Christmas Excitement

I'm SO excited for Christmas this year. Today I told mom, "I can't wait for Christmas!!" It's a really fun year for me and I am really looking forward to it.

Mom and Dad have been working to teach me about giving and not just receiving. I chose a tag off our giving tree at school and we bought a gift for a kid who isn't as lucky as I am.

We also donated some toys to Toys for Tots. Mom explained to me where those toys go. I was trying to think about some kids I knew who might like those gifts but she told me they most likely wouldn't be going to anyone I know.The kids I had in mind that would like them are like me and very lucky to be able to have the things they need and a lot of the things they want.

I've been thinking of other ways we could help people. Today I was thinking of how we could help someone who didn't have eyes. Life can be complicated and there is so much to learn and figure out.

Santa Party

Friday night we went to Uncle Dolly and Aunt Kari's house for a Santa Party. They invited Santa to come to their house and he came and brought each of us kids a gift!

It was so exciting to see him. I got to sit with him and he showed me that my name was on the nice list!

I was very excited about the gifts he brought for me - two Lego sets!! An Iron Man set and a Spiderman set. They are so cool!

It was a very fun time!

Waiting so patiently for my name to be called.

Showing Santa my "This Guy is on the Nice List" shirt. 

Santa showing me that my name IS on the nice list!!

All of us with Santa Claus!! 

School Update

School is still going really well. I got my first report card right before Thanksgiving break. Overall I got very good marks. Not perfect of course, but I'm doing well.

A few weeks ago my class worked together to earn some money at home by doing chores.We each brought the money we earned to school and our teacher used it to to make purchase material for us to make 4 fleece tie blankets to donate to some who need some extra comfort this holiday season.

It was a great learning experience for my friends and I to work hard and give back to our community.

As a class we decided to give one blanket to one of our school lunch cooks who lost her custodial grandchild. Our teacher explained it was going to a sad time for her and a blanket made with love could make her feel a little better.

We also decided to give one to a family who are friends with one of our classmate's families. They lost one of their 18 month old twin sons this past fall. One of the blankets we made was blue and blue is the signature color of the project the family has started in their late sons name so that one was perfect for them. We actually gave it to the twin who lost his brother, and best buddy.

A third blanket we gave to our classmate, Danielle who is going to be having surgery. We want her to know how much we miss her being in our class and that we care about her.

The fourth blanket hasn't found a home yet.

The blanket my table made.

The class working so hard.

Mom came to my class to help us make blankets.

Thanksgiving

I've been slacking on this lately. I'll go back to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving we got to spend time with a lot of our family. We spent time at Granny's, Great Grandpa and Grandma Jones' house, Ranzenbergers, Grandpa Cota's, Peggy's and Grandma D.'s family, Elinor and Dan's and Grandpa D's. side of the family.

I had fun playing with Kayley when we spent the night there. Mom, Grandma, Ashley and Peggy did shopping while we stayed at the house with Daddy, Mitch and Matt. The night we stayed at Kayley's house Mom, Dad, Blythe and I slept in the basement. First Blythe went to bed and shortly after I did. Blythe wasn't asleep yet when I went down to bed and she kept talking. I came upstairs and said to Dad, "Jason, Blythe keeps talking." Dad told me to just go back down and lay down and she's stop. I did what he said but she kept talking. I came back upstairs AGAIN and said, "Jason. It's not working and it's getting frustrating." Dad got a kick out of that and let me stay up a bit longer until Sisser fell asleep and wouldn't keep me awake too.

Saturday after Thanksgiving Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma Cota and I went to see some really cool Christmas lights. I wasn't thinking they would be that neat when Mom told me we were going but when I got there, WOW, they were so cool!!! I was in awe.

It was a long few days away from home and I was telling Mom and Dad, "I miss my home" by the time it was time for us to go home. We all had a great holiday but were all happy to be back home too.

Blythe and I with Great Grandpa and Grandma Jones

Dahlstrom Family with Great Gram D
Some of Daddy's cousins and their kids
Back: Brent, Flynn, Jasmyn, Cody, Trey, Mercadees, Lamista, Serenity, Gram, Reese, Daddy, Blythe, Me,
Center: Bruce, Josh, Brian, Front: Shahn, Trevor, Dustin

Monkeys on the Bed

One night before bed "sisser" and I were having a fun time rolling around and laughing on my bed. Dad was making us laugh. Even though she's a baby we still have fun together.

Legos With Grandpa

Grandpa Cota made a trip down here recently and he had I had fun playing with my Legos.

Reading with Dad

The other night while Dad was reading to Blythe I decided to join them. Usually I'm the one reading to Mom or Dad these days but I still like to be read to as well. Especially when I get to snuggle up with Dad.

Turkey School Project

For school I brought home a project we needed to complete as a family. It was to decorate a turkey. We decided each family member would get one feather to decorate with one of their favorites- the remaining feathers we tried to decorate to represent something our family likes.

Left to Right:

1. is just decorated - not for anything particular

2. Is Marlie's - it's got dog food and dog treats 

3. Is Dad's. It has his favorite cereal.

4. Is Mine - it's got popcorn (kernels) and M&Ms.

5. Is Blythe's - it's decorated with puffs

6. Is Mom's - she went with oatmeal, chocolate chips and m&ms for Monster Cookies

7. is decorated with red and yellow sugar for the Cyclones

8. Is decorated with purple dyed rice and yellow sugar for the UNI Panthers and MN Vikings

9. is just decorated - again not for anything particular.

The head is red dyed rice, the beak is a candy corn, the body is chocolate sprinkles, the feet are decorated with orange sugar. The tips of the feathers are leaves from our burning bush shrubs in the front of our house.

Football Game with Mom

Last night I got to spend the evening with Mom.  We both thought it was fun to spend time just the two of us. We went to watch the Waukon Indians play football at the dome in the semi final game. 

We met Dewey,  Danette and Brinley there and sat with them. 

I had a lot of fun cheering and we had a great night!

My New Room

As my Christmas present from Mom and Dad this year they decided to redo my bedroom to be more of a big boy room. I got to pick the theme and I decided super heroes. Mom did most of the planning. She and Dad decided even though the painting was done a few weeks ago they wanted to do all the decorating in one day so I could see everything put all together at once. Well yesterday was the day...they did all the decorating and the big reveal for me.

I loved it! Here are a few pictures of my new room. I told Mom and Dad my favorite part is Wolverine.

Me seeing my room for the first time. 

Dad asked me if this was true. I said, "no." :) 

Halloween Fun

I was so excited for Halloween this year! For several days leading up to it I was keeping track of the date - everyday I would confirm with Mom, "it's the 27th today, right?" :)

On Friday Oct 25th we had our Halloween party at school. First we had a Halloween parade around the school. After that we did a Halloween craft with a plastic glove, popcorn, candy corn and a spider ring - we made a witches hand. Mom helped with the party so I liked having her there too.

On Halloween I was so excited to trick or treat. I wanted to go with my friends and that worked out. Parker, Andrea, Me, Bella, Blythe and Aiden and our parents of course all went together. Parker and Andrea were running from one house to the next. I wasn't up for that so I walked with Bella. At one point I said, "Well Bella, I guess we're the slow trick or treaters." :) We got to all the same houses and Parker and Andrea so it all worked out whether you ran fast or walked slow.

I was very in to character - Captain America all evening. :)

My school friends

During our costume parade.

Doing my Halloween witch hand craft. 

My school party.

Trick or Treating

Captain America

Me and Parker

Minnie, Hulk and Captain America

Holtans and Dahlstroms

Blythe, Aiden, Andrea, Bella, Me, Parker

We went to visit our friends Dan and Mary Kay again.
That's always fun!! 

School Friend Birthday Party

Friday night I went to my first big kid school friend birthday party. It was my friend, Landon and his party was at the Playstation. He invited our whole class and a lot of us went. It was so fun to play with school friends outside of school. We played and played before we had pizza, lemonade and cupcakes. Then we played and played some more. It was a lot of fun. When I got home I told Dad, "I'm tired!" I took a quick shower, and went right to sleep. I was wore out from all the fun!

Carving Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins last week. Well....Mom did the carving but I picked out what I wanted and I did help clean one of them out a little. This year I picked a Batman and a Spiderman pumpkin. I was pretty excited about them. I thought they turned out awesome!

Fall Fun

Last weekend Mom, Dad Blythe and I took our trip to Bloomsbury Farm. It was a lot of fun! I took my first trip through a haunted house - well it was the crazy fun house rather than the really scary haunted house but it was fun. My exact words were, "That was AWESOME!!"

I went through the corn maze with Dad - we went through the smaller kids maze and the big maze too. We went on a hayride to the pumpkin patch and I picked out my very own pumpkin to pick. I loved it. It was such a fun family day!

Friday night Mom helped me have a little Halloween party at our house. It was just our next door neighbors but it was a lot of fun. Mom planned a few activities for my friends and I. We had pizza, "jack-o-lantern" mandarin oranges and "mummy" juice boxes. We got to decorate our own sugar cookie, we played Halloween BINGO and painted our pumpkins. After all the activities my friends and I played in the bouncy house and played other things too.

To add to the excitement, while we were playing in the bouncy house I lost my second too so that night the the tooth fairy made a visit to me.

Tonight we carved pumpkins. I decided I wanted a Batman and a Spiderman pumpkin and we decided on a Minnie pumpkin for Blythe. Mom did most of the work but I helped scooped some of the pumpkin out. I thought it was pretty gross though so I didn't do a lot.

I'm getting very excited for Halloween!!

Pictures from Bloomsbury Farm

How many pumpkins tall this fall? I grew!!

Before I went in the Haunted House

After the Haunted House - "That was AWESOME!"

Picking out my pumpkin from the patch.

Blythe and I in the corn bin.

I loved feeding the goats.

New pumpkin bowling this year!

Mom! The sun is so bright! 

Blythe and Mom

Me and Blythe being a ghost. 

Going down the slide!

Swings!!

My Halloween Party

Cookies!

Our oranges and juice boxes Mom did.

Cookie decorating!

 Yum!!

Painting my pumpkin!

Pumpkin Carving