I was sooooo prepared to keep up with the blog, and here I am trying to jam 6 months into a post. Oh well. Life is life. I'd like to think I'm busy living it and not trying to make it all look pretty for a blog post. In any case, since my last post was in October, I've got some catching up to do!
October
We got tickets to the Corvette Museum and took a quick two-day trip to Bowling Green, KY.
Our family loves cave tours, so we took a tour of Mammoth Cave - the world's longest know cave system! Although fun, we felt like the Talking Rocks Cavern at good ol' Kimberling City, MO was better!
After that, it was a trip to the pumpkin patch (also the strawberry patch in the summer).
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| Of course Bella has to pick one so big she can barely carry it! |
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| Ryan search for JUST the right one. |
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| Bella dressed up like Black Widow from the Avengers, and Ryan was Peyton Manning. |
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| Bella carved the Spiderman, Ryan carved the face on the bottom right, and Joshua carved the Star Wars rebel sign on the top pumpkin. I don't do goo, so mine is intact. |
November
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| Third grade put on a Veteran's Day program. |
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| Bella got into the Thanksgiving spirit with her turkey buns. She came up with all by herself! |
We are so grateful when all the family can be together!
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| There are no words... |
Bowling, a tradition when Uncle Jeff and Aunt Donna come to town!
We introduced the kids to ice skating this year. After a shaky first lap, they were smitten, zipped around the ice, and begged for "just a few more minutes" every time we tried to leave.
Our school is a "Leader in Me" school, meaning we adhere to Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Ryan was asked by our assistant principal to help represent our school at an Indiana-wide Leader in Me symposium in Carmel. He was part of a panel of kids answering questions from the audience. So proud of him for agreeing to do this!
December
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| Bella and Ryan rocking it out for the 3rd year in a row. They doubled last year's donations! |
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| Always "It's a Wonderful Life" while decorating gingerbread houses! |
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| Bella made the Reindeer Barn complete with Santa going down the chimney. |
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| This was mine. |
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| Joshua kept his simple this year. |
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| And Ryan did this! We all loved his little snowman by the front door. |
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| I thought the kids were too old for this, but apparently not! |
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| We are those people going down the road with a real tree on the car! (And reindeer antlers and a red nose. Which Joshua hates. Which makes it all the more fun.) |
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| Every year with the first snow, I get a picture of the kids looking at it. It was barely snowing, but I had to take it! |
We didn't get a ton of snow, but the kids shoveled the driveway
and sidewalk in order to get enough snow to play in!
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| This girl! This was actually part of a "ways to read" bingo game for school. |
Bella joined the choir this year, and here she is at their December concert (front row, third from right). They have a 200-voice choir this year!
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| Post-concert Dairy Queen! |
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| Another trip around the ice rink! |
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| She is growing up waaaaay too fast! |
On a Target run to buy Ryan a hat. I convinced him to buy a blue checkered fleece-lined hunter's cap because he looked ridiculously cute in it. Bella begged for the same kind so they could match. She actually wanted me to get one so we could be triplets, but they didn't have my size. I love that they are so close and get along so well (for the most part!).
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| Coming down the chimney like Santa! |
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| The matching hats. Too much cuteness. |
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| Mommy-Bella dates always seem to involve Starbucks... |
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| Celebrating the first day of Christmas break with doughnuts!! |
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| Really bad picture of us snuggled in leather recliners with blankets and popcorn, watching the latest Star Wars movie. |
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| I couldn't love this picture any more. I think it's one of the only pictures I have of him where he's not smiling! |
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| The kids worked HARD to build this snowman. Like, rolled snowballs all over the yard because we barely had any snow hard. They even got charcoal from the grill on the deck to make eyes and buttons. |
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| Right before the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. Ryan was so excited for it, but then he fell asleep and didn't even hold a candle! I still love the beauty of singing "Silent Night" a capella by candle light! |
And...Christmas Day! It always involves chocolate croissants, pictures by the tree of Christmas Eve jammies, and general laziness. It's glorious!
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| The kids' big gift this year. It's been a hit! Or should I say it was a slam dunk! See what I did there? |
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| Christmas is always better with family! |
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| New Legos! |
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| Unicorn blanket from Uncle Jeff and Aunt Donna. It has a golden horn on the hood. |
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| A Death Star ice cube! Uncle Jeff and Aunt Donna spoiled us with lots of Star Wars gifts! |
Over break, we took the kids go-kart racing at K1Speed. They love racing!
January
The kids and I headed to our old stomping grounds, The Children's Museum. It was fun to have them remember old exhibits and try new ones. Some they were too big for. I wonder how many hours we've spent there over the years!
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| I always take a picture of the kids in case we get separated and I can't remember what they're wearing. Some day Bella will cringe at this outfit, but that day, she felt she was rocking it! |
I had to get this picture, because look at them! You can see how much they've changed!
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| 2018 |
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| 2015 |
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| 2014 | |
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| 2012 |
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| 2011 | | |
And just life! Love being a mom. Sometimes the days are long and hard, but sometimes they're good and deep and true.
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| Hot chocolate stop at Starbucks! |
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| Just...a random day. |
Our school had a fundraiser night at the Pacers' game. We had a blast! And the Pacers won!
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| This girl and her love for cotton candy! |
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| Battling some minor altitude sickness...ha! |
February
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| This was our first foray into reptile shows. I was largely unprepared for the sheer volume of snakes just sitting in plastic boxes. |
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| Bella doing some recon about being a future snake owner! |
Every February I give the kids a "Heart Attack." For each day in
February, I leave them a note with a different reason why I love them.
They look forward to it every year and save the hearts from years past. I
love making a focused effort to point out the good, something I'm not
always good about in the day-to-day. It's also fun to see how the kids
have grown as people over the last year. Lord willing, I will continue to do this as they grow, although it will probably be a text message or whatever kind of communication we'll have in the future.
This is how the kids keep themselves amused at Best Buy. They play with the video doorbell. They ring it, and if they run around or through the door fast enough, they can see themselves on video. Keeps them entertained for a ridiculous amount of time.
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| A little Mommy-Ryan time too. Again with the Starbucks! |
And there we are. We're in the middle of March right now, so I'll save a post for the end of the month. If I remember. Which I probably won't until some time in September. *sigh*
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