Dee-Dee & Nathan

This summer after Lyndee's wedding, Lyndee and I were discussing her Christmas plans. I invited her and Nathan to join us in Ohio...and things worked out so that they could. I was so excited for this, not only was I going to be able to spend more time with my sister, but also get to know Nathan better. Let's just say that I am so happy Lyndee found such a great guy. He really is so good to her and a very, very nice guy.

As we discussed our plans, we thought that maybe we would invite our other sister's to join us, so LeNae and Lana were able to come as well, and to top it off, my dad also came.

We did get a couple of days with just Lyndee and Nathan, which was nice...and quiet...well, sort of. They started their vacation by instructing the boys with yoga/riding the boat/whatever they were able to come up with.

And building a fort around Grant...ya, pretty cool.

This got the boys eating out of Nathan's hands.

That and the fact that he allowed them to play with his phone (he obviously hasn't lost any phones to children's misfortunes)

Our first night we went to Lake Farm Park's Country Lights. We've done this several times the past few years, and were excited to have these city folk (they're from Vegas) see how the country is, in the extreme cold.

We had a great time. The boys talked to Santa and even though I thought this may be the first year that no one would cry on his lap, Grant could not hide his feelings.

William told him that he wanted a "Toy Story 3 Rex....this big" (about 6 inches)

Roger said he wanted, "Whatever you bring me"and Mikey said, "I don't want anything...I already have what I want".

We rode on the horse-drawn wagon and saw the lights and animals. Lyndee and Nathan were not too thrilled with the weather. It was shocking to them when one worker told them that it was one of the warmer nights. We got to see and pet some animals

The doctors had to discuss the anatomy of a cow

The boys got to go to Santa's Workshop and chose a toy to build

and paint

Grant refused to have the painting shirt on, but he also refused to paint. so, I took off the shirt and just a few minutes later he started to paint - by dropping the blue paintbrush down his front, ruining his nice khaki pants - good thing these pants have gone through 5 boys and who wants pants that have been used that much?

It was really fun having Nathan and Lyndee join us, and it made it so much easier because our adult to child ratio had us playing man to man defense. Also, Nathan and Lyndee are very attached and dear to my children.

It was a fun evening, and enjoyable time. The next night, the rest of the clan joined in with our Christmas celebrations