NYE

This was our 7th year in a row celebrating New Years Eve with the Shipleys.  Barbara pulls out all the stops for a fun evening for the kids.  They always enjoy a sparkling grape juice toast!

Barbara engineered a balloon drop for the kids.  However, the strings came loose without pulling the cloth down so we had to manually free the balloons and confetti.  

They loved the hand held poppers.  Just like mini fireworks!

The girls.  Gracie is 15 and Emmy is 7.

The boys.  Thomas and Bryce are 10 and Tobias is 4.

Group shot.  Man they've grown up over the years.

Best wishes for 2020!

sloth adventure

Our family jumped on the sloth bandwagon a while back when they became popular and it was the theme of our Christmas this year.  We all had "Santa Claws" sloth shirts (like the one Jason is wearing) for our family Thanksgiving and Christmas tree decorating at my mom's.  For Christmas my mom gave the kids sloth sheets and she gifted us a behind the scenes sloth tour at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk.  Jason arranged it all and picked this date months ago.  It ended up being a perfect day in the seventies!

The tour started before the zoo opened for the day.  KC was the sloth we met and she stays in her own building where they do all of the behind the scenes tours.

Everyone enjoyed feeding her and petting her.

She was so cute!

The blue bucket is her bed.  They say she will crawl in to it and cover herself up with it.  We were hoping she was nice and tired after all the food we fed her, but we couldn't get her to curl up in her bed while we were there.

After the tour we explored the rest of the zoo.  They had lots of exhibits and the weather was perfect.

winterfest

We went to Winterfest last Friday night but it was so cold that we didn't stay long or do much.  However, the weather was much warmer tonight so we tried again!

Emmy got a pair of shoes for Christmas that ended up having a hidden heel in them so she was excited to be tall enough to ride some "real" rides!  They only have two roller coaster open during Winterfest and she was tall enough for one of them and she loved it!  

The boys got bacon donut burgers for dinner.

Emmy was able to do so many new things with her new "height".  She was able to ride the swings, the bumper cars and drive the old cars.  

Nana joined us tonight for her first visit.

The Eifel Tower looks so pretty decorated for Christmas. 

Glad we went back for a second try.  We had lots of fun this time!

roller skates

MeMa and PaPa gave Emmy roller skates for Christmas. 

Emmy couldn't wait to try them out so we went to our local skating rink tonight for Christian music night.  MeMa and PaPa stopped by so they could see the first skate!

I put a note out on Facebook that we were going skating if any of our friends wanted to join us and a few showed up!

We don't go skating very often, but I think we might now!

christmas day

The calm....

before the storm!

The kids were up much earlier this year than in the past.  We let them sleep together and that may not have been the best idea.

Bentley enjoyed some Christmas treats.

Emmy got the American Girl doll bowling alley she wanted.

We had an extra hour this Christmas to play with toys and I was able to sit back and watch and enjoy a mimosa (or two)!

Bryce gave Emmy the game Operation.

It was a slothy Christmas.  The kids also got sloth sheets from Nana and we're going to the Norfolk Zoo for a sloth experience.  

Bryce got some new battle bots and an arena to fight them.

A girl and her dog, ha!

I'd say they had a pretty great Christmas.

When we were done at home we headed to MeMa and PaPa's for breakfast and presents.

The cousins.

Nana joined us this year and then we went to her house for stockings and then finished the day at Jason's grandma's house.  It was a great day!

christmas eve

Jason went fishing this morning and the kids had spent the night at MeMa and PaPa's so it was just me this morning.  I went over to my mom's for mimosas and we did a little shopping and then I relaxed a little before everyone got home. 

We always do Christmas Eve at my mom's.  This year we had a steak dinner instead of our usual Thanksgiving type food.  Next year we've decided we're going to have Chinese!

After an early dinner, we open presents.

After presents we have dessert and then head to church for the Christmas Eve service.  

The candlelight pictures are always my favorite.

After church we went to MeMa and PaPa's for snacks and then came home and the kids got dressed in Christmas jammies and had a sleepover in Bryce's room to get a little sleep before the big day!