Icy Morning

We woke up December 23rd, to a layer of ice.

 

 

Christmas in Cedar Rapids

We celebrated Christmas with Cory's family in Iowa over the weekend of December 21st. 

We tried to add Cooper to the group photo, but he wasn't too happy about the idea.
 

The night we opened presents, they got a bunch of snow.  We were actually supposed to leave the following morning, but we went sledding and snow boarding instead.  We left later in the day, after they had plowed the roads.
 

Julia and Uncle Brad

As always, there was snow eating.

 It was a COLD, but fun day!

Gingerbread House

The kids always enjoying making a gingerbread house.  I really do think they eat as much candy as they put on the house.

 

 

Christmas Performances 2013

Each of the kids were in a performance with their class for Christmas.  I apologize for the quality of these videos.  They are a bit blurry if you try and watch them full-screen, especially when I tried to zoom in.  It's also hard to hear what they are saying, especially Julia's class, but it's still fun to watch. :)

Kindergarten Class

Julia's right in the middle.

1st/2nd Grade

Johanna was chosen to be Mary so she's right in the middle, too.

5th/6th Grade

Grant comes in at about the 52 second mark.  He is wearing a shepherd's costume, which he wasn't very happy about because he was the only his teacher made dress up. He says his lines, and then has another really short line at the end.

I will hopefully have some better quality videos next year!

Picture with Santa 2013

Chicken Tractor

Throughout the year, Cory and some friends, built a chicken tractor to use with our chickens Spring through Fall.  They finished in December 2013, so it was ready to use the following Spring.

This is how it started. 

This is the back, where we refill the water tank, and feed tube.

 

We used wood from this old shed on the outside of the tractor, and painted it a nice, bright, barn red.

 

What a beauty!