New Years Celebrations

On New Years, Grammy, Grandad, Blake and Jordyn came to stay with us. We ate a lot of snack food and played some games leading up to midnight. Noah stayed up until about 11 and was so mad we put him to bed. I'm sure he would have made it to midnight. The girls made it to midnight, plus some. I think we were all pretty tired once we made it to bed that night. On Saturday, it was my birthday. Chad made breakfast that morning for all of us. We all went ice skating that afternoon. I was somewhat reluctant to go, since I always have seemed to spend a lot of time falling when I go ice skating, but it ended up being so much fun. We got little walkers for the girls and I pushed Noah around in his stroller most of the time. That made me much more comfortable and I think I was much braver skating than normal. The girls had a great time too. Myra was as brave and crazy as ever. After being there a while, she informed us that she didn't need the walker anymore. Then, proceeded to try to skate by herself. She needed someone to hold on to most of the time, but was very brave about it. Now, she keeps saying, "I can't believe it. My first time skating and I already learned how to skate." She's so funny. Lexi was a bit more reluctant on the skates, but enjoyed sitting on the walker and being pushed around. Noah was good about being in the stroller, but once we got him out he didn't want to go back in.
He was loving it when Chad helped him to walk around on the ice. After skating we went out to eat at the Olive Garden. Yum! That night we played the new game that Chad's family had given me, Dominion. It was lots of fun.

Christmas 2010

We had a really fun Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve, our friends, The Day's came over and we had homemade pizza. The kids all played downstairs while we played some card games and chatted, then we did a little Christmas program with the kids dressing up and singing songs. It was a lot of fun. Later that night, we were getting everyone ready for bed and the kids were very wound up and excited! We did our traditional Yarn Balls, which everyone really got into, we opened up new pj's, read The Night before Christmas, left out cookies and chocolate milk for Santa and had a new game dropped off by Santa that we played before the kids went to bed. It was a pretty late night for all of us and I was happy that everyone slept in until after 8 the next morning. Myra and Lexi were ecstatic. Noah just wanted breakfast. We opened presents. The kids were so excited about everything. The rest of the day was comprised of playing with our new toys, eating, sleeping and eating some more. It was a very fun and relaxing Christmas day.
The next day we went down to visit my parents and have "Christmas" with them. We opened gifts there, ate and visited. Of course, the kids were super excited to have another Christmas. That evening we went out to visit my Grandma Austin. It is so hard for me to see her living in the rest home that she's at now. She has to share a tiny, cramped room with another woman. The place is completely drab and about as unhomelike as you can get. It was a little depressing for me. We had a great visit though. The kids loved riding around in her lap and checking out all the things a nursing home has to offer. =)
On Monday, we did a marathon visit of the rest of our Grandparents. We started out with my Grandma Newman. We were lucky that my parents went with us to this visit so that we were able to spend a little more time with them too. The kids loved my Grandma's toy closet and were able to entertain themselves the entire time we were there. After that we went to see Grandma and Grandpa Keyser. Of course, they had to feed us our fill of Ice Cream and candy. We had a nice time visiting them. We then rushed back to my parents house and packed up the car, then were able to go with my parents and meet up with my sister and her family for dinner. It's always interesting going out to eat with all the kids, but we had a good time. Then we headed up to visit Grandmother and Grandad Rowland. The big box of blocks was pulled out and the kids (and dad) had a fun time playing with them.
I'm so glad that we were able to visit all of our Grandparents and take pictures with them and the kids. I'm sure they will be memories that we certainly cherish down the road.