Thanksgiving and Purdue Basketball

We went to dad and mom's for Thanksgiving this year.  It was nice to have Todd and Cathy join us too!  We had a great day with LOTS of food.  The kids enjoyed watching the parade and playing together!

 Landon played us some Christmas songs on the piano.

 Cathy brought some ornaments for the kids to make.

 The next day, we headed down to West Lafayette for a basketball game.

10 year old boys are so silly!

 The kids were so excited because we came down on a Friday so they had all day Saturday to play with Gunnar and Clella!  The girls enjoyed dressing up and boys played Mario Cart.

Purdue Kids Club Game and Tailgating

When I heard that the Purdue Kid's Club football game was November 3rd, I was NOT excited (remember the weather over Fall Break a few weeks earlier?).  Well, we ended up with a beautiful, sunny day to cheer on the Boilers vs Iowa.  We went down early to tailgate.  Todd and Cathy drove down with us and we met up with the Bergers and some of their friends.

The game was packed and the Boilers pulled out a last second field goal to win the game.

It was so exciting!  The crowd rushed onto the field.

Then we went back to spend the night at the Bergers.  The next day when they headed off to church, we went to campus to walk around, showing these future Boilermakers around! :)

We had a great weekend and although it was cold, we made some great memories!

Purdue basketball

A few weeks ago, we drove down to Purdue to see a basketball game for the Boilermaker Kids Club.  We had tickets by the Bergers and Shaws way up in the rafters, but had a fun time.  Our kids got chosen to be part of the fan tunnel, so before the game we went down by the locker rooms and high fived the players to wish them good luck.  After the game, we went back to the Bergers and spent the night.  It was a quick trip, but always fun! 🏀

Football weekend!

We had a great weekend cheering on the Boilers and Landon in football games!🏈  On Saturday, we went down to Purdue and met Nate to do some tailgating before the Kids Club football game.  The weather was gorgeous (a little windy 🍃, but nice).  We had good seats and got a good view of the game.

 The 1997 Boiler team was there to honor their coach Joe Tiller (who passed away last week) and celebrate the 20th anniversary of their season.  We got a good view of Drew Brees as he made his way onto the field.

 Everything was going well until the 4th quarter when dark clouds rolled in, then the rain, then the crowd was evacuated for lightning.  There was a 90 minute weather delay while we waited in Mackey Arena (the basketball arena).  We decided to head home instead of going back to the game (it was close to 8 pm by then) and we missed an awesome ending where Purdue came back and won the game. :(

watching the storm on the Jumbotrons

 Then on Sunday, Landon's flag football team played in the Panther Bowl on NorthWood's high school football field.  They played the first game against the Packers and won.  Played the next game against the Lions and won a close game.  Then played a third game (all in a row...good thing they are young!) against the Bengals and lost.  Landon had a great season and so did Matt as coach.

The girls (Kenna, Lola, Vivi, and Emmy) cheered on their brothers!  "Let's go, Titans, let's go!"

 The Titans 

Front Row: Ryan, Landon, Ryder, Tyler, Wesson  Back Row: Coach Matt, Sloan, Jayden, Brycen, Mason, Kike, Greyson and Coach Scott

So fun watching these boys play together!

Catch up from January/February

Well, yes...apparently it's been 2 months already since I last blogged about Christmas time!  My, how time flies!  Here's what we've been up to:
We finally got around to decorating  gingerbread houses on Jan. 1st.  A little late, but it still tasted just as good. 👍

We've been reading Harry Potter, so you may notice Emerson's lightning🗲 scar in these pictures!

Emerson has been taking gymnastics lessons and she's made some great improvements over this school year.  So when a cheer camp flyer came out, she was super excited!  The girls got to work with the NWHS cheerleaders, learned some cheers and a dance, and had the opportunity to cheer at a basketball game.  Unfortunately on the night of the game, Emerson was sick and missed school that day.  But, she did enjoy the day at camp.📣

Kenna came to camp too!

 Landon played Vertical Basketball instead of Upwards this year.  It wasn't much different, but was less expensive and the coaches also acted as refs.  Matt coached Landon's team and I helped out when needed.  He loved the game and really improved over the season.  He got more confident with the ball and scored several times a game.  We had games every Saturday and every other Thursday, so it was busy, but he loved every minute of it.  He was number 3 (and it's totally hard to get a good, not blurry picture during a game).🏀

Front row: Matthew, Karsten, Cole, Wesley
Back row: Carter, Landon, Miles, Brennan, and Coach Matt

Emerson has a huge giving heart and definitely loves to give (and get :)) gifts.  This year, she surprised us by making chocolate mint cookies by following a recipe all by herself.  I helped her bake them and they kind of melted into one big cookie, but I definitely think she did a great job for her first time following a recipe on her own. 

 We don't usually get the kids gifts for Valentine's Day, but I know how much they like gifts and candy, so this year we did. :)  Landon looked at the package and said, "Wow, Russell Stevers gave us a gift?"  No buddy, but Russell Stover did make the candy you're getting. 💗

 Matt and I got tickets for the Purdue basketball game versus Rutgers that happened to be on Valentine's Day from Mikel and Jessica.  We had originally planned to take the next day, Wednesday, as a personal day and spend the night in Lafayette.  But the 2 weeks before, we had all been sick and missed a lot of school between us and the kids.  Then on that day, I didn't really feel well and almost didn't go to the game.  The game was a lot of fun, though and seats were great.

 Lastly, Matt got Emerson tickets to go to the Daddy/Daughter Dance a few days after Valentine's Day.  She was excited for WEEKS!  And John and Kenna got tickets too.  They had a ball and the girls enjoyed every minute of it.  I took Landon out to Steak 'N Shake for dinner and played video games with him.  It's so nice and important to spend time one on one with the kids.

Loving our time together and hope we are over all the sickness that's come our way!  We've had a really crazy winter with little to no snow and lots of warm days.  I don't remember any winter where we've left our coats at home so much!  Looking forward to what March will bring.