Our CHRISTMAS LETTER!! (And it's still technically November.....)

It's been so long, blog!! Sorry....to make it up to you, I'm posting my Christmas letter HERE first! It's like getting an advance copy of a book! (Only...not.) Enjoy these updates, though it's likely nothing you don't already know, blog-reading friends....:)

Happy Holidays from the Heimann family!

Josh – Roxanne – Grady – Kingsley

We hope this letter finds you as happy and well as we are! Here’s what we’ve been up to this year….

Josh is still a supervisor at Bertch Cabinets, and still seems to enjoy his job. He’s kept busy during his off hours as well…not only did he finish our basement (it’s gorgeous) and install a patio and fence in the backyard, but he’s also picked up some “little” jobs on the side cutting down trees (his passion) and doing handy-man work.

Roxanne is still teaching at UNI, and I am still loving the work and the opportunities that I have there. I’m also enjoying my first school year without being pregnant or caring for a newborn in four years! (Full nights of sleep on a consistent basis are ammmmazzzzzing!) I keep busy with work, the kids, and the house, and have even found time to take up old hobbies (entertaining!) and work out on a fairly consistent basis. One goal for 2012 is to run a 10k. (On paper = it’s official!)

Grady (3.5) is growing up. He had his first swimming lessons this past summer and I daresay he was a lifeguard favorite. J He did a great job listening to directions and especially enjoyed being able to go down the waterslide. He also started three year old preschool this fall and loves it. He’s an old pro with letters, colors, and numbers, and is really enjoying the fun activities that they do. His loves are trucks, playing Superheros (especially with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Annie), cars, Dora the Explorer, painting, playing outside, and of course, his baby sister. He also loves helping his daddy fix things around the house.

Kingsley (1.5) is growing and learning new things every day! Her vocabulary has exploded lately, and she’s saying phrases like, “Where’d it go?” and “Give it back!” She even minds her manners and says please and thank-you…sometimes even without prompting! She knows many animal sounds and body parts and loves her B (her stuffed purple bear), and playing with all of Grady’s toys. Both she and Grady still go to their MeeMaw’s house (Josh’s mom) two days a week and love that as well.

We’ve been able to do more fun things with the kids this year than in the past. We took them on a short getaway with another family in June to Des Moines, and had a ton of fun at the hotel, and going to the zoo. We were also able to go to a waterpark in Dubuque with the entire Shontz side of the family and that was fun and relaxing. (Grady was asking to go back to the hotel for weeks, and we have another waterpark trip planned for this winter.) We also had the opportunity to go to Iowa Falls for a river boat ride with the Heimann side for Mark and Teri’s anniversary. We’ve kept busy closer to home as well with camping, trips to the pool and the library, movie nights, story time, play dates, hay rack rides, pumpkin and apple picking, church, football games, and establishing our own holiday traditions.

Josh and I have also been able to do some things on our own this year. We went on a canoe/camping trip with friends in August, and plan to make that a yearly venture. We have also been to a couple of comedians, a concert, and have enjoyed regular date nights

If you haven’t gathered it so far, we are so blessed and are looking forward to a fun, healthy, and prosperous 2012. From our family to yours, happy holidays.

Weekend Update

Feels like it's been awhile since I created a post. Some things to note...

Kingsley turned 1.5 and had her well child check last week. She is 75th percentile for height and a tad less than the 10th for weight. Still our little peanut, but doing well!! She has so many words now....pop, please, thank you, go, mommy, daddy, pappa, kitty, meow, puppy, ball, shoes, juice, poop...:) So fun to see her taking off, verbally. She loves playing with Grady, watching mama cook, treats, and cats and dogs. She dislikes the church nursery (though she did a pretty good job in there yesterday! I didn't get paged.) :) Our little punkin.

Other weekend updates....

We had friends from Dike over Friday night. They have an 11 month old and another baby due in Feb. Just hearing that makes me feel tired......:)

Josh did a little handy man job Sat - Sun. He put a new floor in a friend's bathroom. It looks FABULOUS. He was sore and tired last night, but I know they love it!

The countdown to 29 is on!!

That reminds me...Josh, Grady and Kingsley came to visit me at work Friday. As soon as Grady was in the door, he said, "Momma! Daddy just bought you a ring!" Hahah. I convinced Josh Friday night that as long as I knew about it, I might as well just get it! It's gorgeous, looks a lot like this pic...the stone is more circular and less ovalish, but overall, that's about it. Love it! Happy early Birthday to me!! :)

Some day we'll laugh...

I have been wanting to go shop at the outlet malls at Williamsburg for a really long time now. Like, a really, REALLY long time. Banana Republic, J Crew, Gap...how can you go wrong? We got up yesterday morning and I mentioned it again. (This has been a weekend day ritual for awhile now.) I think Josh was feeling a bit guilty since he was gone the whole day before (watching the Iowa game with friends, then just hanging out after that) so he said to get ready, we were going. Wahoo!

It's about an hour and 45 minutes from our house, and everything was going well for the first hour and twenty or so. The kids were contentedly watching a movie and playing in the back seat, and Josh and I actually got some adult conversation time. We were about five minutes from the mall when we noticed that Grady had gotten awful quiet in the back seat. Josh asked him if he was ok, and didn't get much of a response. He asked him if he was going to puke and got a nod. We pulled over, I opened up the back door...no time to get him out of the car. He let loose, all over himself, the car seat, the car....NOTHING smells worse than barf!!! Poor little guy. As soon as he threw up, he obviously felt much better. We continued on.

Josh dropped me off at Old Navy and I ran in and grabbed him a new pair of pants and a shirt, then I led him into the mall bathroom to change him. Imagine the looks we got. :) It was mostly smooth from there...I even got to shop before we got back in my smelly car to come home. The car is clean (but still smells bad!) and another adventure was had............:)

Updates as promised....

1)

My updates....

The pumpkin bars were gross. Weird texture. Not sweet enough. Not enough frosting in the world to fix that mess. Pitched.
2) The pumpkin carving was fun. The roasted seeds were gross. Pitched. Haha. Noticing a trend?
3) Trick or treating was perfect. So fun, the kids loved it and Grady remembered to say both "trick or treat" and "thank you" at almost every house. He also was shameless about asking for a treat for his sissy as well. (She was riding in the wagon.) Thus, we have double the candy that we've been denying to the kids yet eating like it's going out of style ourselves........no more candy!!! Happy Halloween!! :)

Carving pumpkins and making bars!

Happy Halloween!! We have recovered from a lost costume snafu and are ready for trick or treating today! (In case you missed my Facebook post...we could not find Grady's costume for his Halloween party at preschool Friday. Searched high and low and at the last minute, decided to throw him in swim trucks, a t, and goggles and call him "swimmer man." Grady actually loved it, BUT since finding his Spiderman costume (in the bottom drawer of my dresser, under some workout clothes) he has not let it out of his sight! He slept with it last night, and when he couldn't find it in the middle of the night, he called me until I came up and dug it out of the tangled sheets. I suppose that's fair.)

Anyway, I digress. This post is about the fun things we're up to today and the yummy treats that I am making! I thought today would be another working Saturday (like last week, when we took another tree down) but it turned out to be free. So this morning we carved up some pumpkins...Josh and Grady worked on one, Kingsley and I on the other. I don't think you would have any trouble figuring out who did which! Josh and Grady made a scary face, while Miss K and I carved an H into ours. Pictures to follow.

Of course I had to do something with those pumpkin seeds! I am trying my hand at roasting them for the first time. Here's the process I am following....scoop them out, de-gunk as much as possible, then boil for about 10 minutes to further separate gunk from seeds. Did all that, now have the seeds spread out on a cookie sheet to dry for about 24 hours. Then, I'm going to mix them in 2 T. melted butter and 1 t. of garlic salt and roast for, I think, 45 min at 350. I heard they are DELISH hot...we'll have to see!!

I am also making pumpkin bars..I would love to say it's from the pumpkin as well, but that's just not true! Canned all the way...I have no idea how they go from the pumpkin to the canned stuff, but I don't think I have that in me. :) I replaced the cup of oil with a cup of applesauce (holla, Claire!) and reduced the sugar by a half cup. Now, I don't know how to go about frosting them...or should I not?

The kids cannot wait for trick or treating tonight!! I have a little Spiderman and a little purple dragon. Pictures to follow, as well as a report on my treats! Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday I decided to get into the Halloween spirit a bit and make some mummy cupcakes with Grady. I actually made the cupcakes while he was resting and left them bare for him to decorate. I decided to be sneaky and give them a healthy makeover. I have made muffins before with a spiced cake mix and canned pumpkin or pie filling instead of the eggs and oil that it calls for. This time, I had a couple of over-ripe bananas on the counter that I decided to use instead. I simply beat the cake mix and bananas together until thick and smooth. I put them into 12 cupcake liners and baked for around 18 minutes total at 350. They came out sweet and dense and the tops just slightly crunchy. Yum! Then I let Grady decorate with white frosting (since it was a mummy, we just needed a few stripes!) and two M&M's for the eyes. Absolutely delish! He loved them. I did too. I had three....oops. :)

Grady is really excited about Halloween. It's so fun that he remembers and understands things now. He was talking about going trick or treating the other day and is really looking forward to it. He will be Spiderman, and Kingsley is going as a Purple Monster. Pictures to follow. :)

Grady's best friend.

It's not Kingsley. If you ask Grady who his best friend is, it's AVA, the sweet little girl who lives across the street. I think it's mutual too...look at this pic from last night.

Grady and Ava go to preschool together, and every day when I pick him up we have roughly the same conversation.

Me: Grady, how was school?

Grady: Good.

Me: What did you do?

Grady: Played with AVA!

Me: What did you play with?

Grady: Blocks. (Or xylophone or trains or cars or "upstairs") WITH AVA!!!!!

He also asks if she can come home with us practically every day. So cute! I am a little worried though, for the day that Ava is sick and misses preschool. I don't know if Grady knows any other kids' names! (I hear Darren every once in awhile, who is also an adorable little boy. Maybe we'll have to have a playdate with his mommy to make sure that Grady has 2 friends.) :)

Also - Ava loves MaKingsley, as she says. Soooo cute. She is welcome at our house any time.

IN OTHER NEWS....I am officially back to my pre-babies weight. WAAAHHHHHHOOOOOOOO!!!!! Well, my pre-baby "high"....you know how things fluxuate a bit??? It still feels good though!! Everything in my closet fits...and some stuff is (gasp) too big! My goal is to weigh what I did when I started dating Josh. 6-7 lbs to go!