Christmas in KS

We drove to Kansas on December 26th and Kolter was pretty miserable. But the next morning there was lots of excitement as we celebrated Christmas at Papa and Grandma's house!

Can you tell they were a little excited?

Kolter was still pretty miserable, but he perked up when he received a Batmobile and a ball!

Getting some snuggles from Papa

Cousin Koen (and his parents) paid us a visit and lots of wrestling ensued

We spent 2 days at Papa and Grandma's house and the kids enjoyed helping on the farm (including running for their life from the pigs), going to The Good Dinosaur, opening gifts and eating lots of yummy food!

On the way to our next stop we spontaneously stopped at the World's Largest Ball of Twine (Cawker City, KS). Despite their appearance they were thrilled ;) Hey, we were making memories ;)

Soon after we reached Smith Center, KS and Papa and Mema's house!

The kids jumped in to opening their gifts!

Nora received some hair bands and she insisted I put them all in, so I happily obliged. When you're in the middle of nowhere you make your own fun!

This is scary…the boys driving the tractor inside

Mema taught the kids how to play dominoes…can you tell Kolter has to be involved in everything?

When we reached Smith Center my head cold turned into a sinus infection with a headache, lots of pressure, lots of drainage and even my teeth hurt! I couldn't sleep or eat so I broke down and called the doctor (it was my home town, but I hadn't been to the doctor there in 15 years). Thankfully they were able to get me in that day. I saw a nurse practitioner who happened to be a parent of one of my classmates. We talked for 30 minutes just catching up. She diagnosed me with a sinus infection and an ear infection. Then she gave me her business card and wrote her cell phone number on the card and told me to give her a call if I needed anything else or if the kids needed anything. Awe, the perks of living in a small town.

While I was recovering the kids were taking Papa down! I'm not sure who loves wrestling more the kids or Papa!

The night before we left more Aunts, Uncles and cousins visited. Kolter kind of likes his Breckyn!

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The next morning we packed up and left for CO. We left one very important person behind…Kolter. I'll tell you more about that soon, but suffice it to say we were all sad to leave him. Thankfully, the antibiotics were taking effect and he was back to his normal self (personality and sleeping). Sawyer and Nora cried off and on throughout the day because they missed their baby brother :(

We made it back to CO on New Year's Eve. It also happened to be our 10th anniversary, so we snuck in a quick dinner at P.F. Chang's. Then we hit the hay early because we had to awake at 3:30 am to catch our flight back to OH. Christmas was a whirlwind, but we are so thankful for the time we got to spend with family and the relaxation we got…because things were about to get crazy!