Events of our New Year's Eve day

Here is how we spent the last day of this decade:

1. Slept in a little (woke up at 7:45 am).

2. Got dressed and went to a doctors appointments at 9:00 am. We were there for just over 2 hours! AWESOME!

3. Went out to lunch because we were starving.

4. Dropped off Nathan at work.

5. I picked some things up at CVS Pharmacy.

6. I went to another doctors appointment and was there for about 1 ½ hours! AWESOME again!

7. Picked up Nathan from work and went to Target to purchase some necessities.

8. Came home and I hopped in the shower because I was freezing.

9. Currently, at 8:33 pm, Nathan is on the phone with our Bishop. They are doing computer related things....which means I have NO CLUE what they are up to.

10. Ate random leftovers in the fridge for dinner.

And here is what our current weather is. Check out the "real feel" temperature circled in red. Doesn't it make you want to go outside and celebrate the new year?

And now at 9:05 pm to top off our New Year's Eve we are probably going to go to bed here shortly because we are so dang tired. Aren't we just so exciting and fun to be around?

Christmas 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well we had a White Christmas in Iowa today. Yep...it snowed all day.

We had a fun day today. We slept in, opened gifts, watched Kronk have fun with the wrapping paper (see pictures below), talked with LOTS of family on the phone, and then we went over to some friends house for some games and yummy food.

Gifts we received:

*A current picture of the First Presidency. We still had the picture of President Hinckley, President Monson, and President Faust on the wall in our spare room. I just haven't had the heart to take that one down and replace it...so thanks mom!

*A family history book for my side of the family.

*And money to put towards a new printer.

Nathan received:

*Money (to put towards a new suit). I didn't want to take a picture of the check because of the account information. So here is a picture of Nathan trying to unwrap the gift (with Kronk's help of course).

*New "slickies"/comfy pants.

*A new casual dress coat (though we need to take it back...it's too big).

Rachel received:

*A new Miche purse with a new shell. This bag is AWESOME! And I hate purses so when I find one I like it's a big deal.

*The entire series of the TV show Reba. Nathan and I love this show...it's so funny!

And here is Kronk's favorite part of Christmas. We call it "Walking in a 'wrapping' wonderland."

Picture of cannon pixma printer courtesy of Google images

Something I've pondered since we have lived in Iowa...

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

This flock of sheep is just down the road (literally) from our house. Does that mean that the shepherds were in Iowa when the Savior was born?

One morning, just after we moved to Iowa, we were awakened with the sound of "bah...bah" (we had slept with our bedroom window open that night). Realizing that we had just heard some sheep in a nearby field we both turned and looked at each other and said "where did we move to?"

Festive Sweater Day

It was "Festive Sweater Day" at Croco Orthodontics yesterday. That's right...we pulled out our festive sweaters, earrings, and socks and wore them to work.

I think the horrendous sweater award goes to my boss (his sweater is actually a women's sweater......complete with shoulder pads)! Isn't it awful?

Let is snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

There is a line in a Christmas song that perfectly describes the weather we had today:

"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."

Check out some snapshots I took last night and today:

The entire State of Iowa was under a wintry advisory and was expecting 6-12" of snow throughout the state. Apparently, a statewide wintry advisory was a first for Iowa and I'm so happy that we could be apart of it!

Here were the road conditions for today. Yea...I didn't go to work. In fact, none of us made it into the office.

And here was our temperature at 7:42 pm this evening! Look at that real feel.....BRRR! I think that Nathan was on some kind of medication when he applied to the University of Iowa...just kidding honey. I'm glad you're getting your dissertation so that you can provide for our family. :)

Santa's House

There is a house in Coralville, Iowa that is always THOROUGHLY decorated for Christmas. I like to call it "Santa's house" (the pictures will explain why). May I just say that the pictures do not do the house justice.

*Note: if you look closely you will see two electric train tracks on the ground--and they are always running (at least during viewing hours).

I think the sign of 83 different ways to say Merry Christmas adds a nice touch...don't you think?

This family goes all out! One of my favorite things is this road sign for deer crossing. They put a red light on the tip of the deer's nose to make it look like Rudolph! How funny is that!

For those of you who live in Iowa and want to visit Santa's house but don't know where it is...click here.

Christmas with Kronk

Many of our blog viewers have asked me how Kronk is handling the Christmas decorations. So I thought I would appease all you Kronk lovers out there and do a blog post dedicated to Christmas with Kronk.

*Dishtowels--We usually will find dishtowels on the floor in the mornings when we get up, or anytime we are in the kitchen making meals or snacks. Kronk will come into kitchen, get upset that you're not paying attention to him, walk over to the towel, and paw at it until it falls on the floor. It drives us crazy which is why we never hang our daily dishtowels on the oven door. The ONLY time we do hang dishtowels on the oven door is for decoration...not for daily use.

*Gifts--Kronk LOVES to help wrap gifts. This actually can get really frustrating at times. Anytime you lay out wrapping or tissue paper--guranteed--he will drop whatever he is doing and come lay or sprawl on the paper!

*Ribbons--Kronk STEALS ribbons from you. This, without fail, always happens anytime you wrap a gift. He has even got up from sleeping to come steal ribbons away from me. Again, this can be quite frustrating at times but it is just so darn cute. Look at his determined face in the following pictures.

*Christmas tree--We didn't put a tree up in 2008 because we were going to be gone and we didn't want to leave him unattended for 10 days with a tree in the house. That's just too tempting for a cat. So it has been 2 years since he has even seen a Christmas tree.

This year Kronk has done pretty well. He has not climbed up the tree (that we know of), but he has knocked off (so far) a total of 5 ornaments from the tree. That's why we put the dippy ornaments on the lower section of the tree.

Kronk does love to sleep under the tree...especially next to the light box. The box gets pretty warm so he likes to snuggle right up to it.

My favorite thing so far this year was the first night we put up the tree. Kronk would sit under the tree and look up at the lights. He doesn't do it that often now. I think the newness/excitement has worn off.

Kronk's favorite part of Christmas will take place on Christmas day and you'll see why in 21 days!