Christmas Blogging!

It's almost New Year's, so I should probably post some of those Christmas photos. OK, here are the kids, opening presents. Kids, presents, open. Repeat.

The magic of Christmas.

The Lund Children.

Milena got a balance beam!

Grandpa Gary and Kelson play with some of the many construction Playmobil that Eli and Kelson received. Grandpa Larry (not pictured) set up the blue bucket to be the highrise building, so the workers could use the crane to lift tools up.

Grandpa Lindy and Grandma Lou got a massager for Christmas. Here Lindy is explaining how they will share it: "I'll get it from 11 in the morning until 11 at night, and Lou can have it from 11 at night until 11 in the morning." Sounds fair to me.

And this is just a goofy picture of Milena. She put the hat on her head before she fell asleep - had nothing to do with Michelle or I.

More Christmas!

Michelle and Bonnie did lots of cooking over the weekend. Here they are in the kitchen, working hard! Of course, I still am not authorized to show the kitchen yet, so you'll have to accept my apologies for this picture.

Very Exciting Christmas!

We had a very exciting Christmas in St. Peter. So exciting, in fact, that it put all of the old Lunds right to sleep.

Too bad we couldn't have provided more fun for the old codgers. Might have kept them awake.

Christmas, Part I

Yesterday we began our Christmas celebration. We had a full house, with 6 grandmas and grandpas, as well as Jason, Beckey, Greta and Charlie. Here's our reading nook again - despite all the space in the house, we felt the need to cram 10 people into this spot. Go figure.

Eli patiently awaits the arrival of Greta and Charlie.

Eli and Grandpa Larry read the paper.

Koleman serenades the group with a rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Present time! Charlie gets ready to dig in!

Eli, Milena and Kelson got arts and crafts supplies from Uncle Jason and Aunt Beckey. The kids all got onto the table and shared their presents. Lots of great artwork was done!

Greta should be ready to paint our house in a couple of years.

Kelson paints, and Koleman builds the jet fighter that he got.

I'm Getting Peanut Blossom Cookies! HA!

Painting!

What do you do on a rainy, late December day? Paint, I guess.

Watercolors rock!

I'm sure an ergonomics expert would have something to say about her arrangement.

I have no idea what that face is for.

Child Labor

It's hard work getting all the Christmas letters ready for the mailbox. It's good to have five year olds around to help.

Good thing they can't read, otherwise they'd probably be mad at me for what I wrote about them.

Watch out for paper cuts on the tongue. Ouch!

Kelson Is Four!

Sure, his birthday isn't technically until the 20th, but we decided to have his party this weekend, and figured he didn't need to deal with any confusion, so he's 4 now. He has a very talented Mommy - he wanted a Cars cake, and she put Lightning McQueen on the cake. I would have just taken the car and squished it onto the cake.

Here's everyone at Kelson's party, minus the photographer.

Kelson is excited to open his gifts.

Oooh, a fire station! Cool!

Happy Birthday to you...

And they were all blown out in one try!

Kelson told me to take a picture of him with his new dinosaur. Then he posed himself in a very dignified manner. He was pleased with how the picture turned out.

The siblings were very happy with Kelson's birthday as well. Here Koleman and Eli play Whac-A-Mole.

Milena likes Whac-A-Mole also.

Koleman loves Playmobil, so really wanted to help Kelson set up his fire station.

And Eli thinks the Shake and Go racetrack is awesome. Eli has probably played with it more than all the other kids combined.

And, finally, here are all the kids playing Whac-A-Mole together. What a cute group of kids!

What do you do with all those extra boxes?

So, as you empty out all the boxes that have been storing things in your garage, what do you do with them? Build goofy stuff for the kids, of course! Here is an extremely fancy fort. It has a secret tunnel entrance.

There are two pirates/Star Wars people/explorers.

And a third one joined them!

There is Eli in the secret tunnel entrance!

And, just like January of 2005, we decided to make a nice big race track. Sweet.

Koleman helps to get the lane markings done properly.

If you get around the mountain, and over the ramp, then you have to watch out for the dinosaur pit. Yikes.

Two Pictures

Here's a picture of our reading nook, which is just off of the kitchen. It's a nice, cozy little place for us. Hopefully we will be getting blinds soon, to eliminate a bit of the glare. (Yes, I am intentionally stallling on pictures of the kitchen itself. We are thisclose to being done with it, but need one last piece of countertop delivered. So once that comes, pictures will follow. I promise. For what that's worth.)

We set up Leah's tree in the new upstairs area. The tree is jam packed with ornaments! If you gave us an ornament, we said a little thank you to you when we put it on the tree.

Setting Up the Christmas Tree

This weekend we set up our Christmas tree. All the kids made new ornaments this year, so those are the first to go up. Kelson puts on his.

Milena gets a low spot.

Eli puts his ornaments right next to each other, while protecting his Santa Bear at the same time.

Koleman helps to get the places that the other kids just can't reach.

The kids huddle around Michelle, waiting for their next turn to put on an ornament.

Here are all the Santa Bears, with their pets.

And now the pets make funny faces.

The tree is finished, and out of focus as well.