Baby Micah.

Before Christmas, on December 20, my twin sister Amy had her second baby, a sweet little boy! He is a little blessing and we love our newest nephew/cousin.

Micah Emmanuel Kearns

8 lbs 5 oz

21"

I love the little baby burrito!

Amy is looking great and doing well...though she is greatly looking forward to the day when he will not be awake ALL night and she can get some sleep.

Our Family Christmas.

We celebrated our family Christmas on December 23-before the business of travel and extended family activities. During the day, Nathan, Ella, and I decorated some gingerbread cookies (taken out of the freezer from Baking Extravaganza). They had different requests for each one...happy, sad, silly, crazy, etc.

Here they are with our little Gingerbread Family. After the cookies were decorated, it was on to dinner. Since the kids are little, and this is a birthday party after all, we decided to make homemade pizza (with Root Beer of course).

Ella also got her haircut this day (her second). I said I wouldn't do it, but she's got bangs!

We then let the kids open their gifts from us-we definitely kept it on a small scale since we knew they would be getting lots of gifts from their grandparents. Their joy, however, was still was big. They were all fun to watch, but everytime after Ella opened a gift, she would exclaim, "It's what I always wanted...Thank you, thank you...I need to give you a hug!". Here she is giving me a hug after opening something, I think it was either a box of fruit snacks or CandyLand. It made giving gifts a lot of fun!

The "big" gift of the night was a sled. Though Nathan has a sled of his own, Matt thought we should be a 2-sled family. He has big plans for our yard. Hopefully soon they'll get to take it for a test drive in the snow, instead of just through the living room!

Baking Extravaganza!

Last week was Christmas Baking Extravaganza...2 adults, 4 kids, 5 1/2 hours of baking, and 10 different types of goodies!

Unfortunately the day started out with a sprinkle spill...my kids know how to clean them up, though it eventually got a little out of hand and had to be put to a stop.

In general, the kids were more about playing in the basement then baking, but certain jobs were worthy of their time. For example, here is Ella making peanut butter balls.

Auntie Amy and the kids mixing up something. It's subtle, but if you look at Nathan, you'll notice that his hand is in the jar of brown sugar.

"Gingerbread boys" or "Gingermen" as Ella calls them, ready to go in the oven.

Here's a display of some of the tasty treats!

The puppy chow and the caramel puffcorn didn't last long, but at least I had the sense of mind to put all the cookies in the freezer (and send a big plate with Matt to work).

Christmas Part III: Christmas Day & All Snowed In!

We spent Christmas Weekend, about 4 days, snowed in at Nana and Papa's. It was a nice relaxing time, and I know Nathan and Ella loved it!

Ella got a big fluffy stuffed cat for Christmas...she mainly likes to sit and bounce on it! (You can't even see the cat in this picture)

with beloved baby stroller:)

Ella LOVES Papa!

Fun in the snow!

Down time with Bugsby:

cocoa time:

Nap time:

snack time:

Christmas Part IV: The Kearns' make it!

Because of the snow storm, Jeremy, Amy, and Mayah were stuck in Aberdeen (at Jeremy's parents') until the 27th. We were glad to get to spend a day to hang out with them too!

Nathan loves to "play" the piano at Nana and Papa's. I would love to get him into lessons soon.

Gingerbread House created by Nathan, Mayah, & Ella

I'm glad they make hair bows for babies without hair:)

Ella being goof, because that's what Ella does!

Is this appropriate? Nathan playing around with a funnel/ice scraper Matt got in his stocking...yes even Matt got gifts from Santa.

Chutes & Ladders with Auntie Amy and Cousin Mayah:

Christmas Eve

2009 also brought one of the snowiest Christmases on record. We were not hopeful about even making it back to SD, but when we woke up Christmas Eve and saw the weather was okay, we decided to try to head back. It actually ended up being just fine, the perfect break in the storm after receiving 6 inches the night before. Though not stormy, it was definitley still a white Christmas. I took a couple pictures on the trip (they're a little blurry since I just took them from the car).

I love how you can barely see the horizon. The sky and ground were nerely identical, we're thankful the wind wasn't blowing!

We celebrated Christmas Eve in De Smet with the extended Widman family. It was a smaller crowd due to the weather, but still a great time of seeing aunts and uncles.
Unfortunately I forgot my camera in the car.

We knew that we would be snowed in at Papa & Nana's on Christmas Day, so instead of opening gifts on the Eve like usual, we decided to wait an do it on Christmas. Here is Papa reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the grandchildren before bed.

Nana loves this picture:) But, really
what could be better than baby snuggles on Christmas Eve?!

Thompson Christmas

This year, the Thompsons celebrated Christmas on December 23 at "City Grandpa & Grandma's". Our mission was to bring some yummy Christmas cookies (though really why? it's completely unnecessary with the spread that Aunt Jodi puts together). But, Nathan and Ella enjoyed the experience. They especially loved making peanut butter blossoms. Nathan was good at putting the Hershey kiss in the middle of the cookie, and Ella was good at swiping kisses to eat! They were also all about the sprinkles, which were eventually banned from the kitchen.

Christmas was extra special because Great-Grandma Marilyn was able to join us. She is deeply loved and highly valued by this family. It was great to see her face light up as Jodi talked about past Christmases and all the potato sausage they would make! Great-Grandpa Bob, of course, is sporting the traditional Christmas bow during gift opening!

It was a great 1st Christmas celebration for Adeline.