Merry Christmas!

After church on Christmas Eve we tried to get the boys to "take a break" and watch a movie before going to bed...well you can see how well that worked:)

Finally, after much coaxing, we finally had them in pj's and "somewhat" resting to watch their movie. After a quick Santa sighting outside, it didn't take much to get everyone to bed, so that Santa would be sure and stop at Grandma's house...because we all know that Santa won't bring presents unless everyone is sleeping:)

Tyson and Aiden must have been exhausted, because they slept until 7:30am...on Christmas morning no less! Unfortunately, the Venjohn's and Grandma had been up most of the night with Mason. He had been on antibiotics for and ear infection, and they apparently weren't working, so Marla and Tony frantically packed up all the presents and their stuff and were on the road by 8am to take him to the ER...poor guy.

It took a bit for the little guy to wake up, but after a few minutes he was right in on all the action...checking out everything Santa had brought him.

One of Tyson's top requests for Santa was a BB gun, so he was very excited when he opened up this...

and you gotta have BB's to go along with it. Aiden didn't really have any major requests, but had mentioned several times that he wanted a Leap Frog tracing pad. Well, wouldn't you know...Santa got him one! Tyson had also told the Santa at Main Street Square that he wanted a hockey net for Christmas, and he proceeded to tell Tyson that maybe he would bring him 2...wasn't that nice of him:)

The last 2 presents they opened were....hockey nets....1 for each boy, so now they can play some "real hockey"!

I was apparently very excited about my toothpaste and socks from the big guy!

Looks like Scott was equally impressed with his toothbrush:) Good hygiene must be very important to Santa...the whole family got tooth brushes and toothpaste....well that and a stocking full of candy! :) We had barely finished opening presents when Tyson was begging his Dad to take him out shooting.

He asked Scott to take this picture, and when he looked at the camera to check it out he said..."Now that's a hunting picture!" He is soooo proud!!

Good form buddy! That afternoon we went out to the Geigle's to see all of the cousins and help Uncle Norm celebrate his birthday!

Tyson and Collin quickly went outside to try out their skills.

Little guy even got to try a few shots...with the help of Dad, of course.

There were 11 kids all together and they had a blast playing together! Tyson really enjoyed being able to play with someone his age, while Aiden quickly buddied up with cousin Colt.

Playing some hungry hippos with Colt and Zoey...

It took some work...and patience, but we were able to get all the kids around Uncle Norm as we sang Happy Birthday.

Playing Uno...

and some Mexican train game...

We packed up the crew and headed back to Grandma's at around 7pm. We all had such a great time! Thanks again Aunt Di and Uncle Norm for inviting us to share in the special day!

Monday morning we woke up and went in to Amy's house to help her and Terry pack up some of her stuff to take back with them. Terry then treated us all to lunch at the Dairy Queen before we packed up our stuff and came back home. The rest of the day was spent unpacking all of the awesome Christmas presents we had received, doing laundry, and of course.....setting up a hockey net!! We only did 1, however, because those suckers are huge!!

The boys spent the rest of the night trying it out...of course! Tyson wanted to make sure we got a picture of him in front of it...to show off his goalie stance!

We had a great weekend, and we were able to pack in a ton of fun into the 4 days! Now it's time to pack back up and head down to Grammy and Poppy's this weekend to celebrate Christmas with all of them! We can hardly wait! Bring on the fun!!

Christmas Eve

We went down to Grandma Brenda's for the long Christmas weekend. Marla, Tony, Mason, and Cooper were down there as well as Uncle Terry and Aunt Amy. Grandma came up and went to the Rush game with us on Thursday night and we all went down to her house on Friday. We went together this year and got Mom an antique-like record player/radio and a new toilet. I know...I know...nothing says Merry Christmas like a new sparkly toilet! :) In all honestly...it was long overdue. We were able to sneak it in the house, and Tony switched it out without her evening knowing it. Marla then went in the bathroom and came out yelling that the toilet was over-flowing ( an unfortunate, yet common occurrence with the old toilet). Tony was meanwhile taping the whole thing. It was priceless..not only did Mom chew out Tony for just standing their taping while her toilet was overflowing, it then took her a loooong time to figure out the toilet she was looking at (trying to see where the water was running over) was actually a brand new one! Grandma Brenda....nothing gets by her!! :)

Christmas Eve morning we opened all of our presents from Grandma Brenda and to each other. Grandma still gets a bit carried away by spoiling the boys..and us big kids with presents and money! The boys had a blast opening up all of their presents!

Aiden had fun seeing how high he could stack his presents before he opened them.

I think he was excited about his tool set from Uncle Tony and Aunt Marla.

Aiden got Tyson a Scheels's camo hat and this Green Bay sticker. Tyson had been wanting that hat for some time, and was soooo excited he finally had it. In fact... Uncle Terry took great pleasure in teasing him all weekend that he wouldn't be making it home with his cap. Tyson made sure and kept very close tabs on it!

Both boys got this same Rush shirt along with hockey cards from Scott and I.

Tyson was so excited to get Dad his own hockey stick for when they play open shinny at the Downtown Square ice rink. Let me tell you...it was quite the surprise when Scott opened it:)

Funny story...a month ago, Marla had told me that one of her neighbors was going to be ordering a bunch of football jerseys and wanted to know if Scott would like one. I thought that sounded like the perfect Christmas present. I also asked Jean who asked me to order a Minnesota Vikings one for Brian. Wouldn't you know...when the shipment came in 45 of the 46 jerseys they ordered had come in. They were only missing one...that's right...it was Scott's Green Bay Aaron Roger's jersey that I had ordered for him. Well, I wanted him to be able to open something, so just wrapped up Brian's. The look on his face was priceless when he first opened it up. Thought we were gonna have a marital dispute on our hands:) Hopefully, his will be coming in some time soon.

Tony hauled down his and Marla's 4-wheelers for the weekend and the boys really enjoyed getting to explore down in the Badlands.

That evening we went into the Christmas Eve service at church.

This was one of several attempts at a family picture. Sometimes feels like the impossible mission! :)

Fun at the Fogelman's

For the past 3 years we have went over to Brandon and Lyndee's to make Christmas goodies. Well, Lyndee and I make Christmas goodies while the kids have fun playing together, and the guys sit and visit. This year it was a beautiful day, and Grace and Tyson toured the country side on their 4-wheeler. Aiden and Avery went back and forth between playing outside and playing in her room. We were over there for 4 hours, and the kids were constantly busy with something!

What a ham!!

It was a great way to finish off a busy weekend!

Gingerbread Houses

December has been a whirlwind! Tyson had his Christmas concert December 16th. It included the 6th grade band with the 1st and 2nd graders singing. It was super cute! He had a CD that the songs were burnt on so he could practice at home prior to the big day. He had definitely done his homework (as it looked like all of the kids did) and the motions with the songs were really adorable. I unfortunately have no pictures to prove it...I made the mistake to let Aiden "take some pictures". Well he apparently changed the setting to video with me not knowing, so all of my "pictures" were not actually pictures. The only 2 that I actually had were of him sitting on the bleachers while the 2nd graders were singing. Oh well...better luck next time:)

That same weekend I bought some Gingerbread kits so the boys could let their creativity run wild!

They both jumped right in and had a lot of fun getting to decorate their houses "all by themselves"!

Dad stepped in at the end to help with a few final touches...

Aiden's had to have the number of his favorite Rush player...Conrad Reeder, of course! :)

Tyson made sure to represent the Rush as well as his own team...the Rushmore Thunder with his jersey #8.

Whoops...this is what happens when someone gets in too big of a hurry trying to get her blog caught up in 1 night:) but you get the point...