New Year's Tradition

New Year's Eve

For the first time since we have had our kids, we left them on New Years Eve and went out for a nice dinner with friends.  We went to  Ferraro's Italian restaurant and it was delicious! After dinner we decided to restaurant hop and went over to Cheesecake Factory for dessert.  We got done just before midnight and got back in time to ring in the new year with the kids!  A great night with great friends!

 

December and Christmas

Alexis made the Spirit team at school and gets to wear her uniform on Friday's for spirit day.  She loves it and I think makes a pretty cute cheerleader!

Maile tried out for the school basketball team.  Everyone who tried out made the team so it was a tough season with most girls not sure how to play :) Add the fact that they were all beginners to the fact that they played "co-ed" teams that consisted of all boys and just one or two girls.  Needless to say the games were a learning experience for the girls and they showed such good sportsmanship even when they lost every time.  I am also so proud of Maile, she actually played and contributed to her team as a point guard.  Can't wait to see her play some more!

 We went to Bass Pro one day right before Christmas to get our annual pic with Santa but the line was two hours long, my girls opted out and decided it wasn't worth the wait.  So I took a few pics of them outside, which is getting harder and harder.  They won't all look at the same time!

Zach and I went to his annual work holiday party.  We actually got lucky this year and won something from the raffle.  Unfortunately Zach didn't win an award this year but here he is holding Jimmy's.  After the party we went with our friends for dessert at BJ's and we had a really good night. Spending time with the hubby and friends without the kids sure can be fun!

 Traditional trimming of the tree.  We let the kids do most of it and it always ends up with some personality :)

 Christmas Eve we spent at my Sister's house.  Zachary was with his Mom.

 Cousins!

 The "babies"

 Lezlie and Dustin opted for the ugly sweater look.

 Love my Dad!

 

 Chaos of opening gifts.

 They both got their own comfy chair from Grandma and Grandpa.

 

 Christmas Morning we actually got to sleep in till 8am.  Good job Schweitzer girls on letting us sleep!

 Santa brought this sleepy girl a new bike!

 Hot Chocolate to warm us up.

 Playing with their new stuff!

 Christmas day was so pretty outside, we spent the day riding bikes and Daddy put together Zachary's new basketball hoop. Zachary was thrilled when I made them all get in the box for a picture!

 We went to my Dad's for Christmas dinner.  It was delicious and we enjoyed more time with family!

 The day after Christmas we had Christmas #2 with my Mom since she worked the whole holiday.  We had another ham and turkey dinner and played games. Three days of fun made me pretty tired!

 Winter break consisted of some fun days at the park.

And probably too much tablet time.  These four were all playing in the same game but on different devices.  These tech smart kids are pretty amazing.  

November

 November gave us more beautiful weather, nice enough that the ice cream truck still circled the neighborhood and the kids got to spend plenty of time outside riding bikes and playing.  Even if the heat of the summer is unbearable, the winters here are worth it.



 

Rebecca's last day at her old school happened to be super hero day.  She looked super cute in her borrowed shirt. 

One last bus ride with the Grubb boys. 

 My Dad and little sister Anna Had a birthday.  We celebrated with a nice dinner with no kids.  It was really nice to actually relax and enjoy a peaceful evening!

 My Dad, always the comedian.  Love these two!

 On one of the cold and raining days in November this cutie went with me to get my hair done. Not without stopping for hot chocolate first. Such a good girl and pretty adorable too.

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family at my Aunts

house.  Lovely dinner and company.  The pictures are terrible though, a good reminder to bring my good camera or at least clean off my iPhone so the pics are not so blurry.