Breaking it Down on Holiday Break!

Water park fun! 

Daryl was in the lazy river for about an hour! 

I have been home with the boys since Christmas. Even though I have broken up many fights, and yelled more than once, it has gone really fast!

We had the Stiles family over for Christmas. I really enjoy when our families can be together since we live so far apart. Little Clara is getting big, as are Henry and Charlie! We had our traditional Chinese take out Christmas Dinner and watched Lego Batman together. I think that is my favorite Batman movie.

A couple of days later I took the boys for a couple of days at a indoor water park for their Christmas present. They loved it! There was a major meltdown both days when we were leaving the pool, but that was to be expected. I like our trip instead of toys, we might have to find a new location for next year!

I hope everyone had a happy holiday, and a safe and happy New Year!

 Daryl is drawing Purl in her natural habitat. On the couch! 

The boys got sketch pads and pens in their stockings. They love to draw!

Clara got the only knit Christmas gift this year. She will need it in South Dakota! 

Cousins at Christmas!

Let Christmas Begin!

We had Dodge City Christmas last weekend, the boys have Holton Christmas this weekend, and we have Topeka Christmas next week! It is so fun to get together with all of our family over the holidays.

The presents have all be bought, AND WRAPPED, so that might be a new record for me. I had a few less to wrap, because this year I decided to get the boys an experience over toys. So sometime next week we are going to Coco Keys water resort to spend a couple of days swimming and having fun in Kansas City. I will report on how my little experiment goes! Frankly, I got tired of stuffing clothes in their over flowing dressers, and picking toys up off the floor. They didn't need anything, so let's just go have some fun! It was an easy sell to Daryl, Alex is not so sure.

I knit a thing this month. A little baby hat made with my leftover sweater yarn. So it is officially winter, and in 2017 I knit TWO things. LOL I will make the goal three things for next year. Merry Christmas Everyone!

A very rare picture of all three of us Stiles girls! Sofia is camera shy but had some peer pressure to take this one! 

We stopped at Braum's both ways for Ice Cream! We love our ice cream!  

Larned has a great park, it was cold but that didn't stop us! 

A wee little hat! 

Holiday Card 2017

Last weekend was so fun filled I can't believe it is almost the weekend again! On Friday, the boys and I had the Shunga Valley 4-H Christmas party. That ended with a walk through Potwin to see the lights. It was a gorgeous evening for a walk!

On Saturday, we went to the Lawrence Old Fashioned Christmas Parade. It is all horses and horse drawn wagons. I had never been before, and it was really cool to watch. Parking was a challenge and we will be a little earlier next year!

To round out our weekend, Aunt Barb hosted us in Holton for Birthday lunch! We got to see Grandpa Mike and Great Grandma Hazel too. Thank you Aunt Barb, everything was perfect! The boys were asleep in the car before we were even out of town!

So the story of the family Holiday card is usually taking the picture, or the idea of the picture. That was easy this year, because I decided to make it easy. The wonderful Harrington's invited Santa from the North Pole, and I just booked a session for me and the boys. I didn't tell them Santa was going to be there, so they were very surprised!

I was hurried to get our proof back from the photographers because I wanted to hit the Shutterfly Black Friday sale. They had a really good deal on cards and photo gifts, and I already had my list ready. I just needed the proof! I got it in time, but my card list was at the office. So I just ordered 25 and the gifts I wanted.

When I got to the office on Monday I counted how many I actually needed, 30. Shoot! The sale was over, but there were not five people I could cut from the list. So, I ordered just five more and paid the shipping for them. I wasn't even going to have an extra card for me, because you have to order them in 5's.

So imagine my surprise when my first order arrived,  and I received 50 CARDS! What?! Don't get me wrong I was excited about the mistake, but a little mad at myself for ordering the five more. Well, at least I would have one for my fridge now...

Then this week another package from Shutterfly came, great my five extra cards. NOPE! It was 25 MORE CARDS! Ok, again won't complain, but I don't really have that many friends....

So, I figured the mistake this time was I got 25 instead of 5, NOPE again. I got my five extra cards yesterday. If anymore cards come, I'm going to have to call customer service. I'm also going to put some in my purse and just give them away to random acquaintances. At least it's a good picture, right?! LOL

Watching the parade! 

Visiting Grandma Hazel, so happy I got to visit with her! 

Merry Christmas from The Meerpohls! If you need a card let me know! LOL