On the fourth day of Christmas: we celebrated with my mom. Robb spent the morning attempting to pack all the kids new toys and our gifts plus luggage into our car. It was hilarious to look in the back of our car when he was done. There was no room for anything else.
We went to my moms for lunch. We had so much food! We had brought tomato soup, my mom made chicken noodle and my brother made 2 kinds of chili. So we stuffed ourselves with soup and snacks.
We then let the kids open their presents. They were pros by this point. They again got very nice presents from everyone. My sister made me the coolest picture frame. She has one in her house that I always admire but I don't have the talent to make something like that so she made one for me. I was so excited.
The boys had fun playing with Draven and running all over my moms house. Abby was pretty tired so she wanted mom, dad or grandma to hold her and play with her. Later in the afternoon my aunt and uncle and cousins that live in Missouri stopped by. It was fun to see them. We visited for awhile and then loaded everyone up to head home.
It was nice to be headed home, Robb and I were exhausted. We were so excited to finally get to sleep in our own bed.
That night Abby gave us one of the best gifts ever, she slept through the night so we got to sleep through the night too.
We had a wonderful Christmas holiday and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful family to spend it with.

On the third day of Christmas we celebrated with the Mattern's. On Christmas Day we went to my dads house in Plainview. I must say it was nice not having to worry about traveling this year, like we did during the blizzard last year. My dad and Cindy had made a wonderful meal for us. The kids had fun playing with their cousin Draven and Grandma and Grandpa. They opened their gifts and then conned Uncle Mitch and Courtney into playing the games with them. It was a very enjoyable afternoon. It was nice to see my brother, sister and Jess again. A little later we sat in the living room to talk and Bryce fell asleep with Grandpa and Abby fell asleep on Grandma. I think they were exhausted. Caleb wasn't going to take a nap if he didn't have to, so he stayed up and played his harmonica for us. We headed back to Norfolk around 6:00. I was exhausted but the boys were ready to go since Bryce had napped on grandpa and Caleb napped in the car.
When we got back to Norfolk the boys, Robb, Andy and Grandpa headed to the theatre to see the Yogi movie. Abby and I got to have a quiet night.

On the second day of Christmas: Santa came and we celebrated with the Lutz's. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve. The kids got up bright and early to see if Santa had come and if they were on the nice list. It was fun to see their eyes light up when they saw the toys sitting by the fireplace. Later we learned that the boys had found one of the Santa toys in the basement so we had to lie our way through that. I guess we will have to be better at hiding things next year.
Not long after getting up Robb and I started packing up the car to head to Norfolk. Every year it becomes more apparent that we need a bigger car (we have an Expedition) or we need to take a trailer home at Christmas time.
We got to the Lutz's at about 2:30 and the kids were ready for another round of gifts. Their cousin Brook got to have the first gift since it was 2 kitties that Robb's parents had been hiding in their bathroom for the last 2 weeks. All the kids loved the little kitties but Robb and I made it very clear that we would not be getting a Christmas pet Ever! The kids had a wonderful time opening gifts and played together until 5:00 church.
Robb and I always worry about our kids being completely disruptive in church especially when it is right at supper time. The boys did pretty good but Abby was naughty. It was just too long for her to sit at that time of day. The church service was very nice this year. The pastor read the Christmas story out of a kids book so the kids recognized the story and listened to some of the service.
We headed back to Bob and Susie's house for a wonderful meal and the adults got to open their gifts while the kids played. It was such and enjoyable day. Although Christmas is always very busy trying to celebrate with all of our families, we are so lucky to have such wonderful families.

The 4 Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas (Thursday) we celebrated as a family. Robb took half a day vacation from work and we did our little families Christmas. It was so much fun! The kids had been waiting all day to open gifts so we did gifts before supper. Bryce's favorite gift was his batman car, Caleb's was his monster truck with motorcycles in it and Abby's was her Rapunzel doll. We had let the kids buy each other gifts this year so it was fun to see all the thought they had put into each others gifts. I got Robb and the boys a mini wakeboard so they can try wakeboarding next year. Robb was so excited! I think he was happy to see that I approved of them learning this next summer. I was very excited to get a cricut machine and a gypsy. For those of you who aren't scrapbookers, this is the coolest new thing in scrapbooking. We had a nice meal and had fun playing with the kids and their toys the rest of the night.

Dinosaur Museum Pictures

Dinosaur Museum

Monday morning the kids were wild and tearing around the house at 8am. I knew the day was going to be long if we didn't get out of the house. I had heard about a Dinosaur Museum in Milford so I loaded everyone in the car and we decided to go check it out.
The place was out in the middle of nowhere. If you have ever wondered about the T Rex along the interstate, this is where the museum is. It was very impressive for such a small town. They had room after room of dinosaur skeletons and huge statues of dinosaurs. Abby kept hiding behind my back saying "I Scary". Bryce and Caleb loved it. They wanted me to read each plaque so they could know the name of the dinosaur and what it ate. I'm sure anyone that heard me trying to pronounce all the crazy names had a good laugh. We were one of 2 families in there so the kids just got to do their own thing.
Towards the end there was a mirror maze that was quite the hit. The maze made me nervous because I had trouble keeping track of all three of them at once. It didn't help that I took the stroller into the maze. I would go to grab someone and my hand would hit a mirror. After the first time through I realized it was very small and the entrance and exit ended in the same spot so the boys got to go by themselves a couple times. Abby on the other hand always had to be holding a hand, she didn't get the concept at all and would run full speed into the mirrors. She would knock her head, fall down, and look surprised time and time again.
It was a great place to take the kids. Its too bad that it ended up being pretty expensive for 2 hours of fun but I'm guessing they don't get enough business to be cheap. We will have to go again so the boys can show Robb everything.

Abby

Poor Abby

Little Miss Abby has been battling a chronic sinus infection since September. She has been into the doctor multiple times and has been on 3 different kinds of medicine 5 times now. I feel so bad for her. She constantly has a disgustingly green runny nose and is always saying "tenek" (her word for Kleenex. 3 weeks ago now our pediatrician referred us to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist in Omaha. Our pediatrician was worried that the bridge of her nose was too flat and that was causing some of the problems but the ENT in Omaha just thought it was all due to her adenoids. At Children's Hospital in Omaha they did soft tissue xrays of her neck and throat and said she had very large adenoids. We scheduled her surgery for January 4. The problem now is that we have to get her to her surgery date without having a sick crabby girl constantly. We took her in again yesterday, after a very sleepless night and she had her sinus infection plus a double ear infection all while on a fairly strong antibiotic. We are the people that are contributing to the making of super resistant strains of these bacteria but what do ya do? So, we are on our very last ditch effort of killing this thing with an oral antibiotic. The trick is getting her to take it. It tastes horrible and she doesn't do many things she doesn't want to do. Wish us luck getting her to take it or else we have to stick around Lincoln for the holidays so she can go into the doctor every other day for injectable antibiotics. The pediatrican said beg, plead and give gifts to get her to take it. I guess that is what we will do.

Santa Pictures

SANTA

On Sunday the Lincoln Multiples Club had their annual Christmas party. We have never been able to attend so I was excited to take the kids. Santa was going to be there so the kids were very excited! The boys were trying to decide what toys they were going to tell him that they wanted and Abby just kept saying "Santa". When it came time to actually sit on his lap Abby wasn't quite as excited about Santa as she had been in the car. She wouldn't sit on his lap but she sat next to Caleb on the bench, so we could at least snap a quick picture. Bryce sat on his lap and Caleb sat next to him. They both told him their list. Bryce's list this year was: Spiderman (I think he got nervous and that is all he could remember. Caleb asked for: motorcycles and a monster truck. Santa asked Abby if she wanted a Barbie and she was pretty excited about that. They got cute little gift bags from Santa also. We kept teasing the boys that they should ask if they were even on the nice list this year. They didn't think that was very funny.
The kids had a great time at the Christmas party. They had craft tables set up to make Christmas ornaments, photo frames, bookmarks and bracelets but their favorite was the decorate your own cookie station. Bryce used half a tube of gel frosting and Caleb used almost an entire thing of sprinkles. It was a great night.

The Decorating

The Tree

Decorating the Tree

We came back from Norfolk on the Friday after Thanksgiving so we could have some time at home, but most of all so we could get the Christmas decorations up. I love getting a Christmas tree and decorating the house for Christmas. Every year I have to force myself to follow my mom's old rule of no Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I can still hear her telling us this. She would say "Let Thanksgiving be celebrated too. Don't just rush through it." As much as I love decorating, I like my mom's theory too.

So... We went to get the tree early Saturday morning. We have been going to the same floral shop to get the tree since we have been married. The first year, I got a 5+ foot tree to put in our small ghetto apartment. I can still remember Robb laughing at me. Its not a Christmas tree farm but it is a special tradition to Robb and I. We picked a big beautiful tree with the help of the kids. Its always fun to watch Robb tie the tree to the top of the car.
My motto for picking a tree has always been:"I need a tree taller than me". So we got our 6 1/2 foot tree home and found out the trunk was too big to fit into our old stand. After a trip to the hardware store for a bigger tree stand, we got started.

It is always fun to unpack all the ornaments and remember the occasion that we got it for and who gave it too us. The kids have some really neat ornaments from family and friends. Bryce and Caleb seemed like they understood the concept of spreading the ornaments out more and decorating the entire tree this year. They did a great job. It was cute to watch Abby stare in wonder at the fact that we put a tree in our house. Eventually she joined in the fun too, but she liked to take the ornaments off and come show you the "pretty" that she found.