Christmas 2012 was a huge success. Tons of family time, seeing old friends, and the twins were ridiculously adorable with all their second cousins and little friends. I’m not sure they “get” Christmas yet, but they get it is a super fun time of year and they enjoyed themselves opening presents and doing nosedives into the piles of wrapping paper (seriously). Spoiled is an understatement– we are incredibly blessed with generous parents and extended family.

It was our first road trip with all 3 boys… Our good friend Erin rode with us from Omaha to Fargo (she had a residency interview at UNMC) and she was so helpful! We stopped only once to feed and change the kiddos, and then we were off! Jack was a little crabby for the last half of the trip (exhausted), so I continuously gave him snacks– he even devoured a protein bar. Maybe the secret to getting him to gain weight is to just substitute food for naps 😉

One of my closest friends, Becky, has a little girl, Lila, and the twins are in love with her. We got together three times and seeing our kids play together was so much fun. It makes me so hopeful to move back to MN/ND one day. One morning we played at Discovery’s gym (perks of knowing the right people :))– Discovery/8th grade was where I became friends with Adam and Becky and it was so weird walking those halls again with our own kids! We also had brunch at the Winkelman’s one morning and Lila and the boys played “kitchen” and Uncle Tyler jumped around with them. We grew up at the Winkelman house so it was another surreal moment having our kids play together there too 🙂

Christmas Eve my dad’s family came over– there were 22 people! It was so much fun to see everyone again. Jack chased around my cousin’s daughter Josie and tried looking up her skirt. Oh boy… He’s barely 2. Troublemaker.

Christmas Day we spent with Adam’s dad’s side of the family. The boys played with Adam’s cousins Cade and Barron nonstop– they had so much fun together! Dancing, peek-a-boo… They were the center of attention and loved every minute of it. Jack also had 3+ cookies. Extreme sugar high followed by extreme sugar crash!

Adam and I even managed to get in a night out, complete with beer pong and keg stands. This mom isn’t used to those nights anymore… Ugh. But I had to document our night out so my kids will know that I was once cool. (not even that cool, because I still left at 12:30 to go home and sleep)

The last night of our Fargo trip was a surprise party for Grandma Peggy. Even though she was really sick, I think she had a great time and we had a lot of fun celebrating with her! Thanks to Sue, Sue, and Mary Kay for planning 🙂

Eli was awesome the whole trip. Okay, except for one major meltdown while my sister and Jordan were babysitting… Not good. I walked in and the first words from Jordan were “He just stopped crying.” Uh oh.

Krysta: “Yeah, I had to walk away once.”

Me: “sorry K. Thanks for dealing with him Jordan.”

Krysta: “yeah Jordan, thanks for dealing with him <em>and</em> me.”

Ha! Krysta is awesome with kids, so clearly little E tested his auntie 😉

Speaking of Krysta– she graduated from nursing school on Dec 14th! Not only that, but she also accepted a job at Essentia’s NICU. Her dream job! To make things even more awesome, Jordan is moving back to Fargo as he accepted a position as a CPA the same day Krysta accepted her job. They have a lot of exciting things happening right now.

Even though all 3 boys did awesome during our 7-hr road trips, we will not be doing another one for quite some time… So family and friends– feel free to come visit us in Omaha any time! Hotel Stibbe is loud and insane, but the cuteness factor makes up for it 🙂