New Years Day

We had another big family breakfast at Gram's on New Years Day. This time, Ry and Nate were there! It was wonderful to be altogether again. That's something we don't get to do very often.

It was a pretty sleepy party since we had all been up past one that morning. Unfortunately, none of us got to really sleep in since we had to be at Gram's by nine. But we survived! 

It reached -22 below on New Years day. I think the temps ended up beating the record low temperatures for this area. 

I've always wanted to try throwing boiling water in the air to see if it would vaporize. When the temperatures got so low, Sam and I decided to try it. I didn't think it would actually work!

Nate and Virginia wanted to make us a southern type breakfast. It sure was different deviating from our traditional family breakfast, but both of them are awesome cooks, so everything was delicious!

Cheddar jalapeno biscuits 

Fruit smoothies

John is quite the little chunk!

Then... we did our family gift exchange. That's always so much fun!

Katelyn adores little John!

Nate and Virginia Came for a Visit!

Nate and Virginia visited us over New Years. To our excitement, they stayed for two weeks this time! For most of our family, it was their first time meeting Patrick.

Our Christmas cactus was beautiful this year!

Poor little Patrick wasn't used to the cold.

Gin made us some really yummy shortbread cookies.

This thing...

Grandpa and Grandma and all the grandkids!

Alaina got to hold Patrick

These little cuties... 😍

We hosted a New Years Eve party. 

It was -20 New Years Eve... We set this pop out on the step to get it cold. Within an hour or less, it had turned to slush!

We played Mad Libs for a little while.

Then, we played Catch Phrase till nearly midnight. It was pretty exciting! Some of us got so worked up we were almost yelling. 😂

Counting down the last few seconds of 2017...

So precious...

Christmas Day

Christmas Day dawned bright and chilly! We were so excited to have a white Christmas this year. Last year was a brown Christmas, much to our disappointment.

We gathered at Gram's house for our annual Christmas breakfast.

Mom got this huge cinnamon roll from Hyvee and Aunt Carol made a giant gingerbread man for us to snack on.

Pancakes, all-you-can-eat bacon, Irish scrambled eggs, sausage, toast and cheesy potato casserole made up our menu. 

Josh and Ben were assigned to clean up duty. 😏

Yard Yahtzee!

Later that afternoon, everyone but Gram played "I Have Never." It got so wild toward the end that Aunt Carol ended up sitting on the floor after being bumped out of her seat, then Josh and Uncle Tom both landed on one of Gram's wooden chairs. All the legs just snapped right off the chair! It was so funny! We decided we'd better stop after that. 😂

 Nate and Virginia sent us this sweet picture later that afternoon. 😍

Early December

December was jam-packed with events! Lots of caroling, visiting, cleaning, and soup suppers every Saturday made for an extremely busy, but fun month!

After caroling in Cumberland and Atlantic with Chupps and all the youth, we made soft pretzels together.

💗Friends💗

Sweet Little John

Caesar Augustus

Mom made the candy bags for our annual Christmas breakfast.

John is so smiley!

Patrick's eyes are so big!

I found a brownie recipe that actually tastes like brownies "from the box."

Sweet little Paddy

Love these guys so much!

I know this is random and maybe a little gross, but I'm so excited when I take a bite of something and my front teeth marks are straight! 

Caroling in Griswold as a church is so much fun! I love packing into people's front porches and kitchens. Seeing the joy on their faces makes getting super cold well worth it!

We were blessed with nice warm weather this year! Riding on the dump trailer was actually not too bad! 😊

We went into the Care Center to sing. Violet just lit up when we gathered around her and sang a couple songs just for her. She was laying there, sleeping or zoned out, but when we started to sing, her lips started moving, mouthing the words to the song. 

Seven months of braces!

😂

After waiting nearly eight years, the boys finally put up the crown molding in our computer room!

Sam helped me clean one Saturday. 😉

KK's drone takes amazing pictures!

Dessert from our last soup supper

The soup suppers turned out way better than I was expecting! So many people came. So many were blessed and many cried. I hope we do it again next year!

Katelyn made Grandma a sugar cookie house.

Fantons hosted a "pre-New Years" party one Sunday.

Mom got Abi and I matching down-alternative blankets for Christmas. They are so warm!

😂

We were so excited when it snowed just before Christmas!