My goal was to get the pictures from Christmas posted BEFORE February and I accomplished that task!!! (Slight giggles, but I'm counting it as a victory!! New Year's pics are still to come, but CHRISTMAS is here.) Here are some pictures of our WONDERFUL 3 weeks on the farm. I'm not sure if Mom and Dad have recovered from all the craziness that we brought to their house, but we loved every second of it.
Love getting to see my kids play with toys that I use to play with. This little toy is at least 30 years old and has been ridden on by an insane amount of kids!! Bitty gave it her seal of approval as well.
One of my FAVORITE things we did this year was an EPIC cookie baking day! My sister, Jenny, came over and we baked our hearts out. The kids joined in and at the end of the day we had enough cookies to last us the entire Christmas season, which with our family is quite an accomplishment. I'll have to give my sister the trophy for the best cookies. That woman has got skills!!
Nothing says fun like getting to coat your hands with butter!!
Making some Christmas wreaths with cornflakes and marshmallows.
Mom and dad double teaming the sweet Chex mix. This stuff is INSANE!!! I NEVER make it because if I did I would eat it ALL!! Plus, mom is far better at making it than I am so why even try!!
Last year we had absolutely NO snow and Myles and I were completely devesated! This year we were blessed with enough snow to ride the snowmobile and get to experience Christmas in Minnesota the way it was intended to be experienced.
There is NO DOUBT which one of my boys was born in MN and clearly has Northern blood in him!!
We did some great sledding and even Ty had fun outside. I as so proud of the fact that he was out there longer than the amount of time it took me to get him dressed! Yeah for progress!
Oh how I miss the view on my parent's farm when I'm away. The sunrise is for sure the way God intended it to look.
My Teeny girl even got her frist snow experience. The picture doesn't show it, but she LOVED the snow!! I was so proud. 2 out of 3 isn't bad, right?
Just chillin with Papa and doing some reading.
One weird tradition that I DO NOT take part in every year is the "Let's see if we can find the weirdest/grossest food and eat it" tradition. Brian and Kade are the main animals in this tradition and people tend to jump in here and there. These two have some STRONG stomachs. This year's food of choice was sardines. NO THANK YOU!! Kade tried to tell me it wasn't that bad, but I think he's full of it!!
Papa and Ty "watching" a movie together.
This girl was determined to get her pacifier which was attached to her jacket. She just pulled that jacket through the house and every time she would let go the paci would fall out of her mouth because the jacket was too heavy. It was just fun to watch her little mind trying to figure it out.
Natalie was showing Brian the importance of sharing.
One fun thing we did to pass the time before Christmas Eve Mass was we decorated our first gingerbread house. I wasn't so sure how it would go, but it was an absolute blast once we got the pieces to stay stick together. I was about ready to get out the glue gun. :-) Tracy is clearly super excited about the entire process too!!
Never trust ANYTHING that Ty gives you......Just sayin.
Keeping an eye on everyone from the stairs.
Loved the team work that went in to making this masterpiece.
Clearly saving some for later.
When he wasn't eating all the candy and frosting he was quite the decorator!
The finished product.
My Handsome Little Christmas Boys
All dressed up and ready to celebrate!
Love this one!
The boys with their food and letter all ready for Santa. This was the first year we did anything with Santa. I'm not against it at all I just wanted to make sure Jesus was the reason we got excited for Christmas and not the other guy. This year Myles' friends were clearly talking about Santa so we casually brought him into the mix but tried very hard to keep the focus on why we really celebrate Christmas.
Here is the note that Myles helped write to Santa.
Natalie CLEARLY needed to give Mikey and Nana some Christmas love!!
While others were distracted by presents and food, Natalie found it to be the perfect time to clean mommy's purse.
Brian and Mikey taking a little Christmas day nap. LOVE this picture.
So fun to have a girl to be able to make her little dresses like this!!
LOVE the fun that Tracy brings to our family.
The first Zins family Christmas photo!
The boys sharing some bacon wrapped water chestnuts. These were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!'
Words cannot express how excited Myles was to get his very first BIG Red Tractor!!
Ty showing off his sweet knew farm while Auntie T rocks my world with one amazing photo bomb!!
Ty and Jenny have a very special relationship and it Cracks. Me. Up. It's hard to explain but Ty is really good at playing hard to get and Jenny doesn't pester him, but messes with him and totally plays his game. While we were home he refused to call her auntie Jenny the entire time, but would call her Uncle Ken instead. This boy is a S T I N K E R and I am so thankful my sister can totally roll with the flow and I don't have to applogize. She rocks!
Two Happy Boys!
So Tracy so was excited about her new puzzle she got for Christmas (Why? I still don't know, but whatev. :-)) She started working on it right in the middle of the floor and after about 2 minutes she had to give up because of the all little critters who kept touching it and bumping it. She's still learning what life is like with kids. :-)
What does Nana think she's doing? That's my new Thomas shirt!!
My sweet Christmas Girl!
Poor Jordan thought he could take a nap and not get pestered.....poor poor kid...Not happenen if I'm around.
Sharing her half eaten marshmallow with Jordan. He's such a team player. Look how excited he is even!!
Nana clearly knows what this girl wants!
Yep.....We like to mess with our Jordan! He is SUCH an amaaaaazing sport and maybe the coolest teenager I know. I TRULY feel blessed that my boys will have him as a role model.
This tradition is one of my favorites (WAY better than the sardines). My brother Brian and Tracy buy a boatload of stuff for all the kids. Best part is that 90% of the gifts are consumable!!!! They get fun candy, pudding, mac and cheese, fun kinds of chips. All kinds of great stuff. They got each kid a goofy kind of toy too but it is something small and then you get to eat it and be done with it and there is no clutter!! LOVE IT and clearly the kids love it. Even Natalie was excited!
I'm so much more proud of this picture than anyone can imagine!!
Cousin Love!!! Nat and I both said how much fun it is to see how much all of these kids LOVE to be together. I grew up with LOTS of cousins and cannot imagine life without them and Nat did not and he really feels like he missed out. So happy our boys will know their cousins on both sides.
This was a great before and after picture. Myles thought he would do an elbow swing and poor Trevor was a bit too close. This was the actaul action shot.
LOVE LOVE LOVE that my kids get a grandpa who knows how to get down and play with them!!
Another odd tradition of Christmas night is that shirts tend to come off and a shirtless grandkid picture usually happens. I am totally aware of how odd this is, but for some reason it keeps happening. Even baby Mikey is showing some skin.
Clearly the neon shirt craze hit our house this year!!:-) As if I needed any help being loud.
We had some of the best movie nights on this trip.
I'm convinved Micheal is praying for a new extended family....
This girl got some good love from her cousins.
This was Tyler's face when we asked him if he had a good Christmas. I'll take that as a yes. Looks like we'll have to do it again next year.
Happy Birthday Jesus!!!
