Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
I always enjoy the fresh start of a new year.  It is the perfect opportunity for starting in on those goals for the upcoming year.  I don't really do resolutions, but I do like to think about opportunities for change/improvement in the many roles and relationships I enjoy as well as reevaluating priorities in my life.
We wish you all good health and much happiness in 2014!
Well... I see I have 7 months of catch up to do, so here are some highlights from the summer and beginning of fall in 2013.  I hope to have "Part 2" coming soon...as in, before we are half way through 2014!

We spent many hours at the Science Center this summer.

Makayla loves to play with the plastic bowls :)

Lots of picnics outside.  Made even better with friends...  I like to keep the crumbs outside when it is nice weather!

Just playing.

The kids made great friends with the neighbor kids this year.  Here is one of their neighbor friends that was over at some point almost every day this summer!

And lots of reading/looking at books.

What better thing to do than play in the water on a hot day!

Makayla learned to walk.

We went to Illinois for Huyserfest - a family reunion on my Mom's side of the family.  It was close to a lake and the kids had so much fun in the water.  Here was the big water slide.  Were Klayton and Hailey intimidated?  Oh no...this was their favorite spot and mom and dad got lots of exercise climbing those stairs carrying the kids back up to the top!

Brynn preferred the trampoline and the smaller slide so Grandpa spent time with Brynn at the beach.  Makayla slept so Grandma got to stay dry and hang out by Makayla while she napped in the stroller.

"Cousins"

Beautiful fountain by the patio where we had dinner one evening.

My dad got to do a racing experience at the Iowa Speedway in Newton.  He had to climb through the window of the race car to get in.  He looked like a professional :).

 The kids got to put on the helmet at the end.  They had so much fun watching Grandpa race.

 More pics of every day life - siblings are built in play mates!

We kept our tradition of going to the Iowa State Fair in August with Grandma and Grandpa Van Mersbergen.  Always a fun day!

 I love Klayton's expression in this picture.  It must have been stinky by that cow :)

 After the animal barns the kids did Little Hands on the Farm.

 Planting vegetables in the garden.

 Riding the tractors.

 Milking cows

 Then it was off to see the baby animals.

 We tried the maple bacon funnel cake which was a new food this year.  Oh my...deliciousness!  Salty/savory and sweet - doesn't get much better than bacon on a funnel cake!

 And of course Ice cream!  I don't know how much of Grandpa's ice cream he actually was able to enjoy...his grandkids helped themselves to his bowl!

We had an opportunity to go with some friends to the Ankeny airport for a tour.  It was a very interesting little field trip for the kids!

We made it back to one of the kids' favorite parks in Ankeny that day since we were in town and they got to feed the geese and the ducks.  Makayla thought the geese were hilarious!

 More water fun.  I found this sprinkler on clearance and it was quite the hit the last few weeks of hot weather.  The kids are already asking when they will get to wear their swimsuits again.  Now that Christmas is over I am done with cold weather too.

 Our trees drop leaves pretty early and the kids are eager to rake up a pile for jumping.

 Perhaps the biggest change in 2013 was the beginning of preschool for Hailey and Brynn!  Preschool is their FAVORITE thing.  To say they love it is an understatement.  They both adjusted pretty well to the routine - it took Klayton a bit longer to adjust but now he loves the time with just two kids in the house.  And on Mondays my parents still take care of the kids while I work in the office one day a week so it is special to be with Grandma and Grandpa and we usually do library programs or grocery shopping the other days Hailey and Brynn are at Preschool.  The girls are learning so many new things and come home singing a new song they learned almost every day.

 We spent many days at the zoo this summer as well.  On most occasions when I take the kids without Jason I don't bring my camera but we went as a family this time so I captured a few of their favorite things!

 This black swan comes right up to you!

Miss Makayla turned 1 in September!  She had a ladybug birthday party.

 Chocolate & strawberry creations.

 Her smash cake.

 She would not stand still AND look at the camera - that is asking far too much from a 1 year old!

 Makayla is a bit atypical for a 1 year old because she LOVES meat.  Hamburgers, BBQ beef, steak, chicken, pork chops...she loves it all...and she has the chompers to chew it!  So, we had hamburgers for her birthday supper.

 I did cake balls for dessert - red velvet cake and cream cheese as well as yellow cake with chocolate frosting since that is Jason's favorite combination and his birthday is the day after Makayla's.

 She enjoyed her cake - and made a huge mess :)

 Jason's mom found a really cheap Pinata so the older kids got to have some fun!  After much help from the older (and stronger) cousins, Klayton got to see the candy fall!

 She was thrilled with her ladybug balloon.

 My little sweet pea ;)

The neighbor brought over a toad.  Klayton was smiling the entire time!  He was fascinated by the toad and after learning how to hold it (not squeeze it so tight it dies :) or hold it so loose it would jump out and traumatically hit the ground), they got along well!

 During Fire Prevention week in October we went to the local fire station.  The firefighters put on a puppet show and show the kids all the equipment on the emergency vehicles and let them climb inside.

 One firefighter put on full gear to show the kids how a firefighter looks when he/she is coming to rescue you in the case of a fire.  He walked over to Makayla and she was really interested and trying to figure out what she was looking at and then he reached for her hand and she FREAKED out.  Oh well...our visit was great outside of that 3 minutes :)

 We spent countless hours at the parks.  We are within walking distance to two playgrounds and we would frequent both of them almost daily as long as it wasn't raining.

Hailey and Brynn are really into barbies now.  A sweet co-worker gave me a tote full that she didn't need at her house anymore and the girls were thrilled.

 We play a lot of games at our house.  Good activity for the kids that is organized, has rules to follow, and gives opportunities to be good winners and losers.  UNO is Brynn's favorite after learning it at Huyserfest earlier in the summer!

Ok - part 2 coming soon....maybe this weekend!