Christmas in Kansas!

We were all very spoiled, once again, at Christmas in Kansas. The boys had such a wonderful time seeing all their family. First was Christmas with my side of the family.

Special jammies the night before we opened gifts (Gigi's tradition is spreading :)...

The tree before we started...

Max IN his new dump truck (I bet Mason had some ideas how to dump that load =)

Mason with his Bat Cave. He LOVED it. As I type, he's downstairs playing with it.

Mason got another very special gift. A couple of weeks before Christmas, Mason called Santa and left a message for him saying that he wanted a gun for Christmas. Santa is so technology savvy that he was able to email me the voicemail and I forwarded it to the family. Pa quickly jumped on that request and gave Mason the Red Ryder BB gun that he bought for Mason when he was 2 weeks old.

Then it was on to Gigi and Papa's house. Another set of darling new jammies! The boys got cowboy jammies--they were very excited about looking like cowboys! It turned out to be VERY difficult to get one picture with all five of them smiling and looking cute. Thank goodness for Marla or Max would have just vaulted off the couch!

Christmas morning. Max isn't in the picture because he had already been up for almost 2 hours and was in the other room playing.

This was the first Christmas that Max was really able to interact. He was so much fun! His expressions were great! It didn't matter what was in the box, he responded with a very excited face and an oooooh =)

Marla has found a talent that we didn't know she had. She is very gifted in photography. She has a great eye for unusual shots, as well as doing a great job with traditional poses. To help her with this new skill, she got a camera for Christmas. This is a picture of her and Jacob taking a picture of each other =)

Max playing with his Elmo Live. That Santa is a pretty good guy!

Gigi got the family a Wii for Christmas. Although I didn't get any pictures of it, it was definitley entertaining. Jacob, Bobby, and Marla stayed up until 1:30 Christmas night trying to reach Pro status so they could have stars on their bowling balls. Even Papa got into the act, trying his hand at bowling and baseball. It turns out Mason is a pretty good bowler. He got a 161 all by himself, beating me! The Wii was a great family gift! It will certainly serve for hours of entertainment!

Monk-a-Bella's Shower

While everyone was home for Christmas, we decided to have a shower for Kelli. She's due in February, so this was probably the last opportunity before the baby comes. Kelli called Little Klaus Monk-a-man when he was little, so Gretchen (big Klaus' sister) named the baby Monk-a-Bella, which is serving us well until the real name is decided upon.

We had the shower at mom and dad's, in their newly remodeled basement.

The table...

A close-up of the cupcakes...

The cream cheese mints shaped like bees. Kelli is having a pink and brown bee themed nursery. I had never made mints homemade before, but it was actually pretty easy. I have to give Jakie part of the credit, he made the chocolate mint ones all by himself!

Once the shower started, I put my camera down and forgot to pick it back up! Kelli is a darling pregnant mommy who loved all the pink she recieved! Check back in a couple of months for newborn pics of Monk-a-Bella!

Happy Birthday Max!!

Two years ago today, Jacob and I were en route to Washington, D.C., praying that once we got to West Virginia, two things would be waiting for us--a healthy baby and birthparents who were sticking with their decision. After a very long week in a very remote area, we got both!

This is sweet Maxy when he's about a week old. He weighed about 4 pounds 10 ounces.

To give you an idea of just how tiny he was, I only needed one arm to hold him!

And here's our precious Maxy at his second birthday party...

Max is a huge Elmo fan right now, so that was the theme of his party. We started out with a pre-party at Grandma and Pa's.

The invitation...

The Elmo and Dorothy cakes. Max got Elmo and each guest got Dorothy in her fishbowl. Thanks to Aunt Jamie and Uncle Bobby for helping with the cakes!

The birthday boy and all his cousins (and brother)...

Swiping a bite early...

I think this was a bigger mess than on his first birthday! Sure looks like he's having a good time.

After the pre-party and naps--for kids and grown-ups =)--we headed to the Lawrence Aquatic Center for a swim party! Evidently I have been away from Kansas long enought to forget just how cold it can be there in December! When we left for the aquatic center, it was about 14 degrees and when we left to go home, it was about 10 degrees!

All the kids in the pool...

Jayden Rae playing with Uncle Jakie in the pool.

Mason and Kayden...

Grandma and Jacob with Klaus and Maxy...

Despite the cold, I think everyone had a great time. We are so blessed to have such wonderful families who support us and take an entire day out of a very busy season to celebrate Max's life. Max is such a blessing to us, providing many smiles every day. His sweet little personality is so much fun to watch develop. We love you Max, and are so glad God chose us to be your parents. As Mason would say, Maxy, you completed our family!

Sick Day

The boys were home sick yesterday (Mason has an ear infection and Maxy has some respiratory junk). Neither were feeling too awful, so I decided to take advantage of another day off of work and make Christmas cookies with them.

Max wasn't too sure exactly what to do, but he liked cutting the cookies out and eating the dough. Decorating was a little tougher--Mas was mostly interested in eating the m&ms!

Pretty cute finished products...

Mason's Cookies (the big white blob at the bottom is really a dumptruck. Classic Christmas shape, don't you think?)

and Maxy's cookies (with a little help from Mom)...

All that cookie decorating wore Mason out...

Little did we know he really was sick! I got a phone call from Blue Ivey today while I was at work telling me he had a fever of 103.0 and was throwing up. Maybe too many cookies =)

Christmas!

Due to our travel plans for the holidays, our little family of four had our Christmas this morning. As I type, Mason is downstairs playing his new video game and Max is playing with his little people barn. Here are some pics of the morning.

First we had reindeer, snowman, and santa pancakes.

The kids in front of the tree in their jammies. We love Gigi's tradition of new Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve so much, we started one of our own!

Max's favorite present was a shopping cart. It was the first one he opened and wasn't interested in opening anything else because he wanted to play with it!

Mason's favorite present by far was the Nerf Big Bad Bow. He was so excited when he opened it. I bought it for him a long time ago and found it on sale, but unfortunately for us, I didn't really read the package. It shoots 40 feet! He's already put an arrow into the Christmas tree. Watch out Maxy!

Merry Christmas!

Mason's Christmas Program

It's been forever since I've posted! We have been very busy with travel and birthdays and getting ready for Christmas. Last week, Mason had his Christmas program for school. Here are a few pics from that. We'll have the entire video performance at home later, or if Jacob can get me a clip, I'll try to post it.

Hope everyone is well!

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