Christmasing Again

Christmas was crazy this year with trying to schedule a time my family could all meet together and do gifts.  We settled on the Saturday after Christmas which worked out great because we were over the sickness at our house, thank goodness.  We also got to meet up with all of my cousins- even Rowdy who surprised us all.  He was supposed to be working but because of bad weather or something he got to come home and boy were we thankful.  

We had an amazing dinner at Uncle Todd's as always- prime rib, cheesy potatoes,and homemade beer, I mean rootbeer.  It was great.  After dinner we headed back to Grandma's for opening presents.  It was almost more presents than Christmas was.  Thanks for spoiling us everybody.  We enjoyed spending time with everybody even if it wasn't for very long, we had to come home that evening.  We headed back down on Sunday after church though and spend the night so Travis could go ice fishing again- he went before dinner on Saturday. 

These two babies are 4 months apart. 

They found the legos, watch your step

Happy Christmas

Toy Story, I love Buzz and Woody

My horses, you can find these horses lined up like this in various locations through out the house. 

Just look at the baby in this picture

Just woke up

Great hair day

Our Special Snowman

We were so lucky to have a white Christmas down in this part of the state.  I was a little worried we would never get any snow but it came just before Christmas and stayed well we still have the snow from before Christmas and it is January.  We got some really good snowman building snow so we thought we would take advantage of it.  

Christmas Eve Travis had the day off so this was the day he/we created the most unusual snowman.  The body started out normal but the additions were where Travis got a little, um lets say creative.  We had tennis balls for the eyes, a sprinkler for the mouth, a block for the nose- which had to be Aggie Blue to appease Sawyer, blocks for the buttons, antlers and ears for Travis, hot dog roasters for arms, and a pot for a hat.  Later that evening Travis wrapped our Christmas lights around the infamous snowman but I didn't ever get out there to get a picture of it unfortunately.  People kept driving by our house to see what in the world was lit up, we know this because we live at the end of a dead end street. 

While Travis was building the snowman I pulled the kids around the yard on the sled.  Sawyer kept saying "faster, faster", I had precious little cargo though so we tried to keep it smooth for the little one.  

We Survived Sledding

It finally snowed A LOT, enough to do a little sledding.  Travis found out where the locals go sledding and convinced my sisters and I it would be a good little outing.  I was a little skeptical, I have previously had some really bad experiences, but shoot what the hay lets give it a try. 

We all loaded up in the suburban and headed up to the gravel pit, which is where the best sledding is. We started out on a small hill to break us in.  That wasn't enough so after a few runs on the bunny hill we advanced to the big hill.  

Sawyer landed on his face. He thought it was great though. 

Aunt Nessy what a great babysitter.  She is like the baby whisperer. 

We convinced Krista to go down the hill first.  She is the youngest so she really had no choice.  Oh the joys of being the smallest.  She survived the first run so I decided, hey I can do that.  I went down but my tail bone is just not what it used to be after children.  We moved to a different run to avoid the bumps at the bottom.  The run didn't seem that bad but it was pretty steep.  Again, we sent Krista down first.  She made it! I decided hey I can do that. Just closed my eyes and yelled.  I made it too.  Travis decided he should climb half way up the hill and take a picture of our faces.  Good idea right?  Well, I was first up for the photo op.  You know how when you don't want to hit something and by not wanting to hit something you actually head right for it?  I started down the hill and my sled was veering towards Travis.  I leaned the other way but that just made me really head towards Travis.  Luckily, he jumped.  He cleared me but the sled hit his foot causing him to do a barrel roll in mid-air.  All I could think in my head is "This is really going to hurt."  I kept waiting for the impact of hitting Travis but it never came.  Thank goodness, instead I fell off the sled and rolled the rest of the way down the hill.  I wish he would have had the video camera going instead of the picture camera.  We all had a great ab workout laughing about that incident.   

I love Vanessa's face. Priceless

Sawyer even rode down the hill.  Well from a few feet up.  He would just lay down and yell because that is what we were all doing.  We kept saying just close your eyes and lay back. All in all  great fun was had by all.