December!

December was full of FUN and CRAZY and SO MANY wonderful memories!  AND BOY was it BUSY!

We kicked off December at our town's Christmas parade!  It was the perfect day for a parade.

Our favorite Girl Scout was walking with her troop!

no idea what these 2 are watching, but they are so sweet together

After the parade Reagan and Keith were off on a date to see the Nutcraker!

 

That night we had a Christmas party at the barn where Reagan rides horses...it was a crazy little day!

Sunday we went to my mom and John's to get a picture for their Christmas card with all the grandchildren!

 

clearly a few outtakes, but someone in there is a good one

The next day, Monday the 4th, the kids got to stay "home" from school to head to New York City!!  This was Landon's first time going.

these two do love each other...sometimes...

 

We saw the Rockettes and as always, it was awesome!!  I always cry. ALWAYS.  It's just such a happy, perfect show and I look so forward to it!  Landon wasn't the biggest fan...he'll probably never go back (ha!).

he liked the popcorn ;)

We went out for lunch after the show and got yummy burgers and milkshakes!

 

We walked around for awhile and then headed to good old American Girl.  Reagan brought MY Kiersten to get some surgery done on her hair...it needed it.

While the girls went to AG the boys went to the Lego store.  Someone got SPOILED!!

They just opened this new location in the city and it couldn't have been cuter...a pink and purple lovers dream!

The TREE with my loves!

My dad with his boy Lester

 

 

Such a fun, fun day in the city!  Nothing like it, but always so glad to get home!

Walking around the block with this one...it took an hour :)

Happy HALF Birthday to Reagan!  She picked steak for dinner...

...and chips ahoy cookies with icing for dessert, bless her!

This one loves snuggling in Landon's bed

biggest tree EV-AH!

Maddie had another awful cold...that night was AWFUL, AWFUL!

 

this is how she napped

typical for these 2

just relaxing and reading a book

Santa came to our neighborhood with a special choo choo train!

cutie boys!

Reagan and I snuck out to get our nails done before the snow came on Saturday.  That night was our progressive dinner with our neighbors...we were hosting dinner!

appetizers at the Stringers in our lovely sweaters :)

no pictures at dinner, but Momma was ready to par-tay at the dessert house!

pretty pretty snow!

 

after all that fun little Maddie was up all freakin' night long...talk about BRUTAL! 

my sweet girls snuggling on Sunday night

 

Monday after school we went right to the mall to see Santa!

not so sure about it...

yup, she wasn't having it!

 

Landon man had saved up a LOT of money over the year and decided he was going to buy his own X-Box and Madden game.  The kid LOVES it and was SO proud to buy it all himself!

Grandpa brought Maddie over a Christmas Minnie...she LOVED it!

our little artist

*stressed*

looks like it was a donut celebration day!!!

Christmas concert day!  Reagan did so great!

this little lady did a great job sitting through it all too!

this little man did a super job too!

 

There was talk of snow that afternoon and I heard that one of the high schools was dismissing early, so I wound up just bringing the kids home instead of them riding the bus home hours later.  THANK GOODNESS I did because it started snowing and sticking and made the roads a MESS!  I was so thankful to have my babies safe and sound at home!

so we did a little baking

and a little x-box-ing!

...and a little shoveling!

The next morning we were up and out to hit the road for Rochester!

That night was Keith's family Christmas party.  The kids all looked so cute all dressed up!

We did 'cousin Christmas' on Sunday morning! 

Maddie was thrilled ;)

The kids had a BLAST in all the snow!  They even went out on their snowmobile!

Kristin and I snuck out for just a little bit...love her!

We left on Monday after we celebrated Lyndsey's 11th Birthday!!  I had to treat my girl to some donuts and hot chocolate :)

hanging out with our buddy Benny!

can we go ahead and arrange this marriage?!  They are the CUTEST!

Maddie LOVES singing in the microphone! 

...and doing her "homework"

another day, another nap in mommy's arms

horsey girl!

horsey cutie girls!

Christmas party at school day!!!!

The 3rd grade Christmas party was CRAZY!!  The teacher in me was going crazy, but the kids were just so excited!  It was fun, but crazy town USA!

These precious 1st graders had a fun party too!

right after school the big kids and I headed to good old Herr's for a chip fix!

and to meet our sweet friends for dinner and then touring the Christmas lights! I am SO thankful for these sweet friends that we met while we were waiting for our house to be built!

Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop were there too!

this boy melts me

Herr's lights never disappoint!

The big kids were OUT by the time we got to Chesapeake City, but I enjoyed looking at the lights by myself...ha!

 

This Friday morning was to be baking day and get everything ready for Christmas day, but it turned into a very scary day.  Keith started seeing a little gray cloud in his left eye 2 days prior, but thought maybe he was just tired?!  When he still saw it on Friday morning, since he was off, he called the eye doctor and they were able to get him in.  He was there FOREVER.  Finally he called me and told me to call my dad because we had to go to Philly to see an eye specialist to see what was going on.  He had an inflamed optic nerve and things the wonderfully compassionate eye doctor said it could be included a brain tumor, cancer, all kinds of great things.  We were scared to pieces.  We went right to Philly and spent the WHOLE day seeing doctors and waiting for an MRI.  My mom and John were so sweet to meet us there and wait with us.  We FINALLY got news that the MRI was clear and all looked good.  They still didn't know exactly what was causing his optic nerve to be inflamed, but we were so thankful it wasn't any of the serious stuff.  Such a Christmas present!  Needless to say it was a long, long, scary day.  At one point we were waiting in the waiting room and I just looked at Keith and said, "I really want you to be ok, but I have so much wrapping to do!"  LOL!

 

the boys got to play for awhile that day

 

SOOO now Saturday turned into a mini baking day!  I always make homemade sugar cookies and homemade icing, but that just wasn't happening ;)  good news, Landon could care less and thought they were delicious!

 

my little elf helping me Christmas Eve morning!

 

my loves before dinner on Christmas Eve!

 

 

 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

 

Santa came!

#1 TOP asked for Christmas item!!

little girl woke up and had NO idea what the heck was going on!

her own Minnie vacuum!

We love having Uncle Mike here for Christmas!

 

we made it to Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop's house to continue the celebrating

 

Maddie was a hair brushing fool :)

JJ fast asleep in the middle of the kitchen...girl cracks me up!

Cheers!

 

The next day we celebrated Christmas at Grandpa and Nana's house!

Maddie LOVES her new sleeping bag!

Maddie and sweet baby Adam!

We went to Disney on Ice with Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop as one of the kids Christmas gifts, it was so cute!  Landon really did like it ;)

See!

My mom and John took the kids home from Philly and I was able to meet Heath at King of Prussia for a fun fun day of shopping and eating!!  LOVE this precious friend of mine!

Family bowling day!

 

Keith left that night for Seattle for a friend's wedding...so it was a couple of solo days with my loves!

 

 

Gigi and Mop came to visit!

 

and we went to Jump on Over, aka germ central, for some fun.  Maddie loved it!

all showered and bathed on New Years Eve!  We had BIG plans...

 

not really.  We had breakfast for dinner, Maddie went to bed, and the kids and I curled up on the sofa!

I'm concerned for this kid going to college...LOL...party animal!

We all had high hopes of making it to midnight...

 

I will miss the day Reagan doesn't play with her babies anymore...she LOVES to do her American Girl's hair.  I just thought it was so cute how she set them up to watch Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve

I'd say we were lucky to say we made it until 9:45!

 

Happy 2018!!