Kim's Pictures from Estes

Kim got a fancy new Canon Rebel EOS camera and boy does it take great pictures!  The Kerschen family is going to have to upgrade our photography technology in 2014 to keep up!  Here are my favorites from her collection:

Aunt Kim is the best!  She makes beautiful sugar cookies and
 lets us decorate & sample them right after breakfast!

I just can't wait till tomorrow...I have to know what's inside!

Thank goodness Noah's Ark had enough animals to share!

Keira in her holiday best....too bad her nose is as red as her gown...poor sick kiddo!

Jak's pretty proud of his walking skills around all these baby girls!

Handsome Hanou Boys!!!

Love thy brother (at least till Santa comes!) Ha ha!

Grammie and her boys!

Lillian's new dishes from Grandpa Kerschen - real porcelain!

Since we neglected to bring batteries for the new Keyboard from Grammie & Opa....Uncle Severin made the box a fun gift!

Lillian's new shopping cart - to go with her play kitchen, food and new dishes!

Very serious shopper!

Growing up...

Holden and Lillian were glued together this week!

Apparently, that's not what she wanted!!!

Scariest coat ever!  The girls pretended to be scared to death every time Everett chased them.

By next Christmas, we won't be able to tell the age differences between these 3 cousins! (Currently 8 months, 9 months and 16 months)

As if these girls needed a "uniform" to bring them closer!  Love how Kim caught their hair in full swing.

Holden was so good to all her younger siblings & cousins!

We finally got a shot of all 16 of us awake at the same time!  Granted we weren't all dressed for the day yet ( or are we back in our pajamas???)

Opa, Grammie and their 6 grandkids!

Christmas 2013 - Estes Park Again!

For the fourth straight year, the Colorado Kerschens have woken up to a view just like this on Christmas day, thanks to a very great tradition Grammie & Opa have started!  Instead of giving gifts (grandkids excluded), they give us a mountain get-away.  The 4 Hanou Kids and their spouses know they're welcome to stay the whole week but it doesn't always work for each family.  But, this year it did!  At least for part of the week we had 16 of us stay together in Estes Park in a HUGE 5 bedroom "Cabin". 
As you can imagine, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep last week - with 6 grandkids under 6.  But it was fun, fun, fun - as Lillian would say!

Lillian's Christmas began with a BANG! She finally got her own kitchen.  Big thanks to her cousins; Holden & Everett and Aunt Kim & Uncle Ian for the hand-me-down.

We got just enough snow for Uncle Ian to take the "big kids" sledding down the middle of the road.  They loved it!

Red headed cuties! Carolyn 8 months - Keira 9 months



Snuggling Aunt Kim!

Snuggling Grammie!

This is what you call Grandma Heaven...

Opa gets the best giggles from Lil....

And Jak!

The snow melted, the sun came out & we walked up to St. Mary's Lake.  The kids loved throwing stones in the water!

Love these boys....

Such a "snapshot" of these 3 kids lives right now.  What 2 1/2 year old doesn't like to put olives on their fingers or wear no clothes?  What 8 month old doesn't chew on pretty much everything - teeth coming?  And what 1 1/2 year old doesn't rearrange everything they can get their hands on?  What handfuls!

Love appetizer nights!  So glad Uncle Severin, Aunt Colleen and baby Carolyn made the trip.  We loved being with them!

Once her cold cleared up, Carolyn turned on the charm!  What a cutie!

The best pic of the Colorado Kerschen Clan on Christmas day.  Had to have at least one picture of us not in our pajamas! Jak was wiggly - surprise surprise!

Looking pretty darn happy & relaxed...vacation is good for us!

Aunt Casey is going to kill me for this one!  For as little sleep as she had all week....Casey actually hung in there like a champ!  She's the one who wanted to stay up after the kids went to bed & party!

Jak & Keira - they seem to speak a secret language...

And they hug each other pretty often too!

Jak at the Stanley Hotel admiring the Christmas tree.

These little rocking chairs were just the right size for Jak - if he wasn't rocking in them he was standing up & trying to surf on them!

Happy Keira!  Same as Carolyn - once her cold cleared up she sparkled!

The official end of 2013 Kerschen Picture....until next year!

Really, We're Doing This Already?

Meet Marek, Lillians best friend from school.  Lillian and Marek are very close.  So close, their teachers have to seperate them during quiet activities.  They seem to speak the same language and they giggle all the time together.  We've named one of Lillian's stuffed animals "Marek" (ok by we, I mean Lillian did).  She's a sweetheart and we're really glad to see Lillian develop her own friendships.  Last night we attended a Christmas Party at Mareks house. 

It's the 1st time the Kerschen Family has attended a party where we didn't know anyone but Lillian's girlfriend!  Marek's parents are great people, their house is beautiful and the party was a lot of fun, but we thought we had a couple more years till we started adopting our kids friends as our own!

Santa came to the party to find out what all the kids wanted this year.  Each kid took a turn sitting on Santa's lap.  Lillian shied away from the idea and came to sit on my lap instead.  She nervously watched as each kid climbed up and received a "pre-Christmas" gift from Santa.  When it got close to her turn, Lillian belted out loud enough for everyone to hear, "we wrote you a letter!!!!".  It was her way of saying, "I don't need to talk to you, you can just read my requests!" But she did join in the "Ho-Ho Pokey" with all the kids!

 

Menace

I posted a blog a while back with all of Jak's nicknames.  While we still use several of those cute, endearing nicknames; the ones used most often in our house these days are:  Menace, and Jak-Attack.  Our kitchen cabinets are quite often emptied out and strewn all over the floor.  The toilet paper dispenser is really fun to unroll and the stairs are really fun to climb. It only takes a second for Jak to  create mischief if you turn your head.  Oh....and those chemicals he's playing with are locked in the safety position!