Christmas visit to Minne-snow-ta

We had a great visit to the winter wonderland of Minnesota. The Minneapolis area had the snowiest December on record (which is saying a lot - it IS Minnesota we're talking about!). Our flight out went fairly smoothly (Eli slept nearly the entire flight and Ben did well for most it), but, upon arrival, the car seat installation hit a snag (literally in one of the straps) and I was left alone with a hungry 3 month old and a poopy 2.5 year old in the baggage claim area for 30 minutes too long. We finally got the seats installed/ baby fed/ us fed and headed to Hope's.

We had a great visit with my girlfriends at Hope's house (thanks for the hospitality, girls!!) The kids sledded in the backyard and we all had a nice lunch and fun times hanging out for "Stokes-mas". It's always so nice to see everyone again - See the group picture on Danielle's blog.

My folks didn't have quite as much snow in the northern part of the state, but we still got to go out and play a few times. Ben grew to love the sledding/ playing in the snow...

Here's grandpa blowing snow and Ben (with no thumbs) trying to sweep snow off our rental car.

We had some indoor fun, too. Cookie cutting/ decorating with grandma makes for nice photo ops.

Cousin Nick even got in on the decorating this year!

We attempted a 3 grand kid photo op in the chair...

that wasn't very successful.

This is the best group shot we could muster.

A couple of other shots turned out OK.

Andy and grandpa got to do some manly-man stuff like cut down and chop up some trees.

Ben got another shot at sledding -He kept wanting to go fast-duh!

A few videos from recent times...

Eli is a big talker.



It's pretty funny - he keeps going and going and going

Ben does a pretty good rendition of Santa Claus is coming to Town. Here's a snippet of it.

And his own version: *Nicholas* is coming to town (other versions include: garbage truck is coming to town and grandma claus is coming to town)

We had a great visit, but are glad to be home. I think we need a vacation from our vacation. Travelling with 2 small kids is hard work to say the least.

Holiday Preparations!

We found a great place to go cut down our own Christmas tree this year: Sunny Day Tree Farm (where it's always a sunny day!). Nice people, beautiful setting, and Santa was there, too! (pictures of Santa will be on the Christmas card - don't want to spoil the surprise here...)

Where, oh where, is the perfect tree?

Ben was inspecting the needles very carefully...We found a cute down and daddy cut it down.

And then had to carry it back to the car. Ben wanted to help.
So he did. Sort of.

Doesn't this next one look so timeless - It could be grandpa Ron in 1953, dontcha think?

Eli was along, but hung out in the ERGO for the most of the visit.

Here are a couple of shots from around the house this week.

Andy's family had their holiday party this past Saturday. Cousin Annette hosted all of us and cooked an incredible feast - I told her she should has now attained cooking rock star status. The family tradition of "The Little Red Chair" was resurrected this year, after a lengthy hiatus. The kids each take turns sitting on the little red chair and open a gift in front of all party go-ers. Ben started off, because he was the youngest able kid. (Eli and Grant are a bit young still).
Everyone was excited to see what was in the gift!
Ahh, a truck.
We were very happy to see everyone, but especially Aaron, Rhonda and 3 week old Grant, who were able to make an appearance, even after a scary hospital stay (all seems to be better now!) Here's Rhonda with Eli:

One more week of school then we're off to MN for Christmas!! Can't wait to see everyone back home!