A Memorable One

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.  We finished up the last of our holiday celebrations today.  Our Christmas this year was absolutely wonderful.  Every year I am just blown away by the thoughtfulness of others and the amazing (and sheer amount of) gifts we receive.  We are one lucky family.  And this Christmas was not one I'll soon forget.

For example...at my family's Christmas I set my camera lens cap on the floor or...somewhere...and spent the rest of the day looking for it. My mom found it several days later. (Thanks, Mom!!) Also while we were there, my practically vegetarian mom ate a bite of breakfast sausage and I have a picture to prove it. :) Lastly, I blamed Kent for losing Kase's pacifier that I later discovered I had left at home. But that's just the beginning of the memories...

We, like 95% of Ankeny, spent our Christmas being sick.  Poor Kylee had it the worst of all- I took her to the doc on Christmas Eve and her initial strep test came back negative, but a couple days later I had a phone call from the doctor saying she actually DID have strep and another test they ran on a virus came back positive too.  Unfortunately before knowing all of this, we celebrated half of our Christmases with family so half of them got sick too.  We did bow out of one Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve and the kids were absolutely devastated.  Honestly I think it is one of the first times in our married life that Kent and I have missed any of our seven Christmases.  Sad. :(

Christmas morning was so....lackluster.  Kylee had cried herself to sleep on Christmas Eve, just miserably sick but of course she and Kael woke up at the crack of dawn to see their Santa presents.  They rolled downstairs, half awake and sleepily looked at their presents.  They were happy to play with their new toys but the excitement just wasn't there. Kael was actually THRILLED with his fake glasses he got from Santa, then five hours later lost them at Grandma Cindy's house.  Another memory.


And there's another reason this Christmas was so memorable.  Tammy, my younger sister, shared some news with us that she and Rob are expecting! She's due in July and had a fun present-unwrapping- game for us to play at my Mom and Dad's that had an ultrasound picture in the middle.  Aww!! We are so excited for you guys! Now, about getting you guys back to Central Iowa.... ;)

Everyone is finally on the mend around here- thank goodness! We are so ready to flip the ol' calendar to 2013. But first, a few photos from Christmas 2012.

Kylee was still feeling well here- this was after her preschool Christmas program.

Another reason Christmas was so memorable- Kase learned to crawl!! We had bets on whether it would be before or after Christmas and I would say that today is the first real day he's crawling proficiently.  It's soooo cute!

Learning to crawl makes him sleepy.  

Such hard work! So tired!

Santa baby.

The Reaction. (to the baby news)

Ahhh!!!!!

Uh-oh.  Someone's not feeling so hot.

One of our traditions is to make pancakes in holiday shapes before going to Christmas Eve church. We couldn't make it to church this year but we wanted to do pancakes anyways.  Can't you just see the Christmas joy on Kylee's face? If a snowman-shaped pancake complete with chocolate chips and whipped cream doesn't make her smile...she's definitely sick. :(

Kael somehow escaped the virus and stayed healthy all holiday season! Fingers crossed he can stay healthy for a few more days before heading back to school. 

Kent made sweet potato pancakes for Kaser. He absolutely devoured them. 

Kent made some crazy pancake/egg/bacon taco thing for himself. I can't even. 

Have you guys seen these EzyRollers?  Kael and Kylee (um, and me :) have been having a BLAST in them. Turns out having an unfinished basement isn't all bad. Seriously these things are fun.

Hilarious.  

Some cool kicks from Uncle Kevin helped perk this one up.

Have a safe and happy New Year!