A Merry Christmas at the Storms

We celebrated Christmas on December 30th at the Storm household. Uncle Brian worked in Minnesota during the week and returned to Fargo for the weekend festivities. The Cihacek family needs to save their vacation days for June when the new baby arrives. We can't wait to meet the newest member of our family!

 

Here is what the Christmas tree looked like ... That's quite the stack of presents, folks!

 

We took one last 2017 Christmas jammies photo. I just love these pictures and I am going to be so sad when my kids are too old and too cool for this! 

 

 

Here is a quick pic of all of the cousins. They listened to Grandpa Ken read the Christmas story and passed out the gifts. Can you tell that James is trying desperately to escape? Hahahaha!

 

 

 Roman snuggled with Uncle Brad as he listened to the story.

 

Roman was so pumped to get a bow and arrow from Grandpa Ken!

 

Lucy was excited to get a mermaid tale to cuddle in! Auntie Amelia made this for her in addition to a matching tale for her baby doll. So fun!

 

We had the best celebrations -- thank you for hosting such a wonderful Christmas, Storm crew! We love you guys!

 

One last picture of our holiday - these two pups! Ranger and Chester truly are best friends! They crawled into this chair to cuddle without any prompting from their humans. Awwww!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone! We are grateful for memories we made in 2017 and look forward to the year to come. As time passes, we are even more thankful for the time spent with family and friends. We wish you health and happiness in 2018!

Happy Birthday to Dan!

The end of December means birthday time for Dan! We love this guy so much and we were excited to celebrate 38 years with him!

 

Here is Dan with his sidekick Roman (photo credit to Lucy!). This year Nola ordered a donut cake. Dan had this same type of cake for years growing up and he still talks about it to this day as it is his most beloved dessert.

 

 

Here is a close up of the donut - they even put a little hunting scene on it for our special guy.

 

The best part of donut cake? Totally legit to eat it for breakfast. :)

 

I had to post this picture because I just love Roman's little face - he was pretty pumped about his Dad's birthday gift.

Daniel, his kiddos, and some of his birthday gifts.

 

Roman really liked trying on this balaclava too. :)

 

We love you to the moon and back, Dan! Hope you have the best year ever! xoxo

Home for the Holidays - Fargo Edition

We headed to North to continue our holiday celebrations in Fargo. We love spending time with the Storm crew. Who wouldn't want to hang out with these two? Uncle Brad and James looked so cozy twinning in their flannels.

 

We had so much fun playing with sweet baby James! It was a bummer that it was crazy cold all week ... we didn't get a chance to play outdoors as much as we wanted to this vacation. The kiddos did slip outside for a little bit with a few adults and their loyal pack of dogs - Chester, Ranger, and Roy.

 

 

We had fun decorating gingerbread cookies.

 

 

Roman kept trying to bite the arms and legs off of the cookies to "make them look like pirates."

 

Lucy Bear loves to assist in the kitchen.

 

Look at all of these yummy cookies!

 

Lucy, Romy, Grammy, and Mom went to the movie - The Star. The children could not believe that they went to two movies in one week. Best vacation ever! ;) It was a very sweet little movie and the kids loved it.

 

 

Back at the ranch, Roman and James zipped through this tunnel like little hamsters.

 

Lucy and Roman love reading with their Uncle Brad.

 

The adults had lots of fun playing games as well! We went to trivia night at Fargo Brewing Company on Wednesday. We played Camel Up a bunch of times this holiday season. This is a game where you bet on camel races and was quite entertaining.

 

No better way to start the day than playing PlayDoh with your baby cousin!

 

We always get spoiled at Grammy and Grandpa's house with lots of great food and company. Lucy just loves it when Grandpa Ken makes her a special heart shaped pancake for breakfast. :)

 

 

The kiddos did some watercolor painting projects.

 

 

Even James had a little brush and spot at the table.

 

Here is Lucy's little gallery.

 

Roman and Dad zipped into town to get new haircuts. Doesn't our little dude look sharp?

These two love playing the game Kerplunk where they remove little straws from this tube until all of the marbles fall down.

 

We snuggled and watched Christmas movies together.

 

We went to Scheel's where the kids were so pumped to ride the ferris wheels with Grammy Nola.

They love going on rides!

Grammy and Lucy put together a scavenger hunt of things to find in the store. One of those items was a stuffed buffalo. These three posed for a picture once they found the bison.

 

These two played a bunch of shooting games where they aimed at tin cans and such.

 

Here are the targets.

 

Roman was actually a very good shot! I was impressed!

 

Daddy arrived at the store just in time for a second ride on the Ferris Wheel.

 

We love visiting Fargo!

Christmas Continued

We had two happy kids on Christmas morning. Both of them went to bed with new jammies and work up to find that Santa had visited Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Glen's house.

Here are Lucy and Roman opening their Christmas pillowcases.

 

 

Lucy got a new doll for Christmas. Grandma let her see one of her special dolls from her childhood - Lucy thought that both dollies were pretty beautiful. :) 

 

 

Roman got a new Bat cave for his superheroes.

 

After opening presents, we ate ginormous cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

 

Later that afternoon, we headed to the movie theater in Dell Rapids to see Ferdinand with our cousins.

 

 

All of these kids had a great time at the movie!

 

Grammy and Grandpa got popcorn and treats for everyone! These kids were pumped.

 

Afterwards we all headed back to Grammy and Grandpa's where the 6 older kids had a sleepover. Good thing that we got a minivan, right? Haha!

 

Here is the big girls' set up.

 

The little boys shared some space too.

 

After the kiddos downstairs went to bed, Grandpa Glen, Uncle Dan, and Auntie Andrea schooled Paul in the fine art of Rummikub playing.

 

We love spending time with the cousins at Christmas!