Christmas in Indianola

Christmas Day we headed down to Indianola to celebrate Christmas with my family.
Morgan digging into her stocking finds a new doll!
Piper dressed up in her Christmas outfit, which was her mom's Christmas outfit when she was a little girl and her older sister Morgan wore it too!

Morgan finding more presents in her stocking!

Wade, Heather and I with our stockings!

After brunch, we made our way into the other room to unwrap presents! Heather and Morgan can't hardly wait!

Christa and Wade chillin' on the couch

Trigg and Morgan are both wearing their Christmas red!

Morgan unwraps a Cinderella barbie!

After opening gifts, the girls changed into their Central shirts...Go Dutch!

...Trigg has a sweet onesie with the Central "C"!

Piper telling me how awesome her new Central shirt is...and me agreeing!

Morgan and Trigg both with smiles

Grandma Keri and Trigg...all of this celebrating makes for a tired little guy!

We had a great time celebrating Christmas in Indianola with my family. Lots of good food, time spent with family and plenty of new memories made with the kiddo's. Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Ankeny

Christmas Eve we headed to Ankeny to celebrate Christmas with Heather's family. Trigg wore his one piece red Christmas sweater!
Heather, Addy and Trigg chillin' in the chair!

Rob, Toby, Chad and Brent (the dudes) hanging out in the kitchen!

...and the kiddo's chasing each other around the house...I was able to capture one of the rare moments when there were all together and not running!

Our meal was fantastic, turkey and all the fixins. I made a Kraft Foods recipe: Cider Glazed Brussels Sprouts that turned out pretty good. (I included a link if you want to try them)

After lunch we all headed downstairs to open presents!

Aaron helped pass them out...

...waiting for all the adults to make it to the basement.

Trigg taking in all the excitement that comes with 7 cousins!

All the kiddo's open presents as the same time...have you ever been to the zoo, to the koi pond and thrown fish food into the water...it becomes a frenzy of fish...that is kind of what this scene was like, paper in every direction as everyone ripped open their presents to see what was inside!

Karys and Gracie unwrapping gifts!

Our staple gift this year was books. My personal feeling is that kids, in general, have way too many toys, so if I have any say in the gift giving, (spoiler alert) it will be books! Today's readers, tomorrow's leaders! We got Aaron the book, I Love Monkey, since he loves monkeys!

Aaron and I

...after the presents, it was craft time!

We had a great time in Ankeny celebrating Christmas with Heather's family. Good food, time spent with family and plenty of memories made! Merry Christmas!

Christmas at the_comforts

Our church had Christmas services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! It fit in our schedule to go to the Thursday service, the Christmas Eve Eve Eve!
Trigg got dressed up in his dress shirt and cords!

Then we told him the dad was going to wear a matching shirt...he is still young enough to think that is awesome!
Trigg and I ready for church!

...looking pretty sweet!

After church, we changed into our Christmas jammies!

With Heather's parents in Ankeny and mine in Indianola, we are home for Christmas (which is nice!) So Christmas morning, we all headed downstairs in our Christmas jammies!

Trigg was excited to find his stocking!

...he reached his little paw in there to see what he could find...

Animal alphabet flashcards! Perfect!

I got some new shades! Riley is just as excited as I am!

We had a great Christmas, the Christmas Eve Eve Eve service was fantastic, being with family and friends on Christmas is wonderful and seeing Trigg smile when he wakes up in the morning (after sleeping 8+ hours) is the best present for new parents! Merry Christmas!

Early Christmas

Great Grandma Gloria headed down to Texas for Christmas, so we got together with her, the Pella VL's and the Strouds the weekend before Christmas.
The Pella VL's latest addition to the family, Camille, hanging out with Heather.
Grandma Great and Trigg

Nathan and Aaron are super excited about their presents!

Trigg fell asleep so we opened his present for him...included in his present, the sweet Secret Agent badge we clipped on his blanket!

We had fun celebrating an early Christmas with Grandma before she flew down to Texas!

Fun in December!

December is full of celebrations! Christmas parties, work parties, New Year's Eve...here is a few we celebrated this December.
Dawn, Heather, Joni and Kim got together for their annual Christmas party. They went out to eat and then back to our house for games and fun!
Heather's small group of gals also got together for a Christmas party with lots of laughs and plenty of good food!

Heather and I also celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary in December! Grandma Doreen watched Trigg for the evening so we could have a date night! We went to Cafe De Scala, it's so good, I highly recommend it. But it finally sank in...our dinner reservations were at 5:30, we are officially parents!

December flew by...but it was filled with family and friends and lots of fun!

2 Months!

Trigg turned 2 months old last week...and it amazes me how fast he is growing. We snapped a few pics. Check out the sweet hat!
All smiles!

Chillin' with his hat and tie

He loves to move and kick!

...and more smiles and giggles!

What a dude!

Trying on more hats!

All these pictures make for one tired baby!

What's better than a tired baby? A tired baby and a tired puppy!

After nap time, more kicking and moving and smiles...

...and giggles!

I can hardly believe that our little man is already 2 months old. We love this little guy to pieces and it is so fun being his parents!