Christmas 2010- Ohio Style (The last of 3 Christmas venues)

We spent the last part of our winter break celebrating Christmas with our family in Ohio. While there were some bummers (poor Mom getting the flu on Christmas day and our chocolate fountain kaput-ing on us)... there were lots of great memories that were made. Here are some of my favorites...

Lucas insisted that he hold his drum.... all the way... to Ohio. :)

Christmas Eve Cantata and Great-Grandma Rupp's house...

...getting ready for the cantata

...checking out Lucas' dinosaur

...the only picture I got with Grandma in it. ...the Wanamacher grandkids...

...some of the grandkids, playing behind the couches. Hmmm...just what we used to do 25 years ago! Haha...

Christmas Day festifivies at Grandma and Grandpa's... (bright-eyed in the morning!)

...Sophie received a cute purse that Grandma made, complete with chapstick, a phone, and a little notebook...

...Sophie's first "Sophie" book... a cute picture to go with each letter of her name. .. Mom also made this su-weet road map for Lucas to use his cars on. (More details coming in a later post)

A great tradition, started several years ago... the chocolate fountain. The kids (and us) waited in such anticipation as Mom prepped everything...only to find that the fountain didn't work. Ugh. No biggie though.... we just fondu-ed it by dipping our goodies in a big mixing bowl of chocolate. Hello sweet goodness!!! (Z and A...we missed you guys for this!!! Can you imagine FIVE kiddos partaking? Can't wait for next year!)

Not messy at all (below)... (This was just the beginning!)

And some miscelaneous goodies I couldn't resist...

Christmas 2010- Noblesville Style

After our time in Missouri (see previous post), we spent one day at our own house, catching up on laundry and having our own family Christmas.

Sophie's theme this year was all about her little baby dolls, which she's just starting to get really into. Nali got her a baby doll bed and dresser... we added a few accesories...

the stroller... and the bottles and baby food...

Lucas' theme was instruments... naturally (Remember? He asked for a big bass drum and a tuba for Christmas.) So... we delivered. Eric made Lucas this sa-weet tuba out of PVC pipes. It needs a few adjustments, but we're pretty excited about how it turned out. ...and the big bass drum (which sat on his lap during most of the trip to Ohio).

We also spent part of the day putting together Lucas' lego combine.... um... I must add... I was hooked from the start. SUPER fun to do. I was a bit nervous when I saw that it had 400 pieces and most of them quite small. But we persevered and had a blast doing it. The finished product will be posted later.
Sweet, sweet, Christmas mess.
We finished our day with our church's Christmas Eve Eve service and an outing to Chick-fil-A with our small group. What a great, relaxing day!!! Now on to Christmas in Ohio... post to come soon.

Can you kazoo?

Merry Christmas, from the Bland girls and Lucas!!

Christmas 2010- Missouri Style

The Crew:

All the kids, except for Miss Shelby
The brothers...
The sister-in-laws...Playing with our new presents...

Shelby's sit-and-spin... a big hit with Sophie, too!
New Matchbox cars!!
Showing Uncle Matt his Lego Combine kit from NaliJoseph's new drumAunt Alicia got a new popcorn maker... a big hit with ALL the kids... especially when it popped so much the top popped off and popcorn spilled onto the floor!!! :)
Uncle Greg got Lucas a new basketball hoop... of course, it had to be set up right away!Alana showing Sophie how her new phone works...Nali sharing some of her games on her phone...Plus a few other pics that couldn't be left out...Alicia graciously entertaining the kids with a game of UNO...

Papa Roger and Denise with the kiddos...

Can't help but think that Sophie looks so BIG in this picture!

One of Sophie's favorite toys wasn't even wrapped in a box... it was just some yarn she found and dragged it around for 5 days... :)

Great pic of cousins Ashley and Sophie...

Picture time over yet??? Waiting patiently to open presents.... haha...

Sophie and Sarah... (saying the Star Spangled Banner?) :)

We had a GREAT time in Missouri with Eric's family.... lots of games, entertainment from the kids (of course!), and just time spent together. Lucas' highlight was "playing with his cousins upstairs" and Sophie's highlight was eating her first ever Lucky Charms. She's hooked for life!