December

John and I at his Christmas party for work. It was a great time.We enjoyed lots of good food, visiting, and gambling. I am now addicted to roulette. We'll have to make a trip to Jackpot soon!

This year we went to Ekalaka for Christmas. We were so excited to see all of the Kalstrom's. It had been four years since all of us were together last.

Kaylee and Dylan wanted to take a goofy picture, so here it is.

Mixing up the cookies for santa.

They were all having so much fun.

Decorating the cookies

Summer worked very hard preparing all of the food for Christmas day. Here she is after a long day in the kitchen. She made tons of great food, yummy.

Alyssa decorating cookies.

The cookies were yummy. Kaylee looks like she is wearing lipstick but it is actually frosting.

McKaylee and Daddy relaxing

Dylan loves the slinky santa left in his stocking.

Santa came to grandma and grandpa's on Christmas morning! Dylan was super excited and rushed over to give him a hug and sit on his lap. The girls were not so excited and wanted to keep their distance.

Mommy kissing santa clause. I was trying to convince the girls that santa was nice and not scary.

Grandpa and Kaylee

Dylan couldn't wait to open all of his presents.

Nicole, MAK, and Charlotte.

Opening their new DS.

Alyssa having fun too!

All of my kids just adore Nicole. She played so many fun games with them!

Nicole and MAK. We were happy to finally get to meet Nicole. She is such a sweetheart and fits into our family perfectly. We spent the night at their house in Butte. Alyssa decided to wake up at 4 am (she doesn't sleep well unless she is in her own bed) and was screaming. It was nice to travel with these two on our way to Ekalaka.

Summer and I. I sure have missed this girl! Thanks for being such a great sister-in-law to me Summer.

Brad and Summer. We finally made it out to Spearfish to see Brad and Summers house. This is the first time we have been back to South Dakota since college. We enjoyed seeing their house and hope to make it out there again soon~ Unfortunately we ended up hitting a deer on the way back to Ekalaka. Dylan was so mad at John. He couldn't believe his dad killed Bambi.

John and MAK

All of the girls. I had so much fun visiting with all of them.

John, MAK, and Summer

McKaylee and Dad

Nicole decorating the tree.

This tree just might win the most original award! It was for sure a one of a kind tree, missing the top. John has been wanting a "real" Christmas tree for a long time (like every year since we have been married). Bill, Charlotte, Nichole, and Mak went and cut this one down the day before Christmas. The tree was huge and barely made it through the door.


Bill and Jerry. Jerry was on call over Christmas. Bill and Jerry ended up getting called out almost everyday we were there. Bill loved the opportunity to spend time with his dad. I wish we could have spent more time with these two.

There was so much snow! Uncle MAK was great and let McKaylee ride on the tractor while he plowed snow. Everyone was planning on leaving the day after Christmas but the weather had other plans for us. We actually got snowed in! We were able to spend one more day with everyone before leaving on Sunday. We ended up following a snow plow at 6 am the next morning. The drifts were so high on the highway that the plow just went right down the middle of the road. Good thing we were behind the plow, otherwise we wouldn't have made it.

Dylan and John

My baby Alyssa. She is so set in her ways. She insisted on wearing these pj's (her flowers) all of the time. When I would take them off of her to wash them, she couldn't wait to get them back on.

Playing cards.

We had so much fun visiting with all of the family! Thanks for such a good time everyone.