Kuch Kids Sleepover!

As we got nearer the Christmas Season, I knew we wanted to have the Kuch kids over for a sleepover. Our kids get along so well...I knew it would be a fun way to share the holidays more than just on Christmas Day. Christina dropped them off on Friday, December 10th and they stayed 2 nights, went to church with us and then I took them home on Sunday afternoon with Jack and Ella in tow. We got to hang out and visit at their house before we headed to Ga-Ga & Pa's. Michael also came down with Owen and Zeke since we couldn't all fit in one vehicle it really worked out perfectly. While I was visiting with Christina at her house Michael was at Ga-Ga & Pa's fixing their leaking toilets. After visiting I took Jack and Ella down to Ga-Ga & Pa's and all the kids stayed at their house for a couple nights. Michael and I got to go on a date night and then I got to wrap presents for the next couple of days. It was glorious for everyone involved! 

Anyways back to our weekend with the Kuch Kids! I knew the weather was going to be crummy so the kids would be stuck inside so I had planned to do some fun activities, but I also just wanted to let them hang out and enjoy the time together. 

For the girls I whipped out all my gel nail supplies and we had fun doing nails together. 

Some of the girls decided to do Christmas nails!

Ella went with purple! 

I had the boys on a mission to create a LEGO nativity scene! I thought it would take a while, but with all of them working it came together quite quickly! 

Here's the whole scene! 

I love the wise men with their gifts and you can see the angel with his sword in the back right. 

Close up of the wise men! 

This was my favorite part. Mary has the biggest smile on her face like she didn't just push a baby out and Jesus is so unsure of this crazy world he just popped in to! It made me laugh so hard! I loved it! 

Us girls had so much fun watching some sappy Christmas movies. I had also bought this fun Woodland Creature kit for us to put together little animals! 

Jack and Zeke got in on the action too! 

Here are the girls with their finished creatures! 

A close up! Addison decided to draw glasses on her beaver or otter I'm not sure! They are adorable! 

Our last fun organized activity was making homemade pizzas. Since I only have so much space in the oven we had to do this in batches. Girls first of course! 

Chowing down on their pizzas! 

On to the boys. They all did so great and it was fun watching how each of them did things differently. Some put the cheese on and then the toppings, some put wall to wall pepperoni while others just scattered them. Some put tons of sauce while others put barely any. I love how different they all are! 

This was my yummy pizza and of course the main cook eats last so I was HUNGRY!!!! 

I can't wait until we can have another Kuch Kids Sleepover! 

Riverview Women's Christmas Dinner 2021!

After having to take a year off, the Women's Ministry at church was able to hold our Christmas Dinner on Friday, December 3rd 2021. 

Mom & I decided to decorate a table together again. At the last Christmas Dinner in 2019, we used my mom's cabin, but we figured it had been so long no one would remember so we'd just reuse that same theme. 

The church was providing all the dishes so we just had to bring the decorations, tablecloth and napkins. 

We did decided to use chargers to jazz it up a bit. We also were in charge of bringing a gift for each of our guests. Since we used the cabin I thought it would be fun for each lady to go home with some sort of house of their own. I couldn't find enough of one kind so we alternated between a church or a gingerbread house they both were battery powered and lite up and the church played music. 

Mom and I with our table. We were the last table to get to decorate since we didn't have time to get to the church earlier in the day. I knew we would be at the last table available which would probably not have the nicest view, but in fact we got the table I really wanted. Right in the middle in the very back! 

Every year Pa always decorates the cabin for Christmas. I love the little details, Christmas lights on the house, Christmas tree in the window, wreath on the door, a sled, snowman and even a nativity scene on the front lawn. 

People loved coming over and looking in the house. It really is amazing and Dad always gets lots of compliments! 

The food was amazing and made in house by some wonderful volunteers! What a blessing! 

I love singing Christmas Carols! Prior to the start of the event while ladies are just arriving we have a wonderful lady from our church who plays the harp...it's always one of my favorite parts of the evening! 

Here was the ladies that sat at our table... MJ, Melody, Ga-Ga, Me & Christina. 

All the while us ladies were eating, singing and listening to a wonderful speaker our kids were upstairs with a few of the Dad's having the time of their lives. Such a great blessing to everyone! So happy this event is back! 

Thanksmas & Christmas Card Pictures!

Our 3rd Annual Thanksmas was Saturday, November 27th.  It's one of my favorite celebrations. The best of both worlds....food from Thanksgiving, but Christmas decorations....hence the name! 

By this point in the year we had been trying to get professional pictures taken by my friend Starr, but the silly Washington weather would never cooperate and I mean never! We rescheduled I believe 3 or 4 times and finally called it quits. So I decided to take things into my own amateur hands and take photos with my phone....they would have to do! 

One of my favorite things about the back of our house is the lovely brick on the chimney I love the red coloring. So yay for having a built in background! 

I think I got all the pictures of the kids taken in under 5 minutes and then it started to sprinkle. 

It started raining way too hard so we weren't able to get a family pictures, but Christina swooped in and took a picture of Michael and I when the rain let up slightly. It was actually raining during this picture though. 

After finishing my shiplap entryway wall earlier this year, I was looking for a specific size sign or picture and I ended up finding it in August when Ella and I went to visit Logan and Jen. After we had spent the day at Silverwood we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner and this sign was the perfect size and message. Literally once you come in...take off your coat, make yourself at home and come gather at the table. Our dining room table is honestly the heart of our home. 

Look at all these shoes and coats....my house and heart are so full!!!! 

By this point I've always decorated for Christmas, but I also leave a few Thanksgiving decor items out to decorate the table with. 

This year I ditched the whole turkey. I am officially done ever cooking a whole turkey. WAY TOO MUCH WORK! Nope....it's all about just buying the Turkey Breasts from Costco. Coat them with butter and fresh herbs, pop them in the electric roaster and done. Oh my word so much easier and so tasty! 

Cranberry, Ginger Ale, Lime punch! Yummy! 

The garage set up! 

Let's get our grub on! 

The kids table....with two additional kids this year. Aaron & Bronson at the far end! 

The Guys! 

L to R - Bill, Papa, Pa, Michael, Pastor Tim & Johnathen. 

The Ladies! 

L to R - Ga-Ga, Me, Ruth, Christina, Melody & MJ. 

Yummy! 

The whole gang! I love these people so much!

Ruth & Papa! 

Johnathen, MJ, Aaron & Bronson....this was their first Thanksmas, but most definitely not their last! 

Michael and I with the Kuch's! 

Pastor Tim & Melody...what a blessing they have been to our lives and everyone at our church! 

Pa & Ga-Ga!

And since we got our Christmas card picture we had to go ahead and get Ga-Ga & Pa's Christmas card picture as well! 

We are planning on getting new family pictures this year with Starr sometime next late spring / early summer! 

Zeke's Bed Mini Makeover!

We have a 4 bedroom house, but for the most part we've had the boys share a room. Our master bedroom his huge and one of the other bedrooms is about the size of a normal master so it's not too bad really. Anything we can do to make it feel better and function better is a good thing though. 

I was trying to find a before picture since I didn't take one, but this is the closest I could come up with even though some things were different since this above picture is quite old. The main thing was to show how Zeke's bed was. His was the single bed that stuck out from the wall taking up valuable floor space! The corner with the red toy box was actually where Owen's elevated bed was with a dresser underneath it. I decided it was time to move that dresser out since there was a bunch of wasted space behind in. We originally had this like that so the boys would have a secret cave / tunnel under Owen's bed. We even put up those push lights so they could cuddle in there and read if they wanted too, but now they are much to big to fit under there anyways so it was time for a change. 

We moved the dresser out and just slid Zeke's mattress right in there. Michael did have to move a couple of the supports for Owen's bed, but honestly it was really pretty easy! Zeke absolutely loves having his cave bed! Also look at all that floor space! I love giving my kids room to play. The dresser is off to the right and as you can see we also have the piano in the boys' room too. The only thing that's been added since this picture is we had an old Kallax IKEA cabinet down in the shed so we brought that up and put it on it's side under the window for the boys to store their LEGO creations on. 

I'm standing right in front of their closet. It's a whole wall of beds and it's amazing!

So happy with his bed. I did go ahead and order Jack and Zeke's reading lights so they can lay in bed and read. Owen didn't want one and that actually worked out nicely because later he got to build a lamp from KiwiCo so he has that one for his bed now. 

The funniest thing about Zeke's bed is the view when you lay down in it. 

This end of the bunkbed was actually the deck portion. Owen's mattress fits in to the desktop area and the now Zeke has all these little cubbies areas to put his stuffies. The top shelve is the keyboard pullout shelve and the bottom one is where you'd put the computer tower. You can also see the 2x4 frame that's holding up Owen's bed. It's nice and sturdy!! There is a little gap up there where Zeke has now stuck all this tiny beanie boos and they are all looking down at him. It's actually a little creepy and I have no idea how he sleeps with these stuffies staring at him every night....but he loves it so that's all that matters! 

Halloween 2021!

Since Halloween 2021 landed on a school night we didn't go all out like we did in 2020. Honestly the kids were having so much fun playing us parents had to tell them either we go trick or treating now or were not going since it was getting late. 

I love that except for Owen and Jack these were homemade costumes. I also love how they portrayed the character they were with their facial expressions! 

Ella was originally going to be a pirate like she was last year, but I talked her into wearing the outfit I wore for our church's 80's night back in September. I actually won the costume contest that night. 

I wasn't going to post about it, but since I brought it up! 

Here's me and my friend Becci lip-syncing to Friends are Friends Forever from Michael W. Smith. We had such a fun night! 

It was like so totally rad!!! 

Back to Halloween.....

Napoleon bowing down to the Ninja! 

We only went down 2 streets and then we were finished! 

Trick or treating is so much easier now that they are older. 

Zeke's costume was a made up character. He designed the shirt with masking tape and then had Daddy spray paint it. He called himself Dark Arrow! I love his imagination! 

It was also nice to not have too much time so we didn't get so much candy this year! 

The next morning, Ella got to trade all her dye candy with her brothers for their chocolate candy! 

I used to do this with all my candy too!