Mad Ants Game

As part of the boys' Christmas presents we bought them tickets to watch the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (an NBA g-league team). Dave is a huuuuge basketball fan right now, and we figured Ike would get into it. We had so much fun! The game was a little rough at first (they were down by 23 points), but they ended up pulling off a win. Definitely would go watch again. Much cheaper option than seeing the Pacers and we had awesome seats.

Posing before the game. I found those jerseys on Ebay!

Ike and grandpa. Josh's parents came with us.

Ike was a little obsessed with the cheerleaders.

Playing some games in the kid section.

At any given point Ike always knew where the Mad Ant mascot was. We finally spotted him near enough to get a picture!












Ike was much more interested in the extra stuff happening than the actual game. Dave loved watching the players and I think appreciated the game. Win for all of us for sure! Can't wait to check them out again :)

Christmas 2017

We had a nice, relaxing Christmas this year. Lots of visitors, presents, and snow! Josh worked on Christmas day so we spent a lot of time with the cottage-we all went to see a movie which was fun.

Posing in their jammies on Christmas Eve.
















Working on the gingerbread house.  They mostly just ate the candy though. Typical.







Dad and Kyra came to visit the week before Christmas. They packed their van up and went on a grand tour delivering presents through Indiana and down into Florida! I was very jealous of their final warm destination :) 

Cuteness!

Helping grandpa make dessert.















Dad made the cottage a ham for us to eat on Christmas which was great. The guys really appreciated having a home-cooked meal since they were away from home! 


After Dad and Kyra headed along, we had a family get-together with the Sievers side over in Logansport. Josh's aunt Veronica made a couple hilarious present opening games that everybody had fun with. Of course we ate a great dinner and just hung out otherwise.

Josh with Miranda and Ike.

Divana and Dave teaming up.

I can't remember what Ike was acting out in charades but he sure thought he was being funny!














Christmas morning we got the kids up early to open presents because Josh had to leave to take students home at 8.

Ready for presents.










Dave liked his electronic basketball hoop for over his door best and Ike's favorite gift was his Nintendo 2DS. He's been wanting one since Dave got one last year!

After Christmas, Gamma and Justin came up for a couple of nights. Her big present for the boys was new bikes. She let them go pick them out themselves which they really loved.

Red and black for Dave and Ike's looks like a dirt bike. A couple of happy campers.

So adorable!











Well that about wraps of Christmas. Another fun year of watching the boys open presents! We survived Winter Break (barely) but have had several snow days since...we are all ready for some warmer weather soon!

Fun in the Snow!

We were very excited to have a White Christmas this year! The boys loved playing in it and were able to do some sledding with the neighbor kids until it got too cold out.

























Ike used his lawnmower as a snow blower. Not quite as effective, but fun nonetheless.

You can see we got quite a bit of it!

One of our neighbors came over to pull the kids behind his four wheeler!

Playing with Sean and the Cline girls.

Snowflake selfie.

Trying to get a jump on all the shoveling.

It was so pretty! I am definitely ready for it to be gone now though :)













It has finally started to melt after a week or so in subzero temperatures last week. I did see we may be getting another snowstorm this weekend though...after 50 degree temps on Thursday. Gotta love Indiana!

Dave's 8th Birthday!

Look at this sweet boy!






This year he didn't want a cake, so we made cookies instead :)

With the birthday sign that was up for about 4 months! :)

Family picture with the birthday boy.

Working on the lego set he got from Gamma.













Dave had a pretty low-key birthday this year. My mom and grandpa had been up visiting for the weekend, so he got to celebrate with them early. We had Josh's parents over and one of the kids' friends for his actual "party".

As for what Dave's been up to, he's still super into video games...doubt that will change anytime soon! He's getting ready to start his first year of basketball at the YMCA and he's super duper pumped about that. Anything basketball related is of great interest to him currently. We got him a little electronic hoop for his room for Christmas and he's been playing it nonstop. Here's a video of him dunking!

I can't think of anything else new about Dave or his personality right now. He still loves to read, enjoys wrestling with Josh, having nerf gun wars with Ike and his friend, and being a smarmy 8-year-old. Ha! He really does enjoy that though! It will be interesting to see what he's like as a teenager that's for sure.

Dave is such a joy to our family, can't wait to see how he changes in this next year!!

Christmas Tree Saga

We went on our annual Christmas tree cutting down adventure the day after Thanksgiving again this year. Unfortunately, our normal spot was closed this year, so we went to a new place to snag our tree. That was our first mistake... :) 

Grandma and Dave ready to hunt down a tree.
















Riding in the back with Dave on the way to the farm.

We found our tree! Getting ready to cut it down.

Grandpa had to hold it on to the van so we could drive it up to pay for it.

Look at that beauty!

Grandpa Dave and my mom came to visit so we got a picture of him with the kids.












So fast forward about two weeks. We went to Evansville to visit family and came back to half the ornaments on the ground and a blanket of needles! Ahhhhh! We have never had trouble with our trees before (and we watered properly and all that stuff). Turns out we picked a Norway Spruce, which unbeknownst to us only usually last about a week or two. Fantastic right?

Part of the tree.














Taking it out of the house was a real treat...almost all of the needles fell off in the process, so by the time we got it outside it looked like this.

Yikes.









Thankfully we are getting a full refund on the tree, I just didn't have it in me to get another real tree this year, so I am so grateful for my friend Theresa letting me borrow an extra tree they had! Christmas decorating was saved :)

We will be back to buying a real tree again next year, but this time I'm going to do some more research on species of trees!!

November Happenings

Lots of fun stuff going on last month (including Dave's birthday, but that's another post!).  Here's a snippet of our activities.




Dave's reticulated python diorama.















Close up of the finished project.





















Alec and Dave went to the Wonder party at the library. We are getting close to finally finishing the book!

Ike's been working hard on his letters and numbers lately!

Ike and Dave reading Captain Underpants.

At Ike's Thanksgiving feast at Preschool.

We went to see the courthouse light up.

Eating some pizza downtown with Augie before the lighting.

Waiting oh so patiently for the lights to come on.

Ike and Bennett having a nerf gun war.

Elli came over to visit and since she had sunglasses the boys had to put their sunglasses on too.

Halloween 2017

Halloween this year was pretty uneventful, which was really great! We did a lap around campus with all the staff kids and cottages and families who live on campus handed out candy. Perfection.

Ike went as black panther and he got his fancy costume for his birthday. He loves dressing up still so money well spent! Dave wanted to be Deathstroke (yet another obscure costume) so we had to come up with a homemade version for him! A sweatsuit, orange duct tape, and a dollar ninja mask that I spray painted and he was all set.







They look so cute without their masks.



















And now they just look menacing.

The whole squad ready to trick or treat.














Ike and Kyson, so cute!

With Lewis and Sam.
















Showing off their candy haul! They got so much candy...we just finished the last of it.







I say it all the time, but I'm so thankful for the awesome community we have here at White's. Such a great place to raise our family!!