An Old-Fashioned Ahlberg Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!  Jace created this and we are sharing it with everyone.  Enjoy!  (Be patient--it takes a little bit to load.)

An Old-Fashioned Ahlberg Christmas

Enjoy the time with family and travel safe if you're traveling!

Love,
All the Ahlbergs

Music, Music and more Music!

The weekend of December 10-12 was a weekend filled with magnificent Christmas music.  It started off with Drew and the Boys Choir performing in the Haymarket with a few of their songs.  Saturday was the Lincoln Northeast Madrigal performance.  Sunday was the Christmas program at church.  It was a wonderful weekend and the Ahlberg clan did such an awesome job!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I didn't know what a Madrigal performance really was.  I'm not sure I can explain it correctly (Bailey isn't here to explain it to me), but it was Chamber Singers at LNE and it was like a musical.  The singers were all characters and we, the audience, were the visitors who they decided to feed.  We had prime rib, potatoes and green beans along with bread pudding for dessert.  Throughout the performance, the court entertained us with quick quips and other fun dialog and then those people put on a mini-play.  Throughout, there was lots of music.  It ended with the Chamber Singers performing many holiday songs.  All of the songs were acapella.  It was SOOO good!  We were all very impressed.  I didn't explain it well enough to do it justice--the acting and the singing was excellent.

For the church Christmas pageant, Bailey had one of the lead roles and mom/grandma Ahlberg had another one.  It was an interesting play that lasted the entire service last Sunday.  The Sunday School kids did a great job with all the songs.  You know how a lot of times when little kids sing, you can barely hear them?  These guys belted out the songs with gusto and did a fantastic job.  You didn't see Cody on stage, but he was helpful behind the scenes wrangling up kids and offering a helping hand whenever one was needed.  It was fun to see kids and grandma all involved in the performance.

It was a great weekend.  All the parents and grandparents had a fantastic time and we're so proud of all the kids who "volunteered" their time this holiday season and the parents and grandparents who attended, created backdrops and helped gets kids to and fro for all the rehearsals.  I love this Ahlberg family!

Drew singing with the Boys Choir in the Haymarket. 

Bailey as the Queen.  Oh so somber and serious.

Singing her queenly part.  All the kids did a fantastic job.

Bailey in the red, Drew in the blue as a Wise Man, Trent is the top left sheet--a little harder to pick out.  It was a great performance by all!

Setting up the Ol' Christmas Tree

How many Christmas ornaments does it take to fill a tree?

4 kids, ages 17, 13, 11, and 6

Each kid with an ornament for each Christmas makes 47 kid ornaments.

Throw in a few from the parents, and that makes a lot of decorations.

Most of the fun is had in remembering all the good memories from Christmas' past with some anticipation thrown in for the upcoming gift giving season.

Wishing all a very Merry Christmas!

SANTA!!!

Trent's visit to Santa.  He was very serious and didn't say too much.  He wasn't scared and wasn't really shy, just said a couple things and then he was done.  Was much more interested in the candy canes next to Santa.

Kitchen Floor Project!

When we bought the house, we knew we'd want to update.  We decided to tackle the floor and decided on a laminate that looks like tile.  It's self-adhesive yet it can be grouted.  It's also thicker than a standard laminate.  We couldn't stop then with just the floor so we decided to paint, too.  We used a picture we have hanging in the kitchen as inspiration.  We're looking forward to finishing up the kitchen with new cabinets and countertop in the future, too!

The old yellow-ish floor.

The inspiration painting. 

New floor! Grout has been added and Bailey said it looks like the stone path in the picture!

The new kitchen colors.  The bottom in Indigo Blue and top is some kind of cream.  I don't remember.  It's kind of like butter, but I don't think it's too yellowy.  The chair rail still needs to be painted and added.

I'm thinking the cabinets and the countertop will probably wait until next year so stay tuned for more pictures!

Family Time

This was a comfy family night watching a movie.  We talked Bailey into taking the picture so she, unfortunately, isn't in the picture. 

Thanksgiving 2010

It was our first Thanksgiving together as a family where we had to coordinate schedules.  We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Ahlberg family on Sunday, November 19 and it was delicious! Thanks to Grandma Ahlberg and Bailey for all of their hard work with the cooking and baking.

On Wednesday, November 24, Jace, Trent and I drove down to Stilwell, KS to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family.  Again, lots of yummy food and great family time.  Thank you to the Nelsons for hosting the Kussatz Thanksgiving and it must've worn them out!

Will and Max taking a quick nap before lunch.

Kim and Max taking a quick nap after lunch.

The Thanksgiving Spread!

American Idol Auditions

Though Trent fell asleep about 30 minutes into his sister's performance, he must have woken up several times and saw what was going on.  I'm pretty sure he's practicing for the next American Idol performance!

Bailey's Life

Lincoln Northeast had their fall concert performance last week.  Bailey is in several of the groups.  She has a solo in the all-girls show choir, Dynamix.  Here's a quick video of her solo:

All the groups performed the song, Jai Ho, from the movie "Slumdog Millionaire."  It was pretty impressive!

Here are a few of her senior pictures.  She's getting these as the wallets.

Otherwise, she's active as always.  Rehearsing for the LNE Madrigal performance, memorizing speeches for her speech contests, going to Bible study and youth group.  And, when time, spending time with friends and family!

No More Training Wheels for Me!

The family rode out to Holmes Lake today.  It was Trent's first official family bike ride on his bike and not on the "tag along" behind Dad.  He got up the two big hills on either side of the tunnels--which he couldn't do when he was 5 so it's totally because he's 6 now.  When we got home, he decided that as a 6 year old, he needed to lose the training wheels.  Here are just a couple of the videos...

 

 

Halloween

Halloween!  We went to Trunk or Treat at church and then through the Eastridge neighborhood where Drew and Trent ended the night with two big bags of candy.  Cody and Bailey helped with Trunk or Treat and then went trick or treating for canned goods for the City Mission.  Such good, upstanding young adults!

Cody the Wizard.

Drew the Evil Villain.

Trent the Ninja Turtle with his friend, Jaden, the mummy.

Dr. Karis

Grandma and Grandpa participating in the Trunk or Treat as flowers--GoldenROD and Black Eye Susie.  Very creative!

Blowing Away at Mahoney State Park

During fall break, took a trip to Mahoney State Park.  We climbed the tower where it proved to be very windy and the whole tower was swaying in the wind.  Once we got into the woods and were hiking, it was very nice.  Kids, big and little, had fun hiking up and down a big ravine. 

AHHHH!

Proof that it was windy at the top of the tower at Mahoney.

Trent being Trent.

Bailey posing for a hiking pic.

Oh no!! Dad has fallen and landed at the bottom of the ravine!

Trent's Birthday

Trent turned six on Thursday, October 28 and he celebrated by going to the Children's Museum in the morning and then went to Chuck E. Cheese that night with family.  He got lots of cool toys including Legos, Zhu Zhu pet warriors, a kindergarten study book and other fun stuff!  And many, many token points were added to the Ahlberg cache!

Excited about two new "Biscuit" books now that he's reading on his own!

Hmmmmm? What's in here?

My cookie cake was goo-ood!

My buddies--Ian Nebesniak and Tyler Ahlberg--are helping me open my presents!

Fall Break

Fall Break this year was fantastic.  Granted, it was my first real Fall Break since I probably had one back in high school.  We had adventures planned all week--hiking, shopping, fun centers, campfire, children's museum and Chuck E. Cheese to just name a few!

Most of the fun pictures and videos are on Jace's camera and phone, but here are a couple from when we were hiking at Waubonsie State Park just east of Nebraska City.  It was a great day of hiking, climbing up and down some big hills, a campfire and s'mores.  Yum!

Kids Hiking at Waubonsie State Park

"The Boys" Hiking at Waubonsie State Park

Drew and Cody hiking.

Welcome!

To our very first post! We didn't think Facebook was the best way to share what's happening in our family since not everyone uses Facebook and this blog allows us to share more  information with our friends and family.  We hope you enjoy reading about the Ahlberg Adventures as much as we enjoy sharing them with you.