Christmas Activities

We spent the whole month of December doing so many fun Christmas activities together as a family.  We picked out our Christmas tree, decorated the house, baked cookies, went to Landon's Christmas concerts at school, went to see "A Very Electric Christmas" show, had fun finding Alvin, our elf, every day, and had friends over for a Christmas party. We also went to Breakfast with Santa and enjoyed the Christmas activities at Crocker Park, but there are too many pictures so that will be the next post!

One of our favorite things to do as a family at Christmas time is pick out our Christmas tree.  I think we have 12 Christmas trees in our house at Christmas time, but our main tree is a real tree every year.  We always get it the week after Thanksgiving, and it is so much fun!  Sometimes it is freezing when we are picking our tree, but it was really nice out this year.  

The boys with the trees

A family pic by some trees

 Matt put the lights on the tree, but this year, the boys put on every ornament.  They decorated the tree all by themselves and it looked great!

 The finished product

 A couple cute pics of our sweet boys in their matching Christmas pajamas.  

 Our little helper putting some presents under the tree.

 Santa found Rudolph to make the trip back to the North Pole!

 One last pic of the tree with all the presents.

Our elf, Alvin, was a lot of fun this year.  Here are two of my favorite things that he did...

He hid with the bananas, in disguise.

And, he made an awesome American Ninja Warrior course in the basement.  Alvin finished at the warped wall!

The boys even decorated our driveway with chalk drawings for Christmas.  They did an awesome job!  Here is their artwork!

Both of the boys had Winter parties at school, and Landon had two concerts.  He is in 3rd grade chorus, so they had their own concert.  He had a second concert the next night with his entire 3rd grade class.  He loves singing and did a great job. 

Chorus Concert...Landon is in the 2nd row, 4th from left in the green shirt.

3rd grade concert, front row in the plaid

 Landon and some friends after the concert....Landon, Hanna, Jack, Nathan, Jake, Will

Matt made a Grinch lunch bag for Keegan's lunch on his last day of school before Christmas break

 Keegan had a fun time decorating Gingerbread houses at school...his teachers emailed us some pics.

Matt got the boys Christmas donuts on their first day of Christmas break

 We have had a Christmas party at our house for the past few years.  The first year we just had kids over for some Christmas fun.  Last year and this year, we have all the kids and their parents so we can all hang out.  

Here are all the kiddos...

 A few of the kids....Hanna, Landon, Jack, Jackson, Reid, Keegan

 Matt made a Christmas frame for us to take fun pictures with at the party.  

All the younger kids...

 Landon with his best friend, Jack.

 A family pic after the party

Matt and I also went to a 98 degrees Christmas concert.  It was good, and a fun night out.  Here is a pic of us after the concert was over.

Stay tuned for more Christmas fun...

Thanksgiving

We have so many blessings in our lives that it is hard to count everything we are thankful for.  We are beyond blessed and beyond grateful to have amazing family and friends, health, happiness, and the list goes on and on.  This year, our family wrote something we were thankful for every day in November on a leaf, and added it to our thankful tree in the kitchen.  Here is a picture of our tree, about halfway through the month.

Here are some pictures from around Thanksgiving.  Some are from Ohio, and some are from our time in Illinois.  Enjoy!

A cute selfie of Keegan and I by our "Happy Thanksgiving" sign

 The boys making their Turkey Gingerbread

 Keegan and some classmates at his Thanksgiving feast at school

The night before Thanksgiving, it is a tradition to hang out with all of my high school friends and their families.  Here are all the kids this year...

 And here is a pic of some of the best people I know.  So blessed to still have these wonderful ladies (from grade school) in my life!

 I look forward to our "Friendsgiving" every year and love catching up with my girls!

On Thanksgiving Day, we went to Mattoon to celebrate at Grandpa's house with Matt's family.  Here is a cute pic of Great Grandpa and Kinsley.

 Keegan and Kinsley

 Grandpa with all of the grandkids and great grand kids!

Landon giving a bottle to Kinsley

 

 Kinsley being such a big girl and holding the bottle by herself.  Love this pic of her with her bow!

We spent Friday in Sherman with Matt's family.  I was lucky enough to have Becky cut my hair, and everyone else went to Scheel's and bowling before we met back up!

This was right after Becky cut my hair and I LOVE it.  I wish she lived closer and could do my hair all the time!

 Uncle Matt and Kinsley

 On the Ferris wheel at Scheel's

 Keegan with a fake fish, they only kind he is allowed to be around!

 The kids with a reindeer

A couple pics of the boys bowling

After we all met back up, we took the grandkids for a photo shoot.  Kinsley and the boys did great.  The pictures turned out wonderful!  Here are my favorites of the three kids.  <3 p="" them="">

Cute pic of Kinsley and Cara

Cara took a couple family pics for us too.

And I LOVE, LOVE this pic of the boys

On Saturday, we celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family in Downs.  Landon and Keegan always love getting to play with Adelin and Chloe.  Here are some fun pictures from my brother's house.

Mom and Dad with their grandkids

 The four kids

 Love these silly kiddos.

 Our family

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, spent with family and friends. So thankful for all of you....we love you!!!

Fall Photo Shoot

One Sunday after church, we decided to stop at a park on the way home and have a photo shoot with the boys.  Matt had just gotten the new Iphone and wanted test out the camera.  I have to say, I was impressed.  All of these pictures are taken with it and they are amazing.  It doesn't hurt that we have two, handsome boys as well :).  I can't believe how big they look in these pictures.  Time is flying by!