It's so cold...

that we have ice *inside* the windows.  I guess when it's -31 degrees there isn't much you can do about it.  How in the world did the pioneers do it??

These are the drifts by the front door.  You would think there were bushes under there, but there aren't.  Just lots and lots of snow!

And a few more

Noah sad because he couldn't play Eli's DS.  A story in pictures :):

And it's all better with a popsicle.

Our New Year's Eve party...we had a game tournament for the kids and the adults.  The bracket winners each won a $5 Target card!!

Grandma with the silly grandkids

Noah trying to hit the balloons with his party blower

Noah didn't win a gift card and was quite sad about it, so Grandma found an Old Chicago card and put it on a Target gift card paper...voila, a gift card!  Now Noah can embark on his World Beer Tour :).

More

BFF's Ava and Grace

Eli and Grace got Nintendo DS's for Christmas...this is how we usually found them!

Grace had a Strawberry Shortcake party and our own Cake Boss, Matt, made the cake.  He made everything from fondant and did a good job!!  Strawberry looks like she stayed out in the sun a little too long though :).

The Strawberry Shortcake girls

Mr. Trouble

Finding clues that would lead Grace to her present.....

A new bike!

Lots of catching up

We've traveled many miles since Dec. 24th....as usual my blog is behind.  Sunday 12/27 we finally took of for Ankeny, the weather delayed us a couple days unfortunately.  The roads were still pretty dicey that day, but we all made it.  We had Christmas with Grandma Cathy and Don the 27th, and took off for Galesburg to have Christmas with the Kinney's the 28th.  A brief one night stay and we were back in Ankeny the 29th.  We had a birthday party for Grace the 30th since we won't be around for G's real bday on Jan. 19th.  Then a New Year's Eve party at Grandma's the 31st, bowl games the 1st, and back to Bismarck the 2nd.  We got to Evansville, Minnesota (southeast of Fergus Falls a bit) and our van decided to die along the interstate.  We managed to crawl to an exit and crawl to a town.  They towed it to Moorhead and we spent the night w/Joel and Heidi while they fixed it at the dealership.  Meanwhile we had to get home so the kids could go back to school, so we rented a car....but our van is stuck over in Moorhead (it's fixed, we just have to find the time to go back and get it).  It was -31 when we woke up today, so I don't think today will be the day. 

On Christmas day, I got adventurous and made a turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, and rolls.  Yum.

Christmas at the Kinney's, with a full compliment of funny hats and funny family :)

Ben bugging the heck out of Tabitha with his Boxing Reindeer pen....Tabitha will find a different spot to sit next year, I'm sure :)

Tabitha and Melissa gave Grace a makeover.....her version of heaven!

The wait for Santa is on

Grace wrote out a note to Santa and got the plate of cookies & celery ready for the big guy and his reindeer.  Christmas Eve is so exciting!  Click on the pics to enlarge...you can read the note better that way ;)!

Christmas Eve

We've had a nice, quiet Christmas Eve day!  We went to lunch at Cracker Barrel, thanks to Aunt Jensine and Uncle Fred :)....and it was soooo good!  One of my favorite places, for sure.  Then we came home and let the kids open their gifts from us.  This year we gave each of the kids 4 gifts:  Something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read.  It seems like they get SO much at Christmas time and most of it gets crumpled on the floor by January, so we thought this might be a good idea to cut down on things a little.  Here are the kids with their loot...

SOMETHING YOU WANT:

SOMETHING YOU NEED:

SOMETHING TO WEAR:

SOMETHING TO READ:

And the note I put out last night when I put the presents under the tree:

A Very Daglum Christmas

My Grandpa Stewart made the wooden figures on the church's piano

We went over to Daglum on Saturday and stayed over night at Grandpa Jim's so we could go to Christmas Eve church service on Sunday (ok, so it was actually Dec. 20th not the 24th but Daglum only has church every 2 weeks so you have to improvise :) ).  It was a very nice service and then they had a big potluck afterwards, of course!  The Norwegians like their food :)!  It was a really foggy, frosty weekend....pretty on the trees though.