Devember And Thanksmas

 Happy Thanksgiving/Merry Christmas/Happy New Year to you all!

We've had a good mix of date nights, family time, busyness, rest, sickness, and health the last month and a half.

Our church youth group hosted a free babysitting night which we absolutely took advantage of! We ordered Olive Garden to go while we drove up to Ft. Wayne, ate in the van, did a little shopping, and headed back. We had a great time, the kids had a great time, and the youth group looked a little glazed over. But we sure were grateful for them!

Thanksgiving with Danny's family- Summer and her cousin spent about an hour just sitting with Grandma Barb, which I have never seen happen. They just sat and talked and I'm pretty sure they all enjoyed their time together:)

A Walmart run with just a few things on the list meant all three boys got to ride in the cart.

We spent a few days over Thanksgiving with my family where we had fun, but also our first round of tummy aches.

Summer and Livy made a Thanksgiving turkey out of tape and construction paper:)

Roanoke had their first annual Christmas parade and tree lighting. The parade literally was less than two blocks long. It was amazing.

The whole night was every bit as Hallmarky as you would expect!

Then we came home and put up our own tree! It was fun to pull everything out after having it in storage for a few years.

The best Christmas date- Shipshewana, lots of lights, David Phelps concert, and good company:)

I made cookies on a whim one afternoon and had plenty of "help".

This year I joined a local mom's group. I've loved getting to know my small group within the big group! Our mentor mom had us over for a sweet time of supper and fellowship that went on until 10:00 at night!

Headed to Indy in a friends borrowed bus/van thingy. We went to watch It's A Wonderful Life at Beef n Boards for Danny's dad's birthday. And my parents came out to babysit!

The next day we checked out Parlor City Christmas with my parents before they headed home. It was cold but fun!

Cute (crazy) lil cousins. At this particular family Christmas, Tanner threw mashed potatoes on the wall, Sawyer was caught licking the butter knife at the food table, Tucker and Tanner dug their hands into the food meant for everyone... who's kids are these anyway????

Christmas spirit week at school. I had about reached my limit but we came up with a version of Cindy Lou-hoo hair and called it good.

And then the storm hit. School was cancelled, Danny came home super early from work, we made snow cream, we stayed in and got cozy.

We had our own little family Christmas spread throughout the whole day of Christmas Eve.

We ended with a movie and sleeping by the tree and it was just about as perfect of a time as we could have asked for. After a week of tummy aches and puking it was very welcome.

Family Christmas! Girls are not without their drama but I love seeing friendships develop.

Bubby loves tractors and the farm girl in me loves that he loves them:)

Each year the kids get a little older and the Nativity play gets a little better.

A slow morning of breakfast and games after too little sleep.

Sawyer finally lost his first tooth!  It was ready to come out for soooo long before it finally happened in Wednesday night church.

Christmas in Illinois was short and sweet this year. We went to the trampoline park and Culver's on Saturday. 

Static trampoline hair!

NYE at my cousin's house. This represents the late night slap happy portion of our evening. Thumbholes!

That green tunnel has provided so much entertainment over the years!

This week over break we all went and had lunch with Danny and got the tour of his work. There were three restaurants, a library stop, and a pinched finger involved but it was a good time!

"I hab sweeeepers!" Man this kid is fun right now and I am soaking it up! The "sweet spot" is so close we can just about grab it but at the same time I am sad to be saying goodbye to the baby and toddler thing we've had going for the last seven years. So fleeting!

Tucker Joseph loves his "chlokate" and was pretty excited to dive into the big kiss he got in his stocking!

And here lies a whole new year ahead of us. I told someone jokingly that I came up with my word for 2022 at the end of the year. I really don't do words of the year but the word "reestablish" really hit me at Christmas this year. It just was feeling different to me. And finally I realized that I think it's because I just didn't really know how to "do" Christmas this year. Since the last time we had our "normal" Christmas here in the states, we've gained another kid, a different house, and a huge life experience. So I kind of felt like I was trying to figure it out on the fly. We were reestablishing:) 

Proverbs 16:9

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps."