Merry Christmas

After we celebrated Christmas eve day at Nate and Stef's, we decided to head on out to the farm as the weather was getting bad. This is the first year I can remember in a while where we had a really white Christmas. We ended up staying till Saturday at the farm cause we were a little afraid to drive back to KC- when we did get back, we found we had a lot more snow than Concordia-- we had around 8-10 inches of snow waiting for us when we got back! Anyway, Christmas day was nice as we all went to church together, had a ham dinner, and I think we all took a nap that afternoon, and Sarah had made lots of cookies to eat. Jon and Jordon had a good time playing together. Jordon loves being thrown around, and any Superman-like activity. He now is saying "Jon" and "Tim" (although he still also recognizes him as Uncle Scary). He knows Grandma, and was saying "PaPa" when we were watching the video of Dad. His vocabulary is growing more every day- everyone was getting a kick out of how he says "teapot"-- it usually comes out as "peatot". He also can say he's "handsome", and really likes to say it if he gets to put mousse in his hair.

Christmas Eve

Jordon was lovin' playing with trucks and toys at his cousins' house on Christmas eve day. Logan clocked him in the head with a truck and he got a pretty good goose-egg but he didn't cry for long and was back in the mix of things. The shot of Mom with her gift from Don and I is a classic throw-back to the days when all of us kids would get gifts with various patterns of used wrapping paper from Mom and Dad-- Mom didn't want to waste anything so we would usually get not-so-pretty gifts, but what did we care? It was just something to tease Mom about, so she got a kick out of this one. I made my siblings and Mom an ornament with a favorite Christmas picture of Mom and Dad, with Dad smiling all cheesy and wearing a Carhart hat. Christmas was really not the same without Dad around chowing down on popcorn and nuts. It really sucks having all these holidays so soon after he's gone. The up side would be enjoying Jordon and seeing how much he's grown since last year at this time. And then of course, the red cow dispenser we found for Tim that poops candy into a stocking.

More at Crown Center

Outside at Crown Center

We had a lot of fun outside at Crown Center, except it was cold. We got lots of pictures cause Jordon had to "ride" on every vehicle there, except the pink car, which you can see in the background in one of these shots-- he would not go near it-- he's such a boy.

Inside Crown Center

A few weeks before Christmas we visited Crown Center. Jordon loved the train inside- this is where they acutally build this entire set with gingerbread houses and everything every year. It was pretty impressive to see all the ingredients that go into making the set. He also liked the barking puppy here and the ferret that chased the ball. We went into a toy store that had a sign hanging at the entrance that said something like "Please watch your children" and I turned to Don and said, "Can you believe they actually have to post a sign that says that?" Later in the store, it was my kid who sat on the school bus toy box, which caused it to lose it's front wheels and come apart. An employee then carried it off to the back room. Oops. It's sometimes pretty hard to be responsible for your kid at every moment, especially in a toy store.

Hangin' with Smokey

I have mentioned it before but here is a good example about how kids are like pets. Smokey was laying on the chair under the table so Jordon had to do it too. The other pic is of some serious bedhead-- before he got his recent haircut his hair was getting pretty long and wild.

Merry Christmas

Jordon was excited about decorating for Christmas this year and really liked the "yights" and ornaments for the tree. He liked to go to each one and name what it was, especially the ones with Santa on a bike, in a car, or with a train, as well as the moose and snowman ornaments. When it came to Santa in real life though, like the one here that was present at my work Christmas breakfast, he was pretty scared of him... so the only picture we could get was with Mom holding him.