Brooks' First Christmas!

Christmas of 2008 was obviously very exciting as it was our first Christmas with Brooks. We were so excited to come home to Kansas and Missouri and spend the holidays with our family. Of course, with the cold, we had to bring many hats and hoodies to stay warm!

Mommy and Brooks flew to Kansas a little before Daddy to spend time with the Kansas crew.

One of my best friends, Jana Owen, is pregnant and expecting this friday actually (1/23/09). Our weddings were 2 weeks apart and our babies will be 4 months apart! It was so great to go home and see her. Although, I definitely don't miss the days of not being able to touch my toes:)

Grammy Great spent some special one on one time with baby Brooks. He sure had fun with her!

Adam was supposed to fly home to Wichita and drive Brooks and I up to California, MO to visit his family. But, his flight got canceled due to the snow mountain that we live on so he had to fly to Colombia, MO instead! Brooks and I had to make a 5 hour drive all by ourselves. All I can say is God Bless Benadryl! (The details of our Missouri trip will be in the next blog). We then returned to Wichita to spend Christmas with Grammy, Shrampa, Uncle Drew, Aunt KK, cousin Hayden, and cousin Hadley. They hadn't met Brooks yet, so this was a very special time. Adam had fun teaching Hayden how to play chess...

...and putting together Hadley's dream house!

Aunt KK was so good with Brooks. I wished I could've brought her home to Michigan with me!!

It was so special to see Brooks on his first Christmas morning. However, I don't really think he had any idea what was going on. Hayden and Hadley were so cute tearing into their gifts! If we could all experience every day the joy of a child on Christmas morning...this world would be a better place!!

Grammy lobbied my husband to help peel the potatoes for Christmas dinner. I think he said they peeled 125 lbs...ok, maybe he was exaggerating....and, I think his exact words were, "I feel like your mom's slave." But, truly, Adam was such a huge help! I don't know how all of us women would have kept it together without him.

Christmas day was spent at the church. We had a wonderful meal and SO enjoyed seeing many family members that we don't get to see that often. Aunt Vicki, my dad's sister, flew in from California (the state) with her daughter Cyndi. Cyndi brought her two daughters, Megan and Mackenzie. We were so happy to see them and get to know them better. It had definitely been too long!!

As the holiday came to a close, my Dad had to load up Drew's family in his car trailer just to get them home! I think it's obvious that someone had a good Christmas:)

When all was said and done, we returned to Detroit only to be hit with the stomach flu. As you can see in the picture below, Adam didn't take it very well. But, I can't make fun. I got it 24 hours after he did and looked twice as bad as he does here.



All in all, the holiday was amazing! But, it went by way too fast. It was hard to come back to Michigan after spending so much time with our loved ones. But, the holidays weren't exactly over. Great Grandma Jody and Great Grandpa Eddie were driving out to spend New Years with us. Stay tuned...