Lesley's Visit



It was such a fun surprise when Lesley told me that she would be stopping in town long enough to meet us for dinner!  I haven't seen her in so long and it was so great to catch up even thought we could have spent days really catching up.  

 

Colleen's house



We finally got together with Colleen for a little Christmas get together.  Sadly Ainslee and Margaret weren't there, but we had fun visiting with Colleen and my mom.  

 

Leave it to Colleen to have the world's cutest coffee bar....



 

And these snuggling cat brothers of hers were almost too much....

January Days

The first day back from break Jed was sick so I stayed home with him.  He was starting to feel better by this point so it was a little bonus day with my buddy. 

 

Nothing sweeter than Evangeline reading to Jed.  Music to my ears.  

 

She just looks so cute before school....



Naps with Jed....

Jed attempting to eat noodles with chop sticks.  I gotta hand it to him, he hung in there.....

Jed talked and talked about a craft he saw on a TV commercial about making birdfeeders with beagles, birdseed and peanut butter.  He wanted to make them so bad.  We did it and he was so proud…. 

 

Pickles in one of his most favorite places.....

 

Evangeline had Alex over to play, but before she came she erected this elaborate hangout in her bedroom.  The girls have really been into dragons this year, so she had all of her dragon "research" hanging inside the hideout space.  She was really excited to show Alex.  

 

Alex arrived with a dragon for Evangeline for her Christmas gift.  It was perfect. 

 

Angie and Kaiden usually pick Evangeline up before school to go get doughnuts before Angie takes them to North School.  It's a little tradition.  Every so often Jed gets a doughnut from Angie and Kaiden and he is the happiest boy ever. 

Evangeline and Alex at Hannah's birthday party.....

Pickles taking a little snooze in an abandon tent left by the kids....

 

Basketball

Evangeline not only played on the Boys/Girls Cub team again this year, but she also played on the Marshall 5th/6th team.  Playing on the Marshall team was a nice boost to her confidence I think.  For a lot of the girls, this was the first experience they had with basketball, but she already knew what she was doing.  These are pictures of her first game playing for Marshall....She's number 10.

 

Jed likes to mess around the with ball when he gets a chance....

 

Over Christmas break the Boys/Girls Club team were asked to play a quarter game during the halftime of a ISU girl's basketball game.  It was so fun to see them on the huge court.  They enjoyed it.  

 

Jed had fun listening to the super loud music at the game....

Evangeline did so well this year.  She improved so much this year.  She scored points and felt more comfortable getting aggressive.  We are so proud of her.

 



Gingerbread Babies Fresh From the Pan....

We didn't get around to making our gingerbread cookies until after Christmas this year.  Evangeline made them and cut them out.  Both of the kids had such fun decorating them.  

 

Some of Evangeline's cookie creations....

Mr. Jed's rule was that each one of his had to have at least one red hot on it....(side note:  when Jed is fresh out of the bath, as pictured here, he is EXTRA smoochable.)

Jed's turned out lovely too if I do say so myself....

 

First of the Year

Peggy got Jed this very neat globe for Christmas....

 



Me and my favorite Mandalorian.  Jed thought I might like to have my picture taken with him...he was right.

One of my favorite Christmas scenes....my adorable mug collection. 

I went to Indy to spend the afternoon with my beloved friend, Amy.  We had lots of fun shopping and catching up. 

I went for a very nice run on New Year's Day.  I'm going to continue to work hard on my fitness goals this year. 

Here are some of the handmade loveliness that my children made this year.  My favorite....

Evangeline made this in class for my Christmas gift.... 

Little Pickles is not a very good help when it comes to packing up the Christmas things....

My baby....

 

Kyle and I got a Nespresso coffee maker for Christmas this year and it came with a box of sample coffees.  Jed latched on to that sample box and was absolutely obsessed with it.  He carried it around where ever he went and had us continually read to him the descriptions of each coffee.  I ended up cleaning out the used pods for him so he could put them in the box.  He loved it and even took it back and forth from our house to Ammie's house.  He still has it and uses it (it's May as I type this).  

 

Cozy winter days....