Friday, October 30, 2020

Norah's 6th birthday- family parties.

Our sweet Norah is 6! What a joy to celebrate her. I am so incredibly grateful to be her mom. She is so many good things and brings immense light to our lives! Happy happy birthday, our beautiful girl!

Covid made her birthday a bit different than usual, but we still had lots of fun. All our family usually comes to our house to celebrate, but that didn't work out with places for everyone to stay this year due to covid. Thankful we were able to go to Des Moines for a weekend instead. Uncle Zack and Aunt Karlie unfortunately had to miss because they are being very cautious with covid because she's about to have a baby (yay for a new niece or nephew soon!), but we got to see everyone else on my side, which was great. We just hung out at my parents house together and celebrated with together time and steak and cake!



It had been awhile since we had seen everyone, so it was great to be back together again. The girls loved all the play time with grandpa and grandma's toys and lots of people to play with!


Back home, we got to celebrate with Kley's side too! Fun we could still see everyone even if we couldn't have a big party all together. Norah loved it and didn't even realize that it was different than usual, which is exactly what we wanted. A celebration of her however we could do it- it was fun because she got lots of parties! We were able to go eat at a new restaurant that recently opened in our town and Norah got this free celebration shake for her birthday!


Then we went back to celebrate at Amma and Papa's house. Uncle Brett, Aunt Elizabeth, and Will got to be there too!



Family photo attempts didn't go so hot- these were our best ones. Oh well!



Pin the nose on Olaf game- the girls loved this and played it over and over!


Elizabeth and I joined in the fun too.



What a beautiful cake from our local bakery Amma got for Norah- so sweet!




What fun, happy 6th birthday Norah!

Monday, October 26, 2020

Omaha Zoo 2020.

We went to the Omaha Zoo with the De Jongs! It was a fun day and glad we could go on a special outing. 


The aquarium was a hit! This puffin was swimming around Lucy and Ellory for awhile and kept looking right at them, they loved it!


We got to see the penguins being fed, as well as a couple other animals. So neat!


Ellory loved the aquarium so much. It was such fun to watch her enjoy it. She stayed longer than everyone else and ran to almost every single thing and shouted, "Wow! Look at this!" She specifically asked me to take her picture by this purple/yellow fish and the stingray, which she hardly ever does. I've said it before and it's always true- watching your kids having a great time is such a joy!



Dancing on this special floor mat with cousin Will!



The giraffes were running around in a circle chasing each other! I have never seen that before and it was amazing. We got to see several really cool animal interactions this trip, probably more than I've ever seen before on a zoo trip. So fun!


My favorite animal with my favorite girls!



We also got to watch where they closed the walkway to get the giraffes inside. I've never seen that before either!


What a fun trip- love family time!


Kley looks pretty good pushing a stroller! What a great dad. Boy, we have logged lots of miles with that thing! I remember putting them in there so itty bitty, and now their feet are dangling over the edge. 


The girls were all three learning about creation recently at preschool and during homeschool, so it was a fun time for a zoo trip.



They had this helicopter and safari car you could play in in the African exhibit and it was a huge favorite!

Monday, October 19, 2020

Scarecrow Farm 2020.

We had a super fun family day going to visit Scarecrow Farm! We had to drive 45 minutes to get there, but it was worth it. We went there last year for the first time, and it was so fun we decided to make it tradition. They have lots of activities! We enjoyed slides, playground equipment, big jumper, tractor ride, hayrack ride, corn maze, turbo trikes, obstacle course, goats, swings, and maybe even more that I'm forgetting. Definitely lots of favorite fun fall activities!





We entered the mini maze, but somehow got mixed into the regular maze and we were lost for a bit, but we did it! The girls were troopers (this was the last thing we did before leaving and they were getting hungry).  They were amazed that it was real corn!


Hayrack ride! Norah stayed with Kley to ride the turbo trikes while we did this. 


Obstacle course- it's truly amazing. The girls basically just walked through it because it's made for adults, like not even regular adults, super athlete adults. 


They liked the tire tunnel and balance beam parts of it.


Our cute family photo attempts didn't go super great because it was "so bright." Oh well!


Fun swings!




Tractor ride.


The big jumper was a favorite!





What a fun day! Thankful for fun family outings- a blessing to be able to do it and one of my favorite things!

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Family photos 2020.

My sweet friend Heidi was kind and blessed us with some of her time to snap a few family photos for us! Here's the best of the bunch. :)

















Super thankful for my family! I am very honored to be wife and mom to my crew. After pictures, we went to our local school's football game! The girls got a ring pop for taking pictures nicely and loved the halftime band show! (We left after halftime for the girls to go to bed. They basically think the football game is just the warm up for the real event- the band. :)