Manes Christmas 2009

Well, there's going to be a ton of pictures for this post, but that's what I do!! (Besides, I really did cut way down from the 250 pictures I took from Christmas!) :)

The kids and I flew alone to Chicago where my brother Aaron and Esther picked us up. We all drove a few hours to my brother Andy's house to celebrate Christmas.

The kids did great on the plane. We were quite the sight lugging everything through the airport and through security!

Kylah and me on the plane (those are Oreo crumbs on her mouth.)

We had a great time with everyone (my parents, three brothers, three sister-in-laws, and one nephew).

We let the kids make Christmas cookies one morning. They got a little carried away with the flour, but they had a blast! (Esther and I had cleanup duty that day...we cleaned up a lot of flour...)

After cookie making, they definitely needed a bath. Michael had flour still in his hair for about 4 days!

Joey and Michael got to go play outside in the snow with Papa. We really went nowhere while we were there. It was so relaxing!

All of the "kids" together in the kitchen. We have a ton of fun together. We played games every night past midnight. There was plenty of laughter, conversation, and just a little bit of competitive arguing...just a little bit. :)


My mom had an idea for the kids to make ornaments. She was quite crafty this weekend (and she cooked too...with recipes!) Way to go mom!

The kids had a lot of fun painting their hands to make the snowmen ornaments. They turned out really cute!

On Christmas Eve we decorated the tree with all our special ornaments that my mom has saved. The kids had to be patient, but they loved hanging the ornaments on the tree.

Santa came to visit! When we were little my dad used to dress up as Santa on Christmas Eve, hand out one gift to each child, and then read the Christmas story to us.

Joey has been talking about Santa for a while now, and in theory he was really excited to see Santa. When we told him that Santa was there he went running to the front door. When he saw Santa in the window, he stopped on a dime, started screaming and turned to jump in my mom's arms. He clung to all of us as if Santa was about to attack him! Tony and Gina caught it all on video, and it was hilarious!

Michael had pretty much the same reaction!

Kylah was cool with Santa and even gave him kisses! She's like "what's the big deal guys; Santa's cool."

The boys settled down and got to open one present that Santa left on the doorstep for them (Santa wisely left presents rather than staying any longer, and we all read the Christmas story on Christmas morning instead!)

Kylah had some great bonding time with her Uncle Aaron over Christmas. She loves him!

The kids in their Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve. (I won't tell you that we had to put Max & Ruby on the TV to get them all to sit still on the couch...oops, I just did.)

Christmas morning donned bright and early. Well, cloudy and at about 8:30 am.

The boys waited by the tree until all their aunts and uncles got out of bed!

Joey's favorite toy was his real digital camera from Papa and Gramma. Way to go Papa and Gramma!

He took a ton of pictures (remind you of anyone???) Here's what he would say before each picture he took of someone: "Say cheese (he waits until the person says it); Smile (the person must smile, but not say anything)." I guess that's what I must say to him when I take his picture!

Kylah's favorite gift was a baby doll and stroller from Papa and Gramma. She was such a little mommy. She's rock and sing to her little baby, and then so gently sit the baby in her stroller and walk her around. Adorable!

Kylah loves her Papa!

Christmas dinner was fabulous! I should have taken a picture of my plate. This was the menu: Prime Rib, smashed potatoes with horseradish, gravy, Parmesan asparagus, corn, green bean casserole, tomato-zucchini-eggplant dish, and homemade rolls. Dessert was cheesecake, apple pie, pecan pie, and chocolate-peanut butter pie. Yep, I gained about five pounds!!

After dinner, we sang happy birthday to Jesus and had a little cake. The kids had a great time with it. Joey had been talking about Jesus' birthday for a while now.

The annual (well, every two years when we are all together) Manes family Christmas picture. We had a few little mishaps (come on, Michael, hold your "J" already!) :)

The result was pretty good, though. Joey thought it was hilarious that I put the camera on timer and then sprinted to our chair and threw him on my lap. It got him laughing every time!

And our little Manthe family picture.

Every year my mom gets my dad a toy so he can play with it with him grand kids. Last year it was a remote control car (they've had a lot of fun with that one!) This year it was Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Joey quickly learned how to do it, and they had a blast.

We all made it home safely after the wonderful holiday!

I came home alone. Joey and Kylah are spending the week with Grandpa and Nana in Kansas. Joe flew with them to Kansas City (apparently both kids slept almost the entire flight...lucky!!), handed them to his parents, and then drove to Arkansas.

Both of us will work this week. Joe will drive here to Omaha on Thursday night; we'll finish packing on Friday; then we'll load the truck on Saturday. We have a wedding to go to Saturday afternoon here in Omaha, so after the wedding we'll drive to Kansas and stay the night at Joe's parents' house. We'll gather the kids and their gear, and then drive to our new (rental) home in Arkansas on Sunday. Joe's busy rounding up guys to help us load the truck here in Omaha and then unload it in Arkansas.
It's a crazy week, but the end of this crazy month is in sight!!

Christmas in Kansas

Joey was so happy to help Nana decorate her tree. Since we didn't do any Christmas decorations here at our house, he was so excited to help decorate this tree.

Nana is so nice and lets the grandkids play with all her special ornaments if they are (or try to be) gentle. She has all these cool Hallmark ornaments that move and make noise.

Don't you just love when you catch your kids doing something so sweet like this. I crept closer and could hear Joey telling Kylah all about the ornaments. Love it!

The kids got to open their stockings when they woke up on Saturday morning. Joey went to wake up Grandpa, who got right up to watch the kiddos open their stockings (didn't happen back in the day with his kids according to Jennifer!! They had to wait until noon!) :)

Kylah digging into her stocking.

I love watching Joey open presents. He is so expressive and delighted with each gift.

Both Joey and Kylah were allowed to eat one piece of candy from their stockings before breakfast. Joey of course picked the biggest Reese's Tree and an orange--that's right, Jeff, Reese's Tree...hmmmmmm. Do you even read my blog, Jeff????
Joey actually really enjoyed the orange that was in his stocking---must be a grandkid thing, right Val?! :)
Here's Kylah enjoying her one piece of candy.

Daddy helped Kylah open all her gifts. She was more than happy to sit on his lap!

Joey got some rockin tools from Grandpa and Nana. Here he is working with his tape measure. He was measuring everything...and everybody!

Born to be a mommy. She knew just what to do with that bottle!

I love my Joey Bear!

Grammy and Jake.

Joey the Tool Man. He spent all night playing with his tools. He got a generator, a light thing?, drill, round saw, tape measure, hammer and others. He was fixing Grandpa's chair all night! (I'm sure I messed up all those tool names...sorry Jake!....do you read my blog either Jake???) :)

We had a really fun weekend at Joe's parents house. The kids are definitely blessed to have such awesome grandparents and aunts and uncles!

We were so glad to see Joe/daddy this weekend! Joey ran right up to Joe when he got there and jumped into his arms. Joey spent the weekend hanging with daddy and often telling him that he loved him. He was a little sad to leave daddy, saying, "but I will miss daddy!" We had a great time together, and can't wait until we can be together for good!

We leave tomorrow (Tuesday) morning for Manes Christmas! We will be at my brother's house in Indiana. All 10 adults and 3 kids together in one house! I can't wait...good food, fun games, and just hanging out!

Roses are red...

My sweet husband in Arkansas sent me these georgeous flowers today just to tell me he missed me.

Yep, he's great like that!

I miss you too Babe!

Going ons...

Joey got a special surprise the other night. One of my best friends, Sarah, and her husband Tom took Joey out for a night of fun at the Pizza Machine. (It's the same place we took Joey back in June for his birthday.)

He had a blast, and they said he was good, so I was happy. He couldn't stop talking about it and about the new dinosaurs he got!

Tom and Joey. These two are pretty fond of each other.

In case anyone still doubted that Joey's going to be a lefty:

******************************************************

So, yesterday Joey woke up in the morning and was getting his underwear out of his drawer. He found a tie in the drawer, and immediately came to ask me if he could wear a tie and be handsome. I tried to talk him out of it, since we weren't really going anywhere, but he "really, really" wanted to!

He wore that outfit the entire day! He wore his black dress shoes all day too. He even took a nap in those clothes (I had to put my foot down about not wearing his shoes during nap time!) He told me he didn't want comfy clothes for nap time...he wanted to still be handsome. :)
Sometimes I wonder...

Kylah was looking pretty cute in her little Christmas shirt yesterday. You may not notice, but I did trim the back of Kylah's hair. It was starting to look a little mullet-like. I think it turned out pretty cute!

I had put these slippers of Joey's in the goodwill pile, but Kylah found them. (Yes, Mere, these are the size 5 slippers you gave Joey thinking they would fit his size 8 feet last year!) :)

Chunky thighs...so cute on the little ones.

Thanks, Sarah, for all these pictures! And thanks for the help packing!

*******************************************************


On Monday night I got to have a fun girls' night with some good friends. It will be the last girls night for me with these girls. How I have enjoyed getting to know them. They are friends that will last even though I'm not in Nebraska anymore. Thanks for all the advice and laughs, girls!
(Amy, Heather, Tonya, me and Pam).



We also had a last play-date get together today with all my play-date mom friends and their kids. It would have been nice to have a picture of all the kids together, but I forgot my camera at home.

We're chugging away here and counting down the days until we can see daddy/Joe again, and then counting the days until we leave for Christmas vacation!

The Lord is good

The Lord has really answered some prayers for our family in the past week.

1. We found a wonderful in-home daycare for our kids to go to in Arkansas (they'll be going three days a week like they do here.) It is called Tiny Tots Christian Daycare!

2. Joe (with Dave's help...thanks Dave!) found us a wonderful---and very well-priced---rental home in Arkansas. We decided to go the rental route for a little while in order to sell our house here in Nebraska and to take our time finding the right house to buy in Arkansas.
Here's the little rental beauty:

Did I mention it has 3 bedrooms?!

3. God has kept our family safe and healthy while being apart this past week and a half.

4. I am not going crazy being a single mom! Both Joey and Kylah have been really well-behaved and both have been sleeping well. (Don't get me wrong...there have still been a few spankings and time-outs handed out!) But overall, I have been pleasantly surprised.

5. Being able to Skype with Joe/Daddy. I think this really helps the kids being able to see daddy while they talk to him. And I think it does Joe's heart good to see the kids running and playing!

Thanks for all your prayers during this transition time for our family. We really do appreciate it!

What to do on a snow day...

We got almost 12 inches of snow over the past two days. Quite a bit in my opinion. Not only is there mega amounts of snow, the wind chill is way below zero.
(This isn't actually a picture I took, but it gives you an idea of what's around town.)


We had to come up with some different things to do today.

First of all, we missed this guy like crazy!

We watched this movie a few times over the past two days. I rented this for Joey, and we had popcorn too!

We tried to brave the cold to go play in the snow. The kids lasted about 5 minutes. But the hot chocolate afterward was a hit!

Luckily, one of our kind neighbors came and used this to get all the snow off our driveway! (We took them cookies later.) :)

I was quite well taken care of since Joe is away: our next door neighbor snow-blowed our driveway yesterday after the first round of snow. Our friend Greg was going to load his snow blower up in his car to bring it over to do our driveway. Another good friend of ours, Tim, had his wife call to check on me and offer his services for snow removal. And then around noon today I look outside and our neighbors across the street are in our driveway clearing it totally off (I will also say that neither of our neighbors knew at the time that Joe was gone---awesome neighbors!!)

I received a call yesterday from my dad telling me that I better not try to shovel the snow by myself. He told me "pay someone to do it if you have to." I assured him that we had plenty of friends and neighbors with snow blowers, that I thought we would be ok. Then, a few hours later, my oldest brother calls. One of the first things he says is, "don't even try to shovel all that snow by yourself." :) So nice to be so well taken care of (over-protective?????) I love them, though! And, I wanted to remind both of them that I'm pretty sure when I was young I was forced to go shovel the snow off the driveway with my brothers...hmmm... :) But I obeyed and didn't shovel it.

Meanwhile, back inside, we built a nice big tower out of blocks (and every other toy Joey could find lying around.)

Look at that beauty!

They played in laundry baskets for quite a while.

After our driveway was clear, we braved the roads to go hang out with the Nunamaker's. Amy cooked a good dinner, and the kids had some play time.

Then it was home to bed for the kids, and then Amy came over to watch a fun girlie movie with me.

(Good movie, but the book was better!)

Now I'm talking to my hubby, and then I'll be off to bed.