December 2016

December 2016

This month was filled with wonderful quality family time and constant reminders of how blessed our lives are.  We are so pleased that our children still believe and Santa and hope we can squeeze out at lest one more year.  Christmas is so magical in general but so fun when your kids believe in Santa.

We dodged a bullet because Claire was continuously asking for a hamster or a guinea pig but when we saw Santa - she said she wanted an art easel (phew)!

We went to Indianapolis the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with my family.  We enjoyed quality time, games, and good conversation.

We spent a quiet New Year's with our family of five.  We played games and watched the ball drop.  Claire was the only child to make it to watch the ball drop.

Here are some pictures from December 2016:

Breakfast with Santa

Date night with horse/carriage ride

Grace and mommy went ice skating with her Girl Scout troop

We ordered these new curlers and they do a wonderful job!  They are super easy and quick and make beautiful curls

Below are pictures from our Christmas in Indianapolis

We spent a morning with the White Family and had a great time catching up

My dad's siblings and family came over for a visit and it was wonderful to see them

Christmas Eve - making cookies, homemade pizza, playing games, Christmas Eve services

Santa came!

Below are pictures from Christmas morning

We got Claire a chessboard and Pete has met his match - she beat him their first game!

Christmas night at Grammy and Opa's

Ice Skating - Grace and Claire were learning slowly, but Jake decided to do the "running man" constantly.  Needless to say, Pete and I's biceps were sore the next day trying to keep Jake upright

Our New Years Eve - quiet with games and loved ones

We tried so hard to wake the younger two up because they wanted to see the ball drop - Grace absolutely wouldn't wake up and you can see how unhappy Jake was to be woken up :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

November 2016

November 2016

November started with cheering hard for the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series.  To be honest, I was happy with whoever won - I just wanted to see a good game and Game 7 was amazing!

We celebrated Grace's 7th birthday this month.  She is becoming quite the smart little lady.  We had a birthday party for her at a local bounce house place.  Our poker face daughter actually showed some real enthusiasm when opening her birthday gifts! :)

I had the honor of hosting Thanksgiving this year with the Vandervaart family.  Pete's parents did the turkey and stuffing and I did the other side items/desserts.  I THOUGHT I did a good job, unfortunately, the majority of the guests were vomiting within 48 hours - oops!

Here are some pictures from our month of November:

Claire had to get two teeth pulled.  They had to stick a needle in her gums over 8 times to numb her appropriately before they pulled out the teeth.  As much as I love Claire, I was very anxious about how this would go.  Claire blew me away that day.  She was brave, took deep breaths, and did a wonderful job!

Pete and I watching Game 7 of the World Series:

We went to Indianapolis the first weekend in November for a family wedding.  We stayed with my brother and his family and had a great time.  The cousins really enjoyed spending time together.

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Pete was "mystery reader" for Grace this month and had fun reading to her class

Check out that excitement...

We had party for Grace at a local bounce house and the 25 kids had a great time!  The kids were exhausted by the end!

We hosted our 6th Annual Friendsgiving and had a wonderful time!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends in Ohio!

We decorated for Christmas right before Thanksgiving (our family tradition)

One evening, we went to a local park where there was a Christmas light display.

On Thanksgiving, we woke up and delivered over 40 meals to those less fortunate.  We had a great time as a family and hope and pray that it taught some humility and gratitude to our children.

Pictures from our family Thanksgiving

Our three biggest blessings