Some of the things that kept us busy having fun in January

Every once and a while Dad bring us donuts!

This is a typical evening when Caitlin is in a squirrely mood

Nice Charcoal mask!

6th Grade led prayer one morning...

Lauren and I made one wall of a snow fort and a minnie mouse snowperson (in back) after St. Peter got 8" fresh snow.   

No school day-Fun at the MOA!!!

Gymnastics Meets!

Lillian turns 2!

Lilly on her "birth" day                             Lilly at 1 year

Well despite Lillian being a little under the weather, she had a good birthday and was happy all day.  She picked out her kitty birthday decorations and was super excited when she woke up and saw it all on the table.  We've been talking about her birthday for awhile now but I don't really think it had clicked with her until the day of her birthday when she got to blow out the candles and open presents.  We were able to have both sets of grandparents, our old neighbors Mike and Irene and Lillian's Godparents, Jeff and Sharon and their kids here to celebrate Lilly.  

Lillian is truly a gift to our family.  She is sweet and spicy.  She is stubborn and strong willed.  She is adored by her sisters.  She is infatuated with everyone's phone which annoys me.  She loves kitty's, playing house with Lauren, going on coffee dates with Jen, shopping with mom, reading books with dad, playing slime with Rachel and Natalie and watching Caitlin and Emily at gymnastics and doing gymnastics with them.  She loves to play with play-doh, color and paint and play with LEGO's.  She loves to help Brian with any project he's working on whether he needs the help or not.  She loves to play outside and "help" get the eggs from the chickens.  She keeps us all on our toes and helps us all to learn patience.  We just all LOVE her so much!  Happy Birthday sweet Lillian Eileen!

Emily's 15th Birthday!

Emily.  She's 15.  How did that happen?  She's so close to becoming the next licensed driver in our family.  Emily is still our brown haired beauty.  She's still everyone's favorite, or at least most of the time!  She's a freshman in high school.  A tennis player, gymnast, and golfer.  A straight A student.  A huge helper when she's not on her electronic device.  She's kind, a good friend and just alot of fun to be around.  For Emily's birthday this year we went out to eat quickly before heading to gymnastics practice.  She chose 3rd Street Tavern here in St. Peter.  Then on the weekend she invited some friends to go to a movie and hang out at the mall for a bit.  Finally last weekend, while celebrating Lillian's bday, she got her cake and celebrated with her grandparents. 

January 2018

Well, I think I pretty much came to the conclusion that I will never catch up where I left off on this blog.  It was meant for me to track all that was happening with the family so that one day when I had a bunch of time I could make a scrapbook.  Well that too is WAY behind and I'm hoping that I haven't completely forgot all that we did and the memories we made.  Hopefully the pictures that I did take will jog my memory when I need to remember.  So I am moving forward with 2018 and going to try and keep current and in my "spare" time will go back and add in the prior years photos and posts.  For crying out loud I have a 6th child with hardly any posts!   Oh dear.......she's so deprived. ;)

Random July Happenings

Happy 19th Anniversary to US!  We celebrated at a restaurant we've always been curious about-Suzette's in Jordan.  It was..........ok.  The wine was really good!  I'm glad we decided to check it out but don't need to go back.  We ended up coming home too soon according to the girls so we took Lilly out for a walk and also we were able to walk off the alcohol!  It was a nice quiet evening.  So happy to do life with this guy.  They say marriage isn't always easy, but I can honestly say he doesn't make it too hard for me.  I got myself a good one!  Love you Brian!  Can't wait to celebrate more with you!  

Rachel played summer soccer and had a blast!  I admit, I never really was that fond of soccer mainly because I didn't understand the game and that it seemed a bit "cult-ish" in St. Peter.  But I was wrong!  It is a really fun sport to watch!  Even though I still don't understand completely the positions and where you can and can't move!  And the families are so nice.  Rachel was able to make some really good friends.  It'll be fun to watch these girls as they grow!

My Aunt Monica made these adorable chairs for Lilly and Lauren out of our old fence!

Caitlin and Emily went to their first ever Tennis and Life Camp and LOVED it!  It was 3 days/nights filled with lots of "life" and a little "tennis".  Great friends were made and they've improved their game so I'd say it was a win-win!

Oh, and our chickens have grown...no eggs yet (september) but they are ALOT like our girls.  Just look at this girl!  How in the world?!?!?  They've been fun and the girls have taken really good care of them.

Little Mermaid-MSU

We took the girls to MSU to see The Little Mermaid this past week.  It was pretty good.  It's a college production so we shouldn't set our expectations too high.  Our plan was to leave Lilly with a babysitter but that didn't pan out and we ended up bringing her with.  For the most part she was a good girl :) Poor Lauren wanted a snack at intermission so we waited in the long line only to be skipped over numerous times by the concession stand "helpers".  They ran out of small bills and couldn't make change for people and they ran out of water and popcorn.  I of course only had a $20 so I thought if I bought $5 worth of stuff they'd have $15, a $5 and $10 for me but no...when I got helped all they had in change was 3 -$1!!!  I was so annoyed at this point.  Partly because I had a crying 4yr old who didn't understand what was going on.  Not good planning on their part.  Luckily the diaper bag had a few snacks in it.  So after all it was good Lilly came with.  We wouldn't have had the diaper bag along otherwise!

Emily-1st Year of Golf

Emily decided to go out for golf and she had alot of fun.  There were days she was excited how she did and days where she wasn't happy about her score and wanted to be done.  I'm glad she stuck with it since it's a sport you improve on year after year and you can play it all your life.