Playing

Tyler and Wayne playing with electricity.

Eating Christmas cookies

Winking

With a mustache that looks like a fish tail.

Warm weather in December.

Thanksgiving

We celebrated our last Thanksgiving at Hesston College, as Sue is retiring at the end of this school year.

The day after Thanksgiving, we made another Thanksgiving feast, enjoyed a few other traditional holiday favorites, and avoided all the Black Friday craziness.

Though I had to work at the hospital on the weekend, I really enjoyed the 3 days off to be with my little family. Speaking of - it was an especially busy holiday season as I started orientation in September (and finished in December the weekend before we left for Indiana) to work weekends at the hospital. It has been a different world from the clinical therapist world I've been working in. So many new things things to learn. Between weddings, and training every other weekend, left me feeling like I was in a bit of survival mode and without much of a social life. I'm glad orientation is over and now I'm only on every 3 weekends! Anyway...

Aubrey brought this home from preschool and I, of course, loved it.

3rd Grade Music Program

iPhone pictures didn't work so well, but Tyler's in the front middle in the green bird suit. 

Had to record the Tiki Room song as it brought back memories from our Disney trip.

Flower Girl

The first weekend in November took us back to Chicago for another wedding. This time for Wayne's cousin, Amelia Millemon who married Charles Guth in Northbrook, Illinois. Again we traveled with Ted and Sue. This time, leaving was a bit more of an adventure as some car trouble led to a detour and taking a different vehicle, but after a little excitement, we were able to travel on with no other hiccups.

Our first day in Northbrook, we checked out Superdawg and enjoyed some traditional Chicago style hot dogs.

The Showalter's

Ted and Sue

Wayne was hanging out in the nursery with the girls...

The beautiful bride with our lovely little flower girls.

Silly girls

Waiting to go down the aisle.

Sisters 

Dapper little Reid

Mom and Dad, Lynette, Natch and Henry joined us for one night. It was soooooo good to see them! Though I couldn't get a good picture with my phone, here's cute little Henry. :)

Halloween 2013

Tyler wanted to be a vampire again and Aubrey a mermaid. She's all about mermaids, unicorns, rainbows and hearts these days.

We again enjoyed trick or treating with Pat and Lisa, Ollie and Eli.

Foxy

Well, I just can't keep up. So, I'm going to try to just post pictures from the last three months today. Starting with...
A trip to the zoo...from last...OCTOBER.
eek.

Aubrey and Eli hanging out.

With the popularity of this song...

We were extra intrigued when we spotted this fox who wandered very close to us.

Zzzz

"All this waking up is making me sleepy."
- Aubrey

Happy Birthday, Tyler

This week was full. Between late conferences at school, Aubrey getting very sick and needing to see the doctor, then Tyler ran a fever on Thursday morning, Tyler's Friday night birthday gathering was in question. Deep breath. However, he ended up feeling much better (mind over matter)? and we had a couple of his friends from school over Friday evening. We went out to eat, and it was fun to get to know them even better.

Devon, Michael and Tyler

We came home and after some trampoline jumping, he opened gifts and we had dessert.

Michael was able to spend the night and they stayed up until 2 am!?!?! Yikes! I think Michael was trying to beat his brother's latest time. :) The next morning, they played for awhile and both boys were not ready for the fun to be over. I am glad that this crew has such a great time together.

Nic and Jess Get Hitched

Last weekend, we hitched a ride with Ted and Sue for a quick weekend trip to Watervliet, Michigan to help celebrate the marriage of Nic and Jess Bitting.

The kids enjoyed the DVD player in their van on the ride.

And we ate lots of pretzels.

We happily joined up with Hollins and Rachel (and Reid and Jillian) when we arrived.

Aubrey and Jillian picked up right where they left off.

The first evening, all wedding guests were invited to attend a potluck by Lake Michigan. Our kids met their second cousins and we got most of them (okay, everyone minus Tyler, I realized later) to pose for a picture.

The hotel had an indoor water park and the kids loved spending the rest of the evening swimming.

The next day was Tyler's birthday. He opened presents in our hotel room. He was thrilled, but we made him wait to open everything but the books until he was home.

 The ladies ready for the wedding.

Aubrey and Jill

My boys.

Tyler didn't want to pose...silly.

Between the wedding and reception, we had hors d'oeuvres, drinks, yard games, and pictures!

The Eigsti clan. 

During the reception, Nic led everyone in singing Happy Birthday to Tyler and one other in the room. Tyler even got a few gifts from Wayne's aunt and a couple of cousins. How sweet.

Aubrey conked out before all the fun was over. She kept covering her head with my scarf.

There was a bonfire, dancing, and music. Little love was just too tired to keep going.  We enjoyed making a lot of great memories on our brief trip. And, we enjoyed a safe and uneventful trip home. Back to school and work the next day. Phew!