christmas.

wow. trying to catch up such a fun and busy month and a half can be a little intimidating! but, baby girl is almost here and if i don't do it now it may never happen. we had a great christmas here at my house this year. i was so happy to get to host some of my family since i was unable to travel anywhere this year. my parents arrived on the wednesday before christmas, alisa and owen the following day, then ryan on christmas eve. keri, matthew and family came down on christmas eve to be with all of us and then went back home to wait for santa to come to their home. during the next week we spent a lot of time going back and forth with keri's family and also got extra visitors throughout the next week from brian, rachelle and family and adam and meghan, too. it really was perfect. (oh, except for friday night bunko and games at my house with everyone there, which means about 30 people, counting contractions 5,6,7 mins apart for an hour and a half. i was so close to ripping travis away from a game of dominion and leaving everyone there to fend for themselves while we went to have a baby. luckily, things slowed down a bit and, of course, no baby) we spent a lot of time doing not much of anything which i think is how we all preferred it. we had lots of good food, game playing, church basketball and other games, laughing, staying up late...you know the drill. thanks everyone for making it possible! don't know when we'll have that chance again and i'll always remember this christmas!

here's a few pre-christmas pics. calvin at his pre-school holiday party. pretty sure he knew right away that that was NOT santa:)

some friends invited us to go to zoo lights with them. the kids had fun together and we topped it off with a late dinner at red robin. thanks for a fun night S family!

calvin and my mom. she's always up for almost anything. this was right before calvin started swinging his "lasso" and clobbered her right in the head. oops! such a good sport, mom:)

this little man celebrated his birthday with us on december 24. alisa did a great job to make sure he got a good birthday celebration in before all the other festivities began. happy birthday owen!

grandpa read all the grandkids a special christmas eve story before dinner.

don't worry. this is calvin's costume for the nativity. don't recognize the character? yeah, travis was in charge of costumes this year.

my boys with grandma and grandpa with the christmas pj's.

and all the grandkids.

christmas morning! 3 excited boys.

calvin and miles' presents from santa.

mom and dad opening their present from their children and spouses.

did i mention that my twin sister, alisa, is also pregnant and due 5 weeks after me? it's so fun being pregnant together. and we're having girls together, too!

that's more like. i have no idea what we were laughing at but i have a series of probably5 or 6 pictures of us cracking up about something.

new year's eve was spent at keri's house. we played lots of games and ate lots of food. i think that's what new years is supposed to be.

calvin has always loved games but recently he's realized he can play a lot more than just candyland and chutes and ladders. here he is playing monopoly with his cousin will, uncle adam and travis. a few of his other favorites are blokus and stratego.

game time! look how serious they all are! i think the ladies team was trying to come up with an answer to a trivia-type game question.

backward charades. hilarious. it's an ipad app you all should try.

this is from earlier in the day. everyone but the two pregos went on a short hike/walk near keri's home.

since new year's day was on sunday and we had church at 9:00 we decided to postpone our annual new year's breakfast for monday morning. oh it was heaven: pancakes, biscuits and gravy, homemade cinnamon rolls, bacon, sausage...

...and these bad boys. my dad's fried eggs cooked in bacon grease. they just slide right down, right dad?! for the record, i eat one a year.

here's meghan showing off her plate(s) of food. oh, scrumptious.

my boys love their new aunt meghan! a few days ago we were talking about getting married with the boys and we asked them who they were going to marry. while calvin had to think long and hard miles immediately said "meghan" he was a little disappointed when we told him that meghan was already married but soon perked up again when he decided he would marry either cinderella or princess frostine (from candyland)! now you know where you fit in, meghan!

everyone was gone by monday night except for alisa, ryan and owen who we got to keep until wednesday! we could hang out with those guys every. single. day. look at these cheesers!

ha, and i found this surprise picture on my camera of owen. love it!

and that is a wrap! news on baby girl very, very soon. (because i'm getting induced in the morning!)