what we did in december when we weren't getting ready for christmas

 Everly continued to love her tap and ballet class, and I loved every minute of her parents showcase day when I actually got to sit in on her class and watch her.

 Bart and I took Ky and Kade to the Jazz game in Milwaukee.  Okay, they would tell you that they went to the Bucks game when they happened to be playing the Jazz, but I definitely went to the Jazz game! Unfortunately, the Jazz were beat by Giannis Antetokounmpo.  Not by the Bucks, but by Giannis himself.  We had a great time!

 There was a lot of present shaking in December!

 We went to the winter celebration near Lambeau and saw ice sculptures, and watched the fun light show they projected onto the stadium.

 Everly and I took selfies in our tiaras!

 Kade and Ky finished up their season of 6th grade basketball.  

 We had a little bit of snow, and Everly got all bundled up to play in it.

 We built a huge snowman, that lasted almost an hour before it melted.  

And Krew lost his first tooth!  We noticed it was a tiny bit wiggly on a Tuesday evening, only because he was telling me about a classmate that lost a tooth that day at school.  So, I went to show him which teeth would probably be the first to fall out, and I noticed that one was a little wiggly.  Well, he wiggled and wiggled it, and by Thursday morning, he was ready to go into the bathroom at school and yank it out all by himself.  What a funny kid! Also, he has a lot of questions about the tooth fairy like, Is there more than one tooth fairy? Does the same one always come to your house?  Where do tooth fairies live?  What does the tooth fairy sound like?  What do tooth fairies eat?  How do tooth fairies get money to put under your pillow?  So if anyone knows the answers to these questions, let me know, because I didn't know how to respond!

christmas prep fun!

 The day after Thanksgiving, we went to the Christmas tree farm to select and cut down our tree. All of the kids had a blast running from tree to tree looking for the perfect one.

 Notice that we are all in jackets, not coats.  It was crazy warm for that time of year.  Some years when cutting down our tree, we are all bundled up and still complaining about how miserably cold we are.  This year was perfect!  And don't worry, it got real cold real fast after that.

 Everyone helped decorate the tree, and it looked beautiful!

 We had a fun time visiting with Santa this year.  Krew was the most excited! He had been making his wish list for months, and put a lot of thought into narrowing it down to the few things he wanted to ask Santa for.  I think it even changed while we were in line, but he asked for the following:  a journal, a book of bird art, and to make a mug at the pottery place.  Quite the list for a 6 year old boy to ask Santa for!  He's such an awesome, funny guy!

 Everly loved seeing Santa, until she got close.  But she was determined to tell Santa what she wanted him to bring her, so she was willing to get this close, just not any closer.  The only thing she wanted Santa to bring her was a "rainbow cat."

 Kade and Ky wanted to ask Santa for an Xbox One, but I told them that Santa's elves don't know how to make those and that they needed to ask him for something else.  (Besides, if anyone was going to get them an Xbox, it was going to be Bart and I.  I wasn't about to let Santa get the credit for something like that! ;))  Kade asked for a Yankee baseball, Golden State Warrior shorts, and Tampa Bay Lightning socks.  I think this kid likes sports!

 Ky asked Santa for Cavs shorts, a Lebron jersey, and a Washington Nationals hat.  When did my kids get too old to ask Santa for toys??

I have so many kids, and they are getting so big, you can barely see Santa in this picture!  But I wouldn't have it any other way!

thanksgiving fun

Thanksgiving this year was super fun, and totally different than usual.  Since my family all lives so far away, we almost never spend Thanksgiving with them.  Bart's parents are the only family that live close, and they are often traveling for holidays, so we rarely spend Thanksgiving with them either.  We have been lucky to have lots of friends that we can celebrate Thanksgiving with on any given year, but most of those friends have since moved away.  I was wishing that we had more family close by, and I realized that my closest relatives are two cousins and their families that live in Minneapolis. I haven't seen them in years, but when we were growing up, I saw them all the time. So, I decided to invite ourselves to Minneapolis to spend Thanksgiving with them.  Janessa and Jeremy were such great hosts and it was fun to see Vance and Annalisa too.  Our kids all got along with their kids and it made for such a fun holiday.  Plus, it was the 3rd time that Everly and I traveled out of state in the month of November, so that made it interesting!

 After playing at a fun indoor playground, and eating at a delicious pizza place, we all headed to the movie theater to watch Coco.  I wasn't expecting it to be very good, but it was amazing and we all loved it!  Some of us may have even cried more than once.  The kids have been singing the soundtrack ever since.

 The next morning was Thanksgiving morning, and we got up bright and early and headed to the Mall of America where we were involved in a walk to end hunger charity event.  Basically we all just got free shirts, walked around inside the closed mall, and stopped at fun booths for things like balloon animals, glitter tattoos,

 crown making,

 face painting,

and more.  It was a fun, memorable way to spend the morning, and it made me want to go back to the Mall of America sometime when I can shop and go on all the fun rides!

 We managed to get a fun picture of all the kiddos

 My kids had a blast playing with their kids and their kids' toys while the grownups prepared the Thanksgiving feast.

I brought this fun turkey craft for the kids to do, and Krew is one of the few that actually finished theirs.  No surprise here-he takes this sort of thing very seriously.

 All of the food was incredibly delicious, and it was fun to catch up with my cousins and their spouses and talk about their siblings and mine, as well as reminisce about our childhood memories.

 The kids table

Vance, me, and Janessa

 Apparently we are super funny when we get together.  Hopefully we will be able to visit them again soon!

remembering grandpa bob

In November, Bart's grandpa Bob passed away, so we all went to Iowa for his funeral.  I'm finding that funerals for grandparents are such a mix of happy and sad emotions.  It is wonderful to get together with relatives that you haven't seen for a very long time, and funerals cause you to reflect on so many happy, wonderful memories.  Of course there is sadness for the fact that you will never see or hear that person again in this life, but I'm grateful to know that we will be together again in the next life.

One great thing about being able to go to the funeral, was seeing Bart's brother, Bret, who we haven't seen for more than two years since he and his family moved to Germany.

Clearly the boys were excited to see him!

After the lovely service, we mingled with friends and family and ate some yummy food.  The best part were the Dutch Letters we all got to eat.  Whenever we saw Bob, he would give us a huge bag of the delicious letters.  They will forever remind us of him.  I love that Ky and Kade realized how special the letters were to them too.

We tried to get a few pictures of the family that was all there together.  The basement florescent lighting wasn't ideal, but I'm glad we got the pictures that we did.

The kids made sure to give lots hugs Grandma Dot.

The Miller brothers

The Miller Men

The following are some of the pictures we have of Grandpa Bob over the years.  We are so lucky that we got to have him in our lives as long as we did!

This picture was taken when we went to Pella for Tulip Time.  I was having horrible back pain and could only walk for a couple minutes at a time.  So, Bob drove me all around on his scooter.  I was so grateful for the ride, and for the time I got to spend just the two of us.  He took me to the bakery where they make the Dutch letters, and showed me the back where they bake and package everything.  It was so fun.  Also, this may have been his first selfie! ;)

Grandpa Bob and all my boys dressed in their Dutch costumes riding in the Tulip Time parade.

We love you and miss you Grandpa Bob!  Until we meet again!