The Massive Christmas Picture Post

OK - so I took our old not-so-great camera on the trip. Because it's little. But since it doesn't take great pictures, I found that I barely used it. So, for this post I am nearly completely borrowing other people's shots (at least before we get to a few measly pictures of Christmas in Middlebury).

Starting off with a picture of us eating breakfast at the hotel. (On our final day there, but I must admit that getting this post together was a challenge...so I'm leaving well enough alone). :)

Aubrey loved climbing on the hotel hearth...and the stairs...and pretty much anything she could hoist herself onto.

Lovin' those hotel stairs.

This was the start of the Monopoly game...by the end we had some different players at the table because of those busy babies. We all loved the hotel too. :)

Grandma snuggling Jillian and Aubrey who are wearing their new matching outfits from her.

Birthday twins!

Aubrey on Christmas Day

Busy girls. Aubrey loved playing with the Christmas coasters.

Tyler is reading to/with Aunt Isabel.

Bob drawing his number for the Naughty Nutcracker gift exchange.

The neighbor's impressive snow man.

Wayne with the girls. Enjoying that singing card.

Me with the girls. Rachel and Wayne smiling in the background.

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a steady snow fall all day. There was no wind and the flakes were huge. I think we got around 7 inches that day. So, both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there was lots of snow play.

Here the boys are working on a little snow man, even though the snow was not great for packing yet. :)

Wayne and Tyler sledding.

Tyler and Sue are ready to go, Hollins helps them to get ready.

Tyler enjoying the snow.

On December 26, we headed to Decatur, Indiana and enjoyed spending the afternoon with Grandpa's, Wayne and Billie, and Uncle Max.

Aubrey really enjoyed spitting her water out all over her shirt(s) until they were soaked. Ewww.

Daddy, Tyler and Uncle Max playing Minotaurus at Grandpa Stuckey's.

At Grandpa Stuckey's trying on the hand knit sweaters from Aunt Isabel.

That evening, we headed to Mom and Dad's in Middlebury for the next week.

This is a pathetic few pictures.

Aubrey was quite interested in Zion. He was not quite so into it. I like Carrie's cute baby bump in the background too. :)

Aubrey getting a foot rub from Grandma Carol while examining the Gold Bond lotion.



Celebrating New Year's Eve with the Yoder family.  It was at this gathering that Tyler enjoyed FOUR of Grandma Polly's Yoder Delight desserts. And later declared them to be his (new) favorite food. It is a ring of pineapple with a slice of caramelized sweetened condensed milk topped with Cool Whip and a cherry.

We traveled home to Kansas through the night on January 1. I have some more videos and post-traveling pictures to post. The babe has awoken. Perhaps later this afternoon...

Traveling

Wednesday, December 23, a few hours after work, we left on our holiday trek. We had decided to travel through the night to avoid a coming storm. It worked out nicely as the children slept and we had no traffic or weather problems. It went so smoothly, in fact that when we got to Des Moines, IA, Ted and Wayne started driving under the speed limit because we were making such good time. I was so thankful that Ted and Wayne did the driving because I have a hard time staying awake for nighttime driving.

We arrived safely and enjoyed breakfast at 5 am at The Big Apple.

Aubrey seemed a little confused about what was going on. It was pretty early and much colder outside than in Kansas. :)

Bob and Isabel graciously welcomed us in to their home, as we couldn't check into our hotel until that afternoon. They even rounded up some high chairs to seat Aubrey and Jillian during our visit. Tyler thought he'd test this one out.

Spoon

Before we left for our holiday travels, we exchanged gifts with Ted and Sue. Sue found some adorable books for Aubrey that I enjoy. Spoon is one clever little book.

Getting ready

We had hoped to use a car top carrier/bag to give us extra room for our travels this Christmast time. It ended up not working. However, Daddy, Tyler and Aubrey enjoyed testing out how much space this would give us.

Aubrey

Whew. Where has the time gone? Last night I checked to see how long it's been since I posted. I'm going to take advantage of our * SNOW DAY * woo hoo!! and Aubrey's nap time to get some pictures of the past month posted...finally! :)

Aubrey 12-17-2010

Flashing her toothy grin.

12-18-2010

11 Months

Wow. This has been a whirlwind of a month. I don't think we took many pictures around here. Bad Mommy. Perhaps it's because (between the fun of the season with preparations like baking and shopping), we've had more than our share of ear infections, croup, stomach flu, head colds, and house repairs. But, in any case, we are finally all starting to feel back to normal. Finally. Knock on wood.

Little Miss Aubrey is also finally back to acting like herself again. She cut another tooth this month. She loves to bop to music. She is quite the explorer and gets into and climbs on top of things we never had to worry about with Tyler. Of course she loves all things off limits and howls for the telephone. She has started holding her play phone up to her ear and babbling into it. She is quite the little "talker" and her favorite "word" is Dada. She plays the game of handing something to you, then getting it back over and over. She is usually an early riser, while we have to wake brother Tyler as he loves to sleep in. She is on the run makes a beeline for whatever she is after, often shrieking with delight. However, she is very opinionated and if she can't have something she will let you know how she feels about it. She is also more opinionated about food than I remember Tyler being. She still prefers finger foods to baby food. If we have any fuzz, small rock, paper, or other such small speck of something on the floor, it inevitably finds its way into her mouth. She is mischievous with the subsequent mouth sweeps and lets you know that she doesn't want to have it taken away with sly grin and a firm bite. She loves to carry a sock...yes, a sock... around and shake it exuberantly.

I'll probably think of more things that I have left out. But I wanted to remember how she is changing...even though I don't have pictures to post for now. Hopefully soon! :)

weirdos

Tonight on our way home, I asked Tyler whether he'd like to drive around and look at Christmas lights. He said he would like to. Then asked if we were going to buy Christmas lights. I said that we were just going to drive around and look at lights.

After a few minutes he said, "won't it be weird if we just drive around and don't buy anything?"
I told him I didn't think so.

A few minutes later he said, "won't other people think we're weirdos if they see us just driving around looking at lights?"

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tyler brought this home from school yesterday and it just makes me giggle every time I read it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

New trick

A few nights ago, I was doing laundry in the living room...one of many loads this week. :) Anyway, Aubrey started flinging herself onto a pile of blankets, and eventually onto Tyler's mattress cover. Wayne started filming, and here is a little clip. Enjoy!

What a week

Starting last Monday, November 15, we had quite a week. Tyler has had an ear infection and Aubrey has had a stomach bug (with vomiting - including on herself while she was asleep - fever, lots of diarrhea and sleepless nights). The worst night was followed by the discovery of a broken furnace and broken kitchen faucet that flooded our under-the-sink area. Just when we thought things were looking up, I was taking the kids for Christmas pictures and the garage door opener broke. After two separate photo sessions we couldn't get a good picture of the two of them together. (So if you see our Christmas picture of them, you can just smile and nod knowingly). :) Though, at this point, I was not surprised...it was just fitting. I kind of think of the pictures as representative of the week we had.

On my friend, Michelle's, recommendation I had previously purchased Bag Balm for the occasional diaper rash. (It's originally meant for cow's udders - hee hee - and is only found at Walgreens around here). It does not sting, and works really well. I developed a true appreciation for it this week!

One positive of the faucet ordeal is that I LOVE my new faucet. I didn't know how much I could appreciate a faucet that works...and doesn't randomly turn itself off...or leak for that matter :)

Another plus was that I got to enjoy lots of snuggling, rocking and loving on my baby. (That's what I kept reminding myself of when I was up rocking Aubrey in the middle of the night).  I'm so glad they're both feeling better!