Christmas in South Dakota

I like to think that this picture sums up our trip to South Dakota. Party at Aunt Deb's house. Can you find all the children? I counted five. And a puppy.
We had so much fun over christmas time. We were able to fly to Sioux Falls on Christmas Eve to spend time with Tony's friends and family. If Evie hadn't gotten adjusted to social life in Disney and VA, she definitely got her dose of people time in SD. Pretty much all of the pictures I have are of someone holding Evie. Cant get enough of that tiny face.
Very glad that we were able to catch a few friends while we were in town and they were in town!
Rachel stopped by for an evening and we all got to hang out while I snacked on five pounds of cherry tomatoes.

We were able to meet little Emmaline (and I was able to meet Kristin and Eric)! What a fun family they are. Emmaline was probably the most smiley baby I have come across. And so mobile. She is like a month and a half younger than Evie and she is already crawling and standing up.
Where they were, a little boy around Elijah's age had just gotten a train set. Elijah was occupied for the rest of the afternoon to say the least. Emmaline was very interested in Evie's headband.

Maybe someday, Evie will grow hair.
Im thinking they could totally handle twins.
We also got to hang out with Hannah and Jon and ball of cuteness baby Ivan, but I am a dumb dumb and there are no pictures to be seen. Too busy holding Ivan.
We spent some time with the Koens side of the family. Again, here is Evie, modeling with family. Tony's dad got to play with little Evie.
We had a yummy dinner at Tony's aunt lisa's house and got to play a little.
Grandpa Koens. We were especially thankful to be able to spend a few occasions with Gpa Koens this trip, since Grandma Koens recently passed.
On the Earley side of the fam, we had roughly a million children for Elijah and Evie to play with! We had so much fun and so many babysitters.
Sid is such a little mommy.
I can't believe how grown up Morgan is, even the just the few years I have known her!
Kelly is probably my hero. Grad school, job, and three growing children?? She does it with ease.
Aunt Tam and Oliver the pup, sources of entertainment for everyone. Especially Elijah.
Happy Birthday Kialee! Evie was only upset because she didnt want to sit down...
Tony's brother Tyler! He is awesome with the kiddos.
And of course Gpa Earley! Funny thing about this picture, I dont think Evie was actually sleeping, I think she just blinked.
I swear I had more pictures of family!! I so wanted to post a cute video of Elijah playing with Uncle Joe and another of Elijah giving all the Aunties kisses, but again, internet not so good right now. I will work on it. Please no angry letters.

Onward to Virginia

So, I find that we did not take a whole lot of pics in VA, but we did take a few videos. We had lots of fun relaxing, going to the mall, and visiting family in the area. Went into DC to hang with juju one night, dinner at Jen and AJs one night, a day at Mommala's, and Christmas (Christmas Eve eve) dinner at Papa Mickey's. We went to Dad's retirement party at work and ate all the pulled pork we could handle. As a gift, the company gave him a baby grand piano. A baby baby grand.
Here is Lizzie demonstrating her skillz.


And Elijah doing a duet.
Ok, so they gave him that and an actual digital piano to practice on. Pretty sweet.
Here is some Christmas present activity. We opened presents early while everyone was gathered and we were still in VA. Elijah helped open everybody's presents.
Hanging out at Jules and Marks. carrots are good for you.
Grandma Debbies fancy master bath.

Evie discovered her reflection at Jenny's house.


I will post more videos later. The internet is kind of choppy and wont let me upload any more right now.

Love, Laura

PS we LOVE having Papa Mickey around!! He watches the kids for me all day on tuesdays while I am in class. Did I mention that I will be having my graduation ceremony this may!? Technically I will still be in school but since summer will be my last semester, and they only do graduation ceremony once a year, I can participate with this spring's ceremony!

Christmas Vacation 2010, Part 1 of 3. Disney and Universal!

So, starting our epic Christmas vacay, we went to Universal Studios for a few days, then Disneyworld for a few days! Despite looking like this some of the days...overall, they did so well handling all the busy days and fun fun fun they could take.
This is in Islands of Adventure.
There were Who's! Who's walking around the Dr Suess part of Islands of Adventure.
Brooklyn, Lizzie, and Elijah

I thought Elijah might be afraid of the big characters, but he LOVED them! He gave Curious George a big hug.
And Scooby got a hug too.
I think this picture displays very appropriate symbolism.
A big highlight of the trip.... HARRY POTTER WORLD. I thought it would be cool to see, but not a huge deal. Once we walked in though, you're in freaking HARRY POTTER'S WORLD.
it was amazing. Soo cool. Definitely lives up to all the hubbub.

We stocked up on wands, chocolate frogs, and various scarves, candies, and some indulged in butterbeer.

Next, we shuttled over toooo.....DISNEYWORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you have never been to disney at Christmas time, I highly suggest it. Everything is just that much more incredibly amazing. It was like a two day out-of-body experience. Here we are, entering the park for the first time


Check out Brooklyn in the background. Way to be on the look out for a camera.

Teacups! Our first Disney ride.
It was one Lizzie was most looking forward to. Mark too.
Dont worry, I controlled the gas pedal on this ride.
Main st, Disney at Christmas! We got special tickets to Mickey's Christmas Parade after the park was closed. They made it snow!
While waiting for the parade to start, we tried to keep occupied.
Julia and Marcus.

Proof that Mark has held a baby.And now the parade! Cinderella's carriage in front of Cinderella's castle??!! That about sums up the magical-ness. (magicality?)
Look how pretty the castle is all lit up for Christmas.
Toy soldiers/drummers? They were awesome.
And of course, Santa!
Elijah watched the fireworks with Papa Mickey, and laughed the whole time at the noises he was making.


At Disney, we stayed at the Contemporary, which was AWESOME, but I didnt take pics there for some reason, we did, however, visit one of the other resorts to see the GIANT gingerbread house!! Totally edible! It was amazing! My brother Mike styled Elijah's hair that day so Elijah was looking like this.

Here is the lobby area, you can see part of the House to the left of the tree.

We could not get the whole house into the frame. Also could not get Elijah to look at the camera.So it was basically the most amazingly magical wonderful outrageously awesome crazy fun family Christmas time vacation trip of a lifetime EVER ever. Thanks Papa Mickey. Happy graduation and retirement. What a way to celebrate.

Next up: Trip to Virginia
Later: Christmas in South Dakota and New Years in St Paul