White Christmas

Christmas Eve we had a big family dinner at my Grandparents home mid-afternoon. My cousin Jake and his wife Marla made an amazing gourmet meal. So good! We then went to 4:00 Christmas Eve service at church. When we went into church is was just drizzling, but when we came out an hour later it was sleeting. The roads were really bad, but we made it home safely with a tired little boy. We tried to wake him up, but he was so tired so we just put him straight to bed.

Tired baby boy.

Making our traditional red cake for Christmas dinner!

James' presents from Santa!

Here are some Christmas morning video:



Chirstmas morning we woke up to 4-6 inches of beautiful snow! We tried to leave and drive to my parents, but since our van sits so low to the ground and our neighborhood had not been plowed we didn't make it too far. Thankfully, Seth offered to come pick us up in his all-terrain truck.




James really enjoyed being outside helping Todd and got very upset when I made him come back in, so he watched from the front door.

Nothing like a good box!

Riding my new 4 wheeler from Uncle Seth.

Enjoying some Christmas brunch!
Not many pictures of me this year because I woke up with pink eye in both eyes!

Hairdrying

James loved the hairdryer at the hotel in Minneapolis. I think I know where he learned to blow dry so well!

Minneapolis

The weekend before Christmas, we took a road trip to Minneapolis to spend time with Todd's mom, Justin and Ashley. We enjoyed walking through the Mall of America, eating out, and the hotel pool. It was great to see them since we weren't able to be with them for Christmas.

Christmas Cookies

A few weeks before Christmas Abby came over to help make Christmas cookies. James loved the cookies, frosting and cookie cutters.

Sleepy eater

Bath Time with Morgan

Morgan came over Saturday evening. We had never given the kids a bath together and just couldn't resist. As you can see they had a great time together!

Breakfast with Santa

James wasn't too sure about Santa. He looked like he might cry, but he kept a brave face.

We tried hard to get a smile, but James was very serious while sitting on Santa's lap.

He relaxed once he got a donut. We got James a plan cake donut, but when Todd and I weren't watching he grabbed one of Todd's powdered sugar donut holes. He had powder everywhere!

Enjoying Daddy's donuts!

An early Christmas

On Monday November 16th Todd's Grandma Orpha passed away at 89 years of age. She was living in a nursing home and doing well, so this came as somewhat as a shock to everyone. She suffered a stroke early Monday morning and went downhill throughout the day. By the time we heard the news she was already gone. We feel truly blessed that Grandma Orpha was in our lives for the time she was. She was such a special woman and will truly be missed. Her services were held in Appleton on Thursday afternoon. We drove halfway on Wednesday evening, stayed in a hotel, and then drove the remainder on Thursday morning. This is a picture of a perfect sunset Thursday evening at the farm where Grandma Orpha lived for over 40 years. It is also the farm where Todd grew up. It will always be a special place for our family.

We were supposed to be going up to SD/MN for Thanksgiving the following weekend, but we decided to just make one trip and stay for the entire weekend. So we ended up celebrating Christmas very early!

The "big" kids, Shawn and Tatiana, both 10

Ready to open some presents. James loved ripping the wrapping paper. I have no idea why he is just wearing a diaper, but if I remember correctly he refused to put clothes on. Absolutely refused!

Playing with Tatiana and Ashley! Silly girls put some stuffing on his head!

Cuddling with Grandma Robin

More presents for James!

Lots of catching up

I have a lot of catching up to do from the last month. I have been slacking on many things including the blog. Not only have I been sick three times in the last six weeks(strep throat, bad cold, and stomach flu), but we are 16 weeks pregnant. The last two months have been rough but I'm finally starting to feel better. I haven't taken any pregnancy pictures yet, but I plan to soon. We are due the end of May so James and the new baby will be a little more than 2 years apart. James doesn't understand exactly what having a baby means to him, but he does understand that babies are in tummy's. Not only does he like to lift up my shirt to pat and kiss my stomach but he seems to think they everyone is carrying a baby. So everyone gets lots of tummy kisses and baby pats from James. It is very sweet. I've been to the dr twice so far and go again on Monday for a routine check up. I'll have my sonogram in January but we are keeping baby #2 a surprise!