Look Mama!

"I a Trismis Twee!"

Wisconsin Christmas

A few days after Christmas we headed to Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas/New Years with Brian's side of the family.  We had a couple of days to just hang out and visit before diving into another family Christmas.  We were thrilled to finally meet little Emmett, and all the kiddos had so much fun playing together.  Emma loved having girls to play girlie things with, and Samuel was right in the midst of the girls and the boys depending on his desire.  Nathan is always good with the little ones, but also gets to do his own special things (play Gameboy, borrow Daddy's MP3 player, and stay up later than any of the other kids on New Years Eve.)  It was a great trip and it has been hard to decide which of the gazillion pictures to post!

Christmas morning #3, Wisconsin style

The two "babies" of the bunch, Lucas & Emmett

All 10 grandkids

The kids and the kids' kids

A visit from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa (and Uncle Dale)

Memories!

   Our family while visiting Jordan, Sarah, Owen & Emmett at their house:

Sweet Emmett

We usually have a good amount of snow for our Wisconsin Christmas visit... not so this year.  But the kids were excited to see some snow anyway!  I took the three youngest out for a bit, and this was Lucas's very first time in the snow!  He seemed to enjoy it!

My sweetie & I (Thanks Courtney for taking this picture!)

 And now, Christmas is officially over!

More Family

More after Christmas fun with my side of the family and the kids even got a little taste (literally) of SNOW! {yes some of us are in our pajamas... we're crazy like that about snow}.

 Nathan ready to pack a real punch

Emma spent most of her time eating snow

 Samuel's idea of a snowball fight is to slam one into you at close range

 Snow lovin {yes, she was singing to her snowball}

Aunt LuAnne and Lucas watching from the window (wondering why he can't go out and play... the answer is that by the time we got out there the snow was turning to rain... not the first romp in the snow we had imagined for him)

Girls behaving badly

It's awesome that Emma has such cool older cousins who aren't too old or too busy to play with her... maybe dress up is on of those things one never gets too old for... (I HAVE seen Grandma play dress up recently as well)  ;)

Grandma's Angel Tree

  Beautiful Jenna

Christmas #2

The kids went with Daddy the morning after Christmas to pick up Nathan (and some donuts) for our Christmas Morning #2!  The little ones didn't know that we had saved some of their gifts so Nathan wouldn't be the only one opening.  Another FUN morning!

 Daddy's cool new hat!

After some good playtime we were off to Grandma's for some quality time with more family and a little Beyblade Fever!

Nathan is always eager for time with Cole & Wes!  When they are together they are like the three amigos... they have such a great time whether inside or outside, our house, their house, Grandma's house... it's always good! 
Cole

 Lucas hanging out with Aunt LuAnne

Christmas Day

We had such a nice, easy going Christmas morning!  We opened presents in shifts since Emma and Samuel woke up a full hour before Lucas.  Brian and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the kids open their stockings and gifts.  It seemed that even the tiniest items (a mini candy cane or chocolate bell) brought pure joy to our children!  There was such a abundance of excitement, anticipation and gratitude.  We all basked in the spirit of Christmas.

Lucas checking out his first Christmas stocking

Daddy with our *new* 1977 Sears Wish Book

We went to Grandma's for lunch and our special birthday party for Jesus that the kids always look forward to so much.

Listening to Grandma read the Christmas Story

This year the birthday cake was a snowflake

We added a new tradition of a symbolic gift for Jesus that included a contribution from each of us.

This is a true story shared by a friend... a pastor's daughter awakened on Christmas morning and ran to her parents to say, "I made the NICE list!! I got presents!" The father replied, "that's what Jesus does for us. He takes us from the naughty list and puts us on the nice list." How awesome is that?

Lucas's FIRST CHRISTMAS
Mommy & Lucas

Our sweet gift

All tuckered out in Grandma's arms

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional special dinner and then got ready to go to church and actively remember the One true reason for this holiday.  

These are some of my favorite pictures of the season:

It was a bit more challenging to get all three of them together!

Getting ready lite our candles at church after the service
(can you tell it was their bedtime!)

Waiting for Santa to come...