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."

Fall Catch Up

 Hello, few and faithful readers:)  I was talking to a friend about a month ago and she reminded me it was time to post again as it had been about six weeks.  So now that it's been another four weeks..... I mean, I'm over being 40.  Time to move on!  So here you have a photo dump of the last two months.  Almost 2 1/2 months!  And the first bunch of them is out of order but I'm not changing them.  Too bad.

The beautiful, long lasting fall weather we had was taken much advantage of most afternoons!

Tucker really looks forward to Thursday mornings when it's story hour time:)  We go through the days of the week together multiple times each week, trying to remember when it is exactly that he gets to go again.  Next week is Thanksgiving already which means no library but we'll be in IL so hopefully he won't notice:)

Climbing trees is a favorite activity around here.  I was never a sure footed kid but my kids seem to be fairly confident so I try to just let them do their thing.

Summer had her first piano recital! It was actually scheduled about a month after she started so her teacher gave her the option to opt out.  But she really wanted to give it a try and she did great!

Danny's parents like to take all the adults out for their birthdays.  This year for mine we ended up doing an outing with the kids to Steele Farms.  It was just what the doctor ordered.

Applesauce day!

Street Fair- the ferris wheel is the only ride I can handle so I quickly volunteered to go with the kids:)

Tucker Joseph turned 4.  He wanted a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and green letters and sprinkles.  And that's just what he got.

And Tanner turned 2!  Just four day before Tucker.  He had caramel apple cake because he had no opinion on what kind of dessert he wanted.

Our nieces babysat one night and did Summer's hair in braids.  She left them in over 24 hours and had curly(ish) hair when they finally came out.  That's a pretty exciting deal for stick straight hair girls:)  Ask me how I know.

Zoo and Chuck E Cheese day.  Tanner was aaaaaaallllllllllll over the place. And he wasn't sure what to think about the ride.

The aforementioned fall days spent outside come with bees.  Bubby got stung twice in one day:(  Once on his hand and once right by his eye.  It was soooooo sad.

Harvest Call hosted a retreat for returning missionaries.  I didn't realized it was something they had done in the past, just on a smaller scale.  But they had some catching up to do after covid and there were 93 people there!  It was such a sweet time of reunion and sharing and I am so glad we were able to go.

We got there about as early as we could and enjoyed some time hiking through the woods with the kiddos before the majority showed up.  And the retreat was in IL so we were able to leave Tanner with my parents which made it way more relaxing!

The week after the retreat happened to be fall break so Danny came home with some friends and I stayed with the kids at my parents for a few days.  One chilly day they all snuggled in the kitchen which is the warmest room in the house.  They stayed like that for a long time!

Love seeing my boys be friends.

At one point when I realized I hadn't seen Tanner in awhile I went on a search for him.  I found him with a chair pushed up to the counter eating some goodies he had found.  I asked him what he was doing.  He smiled real big and said "Dats nummy cookie!"

These snowmen came in a bag of treasures someone gave us.  Summer got creative and made a snowman band.  Using scotch tape and blocks, we have the lead singer, the guitar player, and the drummer:)  Then she turned up the music on my phone, stood in front of them, and directed them for the longest time.  Looks like Tanner didn't appreciate their tunes.

Aaron and Cassie were camping at the state park for a couple nights and invited the family out for supper one night.  Twas a lovely evening!

Sawyer turned 6.  Thanks to Tucker's green letters and sprinkles, that's what he wanted too.  Easy enough.

Gator rides one evening out at grandpa and grandma's.  We hadn't ridden or driven a gator since Haiti and it was fun to do that again:)  Such a familiar feeling.  Except this time it was way more smooth!

Field trip to Wabash Historical Museum and a show at the Honeywell Center.  Fun day!

Crazy hair day for Spirit Week at school!

And mismatch day.  But she decided before she left the house that the shoes were annoying so that didn't happen.  I didn't blame her.

Sawyer was excited to wear his Bonne Fin Geckos shirt for mismatch day.  It was a fun shirt to pull out again!

The first real snow!  This picture happened first thing when it started so there's not much to show for it.  But later that afternoon they played outside for about two hours!  It helped that Danny bundled up and went out with them:)

Tanner woke up from his nap that day and looked longingly out the window while they played.  But then he got a snack so he really had no complaints.

Joab and Trinity came to town for the weekend and stopped by with their adorable, sweet little girl.  None of us were sad about holding her!

Standing on the bouncy balls instead of chairs doesn't seem like the smartest idea..... 

And finally, the week before fall break Summer's class did their pumpkin patch field trip.  She came home with a pie pumpkin, not a carving one.  She's been asking since then to make a pie with it and it finally happened.  It was tasty!

So there you have it. Our fall.  It was a good one! And with thanksgiving right around the corner, I will leave you with  Psalm 95:1-2

"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!"