The Cairney's

Monday, January 9, 2012

Cairney Christmas

Papa, Grandma and Grandkids

The annual Cairney kid pyramid (with Uncle Jim helping out due to Joey's broken arms!)

Cairney Christmas

Girl power -- Kate,Elly, & Cassie

cousins in chronological order

A very intense game of pro-draft

Thanks to Aunt Lynne, Nick is more than ready for his trip to Hawaii this summer to celebrate his graduation! Can't wait to see the hula video (--:

Jack and Cassie enjoying their Grandma Cairney stories

***Celie created books for each of the grandchildren with details of her life with stories of her birth, childhood, family, siblings, school years, marrying Papa, raising 5 kids, heartaches, joys, etc.,. It is absolutely AMAZING.....something that we all will treasure forever!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Christmas in January

Ben loving his new Bears apparel (hat and t-shirt)

Kate being silly playing darts

Since cousin Joe was out with two broken arms for the weekend, Zach had to take on full-time Ben duty.....he did a great job making it tough on him!

Jack showing us his poolshark moves....

Check out these kids...shorts and no snow celebrating Christmas in January!

The Jensen family graciously hosted Cairney Christmas for all of us in January and we had such a great time! We had amazing weather which was ideal for everyone traveling from out of town. Fabulous food & drinks were enjoyed by all, fun gifts were exchanged and wonderful memories were made. The perfect way to ring in 2012 with many exciting things in store for the Cairney's!

Aunt Lynne's Braiding festival

starting with Kate, then Elly and Cassie

the finished products!!! These girls are too cute!

....and the braids are amazing!! Thanks to Aunt Lynne....just add it to the long list of things that I could learn from her (--;

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Christmas Eve

Kate was very excited to give Doug this tile she made for him at school -- go ISU!

YEAH!!! New jersey's -- look at these tough guys!

Dressed and ready for Christmas Eve Church

We have a crazy tradition that I am trying to change (: of going to Perkins for pancakes after Christmas Eve church. The kids LOVE it!!! and I guess that it does take care of the meal planning for me for the evening. We were blessed with an amazing service at church, getting us so excited to celebrate the birth of Christ! After pancakes I love to drive around and look at Christmas lights before going home to open our family gifts. Since we had NO snow around the Des Moines area this year, the lights just did not have that special twinkle and beauty as in years past. Not that I am complaining about our sunny 45-50 degree days, but I did realize another purpose for the white stuff...it definitely adds to the magic of Christmas and the lights! We were all very happy with our presents from each other (I am really loving my electric blanket each and every night I get to climb into a warm toasty bed!) and I LOVE my new "love" necklace that Doug and the kids got for me -- feeling very blessed and loved this Christmas!

Merry Christmas -- 2011

Wishing our loved ones far and near a very MERRY Christmas!

Digging into the new Lego City Police Station set....wonder how many hours this will take?

Kate and Ben loving on their new pillow pets, bitty baby twin dolls, & lego's!

Kate was the first one awake on Christmas morning. She did sleep in until 0715, so that was great! Ben quickly awoke after that and then the craziness began (: Doug and I were able to enjoy a morning walk after breakfast, church at 1100, and then we spent the afternoon with our cousins at Aunt Sharolyn's house. Another Christmas tradition was carried thru with our "dark supper" or candle light dinner (-: that evening with the kids being introduced to crab legs for the first time, spaghetti, salad, and of course dessert ~~~ Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas to you all!!