Life As We See It: Christmas and Kansas

So it's already the second week of January and I haven't even posted about Christmas or our trip to Kansas City, so here goes.

We were supposed to spend Christmas day at our home in Mason City with Thaddeus family, but because of Iowa weather!... nobody could make it here. So instead, we invited some friends who could not make it to their families, and our neighbor Denny. I baked my first ham (with Thaddeus' help, because I was at Sherlock Holmes when it needed to go in the oven!) and we had other delicious holiday foods and it was a nice Christmas, even without family! I was pretty bummed at first that our family couldn't come, but it helped me to see and remember the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus Christ... and spending it with my husband and kids is all the family I really need! Gunnar & Conrad of Christmas Eve in their new pj's!

Bennett Christmas morning playing with her princess stocking stuffer

Thaddeus reading the story of Jesus' birth to the boys on Christmas morning

We got up early the next morning and headed to Cedar Rapids to do Christmas with my parents and brother and his wife... we all got lots of great gifts and ate good food! That afternoon we headed to West Liberty to Thaddeus' parents house to do Christmas with them! It was a busy day, but very good to see everyone! That evening we left Conrad and Bennett with Ted and Lori and Thaddeus, Gunnar and I headed to Des Moines. We left Des Moines Sunday with our friends, the Skinners, and headed to Kansas City! Sunday night we stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge which has an indoor waterpark! Super fun place, especially if you have older kids... our boys were not tall enough to go on the big waterslides.... but they still enjoyed the smaller slides and swimming areas. I would totally recommend the lodge to anyone... very nice place with lots to do, we also enjoyed the arcade a lot! Monday and Tuesday nights we stayed in downtown Kansas City in a very nice hotel... the living room and bedroom were separated by french doors which was convenient since he had two 3 year olds with us! We stayed up late every night playing Monopoly Deal (super fun card game)! We also went to a children's museum that had a bunch of rooms with fun activities for the boys and we walked around downtown Kansas City's shopping district... GAP had some really good sales! We ended our trip driving by the Cheifs and Royals stadiums... they are super big, maybe our next vacation can be to see a game! I am so glad that we were able to go... it was our first vacation since our 1st anniversary! It was even more fun going with the Skinner's and just catching up on life and making memories with them! They are the type of friends that even though they live a few hours away, we will still be friends with 20 years down the road... pretty cool to think about!

Conrad and Bennett had fun with Grandpa Teddy and Grandma Lori... Lori had the fun job of weaning Bennett onto formula and bottles for me... I hadn't totally decided to be done with breastfeeding before we left, but after pumping for 4 days and losing some of my supply it just seemed like the right time. Bennett has adjusted pretty well and is starting to sleep through the night better... and I just have made a rule not to feed her before 5am. Hopefully in the coming weeks her sleeping will become more routine and everyone in our house will sleep better! There are so many positives to being done with breastfeeding, yet I find myself missing that time with her... I never really went through this with the boys so it's kinda weird... must just be a hormonal thing! Here's Bennett playing while at Grandma Lori's house!

Gunnar on a waterslide at the Great Wolf Lodge