Christmas Part II

In catching up from our trip back home, there were many highlights.  Just one of them was taking a family portrait.  Last time we hired a professional photographer to come in and take our pictures.  This time we didn't think about it til the last minute, so in true my family fashion, we simply took the old family picture off the wall, told everyone to stand where they were standing in the last picture and we built a tripod for the camera to set on. Then we set the timer and I ran back to the steps and pretended to pose just as the flash went off.  

Without having some one to check it, I was pretty impressed with how it turned out. 

You may notice we have a very special little guy in the picture.  My sister and her husband are on the wonderful journey of growing their family (the old fashion way and hopefully through adoption too).  They (actually we) are hoping and praying that cute little baby she's holding, (yes, the one whose identity we have hidden), may some day be theirs.  Until then, we will keep sending prayers to God that he will be forever theirs.  And because they like a challenge, they will also be welcoming their daughter (Meg's got a baby belly under the other baby) this spring.  So exciting!

Isabelle had a lot of fun playing with everyone.  Here she and Grandpa Ray were playing with her blanket.  

Here's uncle Adam helping me test out the timing feature of the camera.  Looks like he knew how to get the timing of his smile right on!

MaeLyn and Aaron, posing with Grandpa Ray.  This coming fall we will celebrate their marriage. Yet another exciting time for us to travel back home.

And my brother and his wonderful fiance, Kacee will be getting married in May of this year, while celebrating their big day on a cruise in the spring of 2016.  So many fun things to look forward to, being home at Christmas was so fun as everyone looks forward to what the future brings.

Adam, Daddy and Belle danced the Mickey Mouse Hot Dog Dance.  As you can tell by the huge smile on her face, Isabelle didn't like it at all, NOT

We look forward to the number of kids growing in the coming years for this picture.

Like father, like son...  I love this picture.

Adding in Isabelle and Grandma.  Isabelle is trying to show the grandparents how to vogue.

And another one of the kids.

After taking some family portraits, it was time for the kids to open presents., 

Here Isabelle is opening her Elsa dress from Grandma and Grandpa.  The dress she wears daily and insists that we call her Princess Elsa when she's in it.

Here Adam is very excited about his new Hawkeye gear to have in their house.

Also at Christmas we got to spend time with Great Grandma Dorie.  She was so kind in making us a tasty lunch and giving the kids a nice gift.

They kids were very excited about their packages.  Getting race cars and dollies to play with. I'll let you guess who was excited about what gifts.

On Christmas eve, we went to church.  Here are the kids dressed in their Christmas best.

And we had to get Grandma and Grandpa in a few pictures too.  

Isabelle wasn't excited at all it was Christmas.  :-)  She could hardly contain her excitement.

Wait, as you can see above, she couldn't contain her excitement.  We told her Santa would be coming soon.

And here's a quick family one we got before the kids ripped off their church clothes, jumped into their pj's and got ready for bed.  For the one night in the whole year, the kids were excited for bed.  Santa was on his way and they for sure, didn't want to be missed!

Until next time,
Angie