Christmas Morning at Home...

Like everything else we do...nothing happens until after pictures are taken!

Merry Christmas!  Looks like Santa came to our house!

Connor's big gift was a Kitchen!  Her and Jace were both excited about it and have already spent a lot of time "taking our orders" and cooking for us!

"What you want, Ma'm?" "Here you go."  "NO MOM!  Use the spoon!" etc.

Jace got a new tractor with crawler tracks, and an implement to go with it.  He was excited.  :) 

Connor got some princess panties...looks like someone is ready to potty train!  Notice how she is inspecting them...we asked her if she was ready, and it was a firm NO....maybe after the holidays...

Thought it would be appropriate to get Royals Champs shirts...since they WON the World Series!  And Connor thought it was time to celebrate too, I guess!

Connor didn't want to get too far from her kitchen...

I got a Fitbit!  I had no idea how much I would like it, but I'm obsessed with "getting my steps!"

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to go to 4:00 p.m. church somewhere, and luckily this year it was at St. Benedict's.  Then, we go to Grandma and Grandpa B's for supper and Christmas presents...it can get a little wild... 

 

And this picture CRACKS me up.  Jed and Jace's expressions...and Connor looking at one of her many ouchies...or checking for lint.

That's better....

 

The Luedke crew...Cassidy just turned 2 in November, Kyler is 5 1/2, and Colton is 8.

 

Grandpa B had a special surprise for the grandkids which they loved...

 

We always make them do all of our required pictures before we even think about presents.  Or supper...

 

We attempted this, and everyone is looking, but it was a blurry picture...but it was a good try!

 

The Powell Family....Alexis is just about 3 months.

 

 

FINALLY...after pictures, and supper, it is time for PRESENTS!  They always get pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa...and got lots of other stuff too!

 

Everyone got a kick out of these wind-up motorcycles....it was a fun night!

 

The Kiddos.

They still (willingly) let me take pictures of them.

 

 

Jace is 5 1/2.  He REALLY wants a BIG John Deere Sprayer for Christmas.  And anything else John Deere....

 

It doesn't get any better than this.

 

 

And here they are...all dressed up for Christmas Eve...

Sometimes we take silly pictures.  The kids are still cute.  :)

 

The Polar Express....in Troy!

The BEST night EVER.

The THS Band/Choir put on the Polar Express for their Christmas Dinner Performance.  It was awesome.  They built a train...

And acted out the parts as the kids, read the story...served hot chocolate...

Did I mention they had a "real" conductor?

One of our favorite parts of the movie is when the train is stopped because of the CARIBOU...and the engineer with the long red beard yells and gets them to move...

Our friend, Austin Grable, played the part of the boy that is the last to get on, and doesn't know if he believes in Christmas...

At the end, we "got to the North Pole" and got off the train and gathered around the Christmas tree where the elves and kids were dancing...and MY KIDS got out there and danced!

It was SO MUCH FUN.  We really hope they do it again next year, or something similar!  The kids loved it and it was a great (short) performance!

Johnson Christmas and Christmas Eve....

It has started.  The Christmas marathon...

 

We began the Sunday before Christmas with the Johnson family Christmas.  A few family photos at the end of the day....with Connor in her usual picture taking form...

 

Cassidy liked hanging out with Aunt Debi...

 

Grandma Darlyne and Grandpa Richard...

An attempt at a picture of all the "greats" with Grandma and Grandpa...this was the best we got...go figure Connor was the most uncooperative of all...and Derek is hiding behind the couch holding her up there...

 

 

Entire family photo!  Thanks to the self-timer on the camera, that you can set to take 10 pictures at a time, which is actually really helpful at getting 2 year olds to look at the camera.  We did it twice, and this was picture #19 out of 20....but it turned out GREAT!  Next year I'll work on getting rid of the bright light...

 

Grandma got the kids these cute pillows with Character covers...Jace got Chuggington and Connor got Princess Sofia...they were a hit!

 

I believe the school Christmas program was the day after Johnson Christmas....You can't hardly see the kids, but I have a bad attitude about taking pictures at programs.  I've sat in the front, and had people hold iPADS up to take pictures, so I couldn't see.  I've sat in the back, and walked to the front when Jace was on stage, and people have still blocked me....it's a pet peeve of mine.  So, this is what I got.  This first picture actually is Colton, in the back row on the right....

Here you can barely see Jace, on the bottom row, 3rd from the left.  Kyler is middle row, on the right end.



Jace did great...he really enjoys singing, and performing!

And another one of Colton, who I think is "officially" too old cool for concerts...