Christmas 2014

We recovered in time to celebrate Christmas pretty much healthy. Hallelujah!!!

I'm not sure where all my pictures of the kids opening presents are...must not have uploaded them from my camera yet.

We got Jacob a big house Lego set. Aaron spent a lot of hours putting it together for him (he said there were way too many tiny pieces for Jacob to even have helped with it...there were TWO instruction books!). This was his reaction when he saw it put together. :)

 Aaron never can wait to let the kids open the presents and stockings! I think we did make it to Christmas morning this year for the stockings. :)

 Grace was fussing until Papa took her down to the floor so she was in on all the action!

 Christmas Day we had dinner over at Jeremy's. Papa was happy to have his hands full with these two babies!

 Hilarious that they both got Minion shirts for Christmas and they both wore them the same day!

Jacob and Jaxon :)

The Friday after Christmas, we headed out to the farm to celebrate with the Stinemetz clan...we were all healthy. Woohoo!!

 Grandma Mary Elizabeth with her namesake Grace Elizabeth :) I've lost count how many great-grandchildren they have now! It's well over 20.

 2nd cousins :)

 Oh my goodness, this is just so precious. Leah and Anna-I call them soul sisters-holding hands during prayer.

 Grace and Jaxon.

 Great Grandpa with Grace (he was rocking her so the pic is a little blurry).

 Ange couldn't make it, so she FaceTime'd with Amber so she could say hi to everyone!

 These two are the reason there was a houseful of 30-some people gathered to celebrate our Savior's birth. So, so thankful for the legacy they are leaving for the next generations...a legacy of love, survival, care, but most of all a legacy of faith! Love them more than I can say!!

 About 2/3 of the family I would say, was able to make it this year.

 Great-grandchildren singing the traditional "Away in the Manger"

 Hunter (my cousin's son) loves babies. He held Grace and put her to sleep in like 2 minutes! I told him he had no choice...he was coming home with me!!!

We went home Sunday afternoon, but Sunday morning Aaron started feeling sick. By lunch time, I was sick. You have got to be kidding me. We both caught some stomach bug (a few others caught it, too). 3 days we were sick. Thankfully none of the kids got it. Off and on for a week during that time, Aaron also had a really bad stomach ache-just sharp pain that would come and go. He said it's the worst stomach ache he's ever had. Not long after we got home, Isaac started with the same thing. It was crippling pain. He would just hunch over and cry, couldn't even walk. Only a hot bath made it feel better. There were no other symptoms. No fever, diarrhea, or even gas.

We thought Isaac was over his, so we went ahead and went to Jamie's for my family's gathering. He wasn't over it. It was more nights of not much sleep between him and Grace, while we were in Wichita. I had to be careful and not fall asleep sitting in the bathroom while he was in the tub because HE was so tired he fell asleep a couple of times sitting in the tub! But in between, he felt normal so he had lots of fun playing with cousins.

 Mia, trying to organize the kids and practice for the play. She had the following ages to corral: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, & 4. All but 2 were boys. HA!!!

 Case in point...he's supposed to be the innkeeper........

 Jamie & Cassie started what I think needs to be a new tradition! A "Random Acts of Kindness Race". Girls vs boys. Each team had a list of places to go and deliver a little gift. Everyone loved it!

 I guess that's Mia's game face?? 

 See ya, boys!!

 Our first stop was to drop off a bag of doggie treats at the Humane Society.

 We're lucky we didn't come home with a dog!

 Next up was putting quarters in the carts at Aldi.

Then we headed to Target with our gift card to buy clothes and toys for kids at a new temporary foster home (where kids are taken until a permanent foster home is located). It was great and I love the lesson our kids learned-it's not about them, and it's great to help and give to others in need!

We had decided before Christmas that we would spend the first week of January in Iowa. Aaron was ready for a break from work! We went home for a couple days first and kind of regrouped and repacked. And tried to get everyone healthy!

 It looked like Grace was pulling Aaron around the way she had ahold of the drawstring on his sweatshirt! Haha!

 Such a big girl! She LOVES to sit up!

 Isaac was not doing so great. He lost a decent amount of weight (which really shows when you're already scrawny). Aaron's ended up lasting about 10 days, so Isaac had a ways to go if he had what Aaron did.

I felt so bad for him. Nothing I tried helped him, except for a hot bath. And even then sometimes that didn't even help. Exhaustion for both him and me.

Next up...our trip to Iowa. Sick kid + baby who hates her car seat = interesting road trip!