Christmas 2016

I knew Christmas would fly by quickly, but man it was over in the blink of an eye. On Friday evening, we joined Rachel and Carlos at the pool to do some swimming. The kids loved it! Emma did really well, and could go down the slides and wander around the pool a little bit on her own. She also joined us in the hot tub for a little while, and had a really good time. Elliott also had fun, but he was a little more of a handful to keep track of. He really enjoyed going in and out of the water, and throwing toys down the slide and being in other kids' way. Overall, he did really well, but it was a lot of work to keep up with him and keep track of him. We left at about 8:30pm with some really, really tired kids.

Saturday was Christmas Eve, and we spent the morning opening presents with the kids. We put the presents under the tree the night before, and the kids were just thrilled to wake up and see the gifts, and then rip them apart. Once Elliott had one gift open, he was more interested in playing with that one gift than opening any more. Emma figured it out this year, and just went from gift to gift, ripping them apart. Emma's favorite toy was her remote control Monster Truck, and Elliott loved his matchbox cars and new car tracks.

We ate some lunch at IHOP with Carlos and Rachel, and then John and Emma went shopping for some new goldfish to keep Kirby company. Emma named her two new fish Christmas Tree and Kevin, gotta love four year olds. My parents and Ryan got to our house at about 3:00pm, and we had a nice afternoon of visiting, playing with the kids, and snacking before going to church for Emma's Children's Christmas Eve Program.

Emma was adorable for the program. She had a pretty red Christmas dress on, wore a pretty cross necklace, and was such a big girl. She had to sit in front with her classmates, and then recite one passage and sing Away in a Manger. She knew the words very well, said them up there, and stayed up there and did a great job. She got a little nervous and figity with her dress, but it was really cute. We had supper back at our house, and then put some tired kids to bed again, but not before Emma left two cookies and a glass of milk for Santa.

Christmas Day started off with a visit from Santa. Emma was so pumped to see that Santa had come, and couldn't wait to bust into her presents. Elliott was more interested in breakfast, but eventually opened his as well. I spent the morning prepping for dinner, and then we headed off to church. After church, we ate a wonderful lunch of ham, cheesy potatoes, smothered green beans, corn casserole, and coleslaw. It was pretty darn good. We got both kids down for a nap after lunch, and the rest of us rested a little, and then played some Mexican Train. Once the kids woke up again, we opened presents with my side of the family. The kids got absolutely spoiled, so much that Elliott was too overwhelmed to even open his gifts anymore, Emma had to finish opening his. It was a pretty successful Christmas for the kids.

This year we decided to do something different, and John, Ryan, and I went to a Skyforce Game at 7pm. The game ended up going into double overtime, and the Skyforce won. It was a pretty sloppy game, but we had a good time, and it was nice to get out of the house for a while.

Today was pretty much a recovery day. We all played with the kids and did a little cleaning this morning. We headed to Applebees for some lunch (where Elliott was so tired that he fell asleep in the booth) and then my parents headed back home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing and dealing with some crabby kids. Elliott was so tired, he was just a wreck. We put him to bed at 6:30 pm. It will be interesting to see what time he wakes up. Emma is kind of cranky as well. She is watching a show in bed right now, and is going to be sleeping very shortly. It will be nice to get the kids back to a routine.

So, there you have it. Christmas was so much fun, but I am ready to go back to some normal routines. I even packed away most of the Christmas stuff, and my Christmas CDS, so apparently I am ready to be done with Christmas for the year.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is getting ready for the new year!!

Opening presents with mom and dad 

This is how Elliott breakfasts

Emma loves Christmas time 

Emma and Auntie Rachel

Assembling their trampoline 

Emma ready for her Christmas Program 

Hannah, Hannah, and Emma 

Siblings 

Peek

Gifts from Santa!!

Christmas Cookies

Christmas is rapidly approaching, and I just love this time of the year. I have been listening to Christmas music nonstop, wearing my Christmas socks, and dressing up the kids in festive Christmas outfits. We also have caught a few Christmas cartoons on TV. Did I mention I love this time of year?

This week was a blur of activity. Nothing too exciting happened, but between work, bustling kids around, and the normal cleaning and cooking, it flew by. Emma and I also made some Christmas cookies one evening. It was pretty fun. She helped me make the batter, and even helped me roll out some of the batter and cut out some cookies. She was so proud of how helpful she was! Then we baked them and patiently waited for them to cool so we could decorate them.

Emma was really, really excited to help decorate. Elliott and John went downstairs and played so we could decorate without any interruptions. Emma was happy to help, but she wasn't very coordinated. She dumped out half a bottle of sprinkles, and had a really, really hard time spreading the frosting on the cookies. But she had a good time, and it was cute. She even told me that we had to save some of the cookies for Santa. I just love Christmas with little kids, it's so magical for them!

This weekend is going to be crazy, and hectic and be over in a flash, so I am trying to remember to slow down and enjoy it all. Rachel and Carlos are in town right now, and we are going to do some swimming at the hotel they are staying at this evening. The kids are going to have an absolute blast swimming, it should be a fun evening.

We are planning on opening presents with just the kids tomorrow morning, and have a nice, quiet morning by ourselves. The rest of the family gets to town tomorrow afternoon, and then we have Emma's Christmas Eve Children's Program, and we are going to munch on Appetizers and just relax and enjoy the holiday.

I am super excited for Christmas to finally be here and look forward to all the family time!

Playing with new Christmas Toys 

Decorating Christmas Cookies 

Such concentration-notice all the sprinkles spilled on the table

Daycare fun

Christmas @ the Nelson's House

Christmas week is here already! I feel like I barely blinked, and it went from celebrating Thanksgiving to Christmastime in a flash. Our household is very excited for it to be Christmas, but time could slow down a little bit.

This past weekend was another crazy one that kept us busy, busy, busy. On Friday night, John had a photography assignment at a concert at the Washington Pavillon. He had a good time, and made some good money while the kids and I enjoyed a quiet evening at home.

Saturday was absolutely freezing outside. It started off at about -5, and the overnight low got down to -27 degrees, not counting the windchill. It was just miserably cold. So, the kids stayed home and inside the warm house all day, while John and I went to Christmas at the Cathedral. I won some free tickets from Avera, so we decided to go check it out. We had amazing seats, and it was a really good concert. There was an orchestra, a choir, and two very, very good vocalists that performed for almost 2 hours. It was an awesome way to kick off the holiday season.

Dyllan and Liz babysat the kids while we were gone, and once we got back home we all just hung out together for the rest of the day. We ordered a pizza for supper, and had a good evening visiting with friends and getting some baby snuggles in while they were here.

We celebrated Christmas with John's family on Sunday. Jeff smoked some ribs and we had some french fries and coleslaw, and lots and lots of sweets. The kids had an absolute blast opening presents, Emma was so excited it was adorable. And Elliott finally got the hang of it all towards the end, and enjoyed opening his presents as well.

The kids (and John and I ) got absolutely spoiled. There were many presents for everyone, and we all had a really great Christmas celebration. It's hard to believe that we already have one Christmas in the books.

Emma's gifts: Junior legos, Paw Patrol microphone, Spirograph, socks, nightgown, hotwheels cars, art easle, coloring book, crayons, sewing kit, perler beads, and stickers.

Elliott's gifts: Barn with a lot of different animals, pajamas, socks, paw patrol cars and dogs, playdoh, Hotwheels cars, and stickers.


This year, we are hosting Christmas at our house for my family since Emma has her Christmas program on Christmas eve. It's exciting to have it here for something different, and I look forward to all the excitement the kids will have on Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas!!!

Santa came to visit at daycare, Eli was not too impressed

Things were a little better with big sister Emma helping 

Ready to distribute all the presents 

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house 

Emma's pile of gifts 

Eli is getting in on the action 

Legos!!!

Christmas selfie 

Playing with animals 

Helping dad open gifts 

Emma loves her new microphone 

Building legos 

Playing Spirograph with grandma 

Christmas Shopping, Birthday Parties, and Sleepovers, oh my!

This weekend was kind of a whirlwind of activity, but it was fun! On Friday night, I got together with my old co-workers from PACU, and we had some supper and drinks at the Pour House. It was really nice to see everyone, and we all had a really good time. We were there for about 5 hours, so I would say we were all having a lot of fun!

On Saturday morning, we headed to the Prairie Center for Cookies with Santa. The kids had a lot of fun just running around and watching everyone. They also enjoyed some cookies, juice, and looking at the reindeer. The line to see Santa was absolutely insane, so I took them to the front of the line to wave and Santa, and see him, and then we got the heck out there. Emma told me she had already seen Santa and didn't need to see hime again, and I don't think Elliott really cared at all, so we left.

We headed out to Jim and Barb's and dropped the kids off. They were super excited to be there, and didn't mind at all when we left. John and I took advantage of not having the kids, and we knocked out our Christmas shopping. We finished everyone up, and we also got everything wrapped and put away. It was a great feeling. After all the hustle and bustle, we enjoyed a nice meal at Sickies Garage, a new burger joint in town. It was a great meal, and we also enjoyed a couple well-deserved alcoholic beverages as well. It was a successful day!

Today, we headed to church without any kids, which was a nice change of pace. It was great to be able to just sit there and listen and enjoy the service instead of wrestling with the kids. We did miss them though, and Jim and Barb brought them back by about 12:30. Then, we basically loaded the kids up again, and headed to the Pizza Ranch in Brandon for Natalie's 3rd Birthday Party.

Emma was super-excited to see Natalie, and Elliott was super-excited for pizza, so we had some energetic kids on the way to Pizza Ranch. We ate lunch, sang Happy Birthday and cut the cookie-cake, and then watched Natalie open presents. The kids absolutely loved the bouncy houses in the play area though. They played and played and jumped until they were wiped out. Neither kid had much of nap today, so Eli slept on the way home and then took a nap, and Emma is about passing out right now. I think it will be a quiet night around here.

Needless to say, everyone had a great weekend, and we are a little bummed that tomorrow is Monday already.

Eli playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house

The birthday party crew, of course the birthday girl is crying

Birthday party fun!

Emma's Daycare Christmas Program

Another week has flown by, and we are in full Christmas spirit over here. Every night this week has been spent doing some sort of holiday activity-baking, games, crafts, and the kids and I are just loving it all.

Eli has had a bit of a cough this past week, so he has been a little bit on the crabby side. He's been doing ok, just being a little extra whiny and needy, which adds to the craziness in the evenings. Otherwise, pretty much everyone has been staying pretty healthy, which has been awesome.

Yesterday evening, Emma had a Christmas Program at her daycare. It was pretty adorable. Emma and her classmates were in the front of the room on a stage, and they sang about 5 Christmas songs. It was really, super cute, and Emma really enjoyed it. She was all smiles and so proud of all of her songs. Emma also requested to wear her Christmas dress, so she was all dolled up for the program, and it was adorable.

Jim and Barb also came to watch Emma, and we all got a kick out of the program. There was definitely more shouting than singing, but the kids were adorable up there, and it was a fun little program to watch. Emma also had fun showing off her daycare room to all of us. She was quite the little tour guide!

After the program, and the tour of the kids' rooms, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music. The kids absolutely loved it, and I did too.

Tonight, I am heading to the Pour House to hang out with my old co-workers. It's my official going-away party from PACU. It's a couple weeks late because I left on Thanksgiving week, and we didn't have a chance to get together before I left. So, I am super excited to see everyone and hang out with them!

Right now, I am enjoying some coffee, a little TV, and just pretty much vegging out for a couple hours until it's time to get the kids. Awww, relaxation!

Visiting Santa

This weekend sure flew by in the blink of an eye. But it was full of a lot of family time, with some holiday spirit thrown in, so it was a good one.

Friday night we pretty much spent playing at home with the kids, and catching up on some laundry and house work. Pretty exciting stuff.

Saturday was a really fun day! Emma and I headed to the library at around 10:00 am while John and Elliott headed to Home Depot. Emma and I went to the library because they were having a Polar Express themed story time. They had about 5 different model train sets set up in one big room where all the kids could walk around and look at them. They were even letting the kids drive some of the trains. It was pretty cool, and Emma was really blown away by all of it.

They also had story time where they read the book "The Polar Express" and had the kids form a train and walk around. It was pretty cute. Then we checked out some books, and headed on our way. The next stop for us was the mall. It was pretty crazy, and full of people, but Emma and I handled it pretty well. We had Culver's for lunch, and the did a little shopping.

The best surprise was that we ran into Santa by accident in Yonkers. We were in there just browsing, and we happened to run into Santa. There was no one around, and no line to see him, so we just walked right up. Emma was a little bit shy, but she did very well. She sat on his lap, told Santa her name, and then told him she wanted Paw Patrol for Christmas. Then she got her candy cane, and was on her way. It was really cute. They also had a coloring station with some sheets to color, hot chocolate, and some rudolf ears and a nose. Emma thought it was great, and it was a nice way to see Santa without having to wait in line forever.

After a couple more stores, we got out of there and called it a day. We were happy to head home to Elliott and John, and just play at home for the rest of the day.

Today was a gorgeous day outside. It was sunny, and around 40 degrees. I will definitely take that in December. Between bible study, church, and a new member potluck, we spent about 4 hours at church today, so that pretty much took up half the day. Then Emma and I actually went back to the mall (ahhhh!) because there were a couple things I needed from Old Navy, and we had a good coupon to use. After that hustle and bustle, we hit up Hy Vee quick, and then brought a Pizza home for supper. What a day.

Now, I am trying to relax and enjoy the last remaining hours of the weekend, before Monday rolls around again, and I have to go back to work, where I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. I am both excited and dreading this week ahead. It's tiring to learn non-stop for 8 hours a day. I'm not trying to complain, but I go home tired at the end of the day, just from information overload. This week is going to be a busy one, with stuff going on pretty much every night of the week, so I'm going to watch a show, and then call it a night!

Telling Santa her Christmas Wishes 

Rudolf Emma

Sparkly Hands

Trendy Emma

Game night