Eric's Families Christmas

Christmas afternoon we headed to Eric's parents house for Christmas. All the grandkids.
The kids opening their present.

Levi of course finding the candy first! Grandma made these bucket covers for each of the kids. The boys love them and love all the different pockets they can put stuff in!

Then the kids along with Grandma spent some time making crafts.

It was a nice way to end our Christmas day.

Christmas at Home

Christmas morning as we lay in bed we could hear the boys come out of their rooms and check out the presents under the tree and their stockings on the fireplace. It was priceless to listen to them "whisper" about what they saw! Levi digging to the bottom of his stocking! We opened stockings before going to church.
After church we opened our presents. I received a beautiful pen and pencil set that Eric made for me.
I love this look... what do you think is in here? Of course they both knew it would be arrows... do you know how hard it is to disguise an arrow box?

This summer when we were at the Air Show Justin got a RC helicopter. It lasted the week and was broken before we left the campground. But they had had a blast with it. For Christmas we bought them both a new one (and a little stronger one). As you can see from Justin's face he was so excited. Levi on the other hand response was different... he said "But I am only 3!" I think he was in shock they we bought him one too!

The boys also both received Playmobil Airplanes. The special part about this gift is that they came all the way from England! These planes were advertised in the Playmobil catalog but were not available here in the U.S. We really liked them because they are very similar to the plane that Eric learned to fly in this year. When I tried to order them online you had to be a resident of the United Kingdom. So, I emailed my friend Kerry who lives in England and asked her if she could help me... and of course she graciously did! The airplanes came to her house the day before she left for the U.S. and she hand delivered them to us! Thanks Kerry - SO MUCH! As you can see... the boys LOVE them!

This is what the family room looks like after a successful Christmas!

And this... is how you spend an afternoon after you open presents... assembling LEGO airplanes! I was so proud of myself - I did two of them myself while Eric worked on the third! Some day the boys will be old enough to do it themselves and we can sit back and watch!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Party Part 2

Christmas Eve my family got together again to continue our Christmas celebration.

The highlight to start the day was that Rob and Mary ended up driving to Chicago the night before to try to fly out to Washington D.C. on an earlier flight due to the weather in both GR and Chicago. They made it safely to Chicago and then were put on stand by for several flights prior to their flight and they were able to get to D.C. ahead of schedule! They beat the weather! And... their original flight out of Grand Rapids WAS cancelled! So they made the right choice! Our afternoon started with Uncle Brent pulling the kids around behind the 3-wheeler. It wasn't the greatest day because it was kind of rainy and drizzly... but that didn't stop the kids!
Levi didn't want to ride in the sled but enjoyed sitting in a snow bank and watching them!

After sledding we had Christmas dinner. Then we headed to church for the Christmas Eve service.

After we came home from church the kids had a birthday party for Jesus. They each had a candle and as it was lit they had to tell something special about Jesus and then put their candle in the cake.

The best part for them was blowing out the candles...
Unless of course you feel like you didn't get to blow any candles out... Grandma relit the candles three times before everyone felt that they had blown out the candles!

After the party it was time for presents from the cousins. Each cousin draws a name of another cousin. Here as you can tell all of the cousins also like to help each other open their present!
Justin thanking Caleb for his LEGO airplane!

Levi thanking Tessa for the Playmobil Bobcat!

Alaina thanking Levi for the Strawberry Shortcake doll!

Grandma received a present too... or maybe the grandkids did! The Hallmark singing snowmen! She has one from a couple of years ago and the kids love it! So now they have two to fight over!

Just hanging out... Andy showing pictures of his recent trip to Alaska Moose Hunt Guiding. He just arrived home on Monday night.

All in all a great Christmas Eve spent with family.

It's A GIRL!!!!

On Tuesday, December 23 we received our Christmas present! We had our ultrasound and we were told by the technician that it was a girl. We were mostly thankful to hear that she is healthy and growing really well! But it is pretty exciting to be having a girl too!

The boys were so excited to being having a sister! We took them to Babies R Us after the ultrasound and let them pick out whatever outfits they wanted. They had so much fun checking everything out! Here they are laying out their choices. Levi was so proud - he wanted me to leave them on the floor right where he left them... when he came back in the room and I had hung them in the nursery/playroom he was upset... but then understood!
He tells everyone that "My mom has a baby girl in her tummy!" This should be quite an adventure for our family! Our house has very little "pink" in it these days!

Justin already told Eric he was going to have a build a pink doll house for his sister for next Christmas!!

More Snow...

The next few days the snow continued to fall... that didn't keep the boys in the house though!They love all the snow banks... it is about the only place they can walk because the snow is so deep in the yard. But they love climbing around on the top of the snow banks!
Shoveling...

Such great team work!

This snow is heavy!

The snow... unbeliveable!
Levi loves it in the snow!

Snow, Snow & More Snow

December 19 we were hammered with snow! It was amazing to watch from the inside. Eric was out working in the shop. Levi wanted to go out to see him... until we put the garage door up and found this!Once we had him bundled up he attempted to follow Eric's foot steps. He didn't make it too far before he was in tears! He could hardly walk and the snow was blowing in his face!

Thankfully big brother decided he could help and got bundled up and led the way for his brother! I love how they both have their arms out to stablize them because the snow was so deep!Almost there!

Once they were out there they were braver and spent some time "in the snow". It was snowing so hard most of the time I could hardly see them! This is Justin.

And this is Levi...

Justin wanted to see how much snow we had... this is a 12 inch ruler... we had more than that! The craziest part was the day before it was 50' and there was no snow... so all 12 inches was new snow!!

The snow stopped around lunch time and thus began the "digging out!"
Eric plowing... it took him over 2 hours to plow the driveway!
The snow was unbelievable! The boys wanted to know why he stood up on the 4-wheeler... this picture explains why! He couldn't see if he was sitting!

With the house still for sale we have to make sure the side walk stays clear too! The 4-wheeler makes the first pass but then we have to finish it up.

This is Justin behind one of the huge banks of snow!

I love the rosy fresh cheeks after playing outside!
What better way to enjoy being "snowed in" but to have a fire and roast hot dogs for supper.

The Remote Control Airplane

The boys could not wait to take the airplane outside and see if it could fly. And they were not disappointed. It definitely takes team work.

Thanks Grandma for such a fun gift!