Grammy's Birthday!

 

Hannah's 9th Birthday!

Hannah celebrated her 9th Birthday with a Zoom party with four of her friends!  She sent care packages with crafts and treats that they were able to enjoy over Zoom together.  They even watched a movie! 

Watching Cinderella

Trivia!

Making lip gloss with her girls!

Spontaneous dance party!!

Exactly 9 years old!

We met Mimi at the mall!

 

Saturday Morning Soccer

After a sleepover and playtime with cousins, Ben suggested that we sign the kids up for soccer.  Being that the season was months away, he mentioned that playing as a family might be a good way to practice.  So we called in reinforcements and began a weekly family soccer game that very next weekend.  The Sacksteder crew joined us (and sometimes Poppy!) and we met on the open field at Hailey's elementary school every Saturday morning for the next three months (when rec sports robbed us of our field space.)  Each week, we had two captains, usually our youngest players, team names and cheers.  We had the best time!  Sometimes it got a little competitive with the grown ups-I may have injured my hamstring in a heated foot race-but we always left wanting more!  We had several new Mustang soccer players come fall! This was an incredible example of the power of suggestion!

We always got excited when the team captain invited us onto their team!

We celebrated Hannah, Uncle Ben & Hailey's Birthdays at our soccer games too!

 

Going to the Cabin and New Years Eve

We saw that snow was forecasted at the cabin just after Christmas so we made a quick plan to head up there.  We did snow dances, we prayed, but there was no snow to be had.  We still had a fantastic time though!  JP taught the kids how to shoot a BB gun and a bow and arrow.  We went for a "hike" and built a new fort.  We dug up our old time capsule with our questionnaires that we were thankfully able to salvage since the Ziplock bags didn't keep the water out as we had hoped.  We watched movies, ate popcorn and Christmas cookies and hot cocoa by the fire.  We came home and celebrated New Years with a walk to our favorite spot to watch the final sunset of 2020. 

Andy helped James solve his Rubik's cube...Andy is a pro!

Jacob and James praying for snow :)

Mimi joined us!  We had fun reading our answers from our old time capsule questionnaires.

                                           

Uncle JP teaching James the ropes.

James and Jacob gathering branches for our fort.

The comfy was all the rage this Christmas :-P

Our fort decorating committee members

                                                 

Hangin' in our new fort!

Final Sunset of 2020.

Christmas 2020

Watching the Army/Navy game with our Army family & celebrating Christmas with our 2nd annual White Elephant gift exchange for the kids.  The can of green beans is the white elephant.  Every kiddo who gets it signs their name and passes it along the next year...James ended up with it this year-mostly because he was lured by the $5 that came with it!

Sweet Sebastian got the Bordeaux's Butt cream...Thankfully, their family still has one in diapers, so it was actually a helpful gift!

Sweet Caroline was a true champ opening up the baby food.

  

This gift triggered some feelings as the "baby" of the family. 

Hailey serenading us with Christmas carols on her violin!

Stunts in the front yard

We so love looking at Christmas lights and our kiddos were wishing that we had more to offer up to our neighbors besides my lighted Christmas trees on the front porch.  Auntie Kristi and Uncle JP got word of this and surprised us by bring over their extra lights and decorating our front yard.  Oh what a gift that was!!

Team Twin on our Sibling Secret Santa Mission at Target! 

Much better!

In-N-Out and Starbucks then driving around looking at Christmas lights...One of our favorite family traditions!

All tuckered out.

We joined forces with the Sackies and Mimi to bring dinner to the local homeless shelter a few days before Christmas and Julia helped me make lasagna.  Hannah made chocolate chip cookies, Juj made brownies and James made gingerbread bars for dessert.  

Zoom rehearsal for the Christmas pageant.  Jacob was director this year.  He had quite a few obstacles to overcome-including Andy, Claire and Emmy quitting, but he persevered!

Because of all the rising COVID numbers, we decided that it was safest to have a Christmas Eve party on Grandpa's driveway.  The kids preformed their Christmas pageant flawlessly.  Julia and Hannah even sang acapella renditions of "Mary did you know" and "Away in a manger."  Andy and Clairey played Christmas carols on the preschool bells (it was amazing!!!) Jacob, Claire and Emmy all played Christmas carols on the keyboard.  It so far surpassed all of our hopes, and was one of the highlights of Christmas, for sure!

Candlelight Christmas service online at the Sacky's house.

Mac-n-cheese, ham, jello mold, salad and ciopinno for the grown-ups!  A feast fit for KINGS!

Claire masterminded our Secret Santa gift exchange...All of the kids chose and adult and the adults chose a kid (except for Andy, who got called up to the adults' team).  We had a $10 limit and had to make something for each other.  It was SO FUN!!  

Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus with Daddy Cookie Cake!

God's gift to us: a beautiful sunrise on Christmas Day.

The kids kindly waited until 7 am to come rouse me to open presents!

Home Alone has become a favorite Christmas movie.

Hoverboards for James and Hannah.

A go kart attachment for the hoverboards.

The Sackys paid us their annual Christmas Day visit so that we could all appreciate each others' gifts!  Mimi even stopped by and we were able to FaceTime with Papa and Auntie Kerry!

 

Two lovely ladies and a cozy Molly.

We had two Secret Santas this year, one covered the stocking and the other covered the big gift.

We had a quiz on the Christmas story.  Every kiddo was paired with a grown-up who wasn't their parent.  They did awesome!

Leggings from Aunt Cindy.