Christmas in Eastern Nebraska 2011

The second part of our "Nebraska Christmas" was spent in Wayne. On our way between Ogallala and Wayne, we spent a few nights with our good friends, the Banks's, in Omaha. What a joy it was to see our kids play together again and enjoy each other's company. Afterall, we've all been friends since our freshmen year in Chadron, 11 years ago!

Taya and Eli checking out Taya's new sleeping bag while Rory looks on.

Conner Banks's 'rear view' and Rory.
We enjoyed a lot of free entertainment :).

I love Ethan's expression of annoyance although I'm sure it was just poor timing on the photographer's part, wink wink.



Conner
Nima
Exchanging gifts our first night there.



Taya got a princess crown and jewelry...
Eli got a gun...


Emily and I also took the kids to the library and we met Ethan for lunch. The time went by way too quickly as it always does but we thank God for their friendship and hospitality.

Then it was on to Omi and Papa's for Christmas.

Riding the tractor was a fun part of this trip.


Off to get the Christmas tree!
The tree in the picture is the one we chose. You can see the house in the background.


A shot of the tree.
On Christmas day we spent most of the day opening gifts.

Taya was the first to open gifts and she started with her stocking. She was very pleased with the Hello Kitty Band-Aids she opened. Wow, that could have been a much less expensive holiday had we known that.
Taya calls chap stick "Lips".
Rory got a Little People nativity set from Aunt Erin. It is adorable and was well received.





The tree all dressed up!
One of Rory's favorite things was Aunt Erin's phone. She is so much nicer than his parents ;).







Taya got several games including this Cat and Mouse game which we played a few times. She also loves playing Candyland and the card game Memory.
It has been so fun looking back at these pictures and there are lots more.

Although it's well past Christmas we hope you find the joy of giving and receiving on a daily basis and we feel very blessed by the love of our friends and family. God bless each and every one of you!

Rory's 1st birthday and Thanksgiving

Oh yes I did...I updated the blog! I only had to go back to November to begin. I must admit, I have probably forgotten many important things to write on here but let's be honest, no one cares to read about our life, you just want to see the pictures, right?!

Be sure to keep checking back as I plan to add Christmas and then our "spring" assortment this week.

November 24, 2011:

Rory Patrick turns ONE!

Taya is always trying to make Rory laugh so she's always saying, singing, or doing something funny.

And she frequently wants to love on him.


Look at the green grass out the window (I actually had to look back at pictures of Taya's gifts to make sure this photo was from November and not August). We were blessed with a relatively mild winter in central Ohio.


Of course, Taya was in the middle of the gifts. Lucky for her, Rory wasn't all that interested this year.
Yep, we still love our Nima-dog. Rory is an especially big fan of her :).



Rory's birthday was on Thanksgiving this year so his birthday dinner was extra large and yummy! Ethan smoked a turkey this year and it was delicious. We ate almost every last scrap for once.
Also featured: mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, sweet potato casserole and raspberry jello salad. AND homemade pumpkin pie for dessert.
With Rory's birthday being on a holiday, we held his party on Sunday, November 27th. On that Saturday we put up our tree to enjoy a little before we made a nearly two week trip to Nebraska.

Taya entertaining us with some Taylor Swift (she uses this mini baseball bat as a microphone).
We had several friends join us for dinner followed by cake and ice cream.







We feel truly blessed by our "bubby".