December 27th

This year when I woke up on my birthday, December 27th, and looked outside- the view was beautiful. I just can't stop taking pictures of the snow, ice and beauty of an Iowa winter.

I'm not sure if my amazement of the beauty is because we have not been home for an Iowa winter for several years.......

or if it is because I'm thinking of the tropical temperatures that we will be returning to in less than two weeks now....

or a bit of both along with the beauty we keep finding from fresh snowfalls. 

Regardless of the reason, the combination of sun, snow, and ice gave us some beautiful scenery all around us.

That evening we got to be part of a birthday party for a very special 7 year old, Kate McRae.  She has been in treatment over the past 18 months for an aggressive brain cancer tumor and God has done some miraculous things in and through her life.  We are friends with her parents/grandparents and after praying for all of them, it was special to celebrate her life with them.  You can read more and follow her updates at Kate's blog here.

It was such a fun party where we got to catch up with several friends at the ever so fun Heritage Farm.

They had horse drawn sleigh rides over the river and through the woods.

It was especially fun for our California kids to be Iowa farm kids for a night. 

Kate is a very special little girl and many people have been praying for her so it was a celebration that many were happy to be a part of.

The birthday girl enjoyed the barn and hay mount activities.

The entire Bouck family was together for this photo, great friends to us and such a fun birthday party to be a part of.

Ice Riding

Another new experience for us.....

Mike and Michael did the riding- I was the photo shooter

Tires with metal traction

Thanks Phil and Lucy for introducing us to a new kind of fun!

CHRISTMAS-2010

We started out this Christmas season with Lori arriving first from California.  We loved having a few days alone with her and she was immediately greeted with some beautiful snowfalls.

Jen and Ben drove up 4 days later and then on Christmas eve, Bethany and Michael flew in and it was a sweet reunion for all of us.

Happy to be together again.

Bethany has been so excited to bring Michael to the midwest as it is his first time to be in Iowa.  We are having so much fun introducing him to the Arctic weather and he is loving it.  The weather has been great with a beautiful snow to wake up to each morning.  He comments how different our snow is from the man made snow in the California ski slopes.

 

One of the first stops was to introduce Ben and Michael to the infamous Iowa Maidrites on Christmas eve for lunch. Such a fun place to eat on those round red bar stools.

Christmas eve they got all bundled up for some sledding and snow mobiling at Uncle Dean and Aunt Judy's house.

Ben, Jen, Bethany Michael Lori  joined cousins Drake and Bella to play in the snow.

Newlyweds of 5 weeks.

Michael's first time on a snowmobile and lovin it for sure!

Crazy Lori with her heated snowmobile helmet ready to go.

The Iowa Rousselow clan after reading Luke 2 (Grandpa Leonard's  tradition) and before opening gifts. This year there were 17 of us and we missed Sarah terribly.

Dean and Judy have a great place for all of us.  The cousins enjoyed the hot tub after opening gifts and all joined the Polar Bear club by rolling in the snow in between dips in the tub.

Waking up Christmas morning to gifts with our family at the cabin.

Stockings are always the best part in our family.

The icicles just keep forming on our roof, longer and longer and we love watching them grow. Iowa knows how to do Christmases the right way. 

It snowed off and on all of Christmas weekend and by the end we ended up with at least a foot of snow. Snow and family together.... the perfect Christmas. Two things that we do not take for granted.

Hellos and Good-Byes

This week has been a full week.  One week ago Jennifer and Ben drove up from Branson to join Mike, Lori and I.  It was Ben's first time to visit us here in Iowa, so we did our best to give our new son-in-law an Iowan welcome. Christmas eve, Bethany and Michael flew in from California.  We had just about 24 hours all together with the 7 of us.  We are so thankful for this time we got to be together.  Along with all of their arrivals came the snow, lots of it, and it has been one of the  most beautiful snowfalls ever.  It is a pretty fluffy snow to give us all a true "White Christmas".  The above picture is how our deck looked on Christmas eve morn and it continued to snow all through Christmas eve and Christmas day.  Getting the vehicles out and ready to go (pix below) takes awhile.

We've had 9.7 inches of snow in the last two days.  So what does a family do in Iowa with all the snow fall? These are just some of our activities last week leading up to Michael and Bethany's arrival.  Most of them are centered around enjoying the snow.

We went to a friends hunting cabin and had to use a gator to clear a path.  That was more fun than work for Mike and Ben.

The next project was to get their snowmobile running again which provided hours of fun! Ben totally enjoyed his first experience of snowmobiling in Iowa.  They don't get as much snow in Missouri where he grew up.

A tour of the John Deere engine plant was fun and educational for all of us.

Of course, Ben had to eat one of our famous Iowa Pork Tenderloins.  Mike ordered him the size that can rarely be finished off.

Board games have provided much entertainment, when we have decided to stay inside and  not brave the cold.

These are a few of the favorites we played but not including "The Game of Things", which was a  new favorite Christmas gift. 

Beautiful snow angels by Lori Lynn.

Time for more sledding, but this time with a gator drawn sleigh ride.

Double sledding with the Lockards.

Tori, Lori, Jenny and Katy braving the cold for some sledding fun.

A bit dangerous in my opinion, but worth it for the fun.

Mr. Buck visiting our cabin out front and eating our  corn.

Jennifer was knitting several gifts this year and so we made this barricade to hide her gifts from us while Lori scrap booked and they watched movies  together.

Bethany and Michael had flight delays and Mike had to wake up early and clean off the snow to go get them in the midst of some heavy snowfall.  So worth it for us all to be together and since Mike loves the cold and snow so much, it was not a problem for him. One of the best Christmas gifts for us is having the family together. We just had a sad good-bye with the newlyweds,  Mr. and Mrs. Seiler- but so glad for the fun times we had with them.