July

July was really a blur. It went so fast! I babysat for the first part of the month, and then the last part was filled with tons of house projects in order to get ready for baby girl. We knew with me being on limited bed rest that we needed to get pretty much all of it done before Ron started school.

We spent the fourth at home. We are good friends with the missionaries and decided to have a BBQ with them and fireworks at home rather than brave the firework crowds down at the river. We had lots of fun even though our fireworks turned out to be totally lame! The kids loved it and that is really all that matters.

1: Hayden was awesome and wanted a picture after I cut his hair (this never happens). I have seriously never met a kid with more hair than him. He stalls my clippers!!

2: My little snuggle bear. She would have me rock her to sleep every day if I would.

3: Enjoying and afternoon filled with the Indy Zoo and Ice Cream.

4-5: Dress like a cow day at chi-fil-a. Seriously we will be doing this every year! The kids LOVED it! We signed up to the  feed the missionaries, luckily they were pretty good sports and  dressed up like cows with us so we all  got  our meals for free. That was 3 adult meals, 2 kids meals.

6 &8: Enjoying our passes to the Indy Zoo... We seriously love going there!

7: Grace is an actress. You'd never know but in this photo she was totally fake sleeping. She does it all the time, and its a crack up. She is really good at it!

1: Sibling Cuddle Time

2: We went on lots of bike rides

3: Played with our slip and slide and kiddy pool in our underwear of course.

4: I rarely let them get the car carts at the grocery store (seriously they are a pain!) They were so excited and happy I had to get a picture.

4: Ron painting the kid's bunk beds.

6: Mommy and Grace selfie. She was so excited for a target Slurpee.

7: Grace has been trying to dress her self. She almost succeeded here.

8-11: Enjoying many walks and bike rides on the trails by our house.

 These I just took on some of the many walks we took. Seriously isn't Indiana Beautiful? I can't get enough of it.  It is stunning. PS no filter on any of these.

Ron and I finally finished refurbishing the the kid's bunk beds. We also transitioned Grace from the crib to a twin bed.  It turned out so cute! I love how clean and airy their bedroom feels with out the crib and the clutter that came with it! Grace loves sleeping in a big girl bed, and has done so well with the transition.

Grace got a hot pink bird and flower bed (she is obsessed with owls lately). Hayden got a navy blue pirate bed. I love how it turned out. The colors turned out so well together, but I still was able to add their personality to it. I also didn't have to really change anything else out of their room cause everything still matched!

Christmas

I realized when gathering my christmas photos or lack their of that I didn't document it to well. I will just have to say that Christmas was so fun and so exhausting! Ron and I were going on about an hour and a half of sleep when the kids woke up. We stayed up all night finishing up or assembling presents. It was so worth it by the end.

We started the morning off by opening up stockings. One of Ron's family traditions that we decided to carry on was keeping a small box of cereal in teh stockings to munch on while we opening presents. This keeps everyone from getting what I like to call "Hangry" aka hungry+angry. 

The kids got a few little dollar toys and of course treats in their stockings. Ron got just some of his favorite treats. He was in heaven. I got a perfume and again more treats!

This year Hayden got a car mat for christmas with real 3d buildings to go with it and a board game! This is also one of the gifts that Ron and I stayed up to finish! It turned out so cool though, and both kids LOVE it.  He also got a big semi truck from Grandma and Grandpa, and couple of movies.

Grace got a purse, and a winnie the pooh doll from us, a doll and stroller from Grandma and grandpa along with a couple of movies as well.

The big gift we got the kids was a gift to share. We bought them a little kitchen set with a TON of food to go with it. They love it and play with it constantly.

 Ron got me a really cool sushi maker kit. It came with chop sticks, dipping bowls a cook book and the works. It was so cool and so unlike him to think of something like that. I was the one who introduced him to the wonderful world of the sushi. We both love it so much, but gosh it is expensive! Not anymore! We have already done it once and it was delicious!

Here is the Christmas Aftermath. It was crazy messy but it was so fun to watch the kids play and enjoy the things "Santa" brought them. We spent the rest of the day sleeping, playing with toys, and watching movies. We also had the missionaries over for dinner which ended up being really fun and out of the ordinary. We hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas as well. We definitely enjoyed spending every minute with one another celebrating our savior's birth.

Christmas Eve

Growing up Christmas eve was a bigger holiday than Christmas was! I always loved it that way, and we have tried to keep it that way with a few minor changes.  So far Ron and I have spent every Christmas except one with just our little family at home. I love it this way. There isn't any packing up gifts in the car and driving, it is just us relaxing and enjoying what we love most which happens to be each other.

Last year we started a new tradition that we did again this year which was eating out at a nice restaurant instead of slaving away in the kitchen. I love this tradition so much!!! This year we chose Red Lobster. We had to head out around 430 to ensure we wouldn't have to wait a long time and to make sure we could fit all other festivities in before the kid's 8 pm bedtime. Poor Hayden was really sick, and didn't enjoy eating out as much as we would have liked (We later found out he had hand foot and mouth disease.. whoops! probably shouldn't have gone anywhere). He was a really champ and just enjoyed drinking my virgin bahama mama.

Once we got home we built our traditional Christmas eve fort. We all LOVED it, koshka included! Doing the fort gets more and more fun every year. Once the fort was made we played for a bit, but eventually got down to serious business when we gathered around to listen to dad read story of Christ's birth.

Once we were done reading and playing it was time for Hot cocoa and donuts. Lets be really honest though. Hayden (he was sick remember, wouldn't eat anything) was begging for this the moment we got home. He would throw a fit every time we did something else instead of eating donuts and hot chocolate. Clearly this is his favorite Christmas eve tradition.

By this time the kids were tired (aka Ron and I were worn out and ready for them to go to bed). So we headed over to the tree to do our final Christmas Eve Tradition... CHRISTMAS JAMMIES!!! This is definitely my favorite tradition. I love jammies a little too much.

The fort

Grace tickling and wrestling daddy in the fort

Mommy and Hayden hanging out in the fort (My eyes get freakishly big when its dark and a flash goes off)

Daddy reading Luke 2

Hayden Listening

Koshka Listening

Hayden is never amused with getting his picture taken. I love his disgruntled face. I also love grace in this photo. She is hugging  "Titttee." more like mauling. Whatever you call it you see nothing but love right for that cat right there.

Gathering around the tree for presents!

Had to get one with my feline friend. She is my little shadow and has to be were I am.

This photo doesn't even do Hayden's excitement Justice. He was so excited to open a gift!!! He was in LOVE with his jammies.

Grace on the other hand thought it was cool, but even Hayden was more excited about her jammies than she was.

Daddy with his Christmas Jammies package

Mommy with hers. I was seriously so excited for these. I picked them out myself!

Here are the  kids Christmas Jammies! Aren't they so cute!!!!! I just love them in their new jammies. Hayden looks like a little man!

Grace refused to stand so you can't see the little reindeer feet. Oh well!

Needless to say Christmas eve was yet again a hit. It was so fun! What is not pictured is Ron and I playing santa till 530 in the morning. Yeah 7 am came awfully quick. Note to self double check all present assembly a few weeks prior to Christmas Eve. You might not realize what kind of night you are in for if you don't.  It was all worth it to see Their faces when they realized "Santa" came.

Decorating the Tree

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I was so excited to get the tree out this year and celebrate Christmas in our new (but still renting) house. This year was especially fun because both kids are getting old enough that they wanted to pitch in and help. It was a great way to spend family night together.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was very different at our house, but it was a blast! This was the first time we have stayed home for thanksgiving. Ron's sister (Donna) and her husband (mike) and their two kids (ben and drew) came to celebrate with us. I made the dinner all by myself, and I am so proud! It tasted pretty good! Sadly I didn't take any pictures of our yummy feast. Really this post is about the other things we did while family was here. We had so much fun, and we made sure to stay busy!

One of the days we decided to head out to Chucky cheese for some pizza and video games. The kids had a ball! Especially the boys and I am not meaning just the little ones either.

Hayden hates having his picture taken

Grace and Drew enjoying their pizza

Ben was really digging his soda

Hayden's favorite drink is  "Root Beard"

Playing on the rides. They loved it!

Part of the reason Ron's sister came was because mike had a big job interview at a doctor's office in Indy. So we all made the trip down and went to the children's museum,. This place is amazing! It is the largest children's museum in the world, and my kids LOVE going.

The train exhibit was a huge hit. All the kids loved walking inside the train and seeing all the neat pictures. Afterwards they all fought over the giant train set that was available for the kids to play with.

Hayden in the Monster exhibit. Clearly he didn't understand why this exhibit was so fun. It was more for the adults. They had costumes and props from famous scary movies such as the Adam's family, corpse bride, and batman.

This exhibit Hayden did like! In fact I had to pry him away! It was Santa's cookie bakery. They had tons of kitchen utensils and fake food for the kids to play with. Hayden made cookies. Hew would roll them out, frost them and then stick them in the giant oven to bake. He did it over and over. It was so cute

He was in cookie heaven, and so excited to show me his cookies he made.

Grace love tot land! She couldn't get enough of it. Inside tot land is this giant water table with all sorts of cups, wooden spoons, boats, strainers etc... She got soaked! The smile two photo's down says it all!

My favorite part of the museum is the 100 year old full sized carousel. It is darling and the kids' giggles and squeals make it extra fun!

Thanks Mike and Donna for such a fun Holiday! Can't wait to see you during Spring break!