Ice, Ice Baby

Monday and Tuesday were teacher in service days for Jakob's school. We had a great snow on Tuesday and Jakob and I played and shoveled all afternoon.

On Wednesday we had ice. Everything was super frozen and school was canceled. George had a delayed start and played outside with Jakob for an hour or so before he had to leave. We have a great hill on the side of house that our blow-up sled flies down. George said Jakob's eyes got so big as he sped down the hill and at the end he said, "That was the funnest thing ever!"

It's great to be a kid.

Snow in New Jersey

Sunday, the 25th of January, was George's birthday. Last weekend his mom had invited us to visit New Jersey to celebrate with George's family. It was short up on Sat. back on Sun. visit, but lots of fun. There was snow!! George's dad had put all the snow he had shoveled from the driveway into a big pile on the lawn. When we drove up Jakob was ready to play. He has been waiting all winter to play in snow. He played for hours with Grandma Betty and PaPa in about and inch of snow.

What are you grateful for?

GRATEFUL

1 a: appreciative of benefits received

2 a: affording pleasure or contentment

Most Sundays George and I attend an informal Bible study at our church while Jakob is in Sunday School. It is called the "Mug" and meets in the lobby of the preschool. Every Sunday Pastor Ken has us introduce ourselves and tell some little tidbit about ourselves. This week we were asked to tell what we were grateful for. The majority of the people expressed gratefulness for their family. I felt this was the easy answer. Most were thankful for their jobs in this tough economy. Still a little lame. I wanted to hear what people were grateful for that may pertain only to them or something that recently happened to them. I wanted people to be creative.
There were two people I felt had something interesting and out of the ordinary to be grateful for: A woman expressed gratitude for losing her job because it has given her the opportunity to get to know her children better (ages 6 and 3). The other person was my wonderful husband who was thankful that we lived in a country where the McCain party was not going to try to overthrow the Obama party after the election. Where people do have the freedom and power to choose their leader and there is no war or injustice that follows because of who won. Sure, we all know not everyone was happy with the election outcome; however most accept that the majority won and wish them success to make this country even better. I thought both feelings were a reminder to look for the positive in times of struggle and uncertainty.
Are you wondering what I was grateful for? I was grateful for my new mattress. Lame, but true.

Lt. Colonel Hansson

It's official. George pinned on Lt. Colonel yesterday at the Pentagon. His mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew were all there to help celebrate his achievement. The ceremony was very informal and great fun. We are all very proud.

Happy New Year!

Our last night in Wichita was spent at my Uncle Bruce's house. He is the social director for the family and his house is the place to be for food and fun on New Years.

Jakob stayed up until 1 am to help celebrate. By the end of the celebrating there was confetti everywhere in the house and lots of wonderful family memories.

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful time. We especially enjoyed meeting Emma and catching up with Keiran.

Great Wolf Lodge - Kansas City

I have heard from many that this excursion was a must with kids. My mom gave this package to Kansas City as a Christmas gift and we loved it. We headed to KC two days after Christmas and immediately went to the water park. Jakob would have spent his entire time at the park had we not left for lunch, dinner and sleeping.

He was tall enough to ride all the tube slides without an adult and loved the big bucket that poured 10,000 gallons of water on your head every 5 minutes. George and I loved that it was a controlled 82 degrees within the park and the water was warm.

We went to story time the two evenings we were there. The lobby was beautiful and still decorated for Christmas. The animated animal show with songs was a big hit and it snowed in the lobby. Awesome.

Our last night at the hotel we went to a dinosaur restaurant called T-Rex. Lots of animated dinosaurs and good food.

We are ready to try the Williamsburg Lodge next year.

Go Carts

The day after Christmas we went to The Alley in Wichita and drove go-carts and bowled. Jakob was tall enough to drive his own car and sped around the track as fast as he could. He was smiling the whole time. Next up was my dad, Caroline and me. As most of you know I am very, very competitive and was determined to pass them all. I started in last and finished in second, passing them all. I loved it.

Jakob is the top score.

Bowling was next and George and I sat out and watched the three of them battle it out. I have to say it was close. Jakob held his own through two games. Jakob used the bumper guards, however he bowled a strike and the ball didn't hit the guards the whole way down. So much fun.

Santa Arrives

This year we celebrated Christmas in Wichita, Kansas with my family. On Christmas Eve we attended church service with my dad and Caroline's family. When we returned to their house it was dinner and presents. Jakob got so many great gifts. His favorite was a spy camera that he could drive around and see and listen in every room of the house with his special spy glasses. Hours of fun.

Santa arrived at Tutu's house with Jakob's one requested gift: Wall-E DVD. Jakob was so happy Santa had read his letter and commented that the "helper" Santa at Tyson's Corner must have gotten the message to Santa too. Another year of magic.