Snow Days

Did you hear that we've gotten 41 inches of snow since Oct 1??? That is just crazy. Thought we'd show you what we've been up to during all the snow days recently:

Christmas with PaPa Ron & Theresa

Two weekends ago we traveled to PaPa Ron's and Theresa's for our Hansen Christmas. We all bundled up and stayed warm, despite the 35 below windchills that weekend!!!




The Monday before we went to PaPa's, Zach had his follow up appointment in Iowa City. Dr Canady said that everything was healing as he wanted. We shouldn't have to go back until his next surgery which is on April 6. Dr. Canady gave Zach the OK to go swimming again; we just had to get him some special ear gear. He enjoyed swimming with his cousins at the pool that weekend. Daddy is going to take Zach to swim class in a few weeks for more swimming; he's like a fish!


Cousin Collin always has something fun up his sleeve. This time it was Pom Poms....on the head.

Zach's speech and language continues to develop. It is getting easier for Mom and Dad to understand him. Our favorite Zach-ism lately is "mup momma". He says this to Mom when he's requesting being lifted up. Guess you just have to hear it;) It will be interesting to hear if/how Zach's speech changes after his cleft palate surgery in April. Right now his speech sounds a bit nasal because he has a hole in the roof of his mouth--he can't stop the air from leaking up into his nose. That makes his p and b sounds come out like m's. So when he say's "please" is sounds more like "meeez". The surgery itself with fix some of it, but there is a good chance he will need some speech therapy as well, to help him develop the correct way of saying sounds.

Weekend With the Penaluna's

Last weekend Nancy's college roommate Steph and her family (husband Mike and kids Peyton, Parker & Preston) came to visit. Zachary was on cloud 9 from the time they pulled into the drive until they left the next day. He loved following them around the house and imitating whatever they did. He wasn't so sure about Preston's dinosaurs, but warmed up to them a bit by the time they left;)

Steph and Peyton are used to living with a house of boys! They gladly gave us some of the twin's old toys--I think they brought the loudest toys ever. We'll be putting tape over the speakers of some of those toys;)


The kids liked rolling around on the air mattresses before we got them put away in the morning. Peyton did a nice job helping out with Zachary. You can tell she's the big sister at her house!


Zachary had to "ook" at whatever the twins were playing with. At one point he thought about climbing into Mike's lap to see the game the boys were playing with. Don't think Mike could handle 3 boys in his lap!!!

The weather even cooperated and we got to go sledding on Sunday. No one got hurt, even though there was one incident with a tree and several falls off the sled! We had a great time with everyone and can't wait til our next weekend together.

Cousin Carter's Birthday Party

Zachary was invited to his very first birthday party. Cousin Carter turned 1 on Dec 26. We were so excited to go celebrate with him. He's had a rough year, but is a very happy and healthy boy now. Zachary got to be Carter's big helper--showing him how to eat the frosting on his cake, helping him open his gifts, and even playing with his new toys. All in all, he did a very good job sharing toys with his cousin.

Zachary also had fun play Connect Four with Papa Ron at the party. He didn't really like it when Papa made all of the checkers fall though!

The Kragel Christmas Celebration

Since central and western Iowa got dumped on with snow & ice on Christmas, our Kragel celebration was shortened this year. Instead of going to Grandma & Grandpa Kragels on Christmas afternoon, we stayed home all weekend in Ankeny to celebrate Christmas. We started off with Christmas Eve service at NorthBranch on Thursday night. Then on Friday the three of us opened a few gifts and started a few of our own Christmas traditions. The rest of the Kragel gang (Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Marty, Aunt Allyson, and cousins Sam & Raquel) came to our place on Sunday.

Zach took full advantage of having two cousins to play with! He requested sitting on cousin Raquel's lap for his snack time.

Zach learns to cheese it up for the camera.....

Zachary wasn't too rushed with opening presents. He liked to open one, play with it for awhile, and eventually would get around to asking for another one to open.

Not sure who had more fun with these blocks---my vote is Daddy.