Cone Christmas

What a fun time it is when Nana, Pops, and Ellen comes to our house! We had a great Christmas with them.

Thank you Nana, Pops, and Ellen for all the wonderful presents and helping to make Christmas special for us!

Christmas Morning

I know this is way overdue but I have to go on and finish up on our Christmas pictures. On Christmas day, we have the early morning with just us and the kids and then my family, the Cones, come over mid morning for the rest of the day. This has been the tradition for a few years now and it's been great. Here's a few pics of the kids opening Christmas morning presents.

Nate got some really got pics of Knox. I wish I had time to post them all but here's atleast one.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It was a sweet moment.

I have now completed Christmas posts. I'm sure you are as glad as I am! I haven't even taken any pictures the month of January! Life is crazy...The kids have been sick almost nonstop it seems and last week Nate's grandfather passed away. Nate took on a new position at the church as Minister of Discipleship, as well as being Min. of Young Adults, and he has gotten much busier lately. Knox will be one in a few weeks so you'll be seeing bday pics soon!

The Big Green Egg!!!!

(1st of 3 posts I did tonight so keep scrolling down!)

Several of Nate's friends got together and gave him a Green Egg for Christmas. He was so surprised and I was so excited for him! He had been looking at them on the internet and talking about it for several weeks. It was very hard for me to keep it a secret that he was getting one.

The egg in the box! (Please ignore the mess in the background.)

I meant to take pictures of us putting it together but I forgot. So this is it assembled.

The only mistake we made was putting the handle on upside down!

He's loving it!

So he got the egg on a Tuesday. That night he made a brisket. Wednesday night, Christmas Eve, he made a turkey. Christmas Day, a ham. And since then there's been a whole chicken and a boston butt! Wow! What a great gift! I'm already loving it!!

Mann Family Christmas

On the Saturday before Christmas we celebrated with the Mann Family. This is Nate's mom's side of the family. It's usually a huge event with lots of food, presents, and games. Fortunately, the weather was warm this year and the kids were able to play outside for the day.

This was Knox first time playing with a big truck!

Cute pic of Drake!

Aunt Debera getting some Knox time

I know this is a strange picture but I just had to include it. Making sauerkraut balls for Christmas is a tradition in the Mann Family. The first Christmas that Nate and I were dating, I tasted one of these and greatly disliked them. I don't fully understand the love of these things, but they are a must for the Mann's.

Fun on the trampoline...I know, it's not safe for that many to be on at one time. I just didn't look very often. It made me nervous!

Almost all the little cousins - total of 15 I think

Katie and cousin Josie are crazy about makeup and jewelry right now. They were so cute playing together.

Katie painting her toes before the crowd came over

Gotta have that Wii time!

The Shurden Family Christmas

The Shurden Christmas, with Nate's family, is always a big one and a very exciting time. We went to Laurel the Thursday before Christmas to celebrate with them. We had a great time!

A picture of all the grandkids - Rosalyn, Katie, and Knox with Ethan, their cousin they love!

Knox and Katie enjoying the first present brought out

Nate and Rosalyn hiding behind her presents!

Knox just loving crawling on all the presents. The kids started putting bows on his back. He loved his first Christmas!!

Ethan is so excited too!

Katie was very slow opening her presents this year. She wanted to be sure to look at each one.

Rosalyn relaxing afterwards

Knox is definitely into balls right now!

The 2 people that made Christmas fun and special again - Mom and Dad Shurden

Knox's excitement with a toy that makes music. He loves dancing!

Kids among the opened presents. (notice settlers of catan in the corner!!)

The girls big present was a doll house

Knox first time eating M&M's - thanks, Granny!

Fun in a bag and a box - the all time favorite things to play with, right??

Pathway Cookie Jars

I'm back!! With the holidays being gone I'm hoping to get the blog up to date. I'll post all our Christmas pics soon but for now I'll show you all the activities leading up to the 25th!

We love hanging out with the Pathway Sunday School Class that Nate has gotten involved with. As a Christmas Project for their class they made Christmas Jars with cookie mix in them.

The assembly line

The completed jars

Knox getting spoiled by one of our friends

Christmas Baking!

Every year we make Christmas cookies and give them to people. This year we had lots to make and we also made some tiger candy. What does Knox do while the girls and I bake? He was gated in the kitchen, which he was not happy about, and he made the biggest mess with his toys. If you click on the picture of him, you'll notice a cut under his eye. We're not completely sure what happened, but Rosalyn says she scratched him with her fingernail. It was a bad cut and even now, it looks like it may leave a scar.

Christmas Parties!

We had a great Christmas season this year. It was so fun to go to all the parties with the kids and watch their enjoyment and excitement with Christmas time.

This is a craft party we went to and had a great time. I didn't get a final picture of the craft but the kids made Angel Placemats with their handprints and footprints.

Knox even got to play with all his little friends!

This was another party we went to. The girls decorated lots of cookies and got to play for awhile with some of their good friends.

Rosalyn with one of her sweet friends from church.