Kyler's Winter Fun

As I was looking through pictures, I noticed I had taken a few of some of the things Kyler spends his days doing right now.  Although we had a fairly mild winter, we have still been spending a lot of time inside; and this just gives a glimpse into what Kyler has spent his days doing.  I think all of these were taken during January. :)

Drumming!  Yes, Kyler still loves to drum.  He got this new drum set from Grandpa Gary and Grandma Nadene (my parents) for Christmas.  Although he doesn't drum as much as he used to, he still does play them quite frequently.

Nice technique :)

Building with blocks.  Kyler got this block set for Christmas from my cousin, Angie.  Although he doesn't always use this set, he has really enjoyed building with these blocks, as well as the Duplos he got for Christmas too.

Look what I made!

This above picture makes me laugh!  If any of you have seen the first Cars movie, you will know why these tractors are like this!!  Kyler saw Cars 2 right before Christmas, and then the first Cars right after Christmas.  He LOVES Cars right now and currently has a collection of about 20 of the matchbox size Cars cars.  

Proud of his tractors that Mater scared :)

All lined up!  This is the other thing Kyler loves to do....line up all his cars!  Whether it's his Cars cars or other matchbox cars, they are quite frequently lined up on the couch (since Norah can't quite reach the back of the couch yet!) :)  It does provide us with limited seating, but we've gotten by! :)  

Fun in the SNOW!

We finally got a good snowfall, where there was enough to go out and play!  Kyler had been asking to go play in the snow, so we finally got to go out and enjoy it!  Norah stayed inside because she had had a runny nose, so we thought it would be best if she stayed inside where it was warm.  But mommy and Kyler had some fun in the sled and making snow balls!

 Testing it out...

 Having fun!

Looking for jet airplanes 

 Big boy!

Ready for the sled!

Norah is 11 Months!!

Norah turned 11 months old on January 5th!!  (I will catch up, I promise!!) :)  Developmentally this past month, Norah didn't really have any new "milestones".  Her balance got a lot better as the month went on, and she continually pulls herself up on everything.  I have only seen her stand on her own for a split second once or twice, so she hasn't really started to stand by herself yet.  Norah FINALLY popped one of her top front teeth through either the day she turned 11 months or right before.  The other one is on its way.  I say finally because she has been quite grumpy with the whole teething thing.  She just gets really mad and wants to be held a lot.  I don't remember Kyler being this "mad" while he was teething.  It also seems like it takes forever for them to pop through.  We have been able to see these two top teeth for quite a while thinking they were just about through, but it has just finally happened. :)

Norah celebrated her first Christmas this past month and wasn't quite sure what to think of all the people but then warmed up as the day/time would go on.  She loved ripping the paper and opening the presents once she got them started.

In terms of eating, I have a few jars of "dinner" baby food left, that we are finishing up, but she eats mostly what we eat now, which is nice.  

Here are some pictures of her 11th month:

  Soooooo Big!  Norah loves to do this :)

11 Months Old!

 Happy Girl

Hanging out with Kyler in their new chairs!

 Norah's new hair style! :)  (Her bangs are getting really long, so we are working at keeping them out of her face)

 Ready to cheer on the Panthers!

Hi Mom!

 Loves the tunnel!

Norah's new "seat"....she loves to climb in here and sit!  (and I can't WAIT until the door is back on!) :)

Final Christmas Celebration

We had our final Christmas celebration with Erik's immediate family on the Wednesday after Christmas.  I guess I also forgot to post that we celebrated Christmas with his mom's side of the family the weekend before Christmas in Dows.  I don't have any pictures from that Christmas, but we headed to his Grandparents house in the morning and arrived just in time for lunch.  We had a wonderful lunch and then the kids played for a while after lunch and then they took a nap.  The younger kids opened some presents, and then when Kyler and Norah woke up they joined in the fun.  Instead of doing a gift exchange with the adults, we each brought a $10 gift card to a place of our choice, plus an "under $5" grab bag type gift.  The adults then played BINGO and could win 1 gift card and up to 3 other grab bag gifts (depending on how many times you won BINGO) :).  This was a different way to do it, but got kind of long after a while.  After BINGO was over, we had a quick bite to eat and then headed home.

Okay, back to Christmas at Erik's parent's house now. :)  We went over there on Wednesday evening and had dinner with Erik's immediate family.  After dinner we opened presents and then hung out for a while.  Here are some pictures from our final Christmas celebration:

Kyler working on a present

Norah opening one of her gifts...

Almost there!

  Playing and opening!

Christmas Day 2011

Christmas Day we got up and had Christmas with just the four of us.  Since Kyler and Norah are still pretty little, this didn't take very long.  Here are a few pictures of just us having Christmas! 

Our tree after Erik put out the presents and stockings!

Kyler and Norah's stockings :)

Miss Norah opening her stocking at her 1st Christmas!

Kyler working on his stocking

Lightning McQueen!!!

Norah LOVED these candy canes with M&Ms, even though she couldn't eat any :)

Kyler opening his Duplo set!

After we did presents with us four, we all got ready, ate a quick breakfast, loaded up the truck, and headed over to my (Ashley's) parent's house to have Christmas with my parents and brother.  Norah took a short nap while we started to open presents.  After everything was opened, we had a yummy brunch of waffles and bacon.  When brunch was over, the kids played for a bit and then they took naps while I helped my mom get food ready to take to my aunt's house for our third Christmas of the day.  (Will have to post picts of Christmas with my parents later)

When the kids woke up from naps, we loaded up again and headed to Denver, IA to my aunt and uncle's house where we had Christmas with my mom's side of the family.  All together there were 24 people there, six of those are great-grand kids! :)  We then opened presents out at my aunts house.  All of the kids went first and then us adults went around the circle opening our presents.  After presents, we had an awesome dinner of ham, potatoes, salad, etc.  We then hung out for a while and when our food had settled a bit, we enjoyed some pie for dessert.  At about 9:00 we decided we had better head home as kids were tired and it had been a long but wonderful day!  Here are some pictures of Christmas with my mom's side:

 Getting ready to pass out presents

Working on handing out gifts

We had a wonderful day celebrating the birth of Jesus with our family!  We hope you were as blessed as we were this Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve began at about 5:30 am when we woke up to Kyler crying.  Erik went into check on him and found that he had thrown up in his bed. :(  We got new sheets, pjs, etc. and tucked him back in, hoping it was a one-time deal, but it wasn't.  Kyler threw up about 4 or 5 more times, but was all done by about 10:30 am!  So, Kyler spent the morning lounging on the couch, watching movies and just hanging out.  We really didn't have much planned for Christmas Eve day-which ended up being a good thing!  Norah had thrown up one time randomly on Thursday (before Christmas) afternoon, and I had thought it was because she had eaten something new, but I guess not.  However, hers only was the one time thing and she was good to go, so I'm guessing Kyler got it from her.  Thankfully neither Erik or I ended up with it!! 

We were planning to go to my (Ashley's) parent's house for dinner at 5:00, and then go to church at 7:00.  Since Kyler had been fine since the morning, Erik and I went ahead and got ready while the kids took their afternoon nap.  We were going to see how Kyler was doing when he woke up.  When the kids got up, Kyler was doing okay, but really tired.  He still wanted to go eat dinner at my parent's house and get dressed up, so we did!  We all got dressed and headed over to my parent's house for a nice dinner that my brother had prepared for us!  Kyler wasn't really interested in eating, but he was feeling a lot better and if you didn't know him, you wouldn't have even thought he was sick.  We kept debating on whether or not to take Kyler to church.  We finally decided that since it had been about 9 hours since he had last been sick, and he was acting pretty normal, we would take him.  We knew he would just come in, sit on Erik's lap and then leave.  He wasn't going to the nursery or anything like that to interact with other kids.  So, we headed to church at Orchard Hill at 7:00.  

After church we came back to my parent's house to have pie.  My aunt and uncle, cousin and her two kids, and Erik's parents were going to come over and have pie that my mom had made that afternoon.  This is a fun tradition that I love doing and always look forward to on Christmas Eve.  It has been harder since it's kind of late with little kids, but we have still made it work!  We left my parent's house about 9:00 and headed home to give the kids quick baths and put them to bed.  Erik then had to head back to the church to work the 11:00 pm service.  Erik was also in charge of getting out all the presents and doing the stockings for the kids when he came home. :) 

Here are some pictures of our family all dressed up on Christmas Eve!

Best family shot :)

Miss Norah all dressed up!

Pretty Girl!

Mr. Kyler looking all handsome!

Ashley's family

Uncle Ben with Miss Norah