The Blanchard Family: January 2016

"Who hears these words of mine & puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, & the winds blew & beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine & does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, & the winds blew & beat against that house, & it fell with a great crash."

Matthew 7:24-27

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Thanksgiving Week 2015

We started our Thanksgiving celebrations with Erik's immediate family on Tuesday evening. We headed over to his parent's house when the kids woke up from their naps. After hanging out for a while, we enjoyed a yummy dinner of turkey, corn, salad, and pumpkin pie. When dinner was finished, we hung out for a bit before heading home to get everyone to bed. I don't have any pictures from this evening though. :(

Wednesday we made a quick stop at Vonmaur in the morning and this huge Santa statue was out, so the kids needed their picture taken with it. :)

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we got up and the kids watched the Macy's parade on TV for a while in the morning. Erik and I worked on the salad and dessert we would be taking to dinner at my parent's house. Around noon, we packed everyone up and headed over to my parent's house for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed a great meal of turkey, many salads, corn, potatoes, and bread. After lunch, Grace took a nap, while the other kids played and the adults chatted and looked at the ads. :) When Grace got up from her nap, we enjoyed a wonderful assortment of desserts. Around 6:30 or so, we decided to have a few leftovers for some dinner, and then people started to head home after that. It was a fun day celebrating with family.

Norah and Grace enjoying the parade

One table

Same table :)

The other table :)

Kyler watching the gaming :)

My aunt and uncle's family

My mom's side

Being silly

Friday Erik went to work, my mom and I went shopping for a bit in the morning while the kids hung out with my dad and brother. After shopping, I picked up the kids and we headed home for lunch. The kids took some naps, and then we had a quick dinner and then headed downtown for the annual Holiday Hoopla celebration. The kids were so excited to see how Santa was going to arrive this year. We got down there in plenty of time and hung out for just a little while before Santa arrived. He came UNI style, on a huge panther. After marching down main street and then watching the fireworks, we headed to get some dessert with my parents and brother. We then headed home much too late, but having enjoyed a fun evening!

All bundled up downtown

Saturday we got up, ate breakfast, and then loaded up to head to celebrate Thanksgiving with Erik's mom's side of the family. We arrived about noon and ate lunch right away. We enjoyed another great meal of turkey, corn, green beans, relishes, and desserts. After lunch, Grace took a nap, and the other kids played for a while. After Grace woke up, the kids played a little longer, and then we loaded up to come home. It was another wonderful day celebrating with family. I don't have any pictures from this celebration either. :(

Sunday Erik went to church for a while, and the kids and I stayed home. We packed some picnic lunches, and as soon as Erik came home at 10:30, we loaded up once again to head up to get our Christmas tree. It is about a 45 min drive to get to the tree farm that we have been going to ever since I was little. The kids watched Christmas movies and enjoyed their lunches on the way there. We arrived and both us and my parents picked out their trees in about 15 min. After our annual "tree photo" the trees were cut down, loaded up, and we headed out. We made our annual stop at Casey's for cookies and hot chocolate, and then were on our way home. It's such a fun tradition, and it's fun to see how the kids get more involved as they get older.

Grace enjoying her lunch on the way

Grace with Daddy

Norah ready to find a tree

Kyler helping Erik cut it down, Grace trying to figure out what they're doing :)

Three kiddos :)

Everyone (minus me) with my parent's tree

Hauling my parent's tree to the car

Friday, January 29, 2016

First Snow

We had our first major snow of the year the weekend before Thanksgiving. It's always so fun to see the kids' excitement with the first snow of the year. Also this year, it was fun to see Grace's excitement too because she could actually go walk out and play in it for the first time this year. So, I helped everyone get bundled up and sent them out into the snow. It's so awesome that our backyard at our new house is all fenced in, and that our basement is a walk-out, so much easier to let the kids play in the yard and deal with the in and out of snow gear!

All ready to go!

Trying to figure this out ;)

Love our new yard!

Trying to decide what to do… :)

Braids

Off and on, Norah will want me to braid her hair after her shower. Lately, I have been doing it almost every night. One evening before Thanksgiving, she asked me to do a braid, and I hadn't done one in a while. When I finished with Norah's hair, Grace came to me and said "my hair, braid", meaning she wanted me to braid her hair too, so I did. :) Except, I did two in Grace's hair, as her hair isn't long enough to do one big one. So we call them Anna and Elsa, as Norah calls her hair her "Elsa braid". :) So, the girls have had lots of braids in their hair this winter, and it actually works better because Grace's fine hair stays so much better.

Kyler's First Tooth!

After the pumpkin carving festivities were over, we started to get the kids ready for bed. Well while I was up helping Norah in the shower, Kyler was working on his tooth, and after I came back down he showed me this! It was gone! Let the tooth fairy fun begin. :)

Pumpkin Carving 2015

So, once again, our pumpkin carving didn't happen until after Halloween, but better late than never, right?! :) Everyone had something that they wanted to carve on the pumpkin, I think Norah wanted something to do with Frozen, but in the end, we decided on a nice face. Erik began by drawing the face, and then they started cutting it open. Kyler was eager to dig in and help scoop out the goop. Norah wanted to help too, although she didn't do a whole lot of scooping. Grace didn't really know what to think and was very curious, but didn't want anything to do with touching anything. I think Norah actually made her touch some part of the inside of the pumpkin, but then she wanted to wash her hands right away. :) Here are some pictures from our fun. :)

Drawing the face...

Watching Daddy cut it open

Pulling the top off (Notice Grace has stepped back) :)

Norah trying to get Grace to touch it :)

Scooping the goop :)

Cutting out the face

All done!

Monday, January 25, 2016

A Few Random Pictures from Summer and Fall

There were a few random pictures from June through November that I wanted to remember, so this post is dedicated to those. :) It's kind of long, sorry! :)

June
Kyler "rested" in the den while we lived at my parent's house, and one day I found him like this. :)

July

Water fun in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard!

More fun in the backyard while at my parent's house

One day they found a frog while they were outside, so of course we had to take a picture of it. :)

One of Kyler's friend's had his birthday at the baseball diamond, and so the kids had fun playing a game of baseball. :)

Norah up to bat in her cheerleading outfit :)

Kyler on third base

All the kiddos

Just hanging out on the couch….

August

Shortly after we moved in, we noticed we had a nest on our light just above the door on the porch. Soon after that, we noticed that we had baby birds in the nest! So, we waited until they flew away to destroy the next and clean up their mess on the back steps. :) It was amazing to see how fast they grew in that nest and there were days I couldn't figure out how they all still fit in there!