Up on the Housetop

We put up all our Christmas decorations last weekend.  I pretty much handle the indoor ones and Joel does the lights on the house.  This year he invited Em & Jon up on the roof too.  They weren't old enough to help hang the lights, but he did let them sit in one spot and watch.  Katherine and I stayed on the ground.  She asked me to make her a leaf pile & proceeded to play in it the whole time.  Jonathan & Emily joined her once they came down too. 

 

Ice Day

Our area got a pretty good amount of sleet last night.  So much so it looked like a blanket of snow this morning.  All the schools were closed and Joel's work even shut down for the day.  Joel loves weather like this and Jonathan has the same appreciation for it.  So after breakfast the boys got all bundled up and headed out on an icy day walk.  They were gone for over an hour and came back halfway through to show us some of their cool icy finds.  They both had big goofy grins on their faces.  I'm glad they got to share some awesome bonding time together today while the girls stayed nice and toasty inside (Katherine was recovering from the stomach flu or we likely would have all gone out for a bit). 

 

Thanksgiving 2013

We got to celebrate Thanksgiving this year with all our extended local families (plus a few in from California).  We had 2 days in a row of turkey & all the trimmings.  For someone like me who loves a good meal it was glorious!  We were all, of course, thankful to be with the ones we love too.

 

Family Reunion Campout

About a month ago we had our yearly family reunion camp out.  We went down for the day.  It was one of the most relaxing and fun ones we've been to in several years.  This is one of the bonuses of our kids getting older.  Our youngest is 4 and they require less and less constant supervision.  It was great!  The older 2 played with my cousin, Kelly's, kids who are about the same age for most of the day.  Katherine spent the majority of the day on the swings (one of her biggest loves in life right now).  Which allowed mom and dad to enjoy adult conversations and playing horse shoes.  Which, we discovered, we are both pretty darn good at.  A delicious meal was shared at dinner time (Johnny made all the amazing meats again & knocked it out of the park once more).  We wrapped up our fun, family day around the fire pit before heading back home for the night.

Pure swinging joy!

Horseshoe fun.

 Sweet picture as we were walking to the lake.

Throwing/skipping rocks on the lake.

Fire pit!

Family Day

Joel's work hosted a family day for the company a few weeks ago.  One of Joel's co-workers opened up his home for the festivities.  There were 2 bounce houses, nerf guns, crafts, good company and amazing pizza.  It was a really fun day and much appreciated by our family.  We are so grateful to be a part of a company that doesn't just say they value family, but also back that statement up with actual proof.  It's very refreshing!

Bounce house insanity ensued.  Even the adults got in on the fun. :)

 Craft time.

 Katherine is all about the swinging right now.  She was happy to find one here too.

 The wood-fire oven that was brought on site to make us amazing pizzas...amazing pizzas...yum!