Christmas Part I

So I've mentioned before about purchasing a house, a week before closing we were told that the appraisal came back low. We tried to renegotiate and the seller wouldn't budge....I was devastated. I was SO ready to move, we had made purchases for our new home already and I was anxious to stop living on top of each other. Luckily Nate came home for lunch to console me. I was adamant that I was not spending Christmas in Orrville this year. We looked at our options and narrowed it down to Florida or Utah. After research we decided Disney World during the week of Christmas would not be a good option because of the major crowds. We learned later that a family in our ward went during Christmas break and they said the crowds were terrible! We ended up going to Utah. It was nice to see everyone again. It had been 18 months for many of us. We had about a week to get ready and it was A LOT of work. When we drive we don't like to stop often and we do almost 12 hour days. Our kids are champs at traveling. On the first day we made it to Omaha Nebraska 830 miles! We had to constantly watch the weather and had to rearrange routes and dates. Day two we stopped in Laramie to eat dinner with some high school friends. We made it to my dads house that night, 760 miles that day. We stayed there for about 3 days and most of us were sick. The boys started feeling sick on day 1 of the drive and it lasted almost 2 weeks.

 People often underestimate how much ground we cover on this trip.......

 Here we go! 

 Unplanned detour to Notre Dame 

 We came out of the bathroom and saw Santa. Reid saw him and ran with open arms "Santa!" Everyone there fell in love with Reid

 End of Day 1 

 Finally, the home stretch! 

The kids first experience with snow this year. They were so happy! 

 Dinner with friends 

Found this gem on my phone

The girls made this igloo and hours later a snow plow took it away :(

 We went to an assisted living home and volunteered. The kids were showing off their skills 

 Adalie taking my phone again....

 We picked up my grandma for some shopping. We explained to her what a selfie stick was and showed her how it worked. 

 Ryan and Daddy shopping together 

 Out to dinner for Grandma's birthday 

Basketball

The girls played basketball this season. It was wild and drove me crazy which means I won't be putting the kids in this league again, but oh well, they learned some basics!

Ugly Sweater Party

At work Nate went to his first annual Ugly Sweater party. He asked me to help him put together his sweater. I went to Good Will and they had a rack of them set aside on sale for $2! Long story short I had extra plans for his sweater but couldn't find the time to get it done. He ended up winning anyways, so I am glad I didn't put any extra effort into it. The girls didn't understand what an Ugly Sweater party was and they were very offended when Nate came home to see his sweater I had just purchased, and said how ugly it was. They loved it and thought it was so cute. HA!!!

Christmas Activities

 Buddy has been very creative lately.....

 Reid was in a mini play at preschool. He was the pig in the Ginger Bread Man, and yes, the kid next to him has a mustach!

We had front row seats at the Christmas Program for Hallie (2nd grade doesn't do one). After their performance they came and sat down in front of us. We tried to embarrass Hallie in front of her friends. She told us the two boys sitting next to her have crushes on her. She always comes home and says how they all say she is famous because everyone wants to sit by her. She is very innocent when she says it, but it makes me laugh. 

Ms. Tope, she is so good to Hallie

I looked back and saw this......too cool for school! 

The kid table at the Ward Christmas Party. Seriously this is the bulk of the kids and two great families (my bff's) are moving, blah!! 

Ginger bread houses at the library are a hit with the girls! 

November

 So I am playing catch up as usual. We were fairly busy this month.....

 The girls had a day off of school so the 3 big kids went to lunch with Nate. Apparently they went to an auditorium and gave speeches. 

 The girls are silly and zipped their jackets up together and decdied that also called for brushing each others teeth.

 This year for Thanksgiving we ate at home (no pictures). Since there was so much time off between school and work we decided for a mini vacation. We went to Pittsburg. Can I say we all LOVED it! We didn't get to see all of Pitt, but where we were was awesome. So many clifts and hills, driving up and down and the view was great. We were there for black friday and it wasn't crowded at all! Don't get me wrong plently of people were shopping, but the traffic and crowds weren't bad! The kids loved it and cried as we were driving away. We hit up as much shopping as we could do with 4 kids. Nate and I were pooped before they were. The kids also LOVE staying in hotels. We let them jump on beds and of course swimming it always the highlight.

 At the mall Nate stood at the bottom of the escalator and watched Reid go up and down them. However, I was not a fan of the idea. Our main reason to go there was to do some shopping at Ikea for our new kitchen! Ha. wait.....that deal ended. I will post more on that later.

 Ready to swim! 

Ryan was worn out!  

It makes me laugh, but Target makes our whole family happy. My kids love Target gift cards and love strolling all of the aisles. 

 For the first time in 3 years Adalie didn't have a grandparent in town for grandparents day. Nate was a great sub.

 I was at home and asked Nate for a play by play of the program. 

 Ryan got ahold of the winter clothes I had just pulled out. He is ready! 

So Nate and I share a dropbox account which allows us to automatically see each others pictures. I found this gem. 

 Nate got tickets to a Cavs game and we invited some of our really great friends here in Orrville. Sadly we didn't get a picture of all of us. Go Lebron! 

 It was a really fun game! 

So Ryan is a bit of a challenge, he's hard to entertain and keep happy! One day out of desperation of trying to get things done without a crying baby at my feet I wrapped him in a blanket and stuck him in a laundry basket with the TV on. Worked great for about 30 minutes!

 Nate took the big kids fishing one Saturday morning, sadly they only got one bite. 

 

 Ryan and I just hung out.