Happy 65th Anniversary to our GG & Grandpa Bob!!!

 After a low key day at home & some hot tub time for Maeve & I...

The girls & I baked/frosted a bunch of cute little cupcakes & headed over to my grandparents house to surprise them with a "65." Fun little surprise for them before they headed out to dinner to celebrate 65 years together. We love you both so very much & were happy we got to celebrate with you! xoxo

Merry Christmas!!! 

We kept the tradition going yesterday morning by heading to the movie theater. We saw Mary Poppins Returns. Great movie, we all really enjoyed it. Didn't take any photos, I am getting lazy!! We had a few short hours at home to have lunch & get us all ready for church.

Christmas Eve photo after church & before the girls got into their jammies. They had been just waiting for their matching pj's so we had to get the photos in right away.

 One of my favorite days of the year. I love these littles so much. 

Great company, lots of eating & a very serious game of Bingo for the kiddos...

 So happy to have my grandparents home for Christmas this year. It's been a long time since this has happened... so we needed a group pic! Quite the crew at my moms again. Such a fun night.

Then it was time to head home & get things ready for Santa's arrival. Tired kiddos that were told they could not wake us up before 7:00am. It was 6:58 when Gary heard them & 7:02 when Maeve ran excitedly into our room very excited about the chair Santa had brought her. Her heart rate had to have been through the roof!

She also got the LOL Bigger Surprise she asked for, slime supplies, clothes, a unicorn stuffed animal & some art/drawing stuff. Margaux had a very piggy Christmas. She was thrilled to open a new ipod, new Addidas joggers, more clothes, games & all things pig. 

Marin also got a new ipod & was excited even though she had really high hopes of getting an iphone. She squealed when she opened a new Vera Bradley blanket, a furry rug, lots of new clothes, dry shampoo & much more.

All three of them were very excited. Such a fun & magical morning. Gary & I got them a hoverboard, new playstation4 remotes & the Minecraft game so they can all play together now. After presents, 

we enjoyed breakfast together with Grandma/Grandpa, the Johnsons & Mike, Ross & Camille. Mid day today we headed down to Veraghen's. Spent the whole day in our jammies, it was perfect. 

All matching this year... 

We had a great day. The kids worked on a Christmas variety show, complete with 14 acts! It was long but oh so cute. All the while the adults enjoyed slush, prepped dinner & worked the entire day on a 1,000 piece puzzle. It was quite the group effort.

We have so much to be thankful for... I am sad to see Christmas come to an end. We are all definitely looking forward to the rest of break & some family down time. We've had a lot of fun, jam-packed days. I have a strong feeling our whole house will sleep in tomorrow. Merry Christmas!!!! xoxo

Brown Christmas yesterday. We started off meeting everyone to ice skate & tube. Another nice winter day with mild temps. Fun for all! Here is the whole crew on the ice... standing!!!

 A few first timers in the group which made it fun. Everyone did great! Our girls felt much more comfortable after skating Tuesday night with Shanna & the boys.

 After the skating & tubing down the big hill we visited the Ice Lounge. So many cool ice sculptures & photo opportunities.

 Marin would have posed with each one if we let her!

 And one quick family shot before we were all feeling pretty cold. 

Fun day for everyone. We were all happy to get home to the warm house & a fire. We opened presents, had dinner & then it was time to head outside for the 1st annual neighborhood luminaries. I didn't take a single photo... It was so beautiful that we just soaked it all in! Here are a few I stole from neighbors...

90+ houses with over 3,600 luminary bags to benefit a great local charity. It was so pretty. Really quite amazing to walk through the neighborhood seeing all the lights. There were a few drones flying over taking video as well which was so cool!

We all really enjoyed it. A few friends had bonfires lit in their driveways so we made a few stops while we strolled through. Definitely looking forward to doing this again next year. xoxo

Christmas gathering with the Mullen crew last night. For as long as I can remember we have always gotten together with them on Christmas Eve after our Goessl Christmas. With all four of us girls having kids {all of theirs much younger than ours!} it has proven to be much easier to get together earlier. Christmas eve got a little too late the past few years. Last night was perfect, starting earlier got us a lot more time to eat & catch up.

Always so great to have our crew together. My mom's house is the new party spot!

 Also fun to see all of our kiddos interact together, esp. with the age difference. Our girls did their best to help entertain the littles which was very entertaining! How cute are they?

Let the Christmas festivities begin! The next 4-5 days will be crazy but also so fun for all. We are sooo looking forward to it. 2 sleeps til Christmas!!!

Last day of school before winter break today! So much excitement in the schools. I wrapped up my last day of subbing today {I have literally worked almost every day since November 1st!!!} So ready for a much needed break & so are the chicks. I got out a little early so I could meet the girls at school this afternoon. First stop was Maeve's classroom where Brody made a visit to talk to her class about Australia.

 So darn cute!!! He had a whole speech prepared & got to answer a lot of questions the kids had. It was so fun for all the kiddos & a great learning experience on both ends. They also shared photos of Brody & Maeve through the years showing her classmates that they have known each other since they were babies.

After the Q&A the class played a game of Christmas bingo before it was time to wrap it up.

Then it was time to head over to see Margaux's class Christmas village. Her group had been working on their barn for weeks as part of their electricity unit.

Of course Margaux was thrilled to get the barn so it could have pigs! It was also ugly sweater day so she was dressed so cute & festive.

3 more sleeps until Christmas! Getting closer... xoxo

Our Australian friends are home! Last minute trip for them & we are so excited to have them here, even for a short time. Tonight we went ice skating with the kids, a good refresher lesson for our girls since it's been almost a year since they've last skated.

So pretty with all the trees lit up & the bonfire going. We skated for a few hours & all had a great time. Loving the mild winter weather, but things would be a lot prettier if we got some snow!

 Still very winter-y feeling & great fun for all. All three of the girls fell quite a few times but laughed at themselves when they did. We were glad they were good sports. 

They all spent a lot of time at the railing throughout the night but they really got the hang of it eventually. The walkers were also very helpful & a good break at times.

We are all looking forward to coming back on Saturday with the Brown's when they get here.

Love these smiles! Only 6 more sleeps until Christmas... we are all so excited & looking forward to family/friend time. Trying to soak it all in because it goes by way too fast. xoxo

This week it was time for some holiday giving. The girls did their yearly bell ringing. 1st up was Margaux, she rang with a group of her classmates & one of her teachers.

Tonight we rang as a family with Marin & her religion/church group at Cabela's. Special Santa sighting & he was nice enough to pose in a photo with the girls.

 While the big girls were ringing the littles & I went to the little Santa's workshop area in the back of the store. They had a great set up, complete with tons of free crafts & visits with Santa. 

This year I got the girls a holiday kindness jar. We have been pulling things out every few days & completing the tasks. We've made cookies for neighbors, surprised strangers, wrote notes to each other, etc. A good way to teach them the spirit of giving. Excited to see what else we pick out of the jar in the next week or so & I love how excited they are about the tasks. Just under 2 weeks until Christmas!!! xoxo

Last night we got together with Veraghen's & Hawkers to watch a Christmas movie & string popcorn for our Christmas trees. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation was the movie of choice. I think we've seen it 4 times already in the past few weeks, never gets boring. 

A few needle pokes to the fingers & a lot of popcorn consumption later we had lots of strung popcorn. 

Filled Veraghen's basement tree & enough for our tree in the sun room that they graciously surprised us with Saturday while we were gone at basketball...

With them having a family of Christmas tree farmers, they always give us grief about our plastic trees. We knew one day this would happen. Complete with a Busch Light can on top. I will hang the strung popcorn on it tomorrow. It will be perfect!

Merry our elf has been back in our house for a few weeks now. She always seems to find funny spots around the house & the girls just love her.

 Yesterday Margaux told her she didn't think she was being sassy enough. Then they woke up to this...

Which they thought was pretty funny. She had drawn faces on all their photos.

Because it was Margaux who tempted her, she also got to clean the photos once Merry moved. Of course she giggled the entire time & luckily it was dry erase marker so it wiped right off. What will she do next? xoxo

Always one of my favorite nights in December, the girls holiday concerts. Their music teacher does such a great job & it always brings a little tear to my eye. The kiddos are so darn cute & growing up so fast. Hard to believe this is Margaux's last year of an elementary concert. How will she go to intermediate school next year???

Maeve's concert was up 1st. Adorable little songs & she just sings her little heart out. Not surprised, she is my sing/dance in the shower girl. She has a little party of her own every time she gets in the shower! haha And she looked so stinkin cute in her new holiday dress.

 Maeve & her friends just loved posing for photos after the concert. Margaux & her friends were the opposite. All they worried about was getting to the cookies.

Margaux's concert was second. Super cute songs & they all sang perfectly. 

 Best part of the night was they sang a special song for their music teacher which they thought was the whole surprise. What they didn't know was that during the song her boyfriend came out on stage & got down on one knee and proposed to her!!! It was so great. Not a dry eye in the audience. Even the kids on stage were crying. Super fun surprise for all. The girls posed for a photo with her after the concert. Definitely a fun memory for the kids.

Marin, Rylie & Estelle enjoyed watching their younger siblings sing but loved the cookie social most as well.

Everyone was excited after the surprise proposal! So much to talk about. Marin's concert isn't until January so we'll have to wait a few weeks for hers. Something to look forward to!!! xoxo

Today while Marin played basketball, the littles & I went to the town Christmas parade. Margaux chose to walk along with Grandpa & the fire station crew. 

Maeve opted to watch & collect candy with Sloane. 

So much candy! They had fun collecting it all & even seeing friends in the parade.

Hayden joined Margaux walking & handing out candy. They were so giggly, definitely had a fun time. I was worried about them being too cold & they were sweating hot from all the walking.

First day of December & we are feeling more festive... although we could use some snow. Makes everything so pretty! xoxo