Another New Years, and another great time with the Steinert's. We had a delicious dinner, enjoyed play time with the kiddos, pajama time and some adult time before ringing in the new year. Shea and Mike played their share of ping pong and Katie and I joined in for a few games of doubles with our hubbies. Mueske's dominated the Steinert's again, but fun was had by all:).
Luke and Larkyn interact a little more together each time they play together. It is so fun to see how much they have grown up. They enjoyed the bucket, getting in and out, sitting in it and hugging each other.
Just before New Year's some neighbors came over for "pizza and playtime". We enjoy these opportunities to get the kids together to play and have some adult conversations with others. Especially in the winter time when we feel we don't see anyone! Anna became a big sister in early December of baby Hudson, Hailey's younger brother Hayden is already one year old, and Jack and Joey will have a baby sister in June! (I'm writing this in February, so Hayden turned one mid January and that is also when the Kunze's found out they were having a girl!)
Apparently the challenge during playtime was to see how much they could take out and not actually play with. Seems like a good idea to me...
"Peek-a-boo Hayden!"
She seems to like the buckets.
Must be something about dumping everything else out to make a mess and the comfort of sitting inside...
Over Christmas Break we went to visit Hannah and Melanie (Chris and Jessi too). Hannah was on day 4 of no diapers and going potty on the big potty! We were so proud of her. She even called us after we left to let us know she went poopy on the potty! Yay Hannah!
In between trips to the bathroom Hannah and Larkyn played a bit and exchanged gifts. Hannah enjoyed her playdough and tool kit. I'm sure she'll get great use out of the tools working with her daddy!
Larkyn watched with her daddy as Hannah opened her gifts.
Hannah helped open a book for Melanie.
Hannah was a great helper in collecting the paper Larkyn ripped off.
Larkyn loves her alphabet puzzle. She is great at matching up the letters to their correct position. She is even able to point out the L for Larkyn, T for Tracey, and X for xylophone without help!
The girls exchanged thank you hugs with each other...
We made it down to Iowa around 1:30, just in time for lunch with my mom, sisters and brother-in-law. We were banking on the idea that Larkyn would take a nap on the way down and wouldn't need one in the afternoon. Well that didn't happen! Luckily she ate pretty well and was preoccupied by family and gift opening for the majority of the afternoon and wasn't too crabby...yet!
Around 4 we were off to my aunt's house for my mom's side family Christmas. We tend to always have a family activity of some sort and this year was the Nativity/Christmas Story. My aunt gave each person in the family a role or character to play in the story. We had 15 minutes to go through the house and come up with a costume. I was given the role of Mary, Shea was Joseph and Larkyn was one of the angels. As you can see from the pictures below, our family got quite creative. Gotta love the red sleeping bag Inn Keepers and one of the 3 kings...King of Clubs to be exact!
Can't forget our little angel...the good and the evil!:)
My Uncle Randy decided it would be a good idea to take our family photos in ugly sweaters this year. So between raiding our Grandma Barb's closet and a few extras the pictures turned out great! The best was hearing my grandma reply how cute a sweater was after someone was saying how ugly it was, or when Chad put on his blue sweater and gram says "well I just wore that this week!" Shea's sweater was one of my favorites...shoulder pads and a nice view of his mid-drift. Though Luke's sweater with the mock turtleneck and kitties probably topped them all! We had a great time celebrating Christmas together. It is always fun getting together with everyone. 28 people, 1 dog, and counting always makes for an entertaining time!
Larkyn made it until just after 7 before Shea packed her up to take her home to bed. Without a nap, she did well, but was surely fading fast. The two of them went back to my mom's for bed...well Larkyn went to bed. Shea put on his cheese head and cheered the Packers on to victory!
Monday morning we went over to my dad and Vickie's place for brunch and a Christmas celebration. Larkyn was spoiled yet again with all of the wonderful gifts. She loved her new purse, headbands and clips, as well as some puzzles, coloring books and new desk.
Larkyn spent most of her time loving on everyone and bouncing from one person to the next. Pretty sure she enjoyed the holidays with her family!
We attended our first Christmas service ever at Hosanna! We have been out of town for many years on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and finally made the decision to stay home this year. It was a very low key couple of days and we absolutely loved every minute of it. We began our Christmas celebration by attending a Christmas Eve service in the afternoon. Larkyn loved seeing the live manger scene and the animals up close after the service. We saw sheep, a donkey, camels, chickens, and more!
Not sure how close she should get...
The miniature donkey...
Checking out the sights from the seats...
After Larkyn's nap, we hung out and played at home. We made a beef roast and broccoli latkes for dinner. After dinner we headed downstairs for a movie and popcorn night. Larkyn loved the movie "Polar Express" and sat for at least 45 minutes of it as she enjoyed her popcorn. She still enjoyed the second half as she brought toys from her play area to the living room and sat on the floor and watched.
After the movie, we came upstairs to set out cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. We captured the moment on video...
Shea and I were both up for quite some time before Larkyn finally woke up. I think she may have slept longer, but we woke her up at 8! She was excited to see a new table and chairs waiting for her by the tree downstairs.
"Thank you, Santa!"
Larkyn started with her stocking-stuffers and discovered some new cups from Santa.
A new book about colors...
We couldn't go on until the cup was clean and milk was put in it.
We weren't sure if she was just overwhelmed or really hungry, but Larkyn wasn't interested in opening presents beyond the stocking. She kind of just sat there as you can see below...
Then she just laid there...
Once Shea and I started opening some gifts too she felt a little better about opening more of hers. What a nice girl...she didn't want to leave out her parents!
"Oooh, Minnie slippers!"
Shea loved the gift he got from Larkyn..."Cheese Head Baby!"
She wanted to give it a try too...
We had a great first Christmas morning at home with Larkyn. If only we didn't have to rush off to Iowa around 10! Next year we need to consider staying at home longer so Larkyn can play with what she opened. Poor thing was whisked away after opening all of her fun gifts!
We celebrated Christmas with Mike, Katie and Luke with some dinner and a playdate! Larkyn and Luke love playing together and interact a little more each time. They sat so nicely together for the picture. We even got them to hold hands!
While waiting for dinner to be ready, they decided to play under the table.
Larkyn gave us a performance on the recorder...
Larkyn sat very nicely to watch Luke open his presents. She was very interested in what was inside, but never touched his gift!
Won't Luke look handsome in his new polo shirt?
We also gave him Lincoln Logs to begin building and creating...
Now Luke was the one waiting patiently...
What a cute bear backpack! It even has Larkyn's name stitched on it...
A thank you hug...
We ended the night playing downstairs.
They loved the tunnel, though Shea told them not to get too use to being in there together!
Taking turns in the kitchen...hey, as long as he cooks too!
