Chrismas Blizzard

We headed back to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's House late Christmas afternoon (after naps) for our Christmas Dinner. It was snowing and blowing, but it does that in good ol' ND. As we leave our neighbor hood (we had two cars: 1 is 4-wheel drive, the other is my awesome minivan.), we see a car stuck in the snow. I am following Scott since he has the 4WD, but I'm starting to panic in may car. We had packed some extra clothes for everyone JUST IN CASE we needed to spend the night. Well, sure enough we had to spend the night.

December 26th was spent with the guys (Grandpa, Scott and my brother-in-law) with some help from my sister, digging the cars out of snow drifts. We got the cars out, but they didn't help much because the streets were filled with snow.

We convinced the kids that they needed to spend some time out in the snow. It was pretty nice out considering the fact that we just had a blizzard (it wasn't 30 below 0 and it easily could have been making it much more miserable)

We know how to dress warm here!

Cayden in the snow.

Cayden with Grandma.

Nice jump Cayden!

All 3 "big" grandchildren (babies were napping inside) on the sled together. I think Cayden is the front, but I can't remember now.


Playing in the snow is exhausting! (Keno, our dog, is normally contained in our kitchen at home, but we brought him to Grandma and Grandpa's with us-in case we got snowed in. I think he really liked the free-roam he had at her house)

So, how does this story end... Well, there is so much more to it! Scott's parents were supposed to fly into Minot on the 26th, but all planes were cancelled into Minot. They couldn't get a guaranteed seat to Minot until Dec 29th. So they flew into Bismarck on the 27th, and some friends who were visiting their daughter and family brought my in-laws to Minot. Somehow they lucked out and their luggage got to Minot later on the 27th. My mom, dad and I ventured out to try to get to my house (for the 4th or 5th time) on Sunday. We made it to the end of my street, and my mom and I hiked through the snow to get to my house. It was too funny! We worked on getting my drive way cleared. As we were cleaning it, a payloader came through and got one lane of traffic cleared of snow (our neighbors came out cheering-they had been snowed in since Christmas Day also). So finally, we made it back to our house in the evening of hte 27th.

It really was a Christmas to remember!

Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's House. Here are some shots of the present openings.

Aleah (in sweater with red on it) and Cayley (white sweater) opening presents together. These two worked together on a lot of their presents.

Bryce opening a present. He kind of did his own thing during present opening.
Here is Bryce getting into the Holiday Spirit.
Cayley and Aleah working on another present together.
Cayden and his Batman Cave.

Cayden's Christmas Preformance

Cayden's "School" (aka: daycare) put on a Christmas show for their parents. It was so cute! Luckily, Scott arrived the day of the performance, and he was able to attend as well!

(Cayden has the red polo shirt on, in case you can't find him)
Apparently the teachers at school tell the kids to do their "bubbles" when they are supposed to be quiet. Well, Cayden listened very well. In between each song they would leave the room, get the next prop, and then come back out. Everytime Cayden came back out, he had his cheeks puffed out (we later heard about the teachers and the bubbles).




A class picture.


Wait! What do we hear?


SANTA of course! What's a Christmas performance without an appearance from Santa!

Daddy Came Home!

Daddy was able to take his 2 week R & R (aka: "vacation") from his deployment. Luckily I didn't tell Cayden when exactly his dad was supposed to be home because he was delayed on the trip home. Dad made it in time for Christmas though!

The babies were sitting down for lunch when Daddy came home. They weren't quite sure what to think, but they didn't get upset. Then after lunch, they took to him very quickly. I had to go back to work, but apparently the girls were stuck to him like glue after lunch. Here's Daddy with Aleah.

The first time Cayden had seen his dad in 5.5 months.

Mommmmmm

"Mom, I was here first!"
"Mom, she's touching me!"

Now, it is your pick who is saying what line. Silly girls! (Cayley is in the green shirt, Aleah is in the pink shirt)

Random photos

I was feeling like I needed to do an update on the blog, however there just isn't enough time. I haven't really taken pictures of the kids for awhile other than the occasional cell phone picture. Here are some:

Cayley playing on Grandma's toys.
Bryce playing with a toy at Grandma's.
Cayden helping me shovel. A teacher from school was kind enough to come sit with babies so I could clear out the snow.
Bryce loves to climb into these storage containers. He just sits and plays in them.
Cayley also enjoys sitting in the storage container. However she is one unhappy camper when Bryce (who is a good 6 pounds heavier than her) sits ON her in the container.

Aleah put this "pretty necklace" on herself the other day.

I brought up Cayden's couch from the basement. The babies have truly loved playing on it. Here is Aleah relaxing on the couch.

Cayley on Cayden's couch.

Aleah watching Dora while relaxing on Cayden's couch.
Cayden with Bryce and Cayley