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.

Tending to the Flowers

When they kids are over at Ron and Mom's house, they sometimes have the kids help with small tasks around the house. While they are probably usually only of marginal help, they are almost always excited to provide their assistance. Recently Ron needed to water his flowers, and Joshua and Clara were happy to jump in and help him out.

Happy Belated Grandparents Day

We don't generally make a huge deal out of all the "hallmark" holidays like Sweetest Day, Boss's Day, etc. However, we do really like to use Grandparents Day as a way to thank Ron and Peg for all their help throughout the year. Of course, our kids enjoy spending time with all their grandparents and they are lucky to have many people who love spending time with them. However, because Ron and Peg are local, they really are able to help us out a lot, and not only able, but also super willing. It is so appreciated that they watch the kids once a week to give me a day off and also give us a monthly date night where they keep the kids overnight. As almost any parent of small children will attest, being able to sleep in without worrying about your house being destroyed is more precious than gold. So we invited them over for dinner as a thank you for all the ways they help us. We had hoped to do this last weekend near actual Grandparents Day, however Hannah was sick. So we did it today instead. It was nice to be able to show them how much we appreciate them and also spend some time together.

Sticks That Walk

I remember seeing walking sticks (also called stick bugs) when we lived in Missouri.  But I don't think I've seen one since I've lived in Kansas.  Yesterday Joshua told me he saw one at school the other day, which surprised me, since I didn't think we had them here, but I was pleased because I think they are super cool bugs.  But then today when I went to pick up the kids, they'd found two walking sticks in the back yard, one green and one brown.  So perhaps there's some sort of sudden infestation of them, or maybe it was just a coincidence.  Joshua had learned well and was quick to inform me that the stick bugs were very fragile and that we needed to be very careful with them, which I was glad to hear.  Benjamin didn't get the memo and attempted to smash one with a baseball, costing the bug one of his legs.  Julie was upset, but the good news is I later read that they can regenerate their legs, so the walking stick would be fine.

The girls were less interested in the walking sticks than the boys were, and they were happy to hang out with Grandpa for awhile.