Christmas 2019

Another Christmas season has come and gone. This year, it all seemed to fly by even faster...probably because of the fact that there was one less week between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Regardless, we crammed in all of the favorite traditions and added in some extra fun along the way.

The kids loved their matching jammies from the elf. They were also especially excited that our elf brought a reindeer friend with them this year. Joel had been desperately wishing for the reindeer and the look on his face when he found him in the morning was absolutely priceless!

Caleb and Leah both enjoyed fun activities with their church groups. The junior high kids had a fun party at their leader (Miss Amy's) house. They had tons of fun and Caleb came home full of junk food and memories. Leah's 4th/5th grade group spent an afternoon baking at the church. It was sweet to watch so many kids and adults have fun together in the kitchen. This woman, Miss Sherry, is one of Leah's 45 teachers and she connects in the most magnificent way with the kids. We are so thankful for our church family and for how much they pour into our kids!

I enjoyed some memorable moments with friends throughout the holiday season. Some of our coffee gals got together for our annual ornament exchange. It's always nice during this season to take a morning off from the busy, hectic, run-around and just catch up over coffee. I also hosted our annual mom baking day where we got together and baked tons of yummy treats to share. 

We loved getting to watch another band concert. We could really see how much these guys have improved in a year. I hope Caleb sticks with band, because he definitely appears to enjoy being a "little drummer boy"!

One of our favorite moments from the Christmas season was getting to celebrate with Nyla, Nikko, and Brighton's mom and grandma. They came down for dinner and we had so much fun hearing stories about these amazing kids when they were younger. We laughed and talked and ate and genuinely enjoyed being one giant family for an evening. We ended the night with very fun gift exchange!

I had the pleasure of volunteering for Caleb's very last holiday party. To go out with a bang, the 6th graders get to have their party at the bowling alley. It was so fun to watch all of these kids who have been buddies for many, many years. They're all still just as silly as they once were, but have much bigger bodies! By the end, I had a whole new appreciation for 6th grade teachers and what they deal with on a daily basis. I think my junior high theory that I adopted many years ago might still be valid....they should all be shipped off to an island together for three years and returned when their weirdness wears off.

We enjoyed carrying on the tradition of our neighborhood scavenger hunt as well as playing "Reindeer Games" with friends. In this picture, the kiddos are showing off their socks they won at the kid sock exchange. It's quite entertaining to see kids get so intense with SOCKS!

Our Santa brunch was, once again, so delicious and fun. We definitely look forward to this tradition each year! Everyone left completely stuffed and feeling heavier than Santa himself!

We had a great time getting together with the Lamont family for cookie decorating. The kids spend the evening loading up on way more sugar than they should and adults even get in on the fun. It has grown to be a favorite activity for the kids, and it makes me so happy to see one of my childhood traditions living on.

In the middle of all the fun and chaos, Joel came down with a nasty bug right before Christmas. It gave us all an excuse to slow down a bit and everyone enjoyed the pj days and rest. Joel was a champ and kicked whatever he had right in time for Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve lounging around before heading to church and then out to dinner. We made sure to sneak in a quick cookie baking session, too....had to get those cookies ready for Santa!

Christmas morning started with just the six of us. Grandpa, Grandma, and TiTi came over for a yummy breakfast and more presents. We then spent the day hanging out and enjoying all of the new toys and treasures. In the afternoon, we headed out to Indiana for a wonderful get together with the Lamont family.

The sadness of Christmas ending was met with the joy of a visit from one of our favorite guests...Aunt Denise! She flew in on the 26th and stayed for almost a week. We loved getting to spend time with her. One of the highlights was taking  a trip to the city to see A Christmas Carol. The performance was great (even though a few parts left the younger two scared and probably scarred for life)!

Dear Leah,

You have officially hit double digits! A whole decade has come and gone since you were born. How can that possibly be?!? In ten years, you have filled our home with so much love and joy. So much of who you are is just the same as you were when we brought you home from the hospital...and, yet, so much has changed. 

You're still our toughest kid and can handle adversity like a champ. When you were a baby, it was the excessive heal pricks to test your jaundice and excessive testing done for your digestion issues. This year, you've proven over and over again that when things are hard, you push through with an amazing attitude. When we were faced with one of our worst parenting nightmares....LICE....you handled it better than any of us. Night one of the terrible discovery kept you up until past midnight having your hair shampooed and combed through and repeated again because we didn't do it correctly the first time. For several weeks, you spent at least an hour each night sitting in the bathtub having your hair combed through strand by strand. When all was said and done, we promised we'd get you something super special for dealing with the disaster as well as you did. All you asked for, when we seriously would have given you WHATEVER you wanted, was to have your hair cut! Fast forward a few months to the start of 4th grade. You realized from day one that you would be spending your third year in a row with a kid who you faced a lot of challenges with in 2nd and 3rd grade. Your enthusiasm about starting 4th grade immediately turned to disappointment and we became very worried about how things would pan out. It only took a day or two for this child to start pestering you and we didn't know quite how to handle it. You took it all like a champ, though, and have continued to show a sense of maturity in handling the difficulties you've faced with this girl. All the while, you have still managed to remain kind and considerate towards her. We are impressed by the strength you've shown through the tears and frustration of dealing with a tough person.

Just like when you were a baby, you're still so loving and sweet, but definitely a fan of having your space. When you were teeny tiny, you were our only newborn who was happiest to be laid down instead of being held 24/7. You hated being swaddled and loved to have some freedom. Freedom and space is still your jam. After reading an article at the beginning of the school year, it became very clear that you are a child who loves to be around people, but definitely needs to have a break (an introverted extrovert if you will). That explains why heading back to school can be tough for you. After months of having time to take a break and find some space, school and the constant stimulation can be a bit overwhelming for you. You self regulate this all on your own, and usually come straight home from school and retreat to your room for awhile to play all by yourself. On the weekends, you are the one who is most content to just hang out with family and live life at a slower pace. When it's winter or summer break, you are in your element. Endless days of no schedule and complete freedom are your favorite. You can still be found fluttering about from one activity to the next and onto the next without ever really finishing one task. There is a trail of "Leah" all over the place just like when you were a toddler and little girl. How you play with such intensity can be rather exhausting to watch, but is 100%  where you find your joy.

While so much remains the same and the core of who you are hasn't changed, there have still been so many ways you've grown and blossomed into someone new. This past year, we've seen such a shift in your attention to hair and clothes and nails and jewelry. Most of time, you have a VERY unique sense of style, but it's your's and we love it. You are far more in tune to the world of preteen stuff and much less interested in being a little girl. You requested a room redo this year for your birthday and we figured it was probably time to update the yellow walls that served as a nursery many years ago. In the process, we cleaned out quite a lot of toys and things. Though it was heartbreaking to watch, you were ready to part ways with a lot of things that you used to play with all the time. You hung onto a few baby dolls and kept a decent amount of stuff to play school....because, after all, you still plan to become a "teacher mom" when you're older! You do still love to play school and take any chance you get to take care of little ones. For your redo, you chose a soft pink color and decorated the walls with inspiring quotes and scripture. One of the best of those says "What Makes You Different Makes You Beautiful".

Indeed, you are a unique and different young lady. You have always been, and will (hopefully) always be, unapologetically YOU. We pray that as you enter this next decade of life, you live it was as much grace and faith as you have for the first ten years. You are confident in who God made you to be and truly utilize the gifts He has given you to bless those around you. Being a parent to a kid as kind, content, and considerate as you is a joy. We hope that as the years go on, you will continue to influence those around you and will refuse to let the world define who you are. You are a bright and beautiful example of God's goodness and we hope that you will always shine the light of Jesus wherever you go. Happy Birthday to you - our sweet Leah. We love you!

Love,

Dad and Mom

Thanksgiving Traditions

One of the best things about holidays is the traditions that go along with them. For our family, some traditions have been going on for years and others are fairly new.

One of our favorite newer traditions is spending a weekend in Carmi before Thanksgiving. Uncle Randy and Aunt Sharon generously open up their home for us and we enjoy a weekend full of laughter, fun, and lots of food! The kids enjoy playing games, watching movies, and (especially) visiting the farm. We all love the slower pace, relaxation, and quality time spend together.

 On Thanksgiving Day, we enjoy getting together with the Lamont side of the family. Grandma Leslie and Grandpa Rob used to host, but passed the baton to us last year. We've loved getting to have our family together under our roof. We play games, share memories, eat too much food, and laugh until our faces hurt!

Time with loved ones is truly one of the best gifts of the holiday season. Our hearts are already so full and we still have several more weeks of memories, traditions, and fun ahead of us!

Fall is Flying By

School started and it felt like we jumped in full speed and haven't slowed down a bit. We've managed to cram in some fun despite being quite busy with renovating our entire basement after a major flood. This fall has been very rainy, and our basement felt the effects of that after a double-whammy of massive amounts of rain and a power outage that kept the pump from helping the basement stay dry. We are finally done with that project and are looking forward to having just a bit more time on our hands!

 A friend of mine had White Sox tickets that she wasn't going to be able to use. Tyler, Grandpa, Caleb, and his best bud Micah all enjoyed getting to spend an afternoon at the ballpark.

Nyla had a very special GOLDEN birthday this year. When we asked how she wanted to celebrate, she said that she wanted to go paint-balling. The Lake Road crew had tons of fun together (while I happily stayed home with all of the kids who were too young to go). Afterwards, we enjoyed a great dinner with Nyla, Nikko, their families, and some friends.

We had a wonderful time on our annual trip to Champaign. We started out our trip by walking around campus and reminiscing. Afterwards, we headed to the tailgate and had a great time with our family. The game was a night game, so we had plenty of time to sit around and catch up. Though we didn't end up with a win, the game was still a lot of fun! We stayed until the very end and didn't make it back to the hotel until almost midnight (after, of course, a late night college town visit to Taco Bell per Grandpa's request)! The following day, we continued with our traditional visit to Curtis Orchard. We got plenty of apples and, of course, cider donuts!

Chief has been growing like crazy and is already almost 60 pounds. He loves to play fetch and his two favorite toys are tennis balls and his blankie. He misses the kids while they're at school and excitedly runs to the door the minute they get home each afternoon! We are really loving our little boy!

Sports are keeping us quite busy this fall. The boys are both playing flag football. We've had some gorgeous days for football, but also some muddy and rainy days. Nyla is playing varsity volleyball and it's been fun getting to go to some of her games. Leah is back to taking tumbling and is working very hard. She has enjoyed having the chance to show off her skills when special people get to take her (like Grandma and Nana Pam). She was especially fond of the evening when Nana Pam took her, because it ended with a trip for ice cream!

Tyler enjoyed a weekend away at a fishing tournament down at the lake. Chief got to tag along for the trip and really loved getting to see his buddies!

The original date of our chili cookoff fell on the same day as the horrendous basement flooding nightmare. We had to postpone it, which left us with colder weather and less people, but it was still a wonderful time!

In between the rainy weekends and crazy cold snaps, we've tried to get as much time outside as possible. Fall in Chicago can be so beautiful...it's a gift for being able to put up with our loooooooooong winters. The kids spend a lot of time just running around with neighbors and playing various games. One afternoon, we enjoyed a family-friendly game of kickball against our buddies down the road. Though we lost to the Rojas crew, we all had a lot of fun!

On top of our busy sports schedule, the kids are having fun with other activities like Kids4Truth (a weekly church group), 4H, and Girl Scouts. Leah really enjoys her troop that she's been with for the past year. They've already done a few fun things this year...including helping with the annual New Lenox food drive.

Halloween 2019

Halloween was a bit unusual this year. We had our usual pumpkin carving night, class parties, trunk or treats, etc., but this year Halloween came with a twist. We had lots of SNOW! Our zebra, teacher, and bears player didn't get much use out of their costumes after their school parties. Instead, we bundled up and called ourselves "snowboarders". We trekked through the neighborhood and gathered up tons of treats. I think houses were extra generous since their weren't many people out and willing to brave the elements!