The Blanchard Family

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

We started our Thanksgiving celebration the weekend before Thanksgiving this year. The Saturday before, we headed to Erik's grandparent's house in Dows to celebrate with his mom's side of the family. We enjoyed a yummy lunch followed by some time chatting and the kids playing. Late afternoon we loaded up to come home so the kids could nap on the way home. Sadly, I don't have any pictures from this Thanksgiving!

On Thanksgiving Day, we enjoyed watching the Macy's parade in the morning and hanging out at our house. Then, late morning, we loaded up, and headed up to Denver to Ashley's aunt's house to celebrate with her mom's side of the family. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch of turkey, potatoes, corn, bread, fruit, and lots of desserts. :) After lunch, the kids played and napped while the adults chatted and checked out the Black Friday ads. :) When the kids woke up, we had a little dinner, and then loaded up to come home! We have so much to be thankful for this year, and enjoyed being able to celebrate with our families! Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving day:

Miss Grace enjoying some blocks :)

Grace enjoying her Thanksgiving dinner

Norah all ready to eat!

Kyler and Grandpa

Friday evening we continued our tradition of heading downtown to the Holiday Hoopla event to see Santa arrive. It wasn't as cold this year as it has been in years past, so that was nice! The kids were so excited to go down there and see all the events. We of course then had to make a stop at Scratch for a cupcake before we could head home!

Grace all bundled and wondering what we are doing :)

Here comes Santa!

Waiting for Santa to come down Main Street!

Grace happy to be inside!

Waiting for their cupcakes!

Saturday evening, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Erik's immediate family at his parent's house. His mom had fixed a wonderful dinner of ham balls, mashed potatoes, bread, fruit, and pumpkin pie. We were then able to hang out for a while before heading home for bed.

Sunday, the kids and I stayed home from church so that we could be ready as soon as Erik got home to leave to go get our Christmas tree! When Erik got home, we loaded up in the truck to head up to the Volga Valley Conservation Tree Farm east of Sumner. I have been going there to get a tree for as long as I can remember. :) It's a bit of a drive, but it's always fun! My parents and brother go too so they can get a tree for their house as well. It was really windy this year, so our tree picking went extremely fast, as we were all so cold!

Mom and Dad with their tree….it was huge!

Us with our tree!

Cutting it down...

Ready to go!

There it goes!

Having fun!

Monday, December 29, 2014

Random November Fun

We did some fun things in November! At the end of October, Kyler and Erik went to Kyler's first UNI football game in the Dome. Then, the first weekend in November, my parents had tickets, so all five of us went to a game! The kids did great and had so much fun. Grace of course needed to get up and walk around for a while, but the other two sat in their seats the whole time except for one bathroom break. It was a great game to watch too!

Norah and Grandma enjoying purple ice cream :)

Grandma with Kyler and Norah

We still had a couple nice days early on in November, so we took full advantage of them and spent some time outside!

Norah and Grace :)

Funny face!

Grace would head right for this swing and sit here for a while while I pushed her ;)

This is Batman, Kyler's caterpillar he found at my parent's house. He lived with us for a few weeks (still alive, surprisingly!) and then we decided it was time for him to go back outside.

Kyler and Batman

Miss Norah :)

Once Grace figured out crawling on all fours, she was all over the backyard!

When you're stuck inside, you have to find something fun to do!

This wagon has provided lots of entertainment, and now that Grace is older, she thinks she needs to "ride" too! :)

Grace is 13 Months!

Grace turned 13 months on November 17th. She has discovered a love for the walker/stroller thing this past month, and loves to push that around the house. She still isn't walking yet, but her newest trick this month is to stand up from sitting without holding on to anything. It's so funny to watch her do it, and as soon as she gets up, she starts clapping for herself since we all clap for her when she does it. :) Grace has also taken to climbing up furniture this past month. If there is something she can climb up to get on to something else, she will do it! I caught her the other day sitting on top of Kyler and Norah's Step2 desk in the play room. She just thought she needed to check out all the markers way up at the top! Guess I won't be putting those up there any more to keep them "safe"! :) Here are some pictures from the last month!

13 Months!

Standing up!

Trying to climb between the ottoman and chair :)

Enjoying outside!

Just rearranging the chairs Mom!

Look out!

Giving her baby a ride :)

Another one of her favorite things….pulling all the towels off the stove :)

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Halloween 2014

We had a fun Halloween this year! We love the pumpkins, leaves, and "fall" things that go with the holiday. Also, the kids were really excited to dress up in their costumes this year. Kyler kept changing his mind on what he wanted to be, and I finally had to say, "pick one thing and stick with it!". :) We carved our pumpkin the night before Halloween, and everyone got involved. Grace even stuck her hand into the "goo" to check it out. :) Halloween day was quite busy. Kyler went to school in the morning, and then as soon as the kids got up from their naps in the afternoon, we headed over to Henry and Geneva's house. After a short stop there, we trick-or-treated at Erik's mom and dad's house before heading home for dinner. We ate a quick dinner, handed out some candy, and then we were off again. We were going to do our block, however, when we got outside, we realized there was only one light on, so we stopped there and then loaded up in the car. We quick went and saw Leah and David at their place, and then we went over to Ashley's parent's neighborhood to go to a few houses there. Our last stop of the night was Ashley's parent's house! Whew! Quite the excursion! :) The kids had a great time though, and it was pretty chilly, so it worked out well. Here are some pictures from our Halloween 2014!