Christmas Eve 2010

We celebrate Christmas with our families on Christmas Eve. We arrived at the Muhligs' around lunch time and then went to my parents' house at dinner time.  After we arrived at Ryan's parents' house we ate lunch, opened gifts and then the adults played robber's bingo. There is never a dull moment at the Muhlig house and you can always count on lots of laughs.  This year the highlights were Dustin falling through the ice at the creek and walking back to the house in his underwear. Then wearing Nana Muhlig's robe, and earning the name Hugh Jensen. The other highlight was when Ashley's boyfriend, Joe, won most of the gifts at robber's bingo and it became Joe's Christmas. He was a very polite young man even when he opened some rather tacky gifts. I sure hope he comes back next year with many of the items regifted.

 There is always rough housing on Christmas Eve

 Bob and Brett (who happens to be taller than everyone now).

 Robber's Bingo in action

 Matt, and Papa Muhlig helping Hugh into his robe

Hugh Hephner eat your heart out!

 A long awaited pillow pet

Garrett licking his chocolate pie, who needs silverware anyway?

 Joe's Christmas

Nana Muhlig, Garrett, Jen & Travis

After a fun time at the Muhligs' we headed across town to my parents' house. We then all went to pizza hut for dinner and then to church. While the rest of the fam arrived 30 minutes early to church, Kaitlyn drove Ryan and I around Council Grove...and amazingly we made it to church in one piece. After church we went back to mom and dad's house to open gifts. By the time we got through ALL the gifts it was time for us to head home to Augusta so we could all be snug in bed before Santa arrived.

Surprisingly we didn't get kicked out for being so loud.

 All the girls received Christmas teddy bears.

 Such a pretty face Kaitlyn

 

 The girls opening their "big" gifts

New digital cameras! Yipee!

KC Trip

Wednesday evening we enjoyed our visit with Terry, Angie & Jillian.  We went out to dinner and then we kept them up entirely too late visiting, as Terry and Angie had to work the next day.

On Thursday morning we made our way to Cabelas and Nebraska Furniture Mart for some quality shopping. And then it was off to GWL. It became quite evident that our child is a bit spoiled when going to GWL was really no big deal to her. Although she was excited when we broke the news, once she had played in the waterpark for an hour she was ready to move on to something else. We did spend quality time at  Legends Mall and then went back to GWL where we made sure that Madelyn spent more time in the waterpark. Then it was story time in the lobby, where it began to snow and Rudolph made an appearance, then it was off to the arcade. We were all tired from a busy day and crashed early.

 A little blurry from the steam in the hot tub

 On Friday morning we woke up to a beautiful snow and made our way to Council Grove for Christmas with our families.

If we return to GWL it will definitely be with friends. When it is just the three of us Madelyn is attached to our hips and with friends she would likely have had more fun and would have spent more time in the waterpark. Or maybe I'm just trying to deny that we have created a spoiled child. :)

Heading Out of Town

Today is the beginning of  Madelyn's Christmas vacation so I decided to take the day off and spend with her. The only thing we actually have planned is to go see the Yogi Bear movie, other than that I will probably be getting ready for our trip to KC. As soon as Ryan gets off work we will make our way to KC where we will stay with our dear friends, the Bosch's. Then on Thursday the three of us will be going to Great Wolf Lodge unbeknownst to Madelyn. Amazingly we have kept this a secret for a couple of months. She will be thrilled when she finds out. This will be her fifth time going and this time she will be able to go down the slides without us which is thrilling to me! I'm looking forward to shopping at Nebraska Furniture Mart and Legends Mall and of course Ryan has Cabelas gift cards that are burning holes in his pockets.

On Friday morning we will travel to Council Grove where we will celebrate Christmas with Ryan's family and then my family. Of course we have to make it back to our house that night because Santa will be visiting.

Merry Christmas to all (the 4 people that actually read this)!!

"Elfie"

"Elfie" our Elf on the Shelf  has appeared in some interesting places this season.

I'm pleased that Elfie joined our family two years ago. It/he has become a fun family tradition that we all look forward to every Christmas season.

Hemming for Dummies

Baking Day

Today Madelyn and I had our annual baking day. Madelyn was quite excited about plans for baking and mentioned a time or two that we bake every year and it has become our "family tradition." Well the family part was short lived as she was involved for about an hour and then found something more entertaining to do, and Ryan is nowhere to be found on baking day. But Madelyn was very helpful when needed, especially when it came to the tedious peanut butter balls. After spending a majority of the day baking and then cleaning up we delivered most of the goodies to neighbors and friends. With the exception of the peanut balls because Ryan prefers to keep those for himself.

The bakers

The finished products: peanut butter balls, puppy chow, choc covered pretzels, rolo pretzels, peanut clusters

Packaged up and ready to deliver to neighbors and friends

Ten Years Ago

It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years since that terrible quadruple murder took place. That day Augusta High School lost a vibrant, young teacher, and families and friends lost treasured loved ones. I often wonder how the sole survivor is doing, and I wonder how the victims' families have moved on. It angers me that the murderers are still alive and well in prison, getting 3 meals a day, heat in the winter, ac in the summer, tv, etc., They are undeserving bastards and should not exist in this world. *Gasp* I guess you all now know how I feel about that.
Below is the link to the article that appeared in the Wichita Eagle today.
http://www.kansas.com/2010/12/15/1633883/ten-years-later-carr-brothers.html