O-H!

-I-O!  we spent Christmas in ohio with brian's family this year.  it was loads of fun.  ellen, joey, koa, and their two boxers drove up from florida about a week before we got there.  katie was there, too, so the whole fam joined in on the festivities.  we spent a lot of time hanging out around the house, went to Christmas eve service (both "babies" went and did really well...koa watched other people and ate snacks to keep quiet and oakley watched other people and played his matching game on the kindle to keep quiet...except for the random "AMEN!" in the middle of prayer. haha)  we went to Christmas morning service and had the big shafer family Christmas celebration sunday evening.  we left monday around lunch.  it was a quick, but lovely visit.  here are pictures from the weekend:

it was neat to see oakley and koa interact more than they ever have.  they played together a lot.  oakley loved taking care of koa and often told us what koa wanted or needed (or what oakley thought he needed).  :)  

helping nana make a breakfast casserole.  after putting a few apple slices on top, both boys were eating them more than helping. :)

sharing papa's ice cream

nana sharing her ice cream

time to open presents!

aunt ellen's tradition of getting matching jammies for the boys

aunt katie gave these slippers to the boys.  when they walk, the ears pop up.  they are so cute and oakley runs into things when he wears them because he's always watching the ears pop up. haha!

aunt katie and her nephews.  probably my favorite picture from the trip!

on our way to service, crammed in the back seat

we get to go to big church!!

family pic after church

cousins

nana, papa, and the grandboys

not planned at all...we all wore purple to church on Christmas morning.  nuts!

that wraps up the trip to ohio.  great family fun.  we also got to see grandma goodin.  she came over for dinner and went to church with us on Christmas eve, then came home to play apples to apples with us.  it was great to spend quality time with her!  thanks for a great visit, shafer family!