandoah, Iowa, conveniently located 5 miles from my grandparents farm. So we spent all of November packing, and donating, and throwing, and packing, and cleaning, and very little sleeping or evidently blogging.

We traveled from Indiana to Iowa on Thanksgiving Day with the help of Josh's brothers and sister's-in-law, parent, aunts, etc., etc. We could not have done it without their help so - Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

They moved us in, tore up flooring, put together various IKEA furniture, cleaned, cooked and loved on our children.

About a week after moving in GPA Terry came down to celebrate and early Christmas with us. He dressed up as Santa with a beard and all for the kids.

Aunt V was down plenty to help and to play.

You'll notice in pictures of the farm house, wallpaper, lots and lots of wallpaper. Hopefully over the next year you will see less and less wallpaper and not just because it is falling off the walls of it's own accord.

In front of the wallpaper you will see Miss Isabel on her new train. She loves riding it around when she can get it away from her brother and sister who assure me that Isabel really likes sharing with them and that they didn't take it from her and make her cry.

It lights up and makes all kinds of fun noises.

Abram has really enjoyed getting into the spirit of the season. On this particular frosty morning - he told Josh that he was really cold. Instead of following the mainstream and putting on clothes to stay warm - he decided to put on his santa hat to stay warm.

It must be a very warm hat because here he is eating breakfast in pretty much just the hat and looks pretty cozy.

It must have gotten pretty cold for him to have put on some clothes. The kid really likes being naked.

A picture of two little girls with a lot more layers on :)

We made use of the tiny bit of snow that we got to go sledding - they would have gone all day if mama wasn't such a wimp!

When Isabel kept squirming away Stella had the great idea for me to stick her in her carseat while I finished getting ready. She's squeezed in there like a little pink sardine.

After a hard day of sledding we decided to make cookies. Don't worry there are no eggs in the batter so we can lick the beaters all we want!!!!

Abram has that sugar-glazed eye thing going on here.

Isabel doesn't get to lick the beater but she doesn't seem to mind.

Finally - we visited Santa. Stella zoomed straight past the line and right into Santa's lap.

You can get away with things like that when you're that cute. She promptly told him she wanted a prezass for Christmas. Santa incorrectly interpreted that as 'presents' which she continued to inform him 'prezass, I want a prezass.' I feel sorry for all of you who didn't know that meant 'princess.

 Clearly you need to catch up on your two-year-old interpretation skills.

Isabel wasn't so sure about the big guy in red but at least she didn't cry.

Abram on the other hand was very skeptical and this was about as close as he got - and really only then because Santa had a candy cane to lure him in with. Candy + making sure Santa knows you want a spider-man web shooter = Abram willing to get 3 feet foot radius of strange man in giant red suit.