Christmas with the Smiths and Nice Weather

The weekend before Christmas we spent hanging out and doing family Christmas with his parents and sister. On Friday grandma and grandpa took all the cousins out for dinner and to a show at the Honeywell while the other grown ups went out to a delicious dinner in Warsaw!








Got that cousin crew ready for a night of fun!













Saturday morning we got up and headed over (the kids had a sleepover) for breakfast and presents and a full day of fun.





Brook had to get involved in our picture.

Kids tearing into their presents.

Ike and Zac playing with their new soccer balls that float on the floor. Huge hit.
















Family Feud of course.

We played lots of games and most importantly ate lots of food :)  So good to get together and hang out with nothing else to do!







Ike went with me to the library open house earlier that week. We played lots of old fashioned games.













We had absolutely beautiful weather leading up to Christmas. We went on lots of walks and adventures to take advantage since we knew that wouldn't last long!

Down by the poop ponds.

Christmas Eve night was super foggy and creepy looking. Ike had to get out and check it out!

Ike with his new RC car.

And finally Dave working on his Statue of Liberty Lego set he bought with some Christmas money from Evansville.

Evansville for Early Chrstimas

In the middle of the month the boys and I headed to Evansville to celebrate Christmas at my grandpa's annual family party and with my dad and Kyra.








Tim and Justin came to the party too and it was so good to see them!
















Gotta make sure we get in the photo booth.

My grandpa is the cutest.


















Mom and Aunt Kathy.

This mask Dave is wearing is the creepiest thing I've seen in a while.

Tim and Dave hanging at Gamma's.

Tony, Gamma and Ike.









We were supposed to celebrate Christmas with Dad and Kyra that evening but Kyra ended up flying to Florida to be with her mom who has been sick. So instead the kids and I went over to their house on Sunday to open gifts with my Dad before we headed home.

Dave's been wanting this game-Blokus. We played it today and it's really fun!

They sent the boys on a scavenger hunt for their big present.


















Legos and geodes...what more could two boys ask for?

And their big present-exclusive seats at Winter Jam in January. They are so excited to go to this concert with us and dad and Kyra!














It was a super quick trip but we crammed a lot of fun times into it as usual! We are going back down to Evansville for New Year's so we get to spend some more time with everybody then.

Ice Skating, Family Pictures, and the Lost Christmas Tree

Last Friday we joined Josh's cottage boys to ice skate downtown. It was pretty neat (but not ice!) and the kids liked it. Dave really really didn't want to go but after we got home he said he was glad he went!

They are so cute! And only fell about a hundred times.













I forced the family to take some pictures for our Christmas card this year.








Helping me figure out posing.

💕

Such handsome fellas!

On Sunday I went with my friends Stacey and Theresa to make wreaths with other ladies from church. It was so much fun and kind of hard!

My end result. It was humongous.

The kids have gotten back into board games this winter. Specifically monopoly and clue jr. I saw the game Life at Salvation Army last week so I snagged it to play with them. It's so much more complicated than I remember! They loved it though so I guess I'm going to become an expert on the actual rules.

Ike with his gingerbread man he made for school-it's a Fortnite skin called Gingy.

And finally, our Christmas tree!














I decided to just get an artificial tree this year because we've had so much trouble the last two years when getting a real one. I ordered it off of Amazon and waited. And waited. After many days of phone calls with FedEx and getting my money back (so the tree would be free if it ever arrived) I went ahead and picked one up at Walmart instead. Well wouldn't you know the very next day my original tree arrived. Only  9 days late. So I'm really hoping next year will be smooth sailing for me and the Christmas tree :)

Thanksgiving 2019

Our family hosted Thanksgiving (but on Friday) this year for the Sievers and Bowyers. I think we ended up with about 25 people in total so we had a pretty good crowd and lots of fun!







Brit and the kids came up early so the cousins could hang out.

Gosh the kids' room looks so clean in this picture!

She is so darn adorable!

Some of the guys.

Dave and Ike got Clue Jr. from Brit and fam for their birthdays and they got a lot of play time in!












Everybody but Zac stayed with us that night-he wasn't feeling too well while they were visiting. Saturday afternoon the kids all went swimming.

Dave and Brooke.














Quick visit but the kids had lots of fun as usual. It was great to see almost everybody on Friday and eat some delicious food!

Halloween and November Wrap-Up

For Halloween this year the boys decided to dress up as Fortnite skins







Dave was Drift and Ike was Giddy-Up.














To add to the fun of Halloween we had our first snow! Made for an extremely cold trick-or-treating experience but the kids really did have fun running around and trying to stay warm!
































































November was pretty busy-Dave played basketball with the Wabash Junior Apaches and that was a great experience! Dave learned a lot and met some new kids since most of the players weren't from his school.








Working on his reading assignments to raise money for the school.

Took this picture walking home from lifeguarding one evening. Looked so pretty!

The kids were really into riding scooters right before the weather took a turn to frigid!

We finally watched the last Harry Potter movie-the kids watched it in the van but I hadn't gotten around to it yet until after we got back from our vacation.