It was Uncle Adam's idea to go to a lake during Labor Day weekend. My parents said Ok as long as you do the research. So Adam found the place and we all showed up for Labor Day Laker Fun!
This is the only picture you can see our house in the background. It doesn't look big but it held all 15 of us!
The first day we got there was a little chilly.
Can you tell from all the sweatshirts?
But Tommy didn't care!
The next morning the boys went for a bike ride.
While the girls and Grandpa and Tommy went for a boat ride. Our ride was much more fun according to Adam. Heehee!
Charlotte was just happy to drive the boat with Grandpa. You can tell how happy she is but how many of her bottom teeth you can see. :)
We came back to pick up the boys and make some sandwiches for the boat. Charlotte was excited to make her own sandwich for once. Mmm cheezit sandwiches!
Time to head out on the water again! Uncle Adam was ready!
Sandbar time! Hey look that's me! I made it into a picture or two! :)
We met up with one of Adam's friends and his family and their little boy joined us on the tube.
Tommy and Dada decided to take the tube for an actual ride at some point during the day. He loved it! He was smart to wear those goggles.
Charlotte was by Emily's side the entire weekend I think. :)
Look at Charlotte's face. She looks like she's actually riding the tube around. Turns out, she's just floating gently in the water. Ha!
The house had a beautiful deck where we spent most of our time.
Photo crew goes to Emily for this one. So cute.
Not sure who took this one but I love it. Isabel looks to the future of boating.
Uncle Adam grabbed some GoPro Shots that turned out pretty great as always.
Charlotte took a good one too! ;)
This one is especially cute. #topknot
Our last night at the house, Brandon got out the karaoke machine. Many of us sang a tune from Andrew's iPhone. The kids' greatest hit was "HandClap" by Fitz and the Tantrums. I was involved in that performance and we had the whole crowd going. It was so much fun that no one got a video! Boo!! :( But it was definitely awesome. Charlotte was a dancing machine!
At 10 pm, it was sound DOWN. No more karaoke. The kids had to go to bed and everything fell silent. All except for the game of spoons in the kitchen. I didn't play this time. It seemed VERY intense so I'm kind of glad I sat this one out. I don't think there was any blood or biting so that's a plus.
Awwww someone wrote Lake Keiper on the steps. Cute!
Awwww, someone decided to cross it out and write Thornburg instead. I wonder who that was... ;)
We picked up some sweet shirts for the whole family while we were in town.
The weekend getaway was a super success. So much so that Charlotte crawled into my lap at 4:30 pm on Monday and fell asleep. It was a big exciting and tiresome weekend. Definitely a win! Can't wait to do it again!
Christmas is a magical time! First the magic comes in getting your family to pose for a Christmas card. On Black Friday, I had to work. I got an email about a sale for Christmas cards. I had this idea to model the cover of the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." When I got home from work, I mentioned it to Andrew and he said, "Sure let's do it." So we picked out our clothes for the shoot. We dressed the kids first and then ourselves. While we were getting ready, Charlotte grabbed a tub of vaseline and smeared it on her face and in her bangs. Yikes! I cleaned her up the best I could. We posed and set the camera to take 10 continuous shots. It took 6 tries but we got the shot!
Well we got the shot that I filtered and cropped the crap out of until it looked just right. :-)
Would you like to see some outtakes? Here's a focus shot while I set up the camera. I'm a big fan of this one actually.
Here's a lovely one. Don't you like the hallway doors open so you can see in our closet? Also, the kids are hogging the light! ;-)
Mom's gotta fix her hair. Dada is rolling his eyes. :)
Soooooo how did we do? I think it turned out pretty great. We got a lot of compliments. I wish you could see more of Tommy's face but after vaseline, 60 pictures, and everyone sweating, we were ready to be DONE.
So quick little side note, speaking of work (terrible segue btw), I planned the District Christmas party. I swear I planned 57 parties this month between work, Tommy's birthday and Christmas. Sheesh. This party, just like all of them, turned out fantastic!
So on Sunday after our last Thanksgiving, we put up our tree and Christmas lights. Tommy put the star on the tree as the finishing touch.
We had a new tree this year thanks to Aunt Laura, Uncle Andy and cousin David. The kids loved decorating it.
They had a Giving Tree at school where we basically purchased presents for the classroom. I pulled a Barbie doll. So I bought a Veterinarian Barbie complete with a small puppy to doctor up. They were excited!
I also purchased a fire station set for the after school kids class.
We discovered a Christmas app on our cable box so they kids were able to do a little Christmas karaoke.
On Christmas eve, we made Christmas sugar cookies with Grandma Katie's old cookie cutters. I also used an egg substitute that was made out of chia and flaxseed. Odd but it actually made the cookies rise! Amazing! The texture was great and the taste wasn't that bad either. (I will have to try a cake next!)
They had fun making a mess, I mean, icing cookies.
But mostly they just loved eating them.
They turned out quite beautiful, huh?
After the kids went to bed, Santa came and laid out all kinds of goodies. Santa doesn't wrap his presents (thank goodness!) so it didn't take too long. However in the middle of it, Tommy came downstairs after having a bad dream. I have never moved so fast in my life. I don't think he saw Santa or anything since he was pretty out of it but WOW was I freaked out. Oh notice the movie on TV? We finally own it now instead of looking for it on tv every year.
In the morning, the kids were very excited!!
They love their tent and Poppy Troll doll and remote controlled T-Rex. Charlotte also got the necklace that Moana wears and Tommy got Maui's fishhook. They must have been super good this year!
I think Charlotte thinks so!!
After we opened presents, we sat and ate some Christmas Divvies Chocolate chip cookies. Yum!
We headed to my parents house on Christmas Day for Keiper Christmas. If you would have told me last Christmas that I wouldn't be hosting and that we would be celebrating Christmas IN TOWN, I would have slapped you silly. But here we are! This is one of the only pictures I took all day. The kids were playing Just Dance. Charlotte was INTO IT! But she didn't really understand how to play so much. :-)
Here's the other proof of our Christmas that day. Photo cred to Brother Adam. Lovely picture.
The following day, we headed down to Westfield for Thornburg Christmas. I was so happy we were able to get a picture of the grandkiddos and their grandparents!
Here's a cousin pic too! So sweet! Wyatt doesn't know what to think. :-)
Here's one that shows a little bit more candid personality. Ha!
We did a gift card exchange and we skyped in Cait and Scott for the occasion.
One last sweet picture of Pop and Charlotte looked at the beautiful Christmas tree.
We really had a magical, wonderful Christmas this year. We hope you did too! Merry Christmas!
