Snow Day!

Well, we finally got enough snow to play in

and shovel!

L couldn't wait to get out and catch snowflakes on her tongue!

I Man wasn't too excited about it, asking me if we could go in the van

and preferring to walk where D had already shoveled {that is until he wiped out twice on the glare ice under the snow!}.

L made snow angels

and a snowman!

(Sort of!)

Hooray for a Snow Day!

Our Christmas #3

On Christmas Eve morning, we drove to my grandparents house for a few more Christmases (3 more to be exact:  a gift exchange with my mom and A, time spent at my Great Aunt ML's with the rest of the Johnsons and another gift exchange and photo shoot with my Grandparents, Uncle and Cousins).  This meant...

more

presents

When L opened this one, she said, "I've been waiting for this!!"

more cousins {and delicious food at Great Aunt ML's!}

reminiscing about Christmases past

and laughter!

All of the cousins (there were 11 in all!) acted out the Christmas story

(except for the littlest two who preferred to play with this noisy but highly entertaining {for them} toy!).

Once we were back at Grandma and Grandpa's, we opened more

and more

presents!

Don't worry, we gave a few presents too!

The photo books of Grandma and Grandpa's 60 years together were a big hit!

But after we got this picture, I said I was sad I hadn't had it earlier to include in the book.  Grandma said, "don't worry you can include it in the one you do for our 70th!"  :-)

Our Christmas #2

We got up and headed out early (ok, so it was 9am, that's early isn't it?) for Christmas at my Dad's place on Friday (Dec 23).  It was a very fun day!  The only problem is, I never seem to take many pictures while we're there {boo!}.  Here's hoping Dad is going to send me his pictures so I can fill in for these pages in my blog book (which I may or may not be several months behind on!).

I Man was ecstatic about his new footballs from Grandpa and H!  Notice in the picture on the right he is holding all three of them at. the. same. time! 

L got a pink scooter and in this picture she is already asking D if he'll put it together so she can ride it!  ;-)

Yep, definitely need more pictures for this Christmas...please?!

All We Want{ed} for Christmas...

was one good family photo!  With everyone at Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas this year, we tried to get one good family picture.  However, 19 people (7 of which are kids under the age of 9 and one of which was I Man who hadn't had a nap in two days and was up well past his bedtime!) made this quite a feat!  Take a look...

Where's L you ask?  In the bathroom, of course!  That's right...2 seconds after we had everyone in place for this family photo shoot L said, "I have to go to the bathroom."  Sigh!  Oh well, it made for some good laughs and apparently gave A2 some time to practice touching his tongue to his nose?!  :-)

The obvious winner, in my opinion, anyway! 
(Good thing too because it was the last picture we took!)

Our Family Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with just our family on Thursday (Dec 22).  I think the kids were just as excited to give the presents they'd picked out for everyone as they were to get their own presents (ok, maybe not just as excited, but L really did want us to open the gifts she'd picked out!).  It was a really, really great night spending time together as a family!

Opening his new fire hat from L (the old one was recently broken!).

(showing it off to daddy!)

Thank you hugs for his new golf club and ball from L.

Oh, the anticipation!

"Yes, a squishy pink guy!" (to L from I Man)

(This was his expression when the front loader made noise!)

Picture of the Day ~ Week 51

We are one week away from Christmas and this is how our yard looks {brown!}.  We've had only an inch of snow for the season and today's high temperature of 55 broke the old record by 5 degrees.  L spent some time outside in just her fall coat while D and I hung out in the porch without coats!

L was in the Christmas Program at Church tonight.

See what L's playing with?  Yep, it's my old camera which has now become L's!  D got me a new camera for our Anniversary and when L saw it she said, "this means the red camera is mine, right?!"  I think she was just as excited about getting a new camera as I was (thank you, D!).

D and I celebrated 8 years of marriage today!  We ate some great italian food at Altony's and did some shopping while the kids played with a  new babysitter!

Our neighbors brought over a gift for us today.  It included these toys for the kids and a beautiful painted glass dish for us.  It was so thoughtful and the kids absolutely love their new toys!

We had our family Christmas tonight with gifts and fun playing and enjoying each other's company (here I Man is showing us how his plane flies - upside down?!).

Our first (or is it second?) Christmas found us at my Dad's place where we opened presents (many from Germany!), ate way too much and shared many laughs over conversations and games.  Such fun!

We spent Christmas Eve with the Johnson's celebrating Christmas and Birthdays (for Great Grandpa and J!).  This, of course, meant more presents, family, food and fun!