New Year's Eve

It's not quite as easy to have a late night out with kids. Our New Year's Eves have been pretty low key the last few years since we have little ones that can't make it till midnight. This year, the DeJonges had us over for dinner and some games. It was a lot of fun!

 

Todd started the headbands game with the kids. They seemed to be having fun!

 

They enjoyed parts of Madagascar 2.

 

The adults were able to get in a euchre tournament and a game of Apples to Apples!

The little ones got sick of Madagascar so we popped in Curious George upstairs.

 

It was a very fun night! We ate lots of great food and there were hardly any problems with the kids. It's amazing to see how less the interruptions become the older they get!

 

We made it back to our house at about 11 where Hannah immediately feel asleep and the older two stayed up with Mike and me to watch the ball drop.

 

Happy New Year!



Winter wonderland

With the mild winter we had last year, it's hard to resist getting excited about a big snow storm! The girls and I got all bundled up to head out and soak up some vitamin D and play in the snow. I actually got some exercise by shoveling half the driveway. That snow was HEAVY!

 



Christmas part 3

Merry Christmas! What a great couple days we had celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour.

The girls were angels in the Christmas Eve service. They did a great job!

After the afternoon service, we went to my brother's to celebrate. The kids had a great time. We ate dinner, opened gifts, danced with the xbox, and played poker.

Hannah was super excited to get a toddler Snow White doll.

Allie received a Belle toddler doll that she loves!

Ava has been asking for some "girl" Lego's for a while! Thanks Rosses!

It was fun for the girls to give their cousins some gifts as well.

The girls had fun with the Xbox.

We were home pretty late Christmas Eve so it was no surprise that the girls slept in Christmas morning. Hannah was the last to wake up at around 10. We ate breakfast and opened gifts with Grandma and Papa.

After lunch we left for Mike's aunt's house. His cousin Alex and her family were in town from Boston so it was great to see them! We ate dinner together and opened more gifts.

Mike really does a great job playing with the kids. They love him!

Mike's Aunt Carol (center) was also in town from California with her son Josh!

Mike and I started a tradition when Ava was young that I'm certainly glad we're continuing, cause the girls received a whole lot of gifts. For every toy they get, they have to choose an old toy to donate. It helps us not to have too much and it teaches the girls to be giving. Each one actually has to go through and choose their own toys to donate.

We were also very fortunate to have a night in the day after Christmas. It started out as a bummer of an evening. Aunt Amy bought the whole family tickets to Greenfield Village for Christmas. But with all the snow, we decided not to drive out to Dearborn. We were bummed not to be able to go but it turned out to be a fun evening in! We played games, colored pictures, and watched Brave.

 

It's been an amazing Christmas season so far. We are so incredibly blessed with such a generous and loving family. I know not everyone is so lucky and I'm grateful to God everyday.



Christmas festivities Part 2

Ava had her concert and party today for the Christmas season. In their science unit, the class has been studying insects. Ava in paticular has been researching fire flies. The party was called the "Get Buggy" party. We started out in the cafeteria where Ava was able to read us her research book about fireflies. Then we moved into the media center where the kids sang a lot of songs about bugs and we saw a slide show of different pictures the students created on the computer. After that it was back to the classroom to check out all the artwork and have some snacks. It was a fun day! Ava loved that her whole family was there, including Grandma and Papa! She also loved that we were able to take her home an hour early!!

 

 

 

 

We also tried to get a nice Christmas picture with the girls. They were dressed up for church. It's really hard to get a nice picture of everyone!

 

 

Mike and I attended our friend Trevor's wedding down in Detroit. It was held at the Masonic Temple. It was so beautiful. I didn't feel like lugging around my big camera so the pictures aren't the greatest but you can get an idea of how gorgeous it was!

 

More to come after Christmas! Hope you and your family have a joyous day!