Christmas is in the air...

 We debated and debated this year.  Real tree or fake tree.  Finally, I decided I wanted my house to smell like Christmas so we ventured out to find a tree.  Granted, we only went to one place and the selection was severely limited, but we found a great tree.  Perfect size and shape, decent price, and we were set.  Too bad it doesn't make my house smell great.  It's beautiful, though, so that's what matters.  That was Saturday.  Sunday we set out to decorate.  It was perfect because it snowed all day!  I love snow.  You can hate me if you want, but winter is about snow.  If it's going to be sub zero temps, there should at least be pretty sparkly snow to look at!

 So, we decorated.  The kids chose colored lights.  Jon and I chose silver and maroon ornaments.  The kids hung the ornaments and Jon and I helped disperse them a little more evenly :).  The kids had a ball and as soon as we were done, piled on the layers and headed out to play.

 All set.  Stockings, check.  Nativity, check.  Tree, all done (if only I had a tree skirt!)....So, out to play they went!

 They love snow, too.  And it was perfect snow for playing.  Light, not too wet and consistently falling all day.

 Most of the time we love each other!!

 Jon went out to shovel the driveway and ended up burying some kids.  Who needs to be buried at the beach if you can be buried in the snow??

 Brooklyn was so packed in by the end, Jon had to help her up :).

Julianne didn't sit still long enough to be truly buried, but posed anyway.  We love snow.  Since it's been so cold, it's stuck around but today I wouldn't let Mason go out (much to his disappointment) as it was 5 degrees out; in full sun, not counting the wind chill.  I'm so mean.

And yes, today is my birthday.  Maybe I'll write a post about that tomorrow.  A post with the one picture we took :).  33.  wow.  How did I get here so fast? (Turns out, I can smell the roses I got for my birthday as I come in the house but not the tree....)

Merry Christmas!!

The Iowa Tour Continues

Not last Saturday but the one before, I was off work.  I know, amazing right?  Aside from being a little rainy, it was a beautiful day.  As you can see below, we were all comfortable with just a jacket, so we decided to go explore Winterset and see some of the Bridges of Madison County.  We started at the Madison County courthouse (which I don't seem to have any pics of) and it was amazing.  They had beautiful quilts and plaques to honor those from the county who had served in the wars and conflicts of our country's past.  The one from WWI struck me the most.  A generous woman had sewn one star to a quilt for every soul who served.  There were 600 of them!  I was amazed.  Such dedication and love.  We then ran across the beautiful church above and drove past John Wayne's house.  Just to say we had.  Then we started looking for Bridges.  We saw several, but the stop below was our excursion to Clark Tower.

 I had taken the kids here with our parents while in Law School ("the kids" being Brooklyn and Mason, obviously), but for some forgotten reason, Jon missed that trip.  That time, we drove right up to the tower; this time, we had a bit of a hike.  It was slightly longer than we anticipated, 3 miles round trip to be exact, but I enjoyed the exercise and even though the kids complained, they agreed the tower was pretty cool. 

 Once you get to the very top you can see for miles.  It is amazing.

 During our hike we found these two trees which had grown around each other.  It was pretty cool looking.

 Then we went to a different park and enjoyed the fall colors and saw several wild turkeys.  We also Forged a river.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.  Those pics are on Jon's phone.  I may have to upload those later.

This was my favorite bridge.  (Although, in all honesty, they all look very similar).  This one had been built in 1880 and had been restored and kept up and we were impressed by its construction.  Brooklyn was very put out that all the bridges were covered with graffiti.  She would huff and puff about so-and-so and how they had written their name on the bridge.  I was proud of her indignation but very glad she didn't notice the illustrations that went along with some of those names....

Ah, the "strike a pose" command is always entertaining.  I was reminded that Mason is not a fan of heights on this journey.  Walking across the bridges was not his favorite past time.  He would worry and stew about what was below the bridge (which in several cases was nothing) and what would happen if it suddenly fell out beneath him.  And he was not interested in being in the middle for any length of time...
Turns out, many of the pictures were on Jon's phone.  It was a great day and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring Iowa a little more.  Who knows why we've never done this before, but each available opportunity will be used from now on!

Ghouls and Goblins

And a Black and White Kitty, Cole the Ninjago and Clawdine (werewolf on Monster High).  It's Halloween and while I enjoyed this holiday as a kid, it has worn off a little :).  The kids love it though and it is fun to see them really get into their costumes.  Last weekend we did a trunk or treat with our church so the full costumes came out for the first time.  Julianne wanted to be a black and white kitty, but no spots.  Ok, kid.  You got it!  I can do easy!

 Brooklyn is love with Monster High.  Honestly, it creeps me out, but whatever.  We had a friend who could loan her the wig/ears so, we went with it.  I think her favorite part was that she got to wear make-up.  Funny side note:  I was doing her eye make-up (she had her eyes closed) and I said, "ok, open." and she opened her mouth as wide as she could.  Dork.  It was fun, though and considering I can barely do my own make-up, I was pretty proud of how she turned out!

 Mason LOVES legos.  Especially Ninajgo legos.  Cole was easy so I was game.  The hardest part was the head piece and thanks to pinterest, I found a super easy idea that used a t-shirt.  No cutting, remodeling, or tweaking required.  It was pretty awesome.  He insisted that I couldn't make him look like a lego, though.  He wanted nothing to do with a boxy look...

 So, we have a Kitty, Cole the ninjago and Clawdine and three happy munchkins!

Last night, we finally got around to carving our pumpkins.  This is my favorite part of Halloween and I like it more and more as the kids get old enough to do their own carving. 

 Mason picked the biggest pumpkin he could find.  Lesson learned.  That thing was a BEAST to carve. We will be getting smaller pumpkins next year...

 Julianne picked a more reasonable size.  She was insistent on a minion, though.  That proved to be a little more difficult....

 And Brooklyn wanted to brave a pattern.  She's old enough to do it mostly on her own, so we let her.  Jon helped her and  I carved the other two...

 Ewww. Guts.

 A pumpkin grin.

 Poking the holes.

 And, done! Julianne's did kind of look like a minion after all, she named him "Dave".  Mason's is a monster.  Good thing he got a big one since he wanted 8 eyes and 2 mouths....

Ah, the posing.  So fun :).  I do love jack-o-lanterns, though!

We'll be trick or treating for real tonight and the kids are besides themselves with excitement!  I get to hang out with friends so I'm excited, too :).  Happy Halloween!!

Obsession

The most recent project for the newest addition to the Hibshman clan. 

The package was delivered today so I can share the pics :). 

I love quilting and I love babies :)

Sticky chicken

I may have posted this recipe before, but it is a staple at our house. When:

A) I can't think if what I want to make

B) we 'should' have something chicken

C) I want the kids to actually eat or

D) I want the kids to eat quickly;

Sticky chicken is our meal of choice. It's relatively easy to put together and once it's in the oven, I can sit down for a bit. I got the recipe from a recipe swap a few years back and thought maybe someone would like a new idea for dinner. (I go through spurts of wanting those). 

Sticky Chicken:

4-5 chicken breasts

1 egg

Corn starch

Salt and pepper 

1 cup sugar

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup pineapple juice

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

6 Tbsp ketchup (I just do a little less than 1/2 cup)

Cut the chicken breast into pieces and coat with the egg. Drain off the excess egg and coat with as much corn starch as it takes to cover the chicken well. Salt and pepper the chicken while you brown it in a small amount of olive oil. Place cooked chicken in a 9x13 baking dish lined with aluminum foil. Meanwhile, mix the remaining 5 ingredients and whisk until all the sugar is dissolved. Pour the sauce over the chicken in the baking dish. Place in a 350 degree oven (uncovered) and bake for 30-40 minutes. Serve over rice. 

I hope you enjoy it, should you give it a go! 

If you build it...

"Is this Heaven?"  "No, this is Iowa."

 Shockingly, Jon and I had 2 days in a row off from work, at the same time!! So, we took advantage and took mini-road trip.  First off, great friends!  How can you go wrong with a little light saber battle?  We had a great evening/morning and then off we went to the Field of Dreams.

 One of Jon's most favorite movies was filmed right here in Iowa.  Of course, that meant we just had to go see it.  While we never made it there during law school, we couldn't pass up the opportunity this weekend.

 You can't go in the house, but the corn, and ball field are open to visitors.  It was pretty fun.  And awesome weather.  The week before the temp pushed 100 degrees but yesterday was cool and breezy and perfect. 

 The corn was really tall, we had to venture in!

 The ghosts of baseball emerge!

 I've seen plenty of corn fields in my day, but this was really healthy corn, I was impressed :). 

 We ran the bases a few times and watched others play a little ball.

 Next up, the National Farm Toy Museum. Who knew Dyersville had so many treasures?  This was actually pretty cool.  My brothers would dig it.  They had toys from every generation, it seemed like.

 The John Deere plant is in Waterloo, we may have to visit that sometime, I hear they do tours...

 This is one of the finished toys next to all the parts it takes to build it.

 This display shows how the scale works.  They make tractor toys in 1/16, 1/32, etc.  This is the number of tractors end to end to a scaled life-size tractor.  It was pretty awesome.

 Corn!

 After Dyersville, we headed over to Dubuque.  It was a pretty cool city, right on the banks of the Mississippi.  This is their courthouse, they had a ton of really pretty architecture.

 This is the cable car we rode up the bluff.  Apparently, back in the 1800's, Mr. Feneton wanted to go home for lunch and take a nap when the city shut down for an hour and half at lunch time.  However, to ride his horse and cart around the bluff took all his time.  So, he built himself a cable car and just rode up the bluff for lunch.  Others paid him to ride it, too and they've kept it in good repair and still give rides on it now.  It was pretty fun, and very, very steep!

 The view from the top was amazing.  The river, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin.  Talk about a birds' eye view!

 Turns out, Mason is a little spooked by heights.  Who knew?

We had a great day! After the cable car, we drove over the Mississippi into Illinois and circled around to Wisconsin and back over the river.  It was really fun and the kids thought it was so crazy that we kept changing states.  We had such a fun day, we can't wait to do it again!  Someday, I won't work every weekend and we can go exploring :).