Illinois Christmas

A bitter sweet Christmas this year!  It was the last year we were in my childhood home for the holidays.  We had an absolutely wonderful time with all of my family and celebrating the birth of our Lord:).  It was a busy week filled with lots of fun and activities.  We put out cookies for Santa, played outside, rode the 4 wheeler, went to Christmas Eve service, read the Night Before Christmas with Opa, celebrated Christmas Day with my entire Prindiville family, and caught up on some R & R!  There was not one thing I would have changed about the whole holiday.  I loved every minute of it!

Barley loves being in the middle of all the action;)

The boys patiently waiting to open gifts

We bundled everyone up to bun off some energy outside

Aunt Kate loves her niece

The pups were so well behaved

Last family pic in front of the fireplace.  We have been taking pics here since preschool!

Emmett loves his Opa

Reading Night Before Christmas for the 1st time

I have always loved being in front of this Christmas tree since I was a kiddo

Christmas morning photo

Opa was helping Nora open up gifts

Combine time

Nora with Great Grandma

Grandma and her girls

The cousins getting ready for another round of gift opening

The best idea I have ever seen!  Chocolate covered wine! Oh my word!

December 2016

Well the first part of December ended up being pretty crazy.  Mike and I were supposed to go to Aruba but the stomach bug went through our entire household. Ugh!  My parents came out here to babysit the kids and ended up catching it too.  I wanted to do a lot of fun Christmas activities but we had to cancel plans until everyone was healthy. I made it to the Christmas Lights at the Botanical Gardens with the kiddos and we took them to the Bass Pro Shop Winter Wonderland so we did a few fun activities.  We still had a Christmas Cookie party at the house too so not everything was ruined. 

Nora turned 7 months old and started crawling by the end of the month!

No tears?! A rare photo on Santa's lap with no crying;)

Beautiful lights at the Gardens

Christmas Photos

I put up all our decorations before Thanksgiving!  I'm crazy! I knew we would be traveling over the holiday and it would just be too hectic if I waited.  We were supposed to go to Aruba right after Thanksgiving but sick kiddos caused us to cancel:( So I was really ahead of the game this year! My friend Amy came to do our photos and I just loved them! The kids did a pretty good job.  It's hard getting two kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time.  We usually have Barley in the photos too but there was no way we could add him into the craziness! I love having photos done every year before the holidays and it is so fun to see the kiddos grow up through the photos:)

Thanksgiving in Tulsa

We traveled to Tulsa for Thanksgiving.  It was a really fun and relaxing trip!  We went to the lake for a few days and then headed back into Tulsa for a hockey game.  My niece Reagan was singing with her choir the national anthem.  Emmett loved being with all of his cousins and he even got to try out ice skating the day after the hockey game. All the kids were ready to hit up the ice after watching the game. 

The girls all helped out with Nora over the weekend

Nora is so bored with just me now;)

It was a beautiful Thanksgiving Day

And we keep on expanding.  There was 15 people or so not in this picture!

Franks Crew

Even warm enough for a boat ride

All of the kiddos at the hockey game.  Macy stayed home with a friend and babysat Nora!

Everybody went ice skating the day after hockey

Nora loves her cousins.  Emmett refused to be in the picture

Gracie was loving on Nora

Some of the kiddos at Thanksgiving 

Arizona Trip

Emmett and I went on another mommy/son trip together! Mike was a good sport and stayed home with Nora while I took Emmett to Arizona.  We joined my friend Sarah and her parents on a trip to see the Grand Canyon and Sedona.  It was amazing!  I would love to hike the Grand Canyon and return to Sedona for a yoga weekend.  I now understand why people love Arizona so much!  It was a pretty amazing fall getaway with the kiddos!

Show before the train ride to the Grand Canyon

The colors looked fake from the distance we saw them

We loved the train ride into the Canyon

Sedona was my absolute favorite!  It was beautiful!!!!

There was a hold up on the train!

Swimming in Sedona

We loved the pool at our hotel in Scottsdale

Fall Harvest 2016

Emmett and I made a trip back to Illinois for the last harvest on the family farm.  My Dad is retiring from farming and my parents are moving to Colorado! Unfortunately Nora was sick so Mike stayed home with her and missed out on the weekend. We had such a great time though!  It was pretty wet and cold so we had to find some indoor activities to do too.  My sister, brother in law, and nephew were able to make it into town also for the weekend.  I'm so glad we were all able to make it back for a fun filled weekend!