December

So now that it's mid-January, I thought I'd post our pictures from December... It was a good month overall.  We got our house decorated and Michael and Jackson did the tree outside again.  

We went to see Santa at a new location and it was so nice and relaxing!  Someone feels like she's getting too old to sit and talk with Santa, but she did agree to a picture...

Jackson's cub scout group was in the Woodstock Christmas parade again this year and he walked beside their float the whole way giving out candy.  

Michael, Jackson and I went to a German Christmas festival downtown one afternoon.  We enjoyed some sweet treats and Jackson insisted on playing in the fountains - even though it was freezing outside!!

Rachel bought her a "cute" Christmas sweater this year and loved it!  

It even had a chili pepper on the back...

She got to play the tympany at her Christmas band concert. 

We went up to Charlotte the weekend before Christmas but unfortunately the trip had to be cut short because Rachel had the flu.  We knew she wasn't feeling good but didn't realize it was that bad until Sunday morning... so we only got to see part of the family and these were the only pictures we got.  

On Christmas Eve, Jackson and I went to the Christmas Eve service at church.

Our annual Christmas art project that Rachel organizes each year...

We drove over to a house in the area that went all out with Christmas lights this year to see them on Christmas Eve.  Very cool!

New jammies for Christmas and a photo shoot with Lucy!

Luckily, Rachel woke up without a fever on Christmas morning.  The day before she was starting to improve as well.  So we went over to Barbara & Dawson's on Christmas and hung out there. 

Nannette's niece, Arielle was here with us for Christmas as well.  Jackson even talked her into playing Monopoly for several hours that day!  

Mimosas!

We had a nice Christmas and enjoyed our break - I enjoyed having a week and a half off even though it still went by fast.  Michael and the kids also went to Six Flags and to see the new Star Wars movie the week after Christmas. Jackson was finally tall enough to ride several of the big roller coasters so he was really excited about that.  And they went on a day where there was a chance of rain, so the park wasn't crowded and they were able to ride a lot of rides over and over!  

 Happy New Year!

October - November 2019

Here's a quick recap of the last couple of months.  

Rachel went to the Homecoming dance at school for the first time.  She somewhat enjoyed it but also thought it was a little boring.  Definitely not worth the $15 she paid for the ticket.  She looked so pretty though!

Lucy...

Rachel had another band concert - it was her first one of this school year.  She's still playing percussion.  

Halloween - Rachel wore her sloth onesie and Jackson wanted an inflatable costume - so he went as Mario riding Yoshi.  

I worked the last football game of the season at my new school and Jackson came and stayed with me for the evening.  He really enjoyed getting to go down on the field, getting fist bumps from the football players as they went by, etc.  

Also at my school, they had different dress-up days for their homecoming week.  Here's a collage of me from most days that week.

This week was Thanksgiving break.  I may have been more excited about having the week off than the kids were!  We didn't do anything big.  On Thanksgiving, we ate sausage balls, watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and went over to Barbara & Dawson's for dinner.  

We sat around the fire pit for a while when it got dark.  

Christmas pictures to come soon!