Playing

We went to the Children's museum last weekend for an early birthday present for the twinnies.

Also, I got a new camera, so I took a billion pics. Here are a few.

I can never get Jackson smiling....

Christmas 2011, Part II

Welp, here's the rest of our Christmas. And I'm only about 3 weeks behind, so that's pretty much a new world record.

We drove to my parents on Christmas Day. This has been our tradition for the last few years and it works out pretty well.

Patrick was still in love with this whole Batman get up. He really wore his mask for most of the day on Christmas and it still comes out almost everyday, complete with cape, snow boots, nerf sword and a blanket to create a double cape look.

It wouldn't be Christmas without someone wearing wrapping on their head, now would it?

G and G Mach got the kiddos a Mass Kit. This thing is awesome. I need to take lessons from the acolyte in our house, because I can't even name all the stuff that came in it. The kiddos love it. Dominic usually makes himself the priest. After "setting up Church" for 10 minutes, he comes around the house and says "Guys, it's time to go to Church." Then we sometimes get asked if we've worn our church clothes and are often reminded to be quiet, "because its time for church!"

The next day was Bruggeman family Christmas which culminated in the famous Bruggeman gift exchange. This year's theme was X,Y,Z. There were lots of fun (and some weird) gifts.

Aunt Ann and Cousin Meghan.

This kid LOVED opening gifts. He'd rip off a little wrapping and just squeal with delight.

Barrie didn't disappoint with a Yankee Candle scent thingee. By now I don't even remember what this had to do with X,Y,Z, but it was a good one...

Some random gifts from Uncle Bob. We never did really figure this one out... :)

Kisses (X) and Wine for Lizzy. Isn't she so pretty??

The kids and I stayed for a few extra days. We filled our days with lots of playing and reading, a day to Morill Hall in Lincoln and some friends to Wahoo.

We also made gingerbread nativity scenes. This picture represents the 10 seconds that the whole thing actually stayed together. It was a fun project, but ended up being a little frustrating (and that could be a definition for having little people, I guess).

Uncle Lucas played outside with them in the giant sandbox.

We were very happy to be surrounded by family all Christmas season!

Another Great Christmas Present

New toy for dad/all the littles: a fire pit.

Now that the big boys have been introduced to roasting marshmallows, they can't get enough. They've been shocking me with amount of patience they have to gently roast their marshmallows rather than set them on fire, per their dad's instructions. Camping may be a few years away, but in the meantime, we'll make memories this way.

Honeymoon 2

(Disclaimer: You may find this post to be rich in details that you don't care about (all 3 of you who follow my blog) but you wandered here...soo....)

This weekend was seriously a.maz.ing.

Luke and I took a little get-a-way. I didn't really get any pictures, so, inspired by a post at this blog which I cannot find, I'll document some (a lot of) "mental pictures"

Good byes to the little people. Dominic off to Jake and Jena's, Jackson to his Godmother, Emily's, Patrick and Leo with Grandma and Grandpa Mach. Luke and I take off to Omaha. Disappointed that Famous Dave's is no longer on West Center. Get lost due to the energy efficient street lights. Dinner at Upstream Brewery with Katie and Paul. Amaretto Sour and specialty beers. Great conversation and laughs, as usual.

(I did get a real picture of that. I especially like how it looks like Katie and Paul are angels.)

Off to the Magnolia Hotel. Long, narrow hallways and lots of character. Queen Suite! Sleep in until....6:15.... Lots of laying around and catching up on Sports Center. Lunch at WestRoads. New shoes for Luke. See Sherlock Holmes...not that great. Buy new brown purse. Buy new black purse (I have the best husband). Free drinks at the hotel and the end of the 49ers game. Smuggle a few extra to save for later. Dinner at Pasta Amore. Tomato bread on the house. Italian Margaritas and more specialty beers. Very unneeded but sinfully delicious Chocolate Mousse cake. Back to the hotel to crash early. Mass at St. Cecelia's in the morning: beautiful. A great homily about "Ordinary Time" and how the "normal" part of our lives is when was are best sancified. I make a mental note to remember this tomorrow. More shopping. Quick lunch on the road. Anxious to see the littles again.

I told Luke that this weekend probably makes it on my top 5 weekends of all time. Maybe this just speaks to how badly we both needed a little down time :) Hopefully we can make it an annual event!

Christmas, 2011

Part One of Christmas, 2011.

We did the Deaver family (most of us) in Holdrege on Christmas Eve.

Also, on a completely different note, I downloaded the Picasa photo editor. Thus, the pencil sketch of Patrick.

The twinnies got sunglasses. They were super pumped.

Thanks Ben and Brittany!



If I had a nickel for every hugging picture I have of these two, I'd send them both to college.



The bigger cousins. Looking smart in their Christmas clothes. I had to plead with Dominic to keep his Church clothes on for a few more minutes so I could get a few pictures. He HATES dressing up!



Grandma had a dance party with a few of the little people.



 New bike helmets were also under the tree!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!



Performing D Man

D had his first ever Preschool Christmas Program. It was pretty cute. The twins and I knew about half of the songs--he'd been practicing so much at home.

There are only four boys in his class. One little didn't make it up to the stage (I was sure that would be Dominic), so there were only 3 kiddos performing all 20ish of their songs.

Then there was a special visitor. The twins wanted nothing to do with Santa. Leo was equally scared, but D loved him.

Mom, take a picture of me in my room!



It was pretty fun to see! I can only hope that this is the beginning of many Christmas pageants to come--a little boy after his mommy's own heart! :)

New Christmas Presents

The boys got a digital camera for Christmas. It can hold almost 400 pictures, which means it can occupy Dominic for about 1 hour before I have to take all the pictures off, put them on my computer and delete them from the camera. Then I have to delete about 395 of the pictures off my computer. Here are the few that made the cut. 

 

The camera has a some sweet editing tools.



And this is THE ONLY picture that was in focus. It is a blob of yellow playdough. Well done, D.

First Snow

This is technically the second snow. The first snow was a dusting, but the kiddos still begged to go out a play. Unfortunately, that snow was gone within a few hours.

This snow, however, was a good 8 inches. Of course, it took all the patience I could possibly muster to get all four in their clothes.

30 minutes later....

And the littles were doing all sorts of posing for the endless amount of pictures I took.

Take a picture, of me, mom! Take a picture of this bell! Take a picture of this truck!





Give Thanks

We hosted Thanksgiving for the Bruggeman Family this year (ahem, last year)

Luke made the absolute best turkey I've ever had in his parents turkey fryer.

We were so happy to have all the Luers (except Meghan and John--we missed you) as well as my family and grandma.

The little people got their own table complete with their homemade centerpieces.



It was an amazing feast.



And Aunt Ann brought stuff for the littles to make turkeys. She's such a good teacher!



Little boys in jammies--too cute.

Here was one of the turkeys--you might have to use your imagination a bit on the others...

Happy Thankgiving to our ever growing family!