Sohre Christmas 2011

We did Christmas a little different at the Sohre household this year. 

We did it the weekend before Christmas. You see in my entire 32 years of life we have always done it on Christmas Eve.  It is kinda a thing. We get spiffed up, go to church, then come home and celebrate with good food, good company, and of course gift giving and opening presents. 

This year in order to have the entire family around we did it the weekend before. This allowed Darrin to bring Mandy (his girlfriend of over a year).  All-in-all this worked out great.

We started with a holiday noonish meal of ham and all the fixings. Then some socialization and naps for the youngsters, then a course of snackies and more gathering and then gift exchanging and opening presents. 

It didn't end there though, someone got the idea that the entire family should stay over night. See 4 of the 6 families live in the area, so they certainly could go home (they usually do). Having everyone stay over night allowed us to socialize some more and spend more quality time together and to have Dad make us breakfast in the AM... banana pancakes (they are the best!).

Staying overnight meant 12 adults, 12 kids, and 3 dogs sleeping in a 4 bedroom/3 bath house.

Amazingly it worked and was lots of fun.

As you can see Santa (AKA my Mom) went with a theme this year of giving us all 

"Property of the SOHRE family" t-shirts.

I have to say I kinda like them and we had a blast modeling them.

I think the in-laws did too. They got the treat of fleece PJ pants too.

Jared taking a cat nap in the middle of all the excitement with his new toys.

Me and my Sweetie.

The new addition to our Christmas this year was Mandy. This is Darrin's girlfriend. The tradition is the potential in-law gets a stocking... but kind of a homemade, previously used kind.

When she makes the cut and joins officially then she gets a real stocking that matches everyone else!

Gracie trying out her sleeping bag that she got from Grandma and Grandpa. 

Zach opening his sleeping bag.

Great Grandma and Jared.

My happy little Jared.

Great Grandma and Grandpa come over for a visit too.

It was nice they joined us.

Gracie with her mermaid barbie doll.

Boys:  Joe, Jesse, and Zach.

Some of the grand kids surrounding Grandma waiting patiently for presents!

Gracie and Great Grandma Sohre.

A bunch of the kids.

Some girl cousins: Kate, Paige, Maesee, and Maddy.

And the wonderful lady who runs the show and makes this all possible: 

 My Dear Mother.

Thanks Mom. Love You.

Jared's 1st tooth

My little boy is growing up already.

At about 3 1/2 months old he pops out his first tooth.

It is a bottom front tooth.

There it is!!!

Christmas Tree Hunting

I think we have started a tradition.

Last year we had so much fun cutting our tree at a local Christmas Tree place that we decided we would do it again this year.  Except this year we have no snow, which makes this pics look not as "Christmassy" (is that a word?). 

Anyways we seem to always pick just before sunset to go get our tree so it is getting a little dark.

We have Jared so we don't want to walk around to much, but we did drive around and browse a little.

It didn't take long and we found "the one."

Marty does his 'mannley' duties and starts sawing.

The kids and I watch and say TIMBER at the appropriate time.

We once again have fun.

And then the strong husband of mine carries the freshly cut tree to the truck.

As you notice it is a smaller tree. We like small trees. The last time we got a big tree it fell over on Gracie. That was when she was a baby. 

From then on we vowed we would always just get a small tree.

After the tree hunting we went out to eat at the local Pizza Ranch, then home we went and decorated our tree.  It was just a wonderful Saturday evening. I wish they could all be like that.

Daddy's New Truck

Before I went back to work - we had one thing yet to do.

Purchase a different truck for Daddy to properly haul all the kids to and from daycare.

So we have the "Old Truck."

And the "New Truck."

I said to Marty that he officially is a Dad, as now he has a "Dad" truck!!

The kids love the "new truck" as it doesn't quite yet have the nice hog scent that the "old truck" had and it is a lot cleaner inside. Hopefully it won't pick up the delightful scent and if my husband listens to his wife it will not get quite as messy!!! (He has stick orders!)

30 Tiny Toes

I think baby feet are just the cutest.

Pre-schooler feet are pretty cute too.

The toes are even cuter.

We've got 30 of this adorable little toes in our house...

and I love them to pieces.

Visiting Santa

Last weekend Santa came to Redwood Falls and we were sure to go visit.

Last time we tried Santa was when Gracie was 2 and Zach was 1. 

It was a complete disaster.

This time... much better.

Jared got to meet him too.

Gracie told him she wanted a "baby alive" and Zach told him a "tractor."

This Santa was a little hard of hearing though, so the kids almost had to yell.

I wasn't sure I could handle all 3 kids and Santa 

so we recruited Grandma Betty to come along and help.

It was a very nice outing.

Applesauce

Here is another post that I had started and didn't get finished.

We made some applesauce for Jared too for when he starts eating.

Gracie and Zach and Jared helped.

Now I am back at work last week and all the fun baking, cooking, freezing, and other fun kitchen things will not happen as frequently.

Marty says he probably gained 10 pounds while I was home and will probably now loose it now that I am back to work.

I did very much enjoy my maternity leave. 12 weeks went so fast.

Jared has turned out to be quite the content little guy.

Barely fusses, mostly when he is hungry (but what person isn't a little cranky when they are hungry?)

The first week back at work went pretty good for me. It was better than I had expected. 

Jared did great at daycare.

So all these pictures are the process of making applesauce.

It really isn't that hard.

The kids had fun helping and sampling.

I was running out of containers to freeze it in, so I froze a batch, then popped them out and put the squares in a Zippy bag and stored them in the freezer that way.

 

I read some people use ice cube trays too.

This method seemed to work.

And my helpers!!!