Merry Christmas!

Here are 2 videos from the day.  The kids had a wonderful Christmas.  We are in Des Moines for the holiday.  We have snow and the kids made a snowman (well bob and I did, and they enjoyed it)  We will be heading home tomorrow.  We can't wait to have one more Christmas with the Langkaus and Wichards.  I will post pictures soon (I promise)

The kids being kids

Here are a couple pictures from the last few days.  Yes, walt is wearing an apron.  He helped me make cookies today.  I got him a chef's hat with his name for Christmas.  Oh, and yes, Francine is almost all the way under the table, she can move backwards really well.  :)

Rice Cereal

I am so lucky to have an amazing husband who surprised me with a new camera.  This shot really shows a beautiful Francine while eating her rice cereal (which she loves)

Another day with Santa

2 years ago we went to breakfast with Santa at the zoo. We liked it, but this year decided to try Breakfast with Santa at Macys (which is the old Famous Barr). It is downtown St Louis. Frankly, I thought it was great. There were magicians, clowns, charaters, a live music performance, and Santa come around to every table. It was perfect for walt. Francine slept through the ENTIRE breakfast.

Notice the hug walt gave Santa, he didn't want to let go, there were a lot of oohs and ahhs from other tables.

Charter Christmas

Every year Charter has an employee and family Christmas party at their office.  They always have Santa, some clowns, face painting, music, and food.  Walt was happy to tell Santa that he has been a good boy and he would like Mario Kart for Christmas.  :)  Francine didn't mind Santa at all, and she has been the best girl!  Walt also had a balloon giraffe that he wanted to show off for the camera.

Cold Snowy Day

The kids went down to Nanny and Poppie's Saturday night.  They had an awesome time.  Turns out Francine loves Bruno (the dog) just as much as walt does.  Thank goodness that Diane and Wally have a dog so we don't have too!  Francine is just starting to love the exosaucer.  And walt is just having fun being 3!

More Birthday

Quote from Walter: "There's frosting everywhere", and trust me - there was.  We can never wear these clothes again.

Happy Birthday Mommy

We had a pretty subdued dinner tonight for Sara's birthday.  Needless to say, there was cake.  Happy Birthday Mommy....

couple more Chicago pics....

Chicago Winter Wonderland

Normally when we go up to Chicago, I (sara) makes all the plans and of course I plan the most time with my closest friends.  This time it was all about BOB!  We drove through a snow storm but we made it.  Amanda and family were actually in Des Moines, so she was soooo generous to let us stay in their house. We met our good friends the Kelly's and their families.  The last time we saw them I was pregnant with walt.  SO we had a lot of catching up to do.  Saturday am we went to Navy Pier (i know we are such tourists!) they have a winter indoors carnival.  It was a lot of fun.  Our kids are 13, 4, 3, 2, and 5 months and they all loved it.  Saturday night we went to Jamie and Liz's house for dinner.  They had homemade pizzas- delicious.  And then Sunday we got to see some hockey friends, Mark, Shari, Jane, Emily, and Eric.  What a great time. 

crawling???

Francine loves to be on her tummy, well today she took laying on her tummy a step further and she got up on all fours????  Bob and I just looked at each other and smiled wide eyed!  WOW!  She is going to be on the go soon.