Nick's Pics

As I mentioned previously, Nick Schale was the photographer for the Nicholl Family Christmas.  He did a great job and took a lot of great pictures.  There were plenty of good ones, so many in fact that I couldn’t include them in the original post, or it would have been ridiculously long.  So I’m dedicating this post to highlighting some of my favorites that he took, both the formal and the silly.  If you like his work, you can see more and contact him via his website.

                                                               Some great pictures of our family

                                                            Clara loves being silly with her grandpa.

                                                                           Couples and Families

                                                              Other combinations that we requested

We finished with a round of pictures of the cousins on the couch.  Nick had them make various facial expressions, which resulted in some humorous results.  A funny situation unfolds as it appears Benjamin falls in love with one of Hannah's pigtails.  In the lower left it looks like he's smelling it while Hannah is a little weirded out by it, and then in the lower right he can't help himself and grabs it but then is stunned by what it feels like, or something.  I'm pretty sure that's not quite what happened, but the pictures tell their own story.  Anyway, we were grateful that Ron arranged for Nick to be there again this year so we could have all these great pictures.

Nicholl Christmas 2015

Today we had the Nicholl family Christmas, hosted by Mom and Ron at their house in Olathe.

We started the day with Nick Schale taking all of our family pictures, which I'll hopefully include in a future post.  The group picture at the top of this post was taken by him, but the picture here of me and Meghan is one taken with my camera.

Joanna and Kirk were back, of course, and Joshua was really glad to see his Aunt Josie.

We had a delicious meal, highlighted by the always-amazing Honey Baked Ham.  Joshua especially was a ham fiend, tearing through three helpings of ham.

After the meal we did stockings for the kids.  Here the kids excitedly huddle around the tree to see what was there for them.  And then they posed with their stockings, but Benjamin took his label off and dropped it, and the other kids were entranced by its fluttering motion to the ground.
The kids received Royals shirts from Mom and Ron, with Joshua getting a replica of the shirts the Royals players and coaches wore during the championship parade.  He also received a Spider-Man mask from Uncle Brent that he was totally pumped about.

Hannah received a new hat from Uncle Brent that she loved, and she generally spent her time walking around being cute.

For the past few years, we have been making an ornament for everyone and delivering it as part of the family picture wall calendar.  This year we used their fingers to make little snowmen on the ornament and used their feed to make reindeer on the wrapping paper.  They turned out really well.

We had a great time, as always.  I later returned in the late evening to join the game-playing crew for a late night of board games, which was a blast, as it always it.  Another great Nicholl Christmas is in the books.

Benjamin is 2!

Today is Benjamin's second birthday, and it was also his party.  Julie and Andrew put together a cute Trucks and Cars and Things That Go theme, which is a book with Richard Scarry's Busytown characters.

They had a house full of people who love Benjamin, including Mom and Ron, Grandpa and Grandma Hall, Tom and Pat, Lisa, Nathan and Linsie, Jade, Jalie, Joanna, and our family.

The food was great, but the cupcakes were the star of the food show, as everyone ate a lot.  Each kid had at least two.  After eating, Clara and Joshua desperately wanted to go play outside on their old swing set, so we let them do it for a bit, but it was pretty hot out, so we didn't stay outside for long.

Soon it was presents time, and Benjamin got to collect his new loot, and later he got to pose for his first picture as a two-year-old with Daddy and Mommy.

Joanna and Kirk gave him the same landscaping set that Joshua has, and he thought the wheelbarrow was the best thing ever.  He drove it around the house, transporting various things from one place to another.  Joshua was really excited to play with the lawn mower that Benjamin got for his birthday last year, and he filled it up with the gas from the pretend tank every 30 seconds or so ("Uh oh!  It's out of gas again.  Time to fill it up!").  They had a lot of fun playing together and driving their toys around the house.

Finally it was time to go home.  I dressed Joshua this morning and put on some new shorts, but I apparently didn't size them correctly with the adjustable elastic waistband, as his pants fell down as we headed out to the car.  That didn't stop him, and he just kept walking in his underwear with his pants around his ankles.  That aside, it was a great party, and we had a fun time celebrating as our little nephew/cousin turned 2.