Preschool Christmas Party

I love being able to pop over to the girls' school for all of their parties!

Fun time eating junk and going to school in their Christmas PJs!

Pictures with Santa

This is actually the first time the girls have ever had their pictures taken with Santa. Up until now, we just figured they wouldn't cooperate (scream), so we never bothered. They did great and told Santa they wanted a doll (which is funny, because they hardly ever play with dolls!).

Anna

Kate

Thanksgiving in Chicago

We had so much fun last year celebrating Thanksgiving with the Henry gang in Chicago that we decided we should do it again this year!  The girls and I started driving on Friday afternoon and made it as far as Lexington. We finished the drive on Saturday and arrived around noon. It started snowing when we hit Indianapolis, there was about 5" by the time we made it to their house, and almost a foot by the time it finally stopped. The kids had so much fun playing in the snow that afternoon and then sledding for the next 3 days!

We had so much fun while we were visiting!

Monday, we took the train to the city for lunch.

Tuesday, we went to the Zoo.

Wednesday, we celebrated these two cuties' 4th birthday!

Donuts for breakfast and Sophia shirts for their first present!

We played around the house for the day and then Phil flew in around lunchtime. In the late afternoon, we took all the kiddos to Sky Zone.

Then home for Chicago style pizza and a Sophia party!

What a fun day celebrating our big 4 year olds!

Katie had the fun idea to do fondue for Thanksgiving instead of the traditional meal. She was able to borrow all of the stuff and it was a blast! We decided to feed the little kids regular food first and then let them watch a movie while the big kids and adults ate. After, we all enjoyed the chocolate fountain for dessert!

On Friday, we had fun going to Chick-fil-A and to see Minions.

We left around 2:00 on Saturday, but that didn't stop us from packing the morning with fun!  Katie and I took the kids to play at the mall while Phil helped Jud work on Jud's project list. Then we met up at Two Toots diner for lunch - your food is delivered by a toy train!

What a special time to spend with cousins! I am so thankful for this girl and her hospitality to us and all of our chaos for an entire week!

Fall Family Photo Shoot

For the first time since their newborn picture shoot, we had our family photos professionally taken. Even though the weather wasn't the greatest, I was still pleased with how the pictures turned out!

Kate (L) & Anna (R)

Anna

Kate

School Birthday Bash

Before we left for Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with the Henrys, we celebrated the girls' birthday at school with cupcakes.

Look Mommy!

The girls are learning so much at school.  Look Mommy, I can write my name!

Happy Halloween

Painting their pumpkins! 

Halloween party at school!

Trick-or-Treating with all the teachers' kids at WCHS!

 Confession:
The girls trick-or-treated at their school and at mine the day before Halloween. Between the two of them, they collected 2 gallon-sized ziplocks of candy!  So, after a busy Halloween day at a bbq, it drizzling outside, the girls still having a cough, and the girls having no clue that it was actually Halloween night, we decided that we weren't going to go trick-or-treating if we could get away with it! So, after making it through the neighborhood without spotting any kiddos, we suggested to the girls that we watch a movie in our room - to which they immediately agreed.  We snuggled up in our bed, watched The Little Mermaid, and ate popcorn.

Family movie night!

A Quick Visit with Baby Alissa

Aunt Sam, Uncle Garrett, and baby Alissa came for a quick overnight visit. We were so excited to see all of them and the girls LOVE their "baby" cousin! (I'm pretty sure the girls will always call her baby Alissa no matter how old she gets!)

Happy 60th Momma!

This past September, mom turned 60! We tried to surprise her with a trip to NYC, but dad spilled the beans, so we ended up all planning it together :)  We had SO MUCH FUN! I can't even begin to describe how special it was to spend the long weekend celebrating our mom with these ladies - my most favorite people!

One of mom's birthday presents was a "Selfie Stick"! Sort of a joke, but sort of a necessity for our trip :)  We spent time shopping, navigated the subway like locals, visited the Ground Zero memorial, ate at some FABULOUS restaurants, took in a show, did a scavenger hunt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, did some more shopping, and wore poor momma slap out!

What an amazing weekend with even more amazing ladies! Thank you dad for letting us go - maybe next time we'll let you join us (maybe!)!

August 2015

Playing in our very own creek behind our house!

Planting Marigolds

July 2015

First visit to the dentist!

Visiting with Aunt Ma and our cousins!

FL

Another summer chock-full of Florida memories!  It's amazing how fast all of these kids are growing up!  It seems like just yesterday we were setting up 5 pack-n-plays every time we all were down.  There were always so many babies, so much baby food, and so many nap times...Now the youngest one is two years old!  It really is unbelievable how fast time is flying.  I want to savor every second!

And we savor every second of fun down at Pop Pop and Mimi's house!  As always, they pretty much lived in the pool.  It's nice having so many that can swim.  The pool is a lot less stressful!

Fourth of July was kind of crazy because we were getting ready to leave for Ocean Reef on vacation the next day.  But we managed a cook out, two birthday parties, and fireworks!

Well don't these fellas look patriotic!

Aunt Erica turned 30!

Our cousins have a baby, Lucas, that turned ONE!  Happy Birthday, Lucas!

On Sunday we ventured down to the Keys to Ocean Reef for our 4 night stay.  We rented a house and enjoyed swimming in the pool and playing at Buccaneer Island

Pop Pop's gaggle of grandkids!

This boy is just as sweet and funny as can be.  We are so thankful that he was created just for our family and just love, love, love him!

Chad brought his boat and parked it at the dock that was at the house at Ocean Reef.  The big boys took a fishing trip one day.  They caught a ton of Mahi!

The next day the kids wanted to go out fishing for a bit and were so proud to bring home some snapper and a baracuda!

Hanging at Buccaneer Island.

It seemed like all we did was swim.  After the morning at Buccaneer Island in the pools we would come home, eat, and swim some more!

Gelato night!

A family picture is very hard to come by and we were so happy that we had everyone in one spot at the same time!

After getting home from Ocean Reef, we spent another week playing together!

Swimming, golf cart rides, catching lizards, riding 4-wheelers, fishing, putting on shows, baking, sleepovers, geocaching, alligator farming, and shopping, were among the fun things that filled our week!

We are so blessed to have a place where we can go and spend time together as a whole family.  Thank you Pop Pop and Mimi for having us down so we can have another awesome Florida family vacation!