A Fantastic Final Christmas

Today we had Christmas with Dad, Deb, and my siblings and our spouses and children.  We all met up at Julie and Andrew's house and started with a great brunch.

Dad had fun with the kids disassembling a bow and then using it as a rope.

Benjamin continued to hone his skills as a photographer.

Among the gifts, I was most amazed by the Ocean book that Dad and Deb gave to our kids.  It's really amazing and is something you can't appreciate until you see it, as it uses a technique called photicular to make the pictures look like videos embedded in the pages.  But the most special gift to me was a bottle of Crown Royal with my name embroidered on the bag.  I don't drink very often, but when I do I want to drink something I like, and ever since college (uh, I mean ever since I turned 21), Crown has been my liquor of choice.  Dad knows that, and so he and Deb came up with that as a personalized gift, which I thought was very cool.

In the afternoon we played some games, and then because we're a bunch of board game fiends, I came back in the evening after the kids went to bed so we could all play for a few more hours.  It was a great day, and I think we all enjoyed having essentially the full day at our disposal, so we didn't feel rushed.  It was also really special to have the three siblings in one place with all of our spouses and children, similar to what Meghan had with her sisters when we were in Las Vegas.  Sadly, though, this ends the Christmas season, at least in terms of activities, events, and Christmases (and a bonus wedding!), but we've been able to see so much of our families over the past couple months, and for that we are very thankful.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

 Today Hannah turned two, and we are lucky that Jim could be here to celebrate with us. Before the festivities began, he was nice enough to do some work around the house (which pretty makes him the best house guest ever). He fixed a leaky sink with (or in spite of?) Joshua's help.

 After that, we did presents. Hannah is pretty iffy on opening wrapped gifts. She can do it, but she doesn't like ripping things. But she is totally on board with taking things out of bags.

She got some fun stuff and did not immediately reject her new baby I got her, so that was a relief. Though I think the toys will overall be her favorite gifts, she was most immediately excited about her new bike helmet. She doesn't really need a helmet because the purpose of a helmet is to protect you if you fall onto the pavement and there is zero chance of that happening in a trailer with a rollbar, but she really wants one because the other kids have one since they ride in the Weehoo, and that doesn't have a roll bar.

After presents, we ate dinner. I always try to do whatever my kids will like most on their birthdays and Hannah's favorite food is definitely a happy meal from McDonald's with chicken nuggets. She is quite particular on nuggets and is never as excited about other types of them, whether they are homemade or from other restaurants.

Next we had cake. Hannah did a good job blowing out her candles.

We started out having cake and I cut Hannah's for her. This did not please her at all. She basically refused to eat it and pouted. Then I gave her my "big cake" and she was all smiles again.

We cannot believe our baby girl is two. Not only have her first two years gone by so fast, but this puts us into an entirely different phase of life since I feel like at two, there is just no baby left and now we are done with babies. We can hardly believe that this is the same girl who didn't want to walk. She is fiercely independent and wants to do everything herself. Besides her baby, she loves jumping and climbing and building. She wants to do everything the other kids do. Though she wants to be big, she also realizes she gains a lot of benefit from being the baby. She gets away with a lot because she is the youngest and all day today she said, "It's not my birthday. I'm a baby" to make sure her status of not having to sit in timeout for jumping on the couch was secured. Probably once you can talk in complete sentences, being a baby is not a valid excuse, but she believes it is. She is a small girl, actually very similar in height to Clara at the same age. She is about 32.25 inches tall, which is the tenth percentile and her weight is average for her height. Though I would prefer her to be a bit taller generally, I have been glad that she can wear Clara's clothes from last year since I never thought that would be possible. We love her so much and can't wait to see her continue to grow up into a big girl!

Deanna Rose with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Deb

Today we met the Fouts family and Grandpa Jim and Grandma Deb at Deanna Rose for a fun afternoon. Jim and Deb were on their way back to Minnesota so it was on their way. We started out at the playground while we waited for everyone to arrive and, as usual, this was the kids' favorite part of the trip. They just love climbing and sliding and digging and jumping.

After our time at the playground, we went off to find some animals. We really enjoyed feeding the ducks.

The older two had a lot of fun feeding the goats with Jason. The goat pen was a little intense for Hannah so she preferred to stay outside with Grandma Deb, seeing the horses. Her hesitation was understandable since the goats were pretty agressive. They were particularly attracted to Jason's shirt and tried to eat it at least three times. 

We had a fun day and were glad that Jim and Deb could stop by on their way home.

Family Dinner with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Deb

Dad and Deb had planned a trip down south through the Midwest to see me, Julie, Joanna, and our families.  The first stop on their trip was here in Kansas, on their way down to Texas.  They had already spent some time with Julie, Andrew, and Benjamin, but today was the planned big family dinner, which we hosted at our house.

Benjamin was excited to play with some new toys.  He especially liked the drill and hammer set.
We had appetizers and then hung out for awhile before dinner.  Joshua played football with his "football hat" but  cracked up when the band went over his eye and he couldn't see.  Dad spent time with Hannah, and Benjamin looked pretty fly in his super cute outfit.

We wanted to get a family picture with Dad and Deb and the cousins, but not surprisingly we couldn't get all the kids to look at the camera at the same time, but we still ended up with a pretty good picture.

As we prepared to grill, Dad began to share some grilling secrets with Joshua.

I wanted to get a picture with Benjamin, but he was pretty tired at this point, so after things devolved, I just tried to match his expression, but in the end it looked like I was mocking him, which I wasn't.

Joshua was being a less-than-stellar big brother and dumped dirt on Hannah, but she didn't seem to mind.  We finally ate dinner, which consisted of steaks and corn provided by Dad and Deb.  After dinner we hung out a bit longer, and Joshua had a fun time with Dad.

But soon it was time to say goodbye.  Clara was pretty sad about this, but the good news is that we'll probably get to see Dad and Deb again next weekend on their way back up to Minnesota from Texas.