Catching Up

This time of year usually throws me for a loop because Matt is performing so much due to the holidays, which I know is a good thing, but it means he is gone from the house a lot more during the month of December.  I guess I'm a bit spoiled having him around so much more than the average husband.  We also have all of my family (3 out of 5 siblings live out of state) come into town for a week or more staying at my mom & dad's house.  So my social calendar explodes with movies, dinners or just hanging out which means my blog goes on the back burner thus the lack of posts.  It's been a crazy, busy, tiring week, but we've had tons of fun. We've overeaten, overplayed and overwhelmed my mom and dad with all the noise (imagine 25 grandchildren under one roof), but I treasure these days when we are once again reunited as one big family. Today, my youngest brother returned to his home in California and in the next few days my other two siblings travel back to their homes too.  As I hugged my brother last night goodbye, I felt the familiar twinge of sadness wash over me knowing I may not see him again for several months.  Long distance relationships sure do stink.

So without further adieu here are a plethora of shots from the last few weeks:

Izzy turned 6 on December 4th!

Riley's happy playing league basketball again this winter. Both sets of grandparents showed up for this game.

Decorating the tree.

I made my famous pumpkin bread for this year's teacher gifts.  I had them cooling on the stove top and sneaky little Leo grabbed a fistful while I wasn't looking.  LOL.  I'm pretty sure he thinks pumpkin bread is cake and considering it has 3 cups of sugar in it, I'm not surprised.

Christmas morning!

A few shots from my mom and dad's house on Christmas.

Lily muffling the chaos around her.  LOL

And here is my favorite Christmas gift this year from Matt and the kids.  They turned my blog into a book.  How awesome is that?!

~~~~~~~

Then right after Christmas, they predicted a blizzard for our area.  All I can say is blizzard schmizzard.  While we did get some decent snow, acting like it was the next sNOmageddon or sNOwpocalypse was a joke.  We maybe got 6" instead of the 15" that was predicted.  The girls though had a blast playing in it.  I do think my Guatemalan born girl likes snow more than my Ukrainian born girl though.

~~~~~~~

And finally, a bunch of us headed down to our alma mater, Indiana University aka IU on Friday to eat at Nick's English Hut and to walk around campus.  Susie & William (my youngest two siblings), sister-in-law Colleen, brother-in-law Mike, Matt and I all went to IU so we are always happy to go for a visit.  

Susie and my Dad (who is wearing his MSU coat so as not to mistake him for being an IU fan)

 Susie and me

The Sample Gates 

Lily loves her new stroller/wheelchair.  She even knows how to lift the foot rests so she can stand up.  It folds down fairly compactly and fits easily in the back of my Ford Flex.  She rides in it for now on the school bus, but we are pushing the school to make her walk as much as possible to build her strength and endurance up while in school.  She's graduated from using her walker and is doing very well all things considered.  I'm so happy we have something that fits her instead of the crampy little stroller she was using before.

Dasha hitching a ride with her cousin Charlotte. 

Memorial Stadium -Football 

Assembly Hall -Basketball stadium

Catching Up