winter wonderland

On Christmas Eve we went to our Christmas children's service...for awhile we thought that would be the extent of our Christmas celebrations! We were in the middle of a blizzard, and most everyone was stuck wherever they were. Thankfully my brother and his family made it up from Arkansas just before the storm really hit. We are grateful that they still tried and succeeded in making it up to see everyone. They truly are dedicated :-)

Our first gathering to be cancelled was for Chad's family. Hopefully we will be able to get together in a few weeks when everyone is free! Our other party to be "postponed" was for my side of the family. I was very sad because I knew that it meant we would not have everyone there when we rescheduled, which ended up being Sunday. Andrew, the oldest of the grandkids, was snow-stuck in Lincoln...and wasn't able to come home until Monday. What a bummer. I know my sister, his mom (Vicki), was very sad to not have all of her kids there. I think he was able to make it back on Monday so she had them all with her :-)

We knew we had the entire day on Christmas to spend as a family so we really spread out the opening of gifts! Of course, Santa gifts were opened right away Christmas morning! But, we waited until after nap to open the rest! Our family was lucky enough to have an "elf on the shelf" this year (highly recommend for parents with young kids!). Charli was sad that our elf "bunny" had to fly back with Santa on Christmas morning...she can't wait to see him again next year!

The highlight of the gifts for Charli is probably her leapster. She got a few things that we haven't really even played with because we forgot! Grandpa Borg got all three little girls a bucket full of fun girly stuff! A bucket which should have stayed at his house for the days when Rachelle and I drop them off for him to watch! It was full of fancy dress up gloves, make up, lip gloss, glitter, shimmer, rings, suckers, chapstick, mirrors, brush, gummy worms and more! They girls thought it was fun! All the kids also got vtech laptops from grandma and grandpa! At one point almost every kid had their back against the couch in a row playing their computer! It was funny! The kids got to play in the snow and had a great time! Then..back to reality!

On a side note - Charli has been acting very "3". She is listening like a 2 year old...and acting like one sometimes too! She is testing her limits for sure! Friday morning she woke up and had the following conversation with her dad. I thought only adults talked about this stuff, but I guess this is our reality now too.
Charli - "the cancers not going to come back daddy"
Chad - "what made you say that Charli?"
Charli - "last night when I was sleeping I went to the doctor, and he told me that. it's not going to come back"
I think Chad was probably floored and didn't know what to say. She has been talking about it more lately, and with some additional strange behaviors and pains I think it makes us a little nervous. But, she is right...it is not going to come back. From her lips to God's ears.

Enjoy the pics! :-)

three amigos!

(I have totally turned into my grandma! She used to cover my face with a scarf just like I did to Charli, and I HATED it! But Grandma was smart...keeps them warm!)

snow angels!

at one point the snow was above Charli's knee, they thought that was pretty neat!

if you stare at this picture long enough it looks like he is scary mad, but he was laughing!

Ryen is such a good sitter! She always wants to hold him and take care of him. I think between her and his big sister I could trust that he would be taken care of! Today I was cleaning the bathroom and Charli was taking care of Harper..she even wiped his nose off :-)

Cabela's girls!

Harper's shirt says "I make dirt look good". I am pretty sure Chad is jealous and would like a shirt like this!

grandma and grandpa with 90% of the grandkids....

(ryen, cohen, derek, colton, macey, charli, grant, bryant, harper)

charli*cohen*macey

ho-ho-ho!

She was excited to get a leapster...but a little confused because she didn't quite grasp that it was hers, and she could play with it!! On a side note - both Santa and her parents got her slippers for home and daycare. She was upset because she did not ask Santa for slippers. Silly Santa, next year only get what is on her list and no extras!!)

her super exciting "backpack" that Harper gave her for Christmas! It was filled with colors, markers, stencils, paper, glue, and some fun hair bows!

as chad pointed out it looks like Charli's legs are coming out of harpers body! I didn't realize her tights and his shirt were so, so similar!

Charli was very good at letting Harper open his own gifts. she helped when needed!

She even let him help her open a few gifts!

out feeding the reindeer on Christmas Eve!

Chad took this picture...I think it is less about Charli and more about showing how tall his truck is. Charli stands 40"+

i am just realizing i didn't post a picture of either of us with Harper in front of the tree...but we took them :)

We hope you enjoyed your Christmas celebrations, even if you were not able to get where you wanted to be! It was fun to have the entire day with just the kids. Probably a luxury we won't experience again for awhile. We love to spend the day with our family, but as OUR family grows it is hard to balance old traditions with new ones so we soaked in the day!