Sing your little heart out

Today was a good day! Sullivan along with some of his daycare friends and preschool classmates sang in front of the congregation at St. John's Lutheran church. They has been practicing a few songs these last couple of weeks and it was a delight to see them sing their little hearts out. We were lucky enough to get good seats and for Sullivan to be in the front row. Much better than his Christmas program performance. Sullivan found us right away, notice in the video him smiling at us. And also in the video, his adorable friend Maci waving to her parents that sat near us. Everyone thought the kids were adorable. 

We stayed for the rest of the service and then spent the rest of the day playing at home and outside. Sounds like we are in for another snow storm this week. I guess Winter isn't over yet.

Our Little Seahawk FamBam

This weekend we hunkered inside. After all it was terribly cold with -30 wind chills. It was perfect though, we played, watched movies, and of course watched football. 

If you know me well, then you know I'm a Seahawks fan. Ever since Mike and I went to Seattle almost 5 years ago, I fell in love with Seattle and the team. Our honeymoon hotel was within eyesight of their stadium. This weekend was a big game for them. It was the Minnesota Vikings verse Seattle Seahawks at Minnesota. I wish I would have been there, but with kids, terribly cold temperatures and me heading back to work from maternity leave tomorrow, it just wasn't in the cards for us. 

We watched and celebrated at home. I even got Mike to sport some Seahawks gear and cheer them on. 

In the end, we didn't play the best but we got lucky, EXTREMELY lucky. I'm talking missed field goal 20 seconds left, lucky. I will take the win and hope they play better next week. 

Here's some photos of the family sporting their fan apparel. Go Seahawks! Let make it to the Superbowl again this year.

2 Months

Our little Jett has been in our world for 2 wonderful months. It's hard to imagine life without him. He is such a joy and blessing to our family and I can't wait to watch him and Sullivan become best friends. 

At 2 months Jett is growing like a weed. His growth chart shows he's almost at 12 pounds. The boy loves milk, what can I say! He's becoming more active and "talking" more every day. Jett loves attention and loves to be near people both when awake and sleeping. He sleeps great, although we are struggling a bit in trying to transition him to the crib in his own room. But for the most part Jett falls asleep around 9:30-10 and lately he's been sleeping through the night until 6-7 in the morning. Hoping that continues, because this momma is heading back to work. 

Jett loves his play gym, especially kicking his piano. He loves being naked, taking baths, being read to or talked to and has no problem going for car rides. 

We love watching him grow and seeing his personality shine. 

Hackman Christmas

This past Saturday evening we had our annual Hackman Christmas get together. I love this day. It's the one time of the year all my aunts, uncles, cousins and their families do their best to get together. For me it's about catching up and talking with everyone about their families. I enjoy seeing all the little kids play together and of course the food is always fabulous. The family always seems to get bigger with either more great-grandkids or one of the cousins bring their significant other. I've lost count of how many people gather around, but in conversation with my grandmother, Jett makes great grandchild number 23. There's 10 girls and 13 boys! I love my large family. 

This year was also extra special for two reasons. The first one being the culverts my grandmother brings every year. This year was the first that my sisters and a few cousins got to help make. Click here for that post. The other special reason is we always do some type of game. This year there were a couple for the kids and a couple for the adults. I was the lucky one and received the grand prize. Check out this beautiful Christmas lap quilt I received from my grandmother. She makes the most gorgeous quilts. I only wish I had a slice of that talent. 

New Year's Day

The first day of 2016 was spent with all the people I love, my family. In the evening we went to my sister's house to watch the Hawks in the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately they didn't do so well so we took the fun outside for some sledding. This was Sullivan's first time sledding and he had a blast! Mike got into it as well and hopped on for a few tries down the hill. I don't have pictures on him but I do have some of the kids sledding and snowboarding. My older nephews are pretty good on the snowboard. Maybe one will be the next Shaun White? 

Here's a video of Sullivan and his cousin Derek sledding.

Out with the old and in with the new

Last weekend we ventured back to my hometown for more celebrations. We spent 3 nights with family and friends starting off New Year's Eve with one of my closest friend. It's been a long time (I'm talking pre-kids, pre-marriage even) that Mike and I have gone out on New Year's Eve to celebrate. In years past we usually work that day, then come home with some sort of take out and hunker down in our coziest attire. Making it to midnight is unheard of, we usually are snug in our beds by our usual time of no later than 10:00. But this year, we made plans with Matt and Heather to enjoy the evening with drinks and dinner at one of our favorites back home, The White House. The White House is located in St. Lucas, IA which is a very small town. The food is always great, especially their garlic toast. I wish I had more pictures of the evening, but I guess we were too busy have fun. 

Here's our annual New Year's Eve photo of the boys. Check out how Sullivan has grown from previous years by clicking here.