A Kansas Christmas

Early Christmas morning we drove back to the airport in Lubbock to catch a flight to Kansas to visit my family.  

Here is our Merry Christmas morning picture!  Ha!

We made it safely to Kansas and enjoyed spending time with my extended family!  We had a Christmas celebration with my immediate family as well as with my mom's side of the family and my dad's side of the family!  

Here is a cute photo of my parents with their little miracle grandchildren:)  Thank God for extra blessing!

Had to make this photo extra large.....just made me laugh...it's a framer don't you think?

Since we got to Kansas late in the day on Christmas we decided to celebrate and open presents the day after Christmas with my family.  Of course when we arrived Evie noticed all the presents under the tree and Grandpa Bobby had to tease her about waiting to open presents.  We explained to her we would open them "tomorrow."  Well the next day we were eating our Christmas Prime Rib meal before opening presents...grandpa teased Evie again telling her we were going to open presents "tomorrow" (again).  I absolutely loved Evie's innocent response, "But today is tomorrow!"  And she was exactly right!

Rapunzel ornament:)  We are going to have fun decorating our tree next year!

Watching cousin Korbin open his present!

It's a "Merdaid"! And "merdaids" are her new favorite toy:)

This picture was so sweet!  Layla obviously loved her new soft back pack and teddy bear from cousin Dalton and Korbin!

 I had made some matching snowman pajamas for the kids.  It was my first attempt at pajamas so there were a few flaws but I thought they still turned out pretty cute!

Snowman cousin love!

 I guess there must be something about little ones starring with curiosity at Christmas tree lights that just gets to me every time!

I am so lucky that my sister-in-law is from Thailand and cooks us a delicious Thai meal when we are together!  (Oh and BTW, my parents are in the middle of remodeling their house).

Evie also got to help Grandma Sheryl make a dessert one night.  So I have to pick on my mom for a bit with her "healthy" dessert!  She claimed it was "healthy" except for the carmel sauce and cool whip on the top.  However, I commented I noticed them pouring almost a cup of sugar in while I had taken the picture below.  And then she admitted it had almost a cup of butter as well!  Ha, ha....healthy because it had some apples and walnuts in it!   I'm sure we will be giving her a hard time for this for a while!

Evie thought we needed to add candles and sing happy birthday to Jesus!

The Nordhus gang! (During the annual family photo pictures on my mom's side of the family....or the paparazzi frenzy...all my cousins understand:)

And the cousin (grandchildren) photo shot....minus about 10!  Am I really the fifth oldest.....wow I remember the days when we were standing taller than all of our younger cousins!

And an attempt at a great grandchildren photo!

We organized some fun crafts and a Bingo game for the kids, which were a hit!

Crafting madness!

Bingo fun!

 Since we have our Christmas gathering in the church basement the kids had a chance to run and play in the gym!  Thanks Megan and Trent for leading them in this fun game of ring around the rosie!

Cousin Misty was all about singing and dancing, so of course Evie fell in love with her.  I think Evie became Misty's little project for teaching her a dance routine!  Here they are practicing.....

....and the final pose!

 Here is Misty's attempt at teaching Evie....sorry sweet Misty, you have a challenge for a student:)

We also had a wonderful visit with my Grandpa and Grandma Nordhus and enjoyed spending time at the Nordhus family Christmas...I just didn't get any photos this time...:(

Mike had recently seen Grumpy Old Men airing on TV and was mentioning how much he wanted to go ice fishing.  Well....his dream came true in Kansas when he had a chance to go with my brother-in-law Roger and nephew Dalton!  He was excited to go and excited to tell us about it when he got home!

Guess there was probably some Grumpy Old Men in there!!!

Well, we had a wonderful visit and enjoyed spending time with everyone!  We certainly felt very blessed this holiday season!