Happy New Year!

This year we spent our New Year’s Eve at the Reagens’, where we are nearly every year! It is always a blast and the kids love to party.

 

Ameriprise Christmas Party

This evening we headed to the Ameriprise Christmas Party. It is hosted by our financial advisor and it is an awesome party. The kids love the food, face painting, Santa, and storytelling. This year Lucia was especially interested in Santa. She spent a long time hanging out in his area.

Decorating the Tree

We wasted no time getting our Christmas trees up this year. On our way back from Kansas City we stopped at Costco to pick up our tree and we had it in and set up later that night.

New this year we have a second Christmas tree in our house. We put the live tree in the back family room. This is our more traditional tree. We also have an artificial tree in the front room, to help decorate the inside and outside.

Thanksgiving in Kansas City

We spent Thanksgiving in Kansas City this year. We headed down on Thursday morning and stayed at Susan’s Sister, Mary’s, house. The Reagens also stayed there for a total of 18 people! Susan’s parent were in KC as well, but they were smart enough to stay at a hotel. Thursday was spent eating, watching The Sound of Music, watching football, and playing games. On Friday we took the kids swimming at a nice community center in Overland Park before watching more football and playing more games. Good times.

Mealtime Prayer
Mealtime Prayer

 

Beggars’ Night

Beggars’ Night was very fun this year. We started the evening at the Thompsons’, our friends who have moved in down the street. After that we struck out on the town. The big kids pretty much did their own thing. Susan, Lucia, Rose and I met up with Haley, Adam, and Evy and went to some houses with them. The older kids especially enjoyed a haunted house that some neighbors put on, and they also collected a lot of candy.

Wills Family Orchard

Yesterday we hit Wills Family Orchard in Adel. We have gone for the past few years and we always enjoy. Yesterday we had the good fortune of running into the Browns and Mary Smith & family. The kids also had the good fortune of picking some large pumpkin.

 

Fourth of July Festivities