Christmas in Indiana

After visiting my brother and his family in Chicago, we drove the short distance to Joel's family in Indiana.  We were pleased to see that they had snow too--so the kids got lots of good playtime outside!!

 

We had our traditional fondue supper before opening gifts that night.

 

 

 

 

The next day, we split up into guys and girls--the girls went shopping and out for lunch while the guys watched the kids--and then that evening, the guys went out.  That's always a lot of fun!  (And you can't be after-Christmas Target sales!)

Saturday we took the kids to a bounce and wore them out completely!  Although, we came home and they did go sledding again!

We left Sunday morning at 3:30 and were home by 3 in the afternoon!  It was a great trip!  Joel and I commented that it couldn't have gone better (well, except that Brahm was a bit fussy and clingy!)  But Oliver and Lily did fantastic, Brahm slept much better than our trips this summer, and in his defense, he IS getting 3 teeth in!!!  :-)

Aliens and the Bean

Here are two more fun pics from our Christmas trip to Chicago:

The first is one of our family pictures that was taken on that FREEZING day that we all (14 of us!) ventured downtown.  



Next up?  Aliens.  Pretty cute stuff, huh??  (And good blackmail pictures for the future!)

Christmas in Kansas City and Chicago

We were excited to be able to travel again for Christmas--and since my brother and his wife JUST had their 4th baby, we got to go up to Chicago for my family's Christmas.  

We started by staying with my sister in Kansas City.  The kids loved camping out with her on the floor and watching movies, we visited Union Station (VERY cool trains!) and Legoland.  The kids LOVED it!!! 

 Joel and I even snuck in a date to Denny's! (We were hoping some really cool coffee shop would be open, but just couldn't find one!)

Then we left for Chicago to stay with my brother.  Actually, the awesome thing is, since my brother and his wife are in seminary housing (an apartment with 2 bedrooms and 4 kids) it worked out that we got our own apartment to borrow for two nights--which worked out really well!

We ventured out downtown on the El for some family pictures and fun.  

 Oliver and Addilyn loved the train!  

Lily and Grandpa J. bonded.  They're tight, yo.

And thankfully Brahm slept on the way home.  After screaming for the first 20 minutes of the adventure, we were glad to have him resting.

 Then, we had our party that night--Erin made a delicious meal, and then we opened gifts.  It was a wonderful time!!!!
 

 (My new nephew, Albert.  He was a week old and was eleven pounds at birth!  And such a cutie!!!)

 Aunt Courtney is one person that Brahm will tolerate--he even LIKES her!  :-)

 

 The pajama picture!!  All 7 of them now:  2 girls, 5 boys.  Wow.

Oh, and the highlight was quite possibly these funny blow-up alien heads that my Canadian cousin sent the kids!  They were HILARIOUS!!!

Christmas 2012

Christmas Break started out with snow--HOORAY!!  The kids loved it, and were outside by 7:20am.  Lily couldn't stay out so long--she gets cold fast.  But Oliver--he was outside much of the day.  

They also had fun playing together:  legos, crafts, helping me with cookies, even Santa showed up!  And Lily's answer to the question, "What do you want for Christmas?"  "An ipad."  EVERYTIME.  Thankfully, she was happy with the non-ipad gifts she DID receive!

We had our family Christmas at home with my parents on Saturday before we left for Chicago and Indiana.  We had so much fun: a fancy dinner, the kids quoted a portion of Luke 2 they had learned, and then we opened gifts!

 

Afterwards, Oliver was able to make a microphone stand with some PVC building pieces he got, which was a perfect opportunity to sing Christmas carols with the guitar, and Lily on the mic. 

The next day, we took off for Courtney's place in KC!

Lily's Preschool Program

Lily's class had a program the last day of school before Thanksgiving.  It was fun to go and see a sample of what they do there--and maybe a sample of how she is at preschool, too!  

She was pretty excited about seeing us there, especially Brahm--and multiple times shouted out Brahm's name during a song or something!!  So funny.  We are so thankful for her teachers, Miss Karri and Miss Renee--and her friends, especially Luke!  And for the fact that Lily LOVES going to school each Tuesday and Thursday. 

Brahm's Birthday

We celebrated Brahm's 1st birthday with family and a couple of friends.  It was fun for the most part....but Brahm really wasn't "into" celebrating that day....

 First, we let Brahm open his gifts from us during the afternoon.  The biggest hit was the new sippy cups we got for him...

 Practicing on the new ones...

Oliver and Lily were MORE than happy to teach Brahm how to play with Duplo blocks!

He loves balls, so for the party, I made everything polka-dots.  

After supper, we brought over Brahm's piece of cake to dig into (and we thought, since he's had sugar already--he'd be REALLY excited about this cake!)  but no.  He screamed.  He almost grabbed the candle in my attempt to just get a picture....and then things went downhill from there.  Long story short--we stopped the charades and just held him, and finally, he started to perk up as people left.  I really think that kid just doesn't like lots of people around! :-)



He got some really sweet presents and that went well...it was a fun celebration--and DEFINITELY memorable!