Christmas Travels

The weekend before Christmas was spent visiting with our extended family.

On Friday we spent the day in Houghton, Michigan with Mom's Mom's family. We went shopping with great-Grandpa Johnson, went swimming with cousins and crowded into Grandma's & Ken's snug home for Christmas with them!

We spent the night at a hotel and enjoyed swimming inside, while it was snowing outside!

The girls (minus a couple!)

Jacob's first pair of swim trunks!

Doesn't that look inviting?!

Hang on, Elsie! (Aleks did such a good job playing with the younger girls in the water!)

Elsie, Emmy & Grace in the hot tub - ah, warmth!

Cousin Austin getting ready to make a splash!

On Saturday we went to Mom's Aunt Toni's house for the Christmas Party. After opening gifts the snow was too exciting and all of the kids (both young and old!) couldn't resist going outside!

Zack driving the 4-wheeler (look out, everyone!) with cousin Austin and cousin Alex riding, and Alice, Emmy and Grace on the sled

Ike drove the snowmobile with cousin Luke (he's about 11 months old and so cute!!)

Olivia and Aleks on the sled being pulled by Ike

Everyone had a blast!

Elsie with Ken

Cousin Jamis was mesmerized by the talking Christmas tree!

He couldn't understand it!


On Sunday we went to Dad's sister Kari's house where we got together with Dad's side of the family! Sadly, we were running out of room on our memory card, so I wasn't able to get many pictures.
We all had such a nice time, though, and so appreciate Uncle Mike & Aunt Kari's hospitality - who opened their home to us Saturday night. We were going to come down Sunday afternoon, but bad weather was in the forecast up North so we came down a day early. We had quite the slumber party, with Grandpa & Grandma Klahn spending the night as well!
Dad's other sister, Julie, and her husband Dave and children Brodie (2) and Marlie (1 month) came over Sunday afternoon and we all opened gifts. We stayed for a couple more hours before leaving for home - which took longer than usual due to a storm!

Aleks feeding Marlie, who we got to meet for the first time!

What a cutie!!

We all enjoyed holding her, and she got plenty of attention!

Zack and his "amigo", cousin Mitchell.
We played "Cops 'n' Robbers" in the basement, which was quite fun!

Cousin Levi & Zack were the goal posts for Brodie to kick a field goal! Actually, he was using a plastic football player and a very small football.

Locks of Love

Well, she did it! Aleks has been growing her hair out for the past three years now and just yesterday got 10 inches cut off to donate to Locks of Love. Her new look is very cute, but she still does miss her long hair!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

We all think she looks older with shorter hair

She is also growing out her bangs - she looks so different!

November

I know, I know, I've been neglecting our family blog as of late. Actually, my own blog hasn't been getting much attention either! I am now going to be focusing solely on our family blog and taking a break from my own blog for an indefinite amount of time (possibly forever).

All that said, here are some pictures from the month of November!

Our little man is growing by leaps and bounds - hard to believe he's almost 4 months old already! He is such a good baby - all smiles!

Brotherly-love!

The month of November also found us with much company! I believe the total was 3 weeks with company - 2 different sets which over-lapped each other.

First the Peterson family came from Michigan so their Mom could have neck surgery. They stayed for 9 days.

Corie & Jacob

Paul and Anja were buddies!

Scott, Mrs. Peterson & Corie

Benjamin, Mrs. Peterson & Elsie - her "nurses"!

Corie & Sarah

Our "sweeper"

How cute!

Kate & Grace did almost everything together!

Scott kept us in stitches with his humor and goofy faces!

Elsie and Benjamin were inseparable, doing everything together (well, almost everything!)

The loved to have tea parties - sometimes with real water, which usually resulted in a mess!

Our second set of company was our Aunt Jana and cousin Austin. They stayed for 16 days and we loved having them!

Austin & Emmy are best buds . . .

. . . . . and a bit goofy!

Cousin Tim & his wife Tracy came down for Ali's surprise party and we enjoyed seeing them for however brief a time!

The weekend of the party we had over 25 people in our house! Our Grandma and her sister, Toni were here for two nights and since we didn't have enough room they decided to share the couch! Actually, they were just goofing off - something they never do!)

Grandma & Aunt Toni - we love you!

Little Munchkins

After getting Jake dressed one day, Ike sat him up on the couch and went to get something. He came back a minute or two later and found Jake asleep!

Doesn't he look so sweet?!

Don't ya know - the best part of the bagel isn't the bagel, it's the cream cheese!

Sometimes you end up wearing it . . . . .

but boy, was it sure good!