Christmas Programs

Ethan had his 1st grade Christmas program last week.  He did great! Grandpa and Grandma Karen came up for the performance.  The place was packed and we weren't there an hour early!  But we could see all we needed to see!  They asked the students to wear "winter clothes" for the performance.

He's ready to go!

Nora and Grandpa

Ethan had a speaking part!  He knew his words!

Where's Ethan?? :)

Great job, Ethan!

The kids with Grandma & Grandpa

Here's a video of Ethan and his favorite song from the night :)!

Nora's Christmas program was also last week.  She had to miss it though :(.  She had been sick and I didn't want to chance it.  But she was feeling good enough to put on a performance in the living room!  We even FaceTimed with Grandma Terri and Pop for her songs :)!

Happy Angel

I'm glad I picked up her costume early!  She was excited to put it on!

Enjoy her 3 songs! (Each video is quite short)

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with family in Salem.  It was a great weekend and we ate a ton of food!  We started the feasting with Jared's family at his Aunt Doss and Uncle Ed's house for lunch and finished with dinner at the Puricelli's house.

Yummy!!

Jared, the turkey carving master!

Sweet Nora girl, enjoying her food 

Puricelli Thanksgiving

Atley started really walking while we were in Salem.  She still chooses to crawl the majority of the time, but can walk across the room if she wants to.  I'm working on getting a better video :).

While we were in Salem, we met up with Sara and Jason and their sweet twins, Mary Charlotte & Elizabeth.  We even got lunch at Chicos with them (minus the 5 kids)!

Atley and Ethan riding in the cozy coupe

Ethan and Elizabeth- saying goodbye

The best shot we got ;)

These pictures make me laugh!  Thanks for a great visit, Sara and Jason!  Can't wait until next time.

Mexico

On veterans day, Jared and I hopped on a plane (without kids!!) and headed to Mexico.  We booked this trip as a celebration for our 10th anniversary this past May.  We waited a few months for Atley to be a little older before we left her.  This trip was all I had hoped it would be and more!  We relaxed on the beach, ate whenever (and whatever) we wanted and did whatever we wanted without worrying about a schedule.  It was great to unplug and spend some time together!

First glimpse!

Beautiful beach

Watching a storm roll in

Dressed up and ready for dinner

Our "Aniversay" dessert.  This makes me laugh every time I see it!  

Jared and his tiny mug of espresso 

Gourmet dinner night!

Beach selfie

One of my favorite things about our resort was that we could snorkel for 1 hour free each day.  We just had to walk up to the snorkel/scuba shack on our beach and check out the equipment.  And then about 200 yards down the beach we could snorkel and see several sea turtles, a reef with lots of fish and we even saw 2 or 3 stingrays.  It was amazing.  By our last day, we had decided to check out scuba diving.  We tried it out in the pool with about an hour lesson and then decided to go ahead with the real deal.  Our instructor took us to a cenote about 10 min away and got suited up.  Speaking of suit...Jared and I are fairly certain that we had the same size of wetsuit.  It was quite comical watching Jared get into that thing.  I didn't glide into mine easily either... Anyway, that, in itself, will be a memory :)!  I think we would both scuba again.

Suited up and ready to go! (Note the XS on Jared's sleeve!)

Our scuba location- it was only about 20-30 feet deep, and we were down for about 45 min

Jared and I with our instructor, Francisco, back at the scuba/snorkel shack at our resort

 The area we stayed was called Akumal.  It is known for sea turtles.  Jared and I took a walk down the beach a ways and saw a couple turtle nests.  It was at the end of the nesting season.  So I'm not sure if there were still eggs here or not.

Checking out the rocks

Our resort is the white buildings you see.  Jared was checking out something in the rocks/seaweed

Turtle nest

Basketball Boy!

Ethan played basketball again this fall.  And he loved it just as much as he did the past 2 years!  Every game he got better and better.  And during every game he had a smile on his face!

He always hustles!

Ready for the pass

A little defense!

One of several baskets from the year :)!

Nora is the best cheerleader around!

Cutest baby on the court!

Silly Nora watching Ethan

Sometimes she watches...sometimes she plays games with Callynn :)

Another basketball season in the books!  

Fall Random

Sorry I've been MIA for almost a month!  I've gone through my pictures from the last few weeks for a catch-up post.

Oct. 28- Happy Atley girl!

Oct. 29- Abby and I went with my dad to a dental conference in St. Louis

Oct. 31- Nora got "The Book With No Pictures" for her birthday from Abby and Alex

They LOVE it!  It's hilarious! 

Nov. 2- Nora's last tumbling class, doing a "back flip"!

Nov. 3- Nora is almost as big as the puzzle!

Nov. 6- Jared made me a birthday brownie!  Nora thinks I'm 6 years old, so my brownie had to have a 6 :)

My birthday dinner at Monicals (with a couple extra kids!)

Nov. 7- Nora's first time getting her nails done!

Beautiful girl!

Spooky Birthday Party

We had Nora's birthday party on Saturday (the 31st).  We had a fox, scooby-doo, Princess Elsa, Princess Belle, 2 medieval princesses, 2 medieval knights, phantom of the opera, a league of their own baseball player, Hero (from Big Hero 6), a wolf and a skunk in attendance!  I think all the kids had a great time.  Or at least I hope they did!

We started with snacks and cupcakes!

Snack setup

Spiderweb brownie

Clementine/grape pumpkin patch

Spooky birthday cupcakes

Nora (the fox) and neighborhood friends

Cupcake time!

Happy 4th Birthday Nora!

Playing pin the spider on the web!

Decorating masks

Nora is into it :)

Present time!

Such a fun time we had!  Along with Nora's friends, Grandma Karen & Grandpa, Grandma Terri & Pop, and Dustin & Amanda came too!!  We are so blessed with great friends and family!  Thanks to everyone who made her day special :)!