Merry (belated) Christmas

I'm not getting awards this year for getting my Christmas cards out on time. UGH. If you usually get one, I'm really sorry. They are sitting on my counter in a box. It's just been a little (lot!) crazy around our house. You may get it by Valentine's Day...if you're lucky. :)

Here are some photos for the card. Hope these tide you over until you get the real thing:

Sassy Jenna

Ornery Brody

Bowen

Blake

Just the six of us

The Farm

Please be patient with my randomness. After I put the boys down for a nap, I took my camera and walked around the farm. I just wanted to take some pictures of it. I love this barn.

This is the view from the road.

Everybody makes fun of NW Iowa for having so much snow. It looks like this snow fence hasn't gotten much of a workout this winter. :)

I don't know what this is, I just thought it ended up being a neat photo...

Grandpa has three tractors in his machine shed. This one is the newest.

This one the oldest. Cira 1970-something maybe? I'm not well versed in the age of tractors. :)

In the barn I found this bucket of fishing rods. Seriously! I think somebody has hoarding issues. LOL

This rooster napkin holder was actually inside. My grandma LOVED roosters. I love this. It reminded me of her.

I took this photo through the van window as we were driving home down the gravel road.

So pretty...

Beadle Christmas

After the Burdorfs left Sunday morning, we headed up North to Swea City. Ahhh...Northwest Iowa! The trip up was a little rocky. We had to stop for four potty breaks, Bowen screamed for about a half hour of the time and Jenna threw up (luckily I got a bag there in time and avoided a major mess!).

It was so great to see so many family members! Everybody was there except the Romans from Wisconsin. We missed you Romans! It was so fun to catch up with my cousins. We don't get together near enough, but when we do it's like the good old days laughing, talking and catching up.

Here's my uncle Brad with the twins. He is so good with them!

Grandpa Cliff. Cliffy-O! He brought tears to my eyes. He held Blake and talked to him about pheasant hunting together someday. :) He also told him he was a very blessed little guy who has a lot to be thankful for. Ok...I'm tearing up again thinking about it..

From serious conversation to a big cheese!

Three generations of the Beadles

My cousin Brooke's little girl, Maeci. So cute! I loved her hat and coat.

Somebody got out the 4-wheeler and took the kids (Jenna, Camden, Brody) for rides. Although, I don't think Brody ever actually rode it. When I asked him why he didn't want a ride he said, "I just like gator rides."

What says Merry Christmas more than two yummy cakes?! :) Brandi brought this peppermint cake from Illinois. Soooo good!

And Bill made this equally yummy chocolate cake. I didn't want to discriminate so I had a little bit of both...

We didn't get everybody together in time before they left, so by the time we decided to take a photo...this was who was left. The cousins with Grandpa.

The kids slept on the way home. Yay! It was a great day and hopefully we can plan a get together this summer so we can see each more than once a year.

Burdorf Christmas

Let the barrage of photos begin! Haha The Burdorfs came down to our place for Christmas this year. Frank and Linda made it on Friday and Adam and Jill and the girls on Saturday.

We were very laid-back this year. We watched the Vikings actually win, watched some Christmas movies, the kids played, went to church and opened gifts.

Friday I was giving the boys baths and Aaron asked where my recipe was for my star cookies and I was like, 'What? Why?' Those are kind of my thing, but he assured me he could handle it. :) Technically, he mixed them and I baked them. Teamwork! A double-batch of the best darn cookies at Christmas...

I decided for lunch Saturday we would do soups and sandwiches and I mentioned to Aaron I wanted to make a cheese soup. So, he found a recipe. And made it all by himself (minus me cutting up the cheese). It was YUMMY!! Nothing more attractive than a guy in the kitchen. ;)

Yes, my father-in-law Frank really has this sweatshirt. Yes, somebody really bought it for him. I couldn't get over it, so I had to take a picture.

I wanted to paint my nails on Saturday and Jenna wanted to do festive nails. Hers turned out cute! Mine didn't turn out because they weren't quite dry when I went to pick-up a baby.

The twins. The best darn Christmas present ever. This captures there personalities exactly. It makes me smile looking at their expressions. Oh Bowen...!!

I think Brody might have opened the wrong gift. Those pjs might be just a tad small. Who looks just like daddy?!

Aunt Jill reacts to some canvases we made for her of the girls. I think she liked them!

Cutie-patootie Miss Addy.

Adam liked his Red Ryder BB gun, Christmas Story style.

Grandma Linda with the collage I made for her of all six of her grandbabies.

Our pretty tree...

I got a bottle of wine in this bag. It made me laugh... Clever, huh?!

A trail of Santa goodies...

...And a cookie for the rode for Aubrey.

Thanks to everybody for coming to State Center for Christmas! We had a great time!

I have a problem...

I, Jamie, am an overshooter!! Seriously, I took hundreds of photos of all our Christmases. I don't know what to do. I could pick just a few, but then the people that were at THAT particular Christmas might feel left out. But, on the other hand, do I need 50 million photos of each of our Christmases?! I think because I know my relatives at least would appreciate the photos, please bear with all the photos. :) I'll be posting some soon!

Not our finest moment...

At least Jenna and Mrs. Claus were happy to be there...

Two fussy babies...one blinking Santa...one annoyed daddy..one pouty three-year old...and a partridge in a pear tree. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Exersaucer Love

Besides with his mama :)...I don't think there's any other place that Blake would rather be than his exersaucer. He loves it. I love that he loves it.

This leaf thing is one of his favorite parts. Especially with more teeth coming in. He chews...

...and chews and chews.

I have to interrupt this Blake post with a Bowen photo I captured. The kiddo climbed right up on my lap and was trying to get the camera. Aren't his eyes the bluest of blues? I love them!

Blake and his tongue crack me up! He always has it out.

So happy....

My favorite. The face. The tongue. The expression.

Blake is now making three sounds. He started with dadada and progressed to bababa and now does mamama. Tonite he sat on the floor when I was changing him into his pjs and he smiled and just babbled on "mamamama". That is the best sound in the whole entire world. We are so blessed to have this happy, smiley baby boy in our family. He brings such JOY!

Hunecke Christmas

We had our Hunecke Family Christmas last weekend. Everybody was awesome enough to come down to State Center! That was so nice to not have to pack and stress about that. Everybody was nice and pitched in and brought some food. My mom especially brought food! She is her mother's daughter. Grandma Beadle always made sure we never starved. :)

Anyway, we spent the entire day together on Saturday. All of us. Nowhere to rush off to. Just relaxing. It was WONDERFUL. Some pics of our 2011 Christmas!

My brother is a dork....

Bowen and Grandma Jo

Grandpa Larry thought it would be fun to do sugar cookies with the kiddos. I think he got more than he bargained for with little hands everywhere. :)

Brody was a mess before he started. Not sure what is already all over his face.

Blake playing his piano. He loves this thing!

Somehow in the making of the cookies, Grandpa Larry and kiddos neglected to frost them. Bill, Mandy and I were just sitting around, so Bill made us some frosting and the three of us frosted.

The finished products. Bet you can't guess who did the yellow frosted cookies with green sprinkles? I'm sure it wasn't a certain Green Bay Packer fan... LOL

Me and my girl. Getting ready to open gifts.

Mitchell and Jess

Justin and Maddox with his new Hawkeye sweatshirt, courtesy of the Burdorfs.

Mom, Bill and all four of the kiddos. This is the best we could do. Not too shabby I would say.

I didn't get pictures of the kids opening gifts. It was chaos with all four of them. Gifts and wrapping paper everywhere. Thanks for a hilarious game of What. (If you all haven't played that game, you should. Funny stuff). I haven't laughed that hard in awhile.

Thank you to EVERYONE for a memorable day!