Family Pictures

Mom and Dad Anliker
Kids (Charles, Clark, Carmen, Byron, Brenda, Bobby)
Lori, Brittany and Bobby (minus Brooke)
Brenda, Kayla, Kory, Don and Kyle
Byron
Colten, Laura, Jamie and Carmen
The entire family

Sorry, I don't have pictures of us or Clark and Cindy.

Anliker Grandkids

Here are the Anliker grandkids, minus Brooke, who just had her tonsils out and missing 6 of the 7 dogs. Mickey was lucky enough to make the picture.

Long hair...

Ella's hair is so long that we need to blow dry it before going outside. Over the weekend, she decided that she's do it by herself, which is a common phrase in our house these days.

Snowmobiling

The Friday after Thanksgiving, it was about 40 degrees in northern Iowa, so my Uncle Dean graciously let us borrow his snowmobiles to take Ella out and then to take her sledding. Charles took out the 'classic' John Deere. Aunt Renae even went. Thanks Dean!

Hohensee Christmas

We typically get together with my Grandparents on my Dad's side of the family, his siblings, their kids and their kids - get the drift of a big get together? This year, we got together at the church basement and had dinner and played bingo, like we've done for as long as I can remember. We had a wonderful time.

• Renae and Ella opening Nae's bottle of Bailey's.
• Katie (my cousin) holding Ella. Katie's twin girls are 2 years older than Ella and they wrote notes and shared snacks in church on Christmas morning.
• My dad and his brother, Charlie (Ella's godfather) boycotting BINGO.
• Baby Taylor completely out.
• Renae and Charles discussing Charles' new bathtub crayons.
• Ella helping Uncle Dean (my dad's brother) call out BINGO numbers.

Presents from Dave

My godfather David lives in Clearwater, Florida, and always sends us awesome Christmas presents. Charles is a big Florida State fan, so their logo merchandise is easy to come by. This year, we received gifts of all our favorite things - Florida State Seminoles, Denver Broncos, and John Deere. Ella was a great helper, as I'm sure you can imagine!

Christmas Eve night

We got to my parents on Christmas Eve night and Paige was there to play with Ella, so we played with my old legos, building horse stables, a horse buggy and a house. It was a lot of fun. Nookie (my parent's dog) and Penny (one of our dogs) quietly watched.

Santa's Visit

I had to work Christmas Eve during the day, so Ella went to daycare. Charles and her set out cookies and milk before they left and by golly, Santa came through for us. We asked if he could come early since we'd be leaving Christmas Eve afternoon to go to Pocahontas and West Bend and he did. Here is Ella with her new Dora squirt toys for the bathtub that Santa left in her stocking and her new remote controlled truck that Santa left for her. Lucky girl - or should I say, Lucky Charles.

Christmas Time at our house

Before we headed out for the Christmas holiday, we opened gifts at our house last Tuesday night. Actually Ella opened gifts as Charles and I went to Denver twice this fall for our early 'Christmas gifts'.

Ella got 2 books, a Little People house, van and motorcycle and an inflatable bed to take to Grandma and Grandpa's houses. It took her about 5 minutes to get everything opened. If anyone needs help opening gifts, we'll bring her by.

Yum, cookies....

This was Ella's second year at decorating Christmas cookies, although last year she didn't do a whole lot. She helped a lot, decorating lots of "Me's" - the little kid shaped cookies and "Daddy's", the bigger people shaped cookies. Her favorite color is blue, so needless to say, we have a lot of blue cookies. For the last one, I let her do whatever she wanted and boy, did she. LOTS of frosting - oh well!

Ella, Charles and I had a lot of fun and we may even decorate cookies more than once a year now.

Baby Taylor Zaugg

My cousin Andy and his wife Jessica welcomed home their first child, Taylor Emily on November 30th. Ella, my aunt Renae and I went over for a visit and dinner.

Happy Holidays!

Merry (belated) Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our friends and family.

Playing

Ella playing with her new 'girlie' set from Aunt Lori, Uncle Bobby, Brooke and Brittany!

More birthday party

Ella's birthday starts off a sleuth of birthdays including Great Grandma Hohensee, Grandma Hohenesee, Ella and a new cousin, Taylor, just born on Sunday. Here are the 3 birthday girls.

After bowling, we went to Uncle Charlie's for a birthday party for my Grandma Hohensee (mentioned above). Ella was a great helper doing dishes.

Four Generations -
My Grandpa Hohensee, my dad, me and Ella