Christmas Parties 2008

As I alluded to in my Christmas 2008 post, here is the official Christmas party entry.  The first party that we made it to was on Christmas eve at Dave and Susie Knudsen's house.  Long time family friends / neighbors and also the parents of my sisters brother-in-law.  (Not to mention that they're also the in-laws of Niki's former room mate...)

As you can see they have a beautiful house; although what you can't see is their amazingly gracious hospitality.  We had a wonderful time with literally all you can eat king crab legs.  Yeah, it was wonderful.  Susie bought all the kids new Christmas pajamas witch they loved and we had a great time of fellowship.

There was no shortage of pictures being taken with five sets of grandparents in the room!

I'm not sure who's kid that is but she is always trying to get in the limelight...

Grandpa Ray enjoying a tea party with the girls.

(Note: I think Sadie really thinks she's eating a cookie...)

Party #2

The second party we went to was at my parents house on Christmas Day.  Grandma Tami cooked an amazing dinner including a delicious prime rib and some scrumptious twice baked potatoes.   It was a really fun night of family, friends, food, and pool.  Looking at my pictures you should be able to tell where I spent most of my time...

This photo was supposed to have Niki's grandparents with all four of us shenanigans in it but I think Nya is already sick of my new camera.  It goes something like this:

Me, in my most excited smiley face possible: "Nya, we're going to take a picture!"

Nya: "No!"

Did I mention that she's two now...

I just thought this was a cool shot.

My dad and Grampa Jim, Levi's grandpa.

Pastor Brown lookin tough and rarrific!

Mr. Brad Brown working the table for me.  Definitely my favorite shot of the night.

Nya Turns Two

I kind of feel sorry for her.  Three days after Christmas isn't likely to be the most ideal, or lucrative, time of year to have a birthday.  It's not like she had a lot of say in the matter.  Also knowing us there's probably always going to be a Christmas tree in some of the pictures.  Who wants to take down their tree immediately after Christmas?  Those things being said, we did have a wonderful day and Niki put on a great party.

Nya and I went to "Donowds" for lunch and let mom finish the food prep back home.

"You mean that's not 100% beef?"

If you haven't been in the newly remodeled Kenai Mc Donalds, it's looking pretty good.

(Well, especially with Nya sitting in it...)

I think she managed to open two presents before getting too excited to play with the new toys to keep opening.  Good thing there were plenty of other kids to help.

"Hmmm... if I eat all the cake on my plate will mom let me have the rest of it?"

Thanks for the great cake grama Tami.

BFF's

Nya, Sadie, and Addison

It's amazing how fast a sugar high can end...

Christmas 2008

What a fun day!  It was a little tough waking up after a whopping four hours of sleep, but once Niki made us some coffee from her new cappuccino machine (early christmas present), we were good to go.

We started the day off with a little coloring.

Then moved straight into the presents.  With the real tree this year we wanted to leave it on the tile so we hauled our presents to the living room.

Let the fun begin!

Elli even got in on the action.

"Are you sure we've opened ALL the presents?"

After the presents were done I grabbed the nativity scene and acted out the Christmas story for Nya.  We had fun but I think she had even more fun customizing the story her way or in her words: "Nya do it!"

Before this picture was taken I heard Nya say, "night, night..."

Elli bean is starting to hold her head up!

The girls are all in the kitchen working on the french toast!

We've got a lot more Christmas photo's but I'll wait to share those in my "Christmas Parties" post...

Private Party

Last night was our annual church Christmas party and we didn't go...  We weren't avoiding the sublime snacks, congenial company, or fabulous fun.  It's just not exactly easy when your cheeky children's normal nannies are also participating in the party.  That conundrum coupled with twelve toilsome hours of work on top of five fruitless hours of sleep and it was exponentially easier to have our own private party.  I stopped shortly at the big blue Blockbuster and procured posthaste "Horton Hears A Who". (Although we are somewhat satisfied Netflix customers.)  Niki made her outstanding onion dip, some serendipitous seven layer bean dip, a variety of veggies and fruits, giant gingersnaps, as well as her fabulous fruit smoothies.  The famished four of us dawdled down to the hospitable home theater room and masticated our meal while being eerily engaged in one of the coolest computerized cartoons I've recently rented.  Of course we very much missed the cordial companionship of our familiar friends, but I must also admit that it was alright because we had an extraordinary evening in the caring company of those closest to our cores: The Shemanski Shenanigans

We got this little snippet before putting Elli down to sleep.

Tuesday In Pictures

We had a nice lazy day at the house today so I took the opportunity to play with my camera a bit and capture some fun pics to share.  Hope you enjoy! (It's a little lengthy.)

First things I saw when I looked out the window were a moose in the yard and a nice sunrise.

 

After breakfast is was time to play!

And Sing

And look cute...

The girls were able to take care of some laundry.  The whole time listening to Nya say: "Nya do it!  Nya Help.  Good girl..."

As they were folding laundry I stepped back outside to capture the sunset.

Then dinner and, well this picture speaks for itself...

2008 Tree Adventure

On Nov. 29th all four of us jumped into the rhino and got our first family tree!  I didn't know it was going to be so much fun, we'll definitely be making a tradition of it.  It sure beats an hour and a half of fluffing fake branches and the associated raw fingers.  Those of you with fake tree's know what I'm talking about.  So without further adiue, here's the splendid moment on video.  Oh, and if you look at the drivers seat of the Rhino in the above picture, that's Nya sleeping...

If you were wondering, this video was not shot in the future.  Niki just accidentally said 2009...

Our favorite present this year!