Christmas at my house

Christmas at my house. Hmmm, what to say. The only real tradition we have is that we take turns opening presents after dinner, which I love. I loved it even as a kid. You know, you sooooo look forward to opening gifts and by doing it this way (w/all my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents) it was bound to last a couple hours.

<-- That's my parent's living room. Quite cozy. Notice the deer head? It's decorated too. =) That dog bed was Noah's bed/play area for movie watching fun. He watched quite a few movies due to the subzero temperatures...

So, first we ate ham for dinner and then cleaned up. We proceeded sit down in the crowded living room to open presents the traditional way. We may have to change it until the kids are older though. Evie was past her melting point and Noah was sick...

Evie checking out a ribbon.

Noah inspecting a gift.

Nathan and Ana show off their carpet sliders Steph and I found after Thanksgiving. They're like indoor skiis for carpet. My brother nearly killed himself on the stairs.

Somehow I always end up on the floor. Kids will do that to you I guess.

I'm laughing b/c Steph totally got me a David Archeletta CD. For those of you who appropriately don't watch American Idol like adults should, he was the runner up from last year. He was my fav but I would have never bought a CD...

Helping the girl to open what was her own little train since Noah got more than his fair share of them. =)

See? His saw-eet new track courtesy of Gramma Kveene.

A nice little love note to go w/something special Terry got me...

on the road again...

This was how the highway looked for the first half of our trip back home for Christmas...

Shari was following behind us along with aunt JoAnn and they thought Terry was a little crazy. I knew he had things under control. He's a good driver. However, I have to add 2 exceptions to give him a hard time: During this trip he drove too fast on ice/packed snow on the gravel road to his parents house and spun us in a 180 and then later a 360...

We finally got to meet ANA!!! Woo hoo! There's her and Nathan feeding Evie while we were out shopping. (It's sooooo nice to have HELP and more freedom while we're home. Humph. I miss home...). Anyway, I really like the girl! She's way sweet.

children's christmas performance

I seem to remember last year's performance as a little more involved as far as the show went but this year's was great and must have been a lot of work to put together. The kids just did a few songs but then we went for a soup dinner and explored the church since it had been turned into Bethlehem. "A Night in Bethlehem" was the theme and all the rooms had little crafts or snacks in them. The coolest part, I thought, was the myrrh and frankincence I got to smell. I always wondered...

Here's Noah. He lasted about as long as last year - half a song. Then they just sent him to us.

Here's the grumpy boy. He didn't get to finish his James video before we left... Evie however, was perfectly fine.
Noah sampling the chocolate in one room. I asked if there was chocolate back in Jesus' time but she didn't know and said a lot of people asked that... Funny.

Family Bethlehem style.

I love that hat. =)

ornament party

Our church has a pretty good women's program. For example, every year they do an ornament party at Christmastime. Last year was my first and it was GREAT. My face hurt from smiling so much and that means something since I don't smile all that often - it was either great fun or I was socially deprived. It was probably both. =) Anyway, it was sweet this year as well.

So how it works: Everyone brings an ornament and are given a number upon arriving. The first person to go picks an ornament and the second person can either steal #1's ornament or get a new one. You could only steal an ornament 3 times and there were 56 ladies there this year... It took a while.

I'm there on the left in the tealish talking to Elaine (Terry's lifting partner's, Kevin, wife) who LOVES babies and steals Evie whenever she can.

Evie's blanket is hanging off the back of my chair. The girl at the bottom front w/long blonde hair is Nikki Rehmert, the pastor's eldest. She is our go-to babysitter. She's great. On her right is Shelli, the pastor's wife.
Here is the ornament I got last year. I stole it a couple times to secure it as mine.

Here is mine from this year. Funny thing is, this is also the ornament I brought to the party. I stole it from the woman who stole it from the one who opened it. I didn't see anything I liked better! Everyone laughed and made fun of me =)

See, it's full of little styrofoam balls that swirl around when it's moved.

Yesterday I wrapped what gifts we had. The big ones on the sides are for the grandparents... =)

I wear my sunglasses at night...

...And he does. My mom got these sunglasses for Noah when he was 1. Yeah. He never liked them...until now.

I distinctly remember trying to put them on him on the sidewalk behind my parent's house while he was in his stroller - he screamed as I tried and then ripped them off as soon as he could. I didn't try again. They are kinda like goggles and we all know how uncomfortable those are.

So anyway, he was going through his basket of toys w/Daddy that he rarely plays w/anymore. He might have been showing more interest since Evie is now interested in those toys... At any rate, he found these and wanted them on and proceeded to walk around the house w/them around his neck for the next few days. He even wanted to sleep in them but I wouldn't let him.

Funny boy.

there aren't words

2008 tree hunting

How I miss the Black Hills where we would make a trip up to Spearfish Canyon and spend an afternoon sometime after Thanksgiving driving and hiking around looking for a somewhat full pine tree. There are cedar trees down here but apparently they really stink, especially the female ones...

Last year we settled for a Menard's tree but it wasn't much of an experience. This year we went to a tree farm - the folks who own it are Christians. They did a live nativity - well, w/live donkeys anyway. And there were ducks and kittens and dogs and a barn. And actually, I knew the wife, Brenda, but didn't realize it until she reintroduced herself to me. She was on the MOPS panel w/me and another Brenda this fall.

Anyway, we had a really great time. First thing Noah found was a friendly kitten to abuse throughout the course of our hunt. The dog somehow knew better than to follow that kid. =)

Kitten abuse

Our tree. I felt a little bad actually cutting it down. Brenda said they take 8 YEARS to get that big...=(

Donkey
Noah helps daddy and Evie plays w/Noah's new felt Thomas play set.

All done. I look alike a dork leaning over, and then Snap is showing off his white butt. I put this shot in here so you could see how we switched the chair and love seat around. I like it this way. If I had some kind of bench I would put that in front of the window and leave it set up like this...

Happy family. Actually, we had a little tiff right before this but we look happy and that's what's important right? Riiiiight.

first tights

After a conversation w/a nice woman from MOPS about how our boys LOVE Thomas trains, she dropped off some things for me. It was so nice of her. She gave us 3 Thomas videos and this super sweet felt track play set. I even saw her at Runza yesterday (NE fast food chain) and she said it was hard for her to pass on the play set but she knew it was going to another Thomas fanatic and a good home so she went ahead and put it in the bag. Noah really likes it.

Also, she included quite a few bibs and tights. Evie's super drooly even though she's not teething so she goes through more than one bib a day most days. Also, I'm not a girly girl - pretty low maintenance. Plus, I don't have much time to shop. So I sometimes don't know where to start to make Evie "girly." So Stacy helped me out there w/the tights. Last Sunday I put her in this dress someone got her at her baby shower and some tights! The picture turned out all blurry b/c I was moving - looks like I'm flipping my hair behind my shoulder or something. Evie looked so cute, and warm, though!

Look at that smile! (not mine, as if, HA!). You can tell she's happy b/c she's flapping her arms. The fire is great to have. We've recently put a fan in that corner to help move the hot air around since the fireplace doesn't project well, even w/it's own noisy fan.

tri-family good bye

These are the last photos of our Thanksgiving trip. Again, I'm so behind b/c of Twilight. I just finished the series of 4 books last night (Thursday) after a week and a half of solid reading. It's a relief to be done but bittersweet b/c I make the characters "real" in my head and am sad I don't get to "see" them anymore. I'm silly. I need more real relationships apparently. (Amen from Terry). But now I have insight into the teenage girl mind, which is helpful since Terry's a youth pastor. =)

These are the photos at my parent's house just before we left and a few from the drive home. Terry's parents came to see the kids one last time and Shari was catching a ride back with us so her boyfriend Jesse dropped her off and stayed to hold her hand as long as he still could =). He he he. So there were the K's, the B's, and the H (tri-family, get it?).

Oh, and I wanted to post a hilarious video of when I woke Terry up that morning but he won't let me... =)

Evie attempting to eat Cheerios for the first time. I got this shot while videoing just as she looked up. It was quite funny on camera. Oh, and that's my dad's dog Bo.

My mom giving Evie some help. Steph's stealing WiFi from the neighbors...

Grampa B

Lovebirds. So that's Jesse if you've been dying to know. =)

Gramma B

Cutest girl EVER sucking her thumb. She hardly ever does this and I think it's SO cute.

Awwwwww!

Even Noah was tired. Trips home do that to us.

swimming at home

As aforementioned, we took the kids swimming at the Y the day after Thanksgiving. Terry couldn't go in b/c he was poke-a-dotted. Seriously. He had a delayed allergic reaction to the sulfa antibiotic for the cellulitis he had above his left eye. He was covered in a rash from top to bottom. He didn't really want to be seen in trunks like that. I have a picture of the rash but I'm pretty sure he would be really mad if I posted it. =)

So, Terry took pictures while my sister and I tried not to get our hair wet while playing w/the kiddos. He used his hour to play around w/the different settings on our camera that we've never tried out. Oh, and Noah and Evie both had to wear swimmer diapers b/c we forgot their suits...and actually, Evie doesn't even have one yet and Noah doesn't need a diaper anymore...

Evie's very first time in the water. I placed her right next to the little fountain. She wasn't over excited but she enjoyed herself.

Tickles, I think.

Stephanie is imitating Evie blowing raspberries which only encourages her more.

Noah jumping across the lilly pads.

I look like I'm all impressed at his slide but I think I'm just trying to keep my face from getting wet. =)

I had both kids on my back like I was a turtle or something.

Chillin.

Love this one.

Thanksgiving home

I've been distracted from my first downtime love of blogging by a book my sister gave me. I sure love easy reading and entertaining boy/vampire saves girl (hint hint). Yeah, I've been reading Twilight. I wanted to see what all the hubbub was about and it's distracted me from getting posts up. I do like the books although they're quite melodramatic and I'm not quite girly enough to get as wrapped up in them as every one else who reads them, which is only girls. But they're fun...I've read 2 in 5 days. We'll just leave it at that.

So, last week we went home a day earlier than we planned - Monday the 24th I think. We had a pretty good drive although Evie really does not like her car seat when she's awake... Ug. We were glad to get there and have dinner w/my folks. My brother was in Chicago w/his fiancee and my sis was working so it was just my parents. After that we put the kids to bed at Terry's parents house and spent the next 2 nights there. We finally met Shari's very serious boyfriend, Jesse Herrington! He's a great guy and Terry and I had a blast whipping them in Wii tennis. Yeah, that's right, we kicked the tennis player/coaches rear! Sorry Shari =).

Thursday was of course the giant traditional potluck Thanksgiving afternoon lunch w/Terry's huge family. They've been doing it at a senior citizen center for a few years now and as many family who can make it come. It was a smaller crowd this year w/about 30 but still good. Poor Jesse had to meet all those B's at once. I knew just how he felt =).

Friday I did a little purposeful Black Friday shopping w/my sis. That afternoon we went swimming at the YMCA. Pics to come later. After our exercise my mom made an excellent Thanksgiving feast for the K's, w/numbers so small compared to the B's - 13, including us and the baby who didn't eat anything.

And Saturday we left! Shari came back w/us so we had fun having a fuller more talkative van. We had a great time and are looking forward to going back in just a couple weeks for Christmas! I finally get to meet Ana!

Anyway, the pics:

We brought Snap...I didn't think he'd ever get used to living in our back yard after the cool ranch

There were still huge snow drifts 3 weeks after the storm that closed down most of the state. Noah had never sled before so that was great.

Some second cousins playing Chase Noah. He enjoyed it until he got a little worn out. Then he hugged Kynlee (who lives in our town) in an attempt to get her to stop chasing him. It was so cute. She's the one on the left running.

They're all grabbing him.

Riding w/Addie on her sweet bike thing.

Grampa B (aka Great Uncle to those girls) pushing the kids - there's FIVE of them! I love this picture.