Anniversary #4 Christmas 2011 and New Years

We celebrated our 4th Anniversary last year.  We were able to go out on a date on the 21st which was nice.  We tried a new Chinese restaurant in town, which ended up not being great but we had to try eventually.  Then we went out to Cody Park and walked around the Winter Wonderland Display and drank hot chocolate.  It even snowed on us just a little bit.

The Christmas Season was a flurry of activity for us last year but I somehow managed to get all our Christmas shopping done early on.  That was nice since it left plenty of time for us to just enjoy the season.  The kids loved the Christmas tree and all the decorations and were pretty good about not taking all the ornaments off the tree.  Nolan also really enjoyed doing the advent calenders and would have done them all at once if we let him.  He particularly liked the family tree advent and would repeat all the names.  We also took the kids out to Cody Park and went on a wagon ride to look at the Winter Wonderland Display.  Then we got hot chocolate and cookies.

Nolan and Shelby in their Christmas clothes

 This Christmas we decided to add a new tradition for our family, although it is not a new one for the Lowe family.  Ryan's family didn't have a lot of traditions so we use a lot of Lowe traditions.  This year we decided that we would put together all the fixings for a nice Christmas dinner and then anonymously leave it on someones porch.  We asked the Bishop for the name of a family in the ward he thought could use it and then we had fun trying to sneak up to a trailer in a trailer park and get away clean.  Fortunately I have a lot of practice doing such things so we succeeded.  We also took part in a ward tradition they have here.  They  put up a Christmas tree with paper ornaments and on the back is written a child's gender, age, and what they need, i.e. a size 6 dress.  We took 3 this year and got some nice things for some kids who needed them.

Finally got them to smile
even if they weren't both looking at the camera

 With Christmas being on Sunday this year, we had to adjust the traditional Christmas morning schedule especially since my kids aren't yet old enough to get up at 3am to open presents.  We decided that it just wasn't going to be plausible to open presents before Sacrament meeting at 10am, so we decided to do Christmas afterwards.  It was pretty easy since the kids are still too young to know the difference as to whether Santa came in the middle of the night or the middle of the day.

Our Christmas Tree

 Right after church I took a couple of pictures of the kids (see above) since I knew as soon as they got into their presents and toys I wouldn't have another chance.  Ryan then took the kids downstairs and distracted them for about 10 minutes while Santa delivered the presents.

Santa Presents

Stocking hung by the staircase with care

 Both kids were able to figure out pretty quickly which presents under the tree were theirs and they liked what Santa left them.  They were also pretty excited about what they found in their stockings.

Shelby's 2nd baby
and one of my favorite pictures

Nolan's new pal Woody

 We kept the present opening moving pretty quick so the kids wouldn't get too bored waiting so it didn't take long to get all the presents opened.  Both kids got a pretty good haul.

Nolan's Haul

Shelby's Haul.  She was happy with what she got
but she really didn't want her picture taken.
It was about nap time.

Ryan's Haul

My Haul

 As soon as the presents were opened we let the kids dig a little deeper into their stockings were they of course found a pretty good stash of candy which had to be eaten.  Both kids just dug right in.  I'm not sure they ate anything really healthy until supper at Pat and Bobbie's house, but hey, that's what Christmas is for right?!

Shelby stripped down for candy eating

 We went out to Pat and Bobbies for the rest of the day and for Christmas Supper.

This year we had a rather quite New Year.  We were invited to a big party out at the Odle's home since our friends Adam and Brooke Odle were out here visiting their family for the holidays.  We thought about going but decided we just didn't want to deal with all the noise and people this year so we stayed home and had chili and cinnamon roles and watched movies and ate crackers and cheese and drank more "beer" (soda) than we probably really should have.  I think all in all we tend to prefer a quieter New Years celebration.  It seems a lot less stressful than going out to parties and having to deal with grouchy, tired children.

Shelby Turns 1

We have decided that with Shelby's birthday falling in December right in the middle of all of our Christmas stuff, that it is going to be very important to keep her birthday as separate from Christmas as possible and that includes in the blog.  I figure if we keep it separate, then she won't grow up feeling like she got jipped.  So for at least one day, we take a break from all things Christmas and focus just on Shelby.

Since it was her first birthday, we went ahead and invited grandma and grandpa Johnston to come.  They had been in Lincoln for Nolan's 1st birthday so we figured it was fair.  For Shelby's cake we did Nighttime Bear with marshmallows for his cloud and smarties for his pillow.

Shelby's Cake

Shelby was still young enough that she had no idea what to do with the lit candle on her cake but Nolan did so he took care of it for her.

Blowing out the candle

 Shelby didn't have a problem figuring out how to open presents.  She got that figured out quick and was just ripping into them.

Opening her first present

Already trying to put her dress on

Next present and she's already forgotten about the first

Nolan showing Shelby's new church shoes

Shelby's bows.  This was the present from Nolan
so he felt the need to help open it

Shelby's 1st Baby

It must be instinct because she already has the motherly quality

Once she opened the baby she didn't care about her other presents

New tights

All in all I think Shelby had a fun first birthday.  The funny part was that she only wanted to eat the ice cream so I don't know if she ate any cake at all at least not until the next day.

Fall 2011

So I keep thinking that I really ought to to keep this better updated so I am going to try and get everything back up to speed so I can do just that.

Halloween

For Halloween last year we did Goldilocks and the 3 Bears.  We had a lot of fun making a ribbon wig for Shelby since she didn't have much hair and it is brown not gold.  We also had a lot of fun trying to find just the right clothes for each of the bears.  Nolan was pretty excited about the whole thing, especially since it was his first year of really understanding what was going on.  He took to trick-or-treating really fast.  We had the trunk-or-treat first and he was a little hesitant until he realized he would get candy.  We also went trick-or-treating up and down our block and Nolan just loved getting to ring doorbells and getting even more candy.  He even walked the entire way!

Goldilocks & the 3 Bears at Trunk-or-Treat

Our trunk for Trunk-or-Treat.
We made sure to have the porridge, chair and bed.

Nolan's first trick-or-treat

Walking the block with Mama Bear

I'm not sure what he enjoyed more:
getting candy or ringing doorbells

Everybody thought Nolan was just so cute and he got
extra candy at almost every house to share with his sister

Pumpkins!  Nolan was a little scared of Ryan's at first
but now he loves them and can't wait to do it again.

 Thanksgiving
After the sugar rush of Halloween died down, it was time to get ready for one of my favorite holidays: Thanksgiving.  I love Thanksgiving and think it is a shame that everyone else seems to go straight from Halloween to Christmas.  They just don't know what they are missing.  We got up early and watched the Macy's Parade.  Ryan had never watched it and was a little skeptical but I think he enjoyed.  This year we had Thanksgiving at Pat and Bobbies and also had another family, the Stocktons come over as well.  We had 2 different kinds of turkey and ham and sweet potatoes and yams and all sorts of stuff.  I also made to cran-apple pies because Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without those.
We also decided to try and take some family pictures on Thanksgiving.  We went back to the same place that we took some of our engagement pictures.  These were the best 2 we got and they aren't great.  The kids were too distracted by the cows and we had a hard time getting them to look at the camera.

In front of the corn field with the cows

Next to the field with the pine tree.
As you can see, Shelby is still looking at the cows.

Summer Highlights Part 2

So now that it has been more than 6 months since I startes the first half of our summer review, I suppose it is about time I finish it.

NebraskaLand Days Concert

As part of NebraskaLand Days they have all these concerts but the biggest one is usually a country music concert. This year the headliner was Brad Paisley, who happens to be one of my favorite artists. The show started with Jerrod Niemann, who is a newer singer from Kansas. Honestly he wasn't that great and fortunately he only performed for a half hour. After that was Blake Shelton. He is a great entertainer and was absolutely hilarious. Plus, he sings some great stuff.

Blake Shelton

Brad Paisley's show was good as well. After seeing him perform I can why he often wins the Entertainer of the Year award at the CMA's.

4th Of July
Not long after NebraskaLand Days came to an end it was time for the 4th of July. Apparently I didn't take any pictures but we had a lot of fun. We got together with our friends the Larsons for a hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravey and then they came over to play in our pool and wash the cars. After that we headed over to Pat and Bobbie's for their BBQ. Then we headed out to the stadium out here to watch the fireworks show. Shelby got bored and went to sleep. Nolan thought it was great and kept saying, "Boom! Boom!"

Lake Maloney
During the hotter months this summer we spent quite a bit of time out at Lake Maloney which is just south of town. The youth in our ward had a couple of activities out at the lake that we tagged along with Ryan for and Ryan was nice enough to take Nolan and his friend Cora out in the kayak. The stayed along the shore and Nolan and Cora just loved it.

Nolan and Cora being paddled around

We also spent quite a few evenings playing at South Beach on the lake. It is really shallow there for quite a ways out. Shelby just loves playing in the water. She'll kick and splash and just have a good time. Nolan isn't always so sure about the water. It usually take Ryan a good 10 minutes to get Nolan in and then he'll scream and fight it for a bit but he eventually settles down and has fun.

Denver Zoo Trip
In July we carpooled with the Larsons to Denver and went to the Zoo. We figured that Nolan loves animals so he would like the zoo. He loved seeing all the animals.

Nolan riding on Dad's shoulders and looking at monkeys

Nolan liked riding in the stroller and holding hands with Cora

The only baby animal we got to see was the baby orangutan. He was pretty cute though.

After walking through the entire zoo, the kids were pretty tired.

We also got to stop by the temple while we were in Denver so the kids could see it and then we did a little shopping and went out to dinner before heading home.

Birthdays

I was really sad I didn't get birthday pictures this year. We had our usual joint celebration and an ice cream cake since it was Ryan's choice this year. Then I surprised Ryan with a birthday party. He had told me that he had never really had a birthday party before and so I figured he needed one. His birthday was on a Wednesday, which is the same night as scouts. He told the scouts that he wouldn't be there that night because of his birthday. I passed information to the scouts that we would be having a surprise birthday party for Ryan and all they had to do was show up. I made up some invitations and passed them out while Ryan was at work. The day of his birthday I went to the church and cooked up about 4 batches of Pasta Salad, one of Ryan's favorites, and then went and picked up a cake and decorations. Our friend Lisa Simpson came and helped me set up tables and decorations. Pat and Bobbie came and picked up the kids right before 7 and then took them over to the church. I then made up an excuse about needing to drop something off at the chapel so that we had to drive over there. Ryan sure was surprised when we got inside and he realized what was going on.

Well, that about sums up the rest of our busy summer. It was hot but we spent plenty of time at the parks and enjoying the weather and friends.

Summer Highlights Part 1

Well, it has been a busy and fun summer and I have a few pictures of the things we did, so here is an update.

50 Mile Bike Ride

We started off the summer with a 50 mile bike ride. I guess I really shouldn't say "we" since it was Ryan and the scouts that went on the bike ride, but I helped by dropping them off at the starting point. They all managed to finish in about 5 hours, which was pretty impressive.

Father & Son Camp

Nolan got to go on his first Father & Son Campout. He thought it was pretty cool that they got to sleep in the jeep with a bunch of blankets and pillows.

Travis and Michelle Visit

Travis and Michelle and their little boy, David, came to visit for 2 weeks. Nolan really likes his Uncle Travis. He wasn't so sure about David, but I think he'll enjoy David more when David is older. We also got to visit with Great-grandma Johnston. She is suffering from cancer and is on oxygen now. She did make it out one Sunday for about an hour so she coud see her grandchildren and great-grandchildren all together.

San Antonio Girls Trip
Shelby and I got to go to San Antonio wth Amy and Kate for 3 days at the beginning of June. It was fun to get to see a new place and spend some time with my sisters. This is Shelby and I outside the Alamo. I love history and the movie, The Alamo, with John Wayne, is one that Ryan and I watch often.

Kate and Amy striking a pose just inside the outer wall at the Alamo.

Shelby was a real trooper. She was not a fan of the heat but she was so agreeable. I'm pretty sure her favorite part of the trip was hanging out in the swimming pool.

Shelby and I at the Spanish Govornor's Mansion. It had a beautiful garden in the back.

Shelby with Amy in our hotel room before Amy left and then with Kate at the airport waiting for our flights. Our gates were right next to each other. Shelby sure didn't mind the extra attention.

Pictures

With Noaln turning 2 and Shelby at 6 months, it was time to take pictures. Shelby was very cooperative and we got a lot of good Shelby pictures.

It took a lot more effort to take Nolan's pictures. He didn't want to get off his car and he definitely did not want to stay still. It took quite a few tries to get one where you couldn't see anyone else in the picture and that wasn't blurry and where Nolan was smiling. I'd say it was worth the effort.


NebraskaLand Days Every year in North Platte they have NebraskaLand Days. It is most of the month of June and they have tons of activities. There was a huge parade that people actually started staking spots out for a week early. We had reserved seats because Firestone employees get first choice on Firestone property. There is also a car show and parade, a carnival, a big rodeo, several concerts, a sandcastle building contest, and a whole lot of other stuff. We went to the parade and the car show. We also went to the rodeo one night. It rained just before the rodeo stared and this is what the sky looked like as it was clearing up.
There were some pretty good cowboys and lots of mud so it made for some pretty interesting rides and what not throughout the evening.We went to the rodeo with our really good friends, the Larsons, so Nolan was perfectly happy because he got to hang out with Cora. Nolan's favorite part of the rodeo was whenever the tractor came out to try to smooth the arena and get some of the water off.

Shelby got comfortable on Ryan and slept through most of the show. She did the same thing when we went to see the fireworks for the 4th of July.