Family Picture

The Sunday after Christmas when everyone was dressed up in their new Christmas attire I made sure to take a picture of the family. Since I never got Christmas cards out this year I was going to send out New Years cards and use this picture of us. Well that never happened either. What a slacker I am. Can you send out Valentine cards? Even if we don't get any cards sent out, I thought the picture was too cute not to share. What a good looking family I have.

Christmas 2010

If I get my Christmas photos posted before the end of January then I am still good right? Well Santa found his way to our house and we all had a wonderful Christmas. Here are some pictures of the fun day.

The traditional picture on the stairs as the kids are waiting for the ok to come down and open their presents.

The thing Sadie wanted the most for Christmas was a barbie with a guitar. When she opened this guitar first she said, "Oh, maybe Santa wants me to be the barbie".

These are pictures from Christmas at Grandma's house. It's almost as fun as Christmas at home.

I love this picture of Aubrey. She decided that she liked this present thing and she kept going to grandpa and holding out her hands wanting him to give her more presents.

Another Christmas come and gone and everyone got plenty spoiled.

Christmas Party

For the Koltermann family Christmas party this year Jodi came up with some fun "minute to win it" games (Christmas style) that we could play. We were having so much fun, that I didn't take many pictures. 

Here are the little girls trying to get a rudolph nose to stick. It was a little harder than we thought to get the vaseline to stick on their nose. Maybe because it all came off in their hair. 

 This one we had to get all the ribbon off one roll and onto the other. Each couple got a chance to try. Melanie and Ryan went first and were hilarious to watch. They couldn't quite get the rhythm. Mom and dad even played this game. They did ok, but couldn't beat Wyatt and me. We were so quick that nobody even got a picture of us.  

 We always have a sing-a-long at our party. Grandma has a few props for the kids and we all sing Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells. Grandma only has one blinking nose and the kids always fight over it. We didn't have to worry about Aubrey fighting for it, she didn't like it at all. Why does her dad get so much pleasure out of teasing his kids?

The Nativity

The party wouldn't be complete without the Nativity play. The kids love to dress up and act out the Nativity while someone reads the story of Jesus. It was Sadie's turn to be Mary and Derek's turn to be Joseph this year. We even had a real baby Jesus this year (Keyli) instead of the usual doll. She wasn't the happiest baby Jesus, but she sure was cute. Broc thinks he's a little to old to participate, but when Sadie asked him if he would be her donkey he couldn't tell her no. For the last few years Kamryn, Britnee, and Camille have wanted to be shepherds or wisemen so that they can make beards out of toilet paper. This year they got real creative and even made eyebrows for the wisemen. Brynli and Sophie were angels, Bogue and Rachel were shepherds and Serena was the star. Shalece and Shaelyn were the narrators and directors. It was a great production.

Pictures with Santa

I hadn't taken my kids to see Santa this year (or last year for that matter), and I wanted to get the token pictures with Santa for a project I was doing. I didn't have a lot of time so I took my kids down to the local Walmart to see Santa.  I was surprised to find that there was no line.  We were the only ones there to see Santa. Then I saw the Santa, and realized why there was no line. Walmart couldn't find any employees that looked a little more like Santa? And what's up with the blue shirt under the Santa suit? I guess you get what you pay for, and since this visit was free, this is the Santa we got. The Santa may not be great, but I love all my kids expressions.

Here's Sadie just so excited! 

 Derek is kinda like "whatever mom"

 Brynli is thinking "Seriously, do you want me to believe this is Santa?"

 Kamryn is like "Are you really going to make me sit on Santa's lap?"

 And Aubrey doesn't want anything to do with this stranger.

  

Time to Decorate

 Decorating our Tree 

Decorating Grandma's Tree

 I love this picture. I guess that was the best branch on the tree

A Christmas to Remember

When we started building our house back in April we were expecting it to be finished by the end of the year. This summer, things were moving along really well and they told us it might be finished be the end of October. At that point we thought "If we could just be in by Thanksgiving that would be great". Well October came and went, and we were still waiting on the house. We were still hoping by Thanksgiving but that reality seemed less and less possible. After Thanksgiving passed we were hoping by Christmas and before the baby came. We didn't put up a tree or any Christmas decorations at our house, we were waiting to be in the new house. As Christmas drew closer we knew things would be close, but we were determined to stay the night at our new house on Christmas Eve even if it wasn't finished. The night before Christmas Eve we finally got the go ahead to move into our new house. We moved all of our essentials in on Christmas Eve, set up a Christmas tree, and hoped Santa would find as at our new address. We were so excited to finally be in our house. What a great Christmas present for us.

Well, Santa did find us and we had a great Christmas. Here are a few pictures of Christmas morning.






Here are all the kids ready for church in their new Christmas attire.

And here is our favorite Christmas present! She came a few days late, but she is still our Christmas baby.