More from Nebraska

Ryan slept through the festivities, again!!!

Grandma Dottie & Poppo's tree spins, so Tori & Kella were getting a kick out of touching "gently" all the ornaments that went by.

Here are Tori & Bethany holding up the pillow cases I made for them. Tori's was easy and fun to make, but later I was wishing Bethany had a much shorter name!!! =)

Here's Poppo & Grandma Dottie with all the little ones. Amber & Justin are expecting a baby this spring. Hopefully we can add a boy to this picture next year!!!

And here's the girls with their Aunt Robyn! We had a great time and hated to leave. It always feels like our trip is so short, but seeing how it was only 3 degrees when we left, we were all a little eager to get back to Texas!!!

New Year's in Nebraska

We made the trip to Nebraska this year, we didn't get to go last year due to Kella's health. The weather was not on our side for this trip either. It started snowing almost the minute we pulled out of the driveway and continued until we made it to Wichita for our over-night stay. We have decided to break up the 9 hour trip now that we have the kiddos. Kella was so excited to have more snow! Luckily she slept on this trip and thank goodness for portable DVD players!

We took Kella sledding in "Brickyard Park", apparently they used to make bricks here and it makes for awesome sledding because of the hills. It was really fun for Kipp to take her sledding where he used to go as a kid. She had a great time and there were sooo many people.

This was Ryan's first time to meet Kipp's family. Here she is with cousin Bethany. Look how happy she is!!!!

Here is Grandma Dottie with all her girls (except Kella), Ryan, Bethany & Tori!

Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow...

Once we decided to drive back home for Christmas morning, where to have Christmas dinner was an after thought.... luckily, we have very gracious neighbors!!! Chad & Angela, along with their kiddo's Hailey & Keaton invited the Streff crew over for dinner. Hailey is Kella's baby sitter, so she was pumped to get to spend the afternoon with her favorite girl! Dinner was scrumptious, thank goodness, it was Chad's last attempt at deep frying a turkey... apparently Thanksgiving and a couple other holidays didn't quite turn out as expected (glad we missed those!) A few other neighbors and family made for a festive group, but its just not complete without a fun round of guitar hero!

Kella & Hailey

Our snowman lasted all week, but when we got back from Nebraska, all that was left in the yard was the hat & carrot nose.... what a sad picture that was :( Kella kept saying "Oh no! He melted!" and would stick out her bottom lip to make the biggest sad face ever.

Christmas morning

The treacherous drive home was well worth it! Getting to see our sleepy little girl wander into the living room on Christmas morning was definitely worth the trip!

Santa brought Kella a new pink Escalade!!! She's not quite sure about driving it yet, but our neighbor Cooper (age 5) is more than willing to show her! They looked like the perfect little married couple heading down the sidewalk, he was driving she was yelling at him "go this way" and he was yelling back "don't yell at me!" Priceless!!!!

Here she is talking to Gibbie on mom's cell phone. The car has a real radio, which at one point she was holding the phone with her shoulder adjusting her tunes! Too funny!!!

Since she loves to draw so much, we thought this handy easel would be perfect! Dry erase, chalkboard and paper all in one! I also learned from her Gymboree teacher that having things in front of them helps with coordination. We'll see if she's right!!! :)

Since dad grew up in Nebraska where it snows every year, he makes an awesome snowman!!!

First snow angel!!!!

No place like Grannies!

Here's Casey with Ryan. She slept through most of Christmas just like Thanksgiving!

Our annual family pic

Here's the whole gang: Skip, mom, me, Kipp, Kella, Ryan, Brandon, Cash & Shelby!

Since the fam has grown so much, we play Chinese Christmas with the adults (girls & boys separately) and the kiddos get gifts. Since there are 5 original kids (mom & her siblings) they give each grand kid $25, the parents buy a gift with the $$$, wrap it and bring to Grannies to open. This year a kiddie table was built (thanks uncle Jimmie!) and wooden chairs were bought (thanks Brad!) Each child got to take theirs home to paint/decorate as they wish. We will then take back to Grannies to have for other occasions & next Christmas. I can't wait to paint the girls chairs!!! Oh, Kella opened a drum set in this pic. Everyone thought we were crazy, but it has been so much fun!!!

Here's Kella with Aunt Martha (Aunt Mah-cey) We LOVE her!!!

Christmas Even in Oklahoma

Well... we headed to Sallisaw for Christmas Eve. The trip was not as eventful as Thanksgiving, which was welcomed by all! Kipp checked, rechecked then checked again to make sure the weather would be safe until we headed home that night. We made the decision to take my car (not 4-wheel-drive), seeing how the storm was NOT supposed to come in until much later!

Since so many of us do travel, my family decided to meet at my grandma's around lunch time instead of that evening, giving everyone plenty of time to get home. Since Kella is older, we were bound & determined to drive back C-mas Eve night so she could be at home C-mas morning. Not that Santa couldn't find her in Oklahoma, but it sure did make it easier not having to transport gifts!!!

Needless to say, the weather came in a little earlier than expected and there we were in our 2 wheel drive SUV, not the best for handling all the ice. Instead of taking us the usual 4 hours to get home, it took us almost 8 hours. Ryan was such a trooper, we only had to stop once to feed her, which made for hilarious video when we stopped in Atoka. Kella was babbling non-stop almost the entire trip. Kipp & I kept asking "how can she possibly still be awake?!" I mean, there was no stopping her! We were all delusional and super silly. So I set up the video camera on the dash to capture our fun-filled night. About 40 miles from home, Kella got sick. Her fever rose to about 103.5, which in normal conditions would have sent us to the ER, but luckily Tylenol did the trick and about 15 min. later it was around 100, but then she began throwing up. Having a toddler strapped into a car seat, throwing up, with sand trucks whizzing by and a crying baby doesn't rank high on my "gotta do this again" list! We made it home about 1 am, got everyone tucked in bed and crashed ourselves. What a night!!! Ho Ho Ho!!!

Little buckaroo Cash got a saddle from Gibbie & Skip!

Last year I thought Kella would be so excited to see a huge pile of wrapped presents to open, but she ended up getting a little overwhelmed. As soon as she would open one, we would take it away and hand her another, who could blame her!! Mom did it right this year by putting all her gifts in one giant bag, unwrapped so she could pull them out one-by-one! Fun for everyone!!!

Here's Ryan (now 2 mo.) with her Gibbie!!!

Santa Clause is comin to town....

We finally made it to the mall, to take pics with Santa, that is... we've made many trips, each time we wave to Santa while hurriedly passing by, but this time was for real! Ryan slept through the waiting (about an hour) and then seconds before the BIG MOMENT, she had a melt-down. No time for nursing , Santa's got lots of kiddos to pose with. This explains her splotchy complexion, luckily the photographer got her between cries!