New Playhouse!

Kinsie received this fun new playhouse as a Christmas gift from Papa Curt and Grandma Terry. The inside is styled like a miniature house and there is a picnic table with benches connected to the exterior. Caden and she are having so much fun with it!

Smith Family Christmas

Saturday afternoon we celebrated the Smith family Christmas at my Grandpa Bill and Grandma Rena's house. It was a fun afternoon!

Kinsie received a dress-up chest from Uncle Ted and Aunt Ronda. It is so cute and includes three costumes, butterfly wings, fancy shoes, a tiara, bracelets, a necklace and earrings! It is the perfect gift for her!

Family Christmas

On Friday evening we celebrated the Lininger/Richards family Christmas at my Uncle Mel and Aunt Doris' home. We do not get to see my cousin's children as often as we would like so it is always fun for all of the little ones to get together to play. The adults also have such a fun time together, especially when we participate in our annual grab bag!

A Wonderful Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas day! This is the first year that Caden really understood what was happening, which made it all the more magical. When Caden woke up he asked me if I would look outside his window to check to see if Santa was still at our house. While he was very excited with the idea that Santa had brought him presents, he was not at all interested in running in to him face to face!! After we assured him that the coast was clear he excitedly ran down the stairs and was elated to find that Santa had indeed made a stop at our house. He kept saying "Thank you, Santa! Thank you!". He had a lot of fun opening his gifts, and much to his delight he helped his sister open some of hers too...Kinsie opened one gift out of her stocking and decided she was too busy playing to open the others!

To Papa and Grandma's house we go...

Since I was a child it has been our tradition to spend Christmas day with my Grandpa and Grandma Smith and my Grandpa and Grandma Lininger at my parent's house. We were very blessed to continue this tradition again this year. So once we had finished opening gifts at our house, we loaded up the car and traveled to the farm. We opened some gifts, had Christmas dinner and then opened some more gifts...Santa is very generous at Grandma's house! None of us had anywhere else to go, so we spent the day enjoying time with our family and playing with all of the new fun toys that we received.

After an exciting morning of opening gifts at our house, Kinsie was pretty tired by the time we arrived at my parent's house. She immediately cuddled up with Papa Curt for some rest!

When anyone asked Caden what he would like for Christmas the only thing that he wished for was a pedal tractor...he was ecstatic when he opened just that from Papa and Grandma!

Taking his new tractor for a test drive!

The kids worked up an appetite opening their gifts!

Kinsie received a 25th anniversary Cabbage Patch Doll...as you can see her Uncle Tory and Daddy were also very interested in it!

Addison was VERY excited about the Ipod that she received from Santa
and Kinsie had a lot of fun with it too!

Papa Bill and his little guys.

Papa Curt decided that he might just need an Ipod, too!

Merry Christmas!

We wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas!

With Love,

Cass, Angie, Caden and Kinsie

Shay Family Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with Cass's brothers, their families and his mom this past Saturday evening. The kids always have such a fun time playing together and it was a nice night for all of us!

This is our nephew Adden's first Christmas!
Kelsy and Kinsie

Luke, Brady and Kinsie

Snow Day

It's another snowy day for us thanks to the snow and ice that we received last night. Most of the schools in Iowa cancelled classes today, so Caden was very excited to invite his cousin Luke (age 9) over to play this morning. Luke is one of Caden's most favorite people and fortunately for us, he lives just one street over! The boys went outside with Cass to remove snow and then they did some sledding in our backyard. They finally had enough of the cold and came in to help me bake some Christmas sugar cookies. It was a fun morning!

Photos by Caden

Caden asked me if he could take some pictures as we were leaving preschool this morning. I thought he did a pretty good job with them so I selected a few of them to share!

Preschool Holiday Party

Caden's preschool class had a holiday party this morning as a send off for winter break. Each of the children received a new book entitled "Little Penguin" and a wreath featuring a picture and handprint of each of their classmates. They also sang some Christmas songs and played games. It was a fun morning for him!

Opening his gift!

Playing "Pin the Red Nose on Rudolf"!

Singing "Reindeer Pokey"!

I wanted to include some pictures of Kinsie too,

as she was feeling very photogenic this morning!

And I thought she looked pretty cute in the Christmas outfit

that her great-aunt purchased for her!

Preschool Holiday Program

Caden's preschool held its holiday program Friday morning. My parents, along with Cass, Kinsie and I, all attended to watch our little guy perform. All of the two and three year old classes participated in the program and it was too cute to see all of them up on stage together. They sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", "Away in the Manger" and "The Reindeer Pokey". Following the program, there was a brunch for all of the families and a visit from Santa Claus. Caden was happy to say hello to Santa from afar!

Family Pictures

Each year during the holidays we have a new family picture taken. Despite a week full of interesting events we had them taken last night and we are pretty happy with the results!

Just as a side note, the interesting events that I was referring to included Kinsie's apparent allergic reaction to the medication amoxicillan that she had been prescribed for an ear infection and a second reaction that the doctor believes may have been caused by the MMR-Varicella vaccine that she received at her 15 month well baby check-up...she was spotted from head to toe! Fortunately neither reaction affected anything but her skin and she was back to normal in a couple of days! At the end of the week I suffered a kidney stone attack and poor Kinsie is now battling a stomach bug. Although we could be faced with much more serious problems, I am very hopeful that we have had our share of illness for a little while!