The Holidays

12.27.10 ~ One word...BLESSED...that is how I feel this holiday
season. It is such a blessing to have all of my family & friends to
share the season with, our health and all of the wonderful things
in our lives. Here are some pictures for you to all enjoy. Some are
the decorations we enjoyed and the family gatherings we had.

Dining room

Dining room

Our bedroom

tree in our bedroom

Sister gathering we had at my sister Teresa's in Ogallala on the 19th.

Becky, Teresa, Jen and myself.....and our matching shirts! :)

We also shared the day with my folks'.

Christmas Eve~ Buffalo Bill Cody Ranch

Garrett-16, Cade-12 and Tyler-15

Handsome boys' aren't they?! :)

Bernie and I....it was freezing out! Brrrr!

This is my absolute favorite place to be, especially during the holidays.

The boys' Christmas Eve before we went to Bernie's Mom's.

Bernie and I ~ Christmas Eve

The Schimonitz grandkids, Cade, Remington, Mason, Tyler,

Dani and Garrett. Brooke and Joe weren't able to join us.

Dani & Garrett. It was so nice to see Dani

while she was home from college.

We enjoyed supper and visiting with Bernie's family.

Christmas morning~ Cade and Tyler woke us up shortly after

5am...with party poppers!! It was an explosion of confetti!! Boys'!

Garrett on the otherhand, had to be woke up....note the still asleep

look on his face...

Garrett really did like his gifts and had a good day...not sure

why all the frowns for pictures!

Cade hit the jackpot this year! T-shirt fits him! lol

Tyler was happy with all of his things too and the field camera

Santa brought him!

We enjoyed the day with my folks' too. Dad and Mom drove

down late morning and stayed all afternoon. Enjoyed having

them both here and enjoyed the chance to visit and play cards.

We even got Dad playing skipbo! :)

Mom and Dad with their Grandsons.

~ We had a wonderful Christmas and are now enjoying a much

needed break from school. I'm trying to get caught up on some

things around the house and just enjoying my 'vacation' from work!

Things are still busy with basketball. January holds 6 basketball games

with only one being a home game! Then 8 more games into Feb.-March.

Then before you know it school will be out! And believe me, I'm counting

down the days to Summer vacation!! :) We hope you all enjoyed the holidays

with your families too. We've enjoyed hearing from many of you. And don't

worry, I'm working on my 'New Year's letter' so you'll hear from us soon! :)

December 2010

December 2010 ~ I thought I would update the blog before the
holidays. It's been a busy December so far with work, holiday
preparations and now, basketball. Here are a few pictures of what
we've been up to lately.
After 5 years of patiently waiting, I finally got living room carpet!
It was one of the last major purchases from all of our remodeling
and was so worth the wait! It is so nice not having plywood floors
anymore too! We had it installed right before Thanksgiving.


It was so nice to finally put the living room back together and
to enjoy the 'new' furniture we bought a few years ago.


We now have the tilework done in front of the fireplace too
(will post pic later). We just need to stain and install the base
board trim and then we will have a huge project checked off
our 'to do' list! We are now doing some work in our master
bathroom. We always have something we are working on! :)
That's what Bernie gets for being so handy! lol


We are now busy with basketball. We traveled to Brady
yesterday 12-10-10 and the boys' pulled off another win!
Tyler, #3, is doing really good!


Tyler is a very good defensive player.

Paxton wins 38-28!

Garrett, far left, has had to sit out. He is recuperating from

being sick. He got sick Thanksgiving night and had a very

severe case of strep throat and thrush. He was unable to eat

or drink for 5 days and lost over 8lbs. He missed an entire week

of school and has been really fatigued. His team has had 4 games

so far this season and so far he has missed all of them. He will start

practice again this week tho and is cleared to play in the next games

as long as he remains healthy. He has never been that sick so it was

a little scary. So far, knock on wood, none of the rest of us have been ill.

He enjoys basketball and was looking forward to the season so he is ready

to get back and play.

Last weekend, 12-3 and 12-4, Tiger hosted

Medicine Valley and Eustis-Farnam and we

won both of those games.

Tyler had an awesome block!

Great job Tigers!

This was Tyler's first ever high school basketball game!

He was doing such a great job!...

until this very shot when he got jabbed

right in the eye!!! OUCH!!!

He had to sit out then due to some double vision

and major pain! I felt so bad for him! Not a good

way to start the season! Hopefully it's his only injury

this season! :)

Atleast the Tigers won! :)

12-9-10 ~ Yes, it's a miracle...this is Cade at

the Christmas program! He usually fakes being

sick and plays hooky on Program days so he doesn't

have to go but he actually went this year!

BUT...he still didn't sing! Infact he looked down the whole time!

Darn kid!

Maybe we'll let him play hooky next year! lol

~ Well, as I write the trees and decorations are up, baking supplies

bought, most of the X-mas shopping is done and things are wrapped.

I am bound and determined to not be stressed this year! With working

now I haven't been able to be quite as organized as I'd like and the baking

will have to wait until we are out for Xmas vacation but I am looking forward

to spending the holidays with family. We are extremely blessed and have much

to be thankful for so I am looking forward to some time off of work to catch my

breath, catch up on a few things, relax and ENJOY the holiday season! I hope

you will all be able to do the same. :)