Our November

While October was crazy busy with every weekend full, November was more calm.  Since the Cubs made it to the World Series (and hadn't won in 108 years), they were still playing in November!  It was pretty crazy when they won at the end of 7 games! ⚾ 

It was an election year and people came out in record numbers to vote between two interesting candidates:  Donald Trump (R) and Hilary Clinton (D).  I waited over an hour to vote and wasn't happy with either choice, but Donald Trump won.

Our local football team was also on a roll.  NorthWood was undefeated and made it to play at Lucas Oil Stadium over Thanksgiving Break.  We drove down to Indy to watch them play.  Unfortunately, they didn't win state, but we had fun hanging out in Indy with everybody.  We spent the night with the Hahn's, too.🏈

We got to celebrate Thanksgiving at mom and dads with the Clark's, Hahn's, and Bontrager's.  There sure is a lot to be thankful for!!🍗

Super Bowl, Snowman, and Valentine's Day

As I sat down to write a post about our weekend, I noticed that I didn't post any pictures last month so here's a quick recap of our February (besides the cold weather and more days off school)!

Super Bowl

The Frye's came over for the Super Bowl this year, where the Broncos got totally crushed by the Seahawks.  Amos and Grace made tie dye shirts for the kids and Jess and I happened to wear our Matt Forte jerseys (even though the Bears weren't playing :))

We had a lot of fun watching the game and the kids always have fun playing together.

Snowman

Emerson and Matt built a snowman and she wanted to name him Olaf, after the most adorable snowman in her favorite movie, "Frozen."  He turned out pretty cute and lasted about 3 weeks since it was so cold and snowy.

Emerson, the pink snow girl!

I know these pictures are almost the same, but this last one reminds me of the two of them hugging so tightly that they fell down in the snowbank, without snow pants or boots on of course! :)

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was a big deal this year.  The kids were very excited to write out Valentine's for everyone in their class.  They each did a great job!  At preschool, they had a party and pajama day.  It was pretty exciting.  Mom and Dad had us over for dinner and Steven and Kristina came up for the weekend too.  The kiddos and Mom made us a scavenger hunt to find our gifts.  It was really cute.  This poster was the last gift.

Snow Fun, Wedding Celebration, and 2013

We had an impromptu snow day the day after Christmas.  The kids were really excited to go sledding and throw snowballs at their aunt and uncle! :)  We tried to build a snowman, but the snow wasn't the packing kind.  And, of course, you can't forget about the yummy hot chocolate and marshmallows to warm up inside.

On Sunday, December 30th (besides being my mom's birthday and Landon's adoption day) we got to experience a beautiful wedding between Jenn and Jared in Convington, KY.  Nate, John, Jessica, Matt and I drove together.  We stopped for lunch at Panera Bread and arrived at our hotel around 2:30.  The boys found a smoky bar to watch the Bear's game and since I still wasn't feeling the best, I stayed at the hotel and took a nap (I think Jessica got a nap in too!).  It was a great night to be able to dress up, have some yummy food and wine, and watch 2 people in love join together.

My camera was in manual focus instead of automatic, so all of my pictures turned out blurry.  This one is from Jess!

The next day, we drove back to Indiana, went to pick up the kiddos at Gma and Papa H.'s house, and drove right to the Frye's for our annual New Year's Eve party.  We were pretty tired after a long weekend, but we still had a great time!

The kids put on a play written by Grace.  They were pretty excited, even though I'm still not sure what the play was about! ;)

Then we had our Euchre tournament.

Jess, Steven, and Kristina were the top 3 finishers for the tournament.

We also played Buzz Word and Pictionary.  Kristina was pretty much master of the games!  We had a great time ringing in 2013 with some great friends!

Chicago Weekend

I really wanted to get caught up on all my blogging before school started, but this last week has been pretty crazy with trying to get everything ready for school, cooking freezer meals, and getting caught up on housework.  So our fun Chicago weekend was really last weekend, but I'm just getting a minute to write now. :)
We try to go to a Cubs game every year.  It's a fun tradition and I have learned to ALWAYS bring a sweatshirt, no matter what the weather.  You'd think Aug. 11th would be a nice hot day...you'd be wrong!  But at least this time I was prepared! :)

We started the weekend by celebrating an 11 year anniversary with an awesome couple: Amos and Jess Frye.  Matt and Amos have been friends FOREVER and when Amos met Jess in college, she and I quickly became good friends.  We have been so blessed to share our lives with them and watch their 2 adorable children grow.  Because we were going to be in Chicago over their anniversary, they wanted to go to a nice restaurant and we were excited to experience something new.  We went to Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab Restaurant.  Long name, but a delicious, expensive restaurant!  After spending a bundle, it was nice that our hotel offered a cocktail hour with free drinks.  I decided to go out on a limb (since I wasn't buying them) and try some new drinks.  Bloody Mary and White Russian I would not recommend, but a Tequila Sunrise is pretty delicious! :)  Then we met up with Jared and Jenn and got some dessert. 

Saturday, the Cubs had a late afternoon game.  We got to walk around Wrigleyville and eat at the Cubby Bear after our continental breakfast at the hotel.  Even though the Cubs blew their lead in the 8th inning!!!, we had a fun time at the game.  Jared, a Reds fan, didn't even rub it in our faces that his team won! :)  Thanks everybody for a great weekend!

Oops!

Alright folks, time to catch up. I'm a little behind on the many joys in my life right now. Everything is going very well. We're waiting on the final ok on our birthmother letter, school is going great, ISTEP testing is over (big YEAH!), and family and friends are doing fine.
Just wanted to share quick about the 10 yr class reunion on Sept. 14 and 15. What a great time we had tailgating at the NW football game on Friday night. I haven't been to a game in a long time (even though I do live close by still). We had fun even though it was very chilly and NW won so that's always good! Then we had our "formal" part at the College Football Hall of Fame. What a nice time to get to see people and see what they've been doing for the past ten years. A big THANK YOU goes out to Jessica and everyone else who helped plan the big events. We had a great time!
Also wanted to recap a wonderful ladies day out. Melanie asked if Jess, Jenn, and I wanted to go shopping in Michigan City at the outlet stores and hang out last Saturday. Of course, we said yes. Melanie has been so busy lately with new beautiful daughter that we haven't gotten to spend much time together. We had a great time (and found some spectacular deals!) I even got some new tennis shoes so I can get rid of the ones I've had since college. We had a great time talking, shopping, and eating together. Thanks for all the fun memories!