Visiting with family in Illinois

The day after Christmas we drove to Illinois to celebrate Christmas with our families.  

Grandpa Dan and Grandma Jill's home was our first stop!  

We always enjoy spending time at their home and the boys like climbing all over Grandpa and just being silly!

Later that evening we spent time with Grandma Bonnie, Uncle Dan and Aunt Deena, Uncle Boomer and Aunt Angie and our cousins Max, Emma and Jackson.  The kids had fun playing video games with their cousins while the adults enjoyed just hanging out together!

Nick was pretty excited to share his new Cardinals baseball mitt with Grandma Bonnie.

Ben and Logan. 

We spent the next day at Grama and Grampa Schraufnagels with lots of aunt, uncles and cousins!

It's always a crazy fun time when we all get together!  After opening gifts we all played a few games together.  "Heads up" was a hit!  John and Chrislynn had the game on their smart phone, it was a digital headbands game that even the little kids were interested in playing.  Everyone got so loud and laughed so hard!

It really is nice to live just a short drive away from the boys' grandparents and so many cousins, aunts and uncles.  It makes me happy that they know their extended family so well and that we can get together so often.

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas!  

It looks like Santa came!

The boys anxiously waiting to head down stairs to begin Christmas morning.
We told them they had to wait until 7 to get up, and it was pretty close to 7 when they came into our room.  

A first look at what was left for them.  Nick seems to be holding Ben back while Sam is walking around in circles, unsure what to go to first!

Ben is checking out the stockings with Annie.  Santa didn't forget the animals!

Ben got an Andrew Luck jersey!

The basketball cards Sam asked for!

Lego City police station!

Nick loves his football jerseys.

One more surprise, a ping pong table..

AND an air hockey table!

Somewhere Ben is playing amongst all that stuff!

Ruby and Louise celebrated their first birthday on Christmas Day!  Nick is getting ready to give them their birthday cake after we sang happy birthday to them.  

I couldn't get a picture of Ruby and Louise together, they were way too wound up!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with our good friends the Basiles.  We always enjoy celebrating the holiday with them and have done so since we moved to Indy.

Jimmy the Elf.  

Jimmy helps to keep Nick, Sam and Ben in line during the month of December.  He flys back to the North Pole each night and tells Santa all about those Horn boys, and then returns by the following morning perched in a different spot in the house to keep an eye out for well behaved boys!

Jimmy leaves on Christmas Eve night and will return again next December!

So long Jimmy!

Go Butler!

One more outing before Christmas, we all saw our first Butler Bulldogs mens basketball game!  

Our seats were right next to where the players passed on their way to the court from the locker room and the kids got to give out high fives to the team!  

While on our way to the concession stand we saw the mascot Blue III (aka Trip).  He was so patient to let all of his fans pet him and pose for pictures with him.  

The game was so much fun and Butler won!  I realized while going through my photos from the night that I didn't take any pictures of the players or the game.  I guess the real live dog was more exciting to all of us!  

A few days to go....

"December 1st till Christmas is the longest time of the year, it seems as if St. Nick never will appear".

Winter break has begun and Christmas is just a few days away.  There is not a shortage of fun things to do around town!  Here are a few of our favorites....

The Indiana State Museum where the kids got to ride on a train, play with ginormous tinker toys and enjoy the decorations.

The Children's Museum, a favorite all year round!

We met up with a classmate of Nick's, Mark.  Friends add to the fun of the day!

Christmas lights at the zoo.

We had the perfect night to explore the beautiful lights.

The boys performed a Christmas concert for us complete with hot cocoa.  It's been such a joy listening to the boys practice their carols all month long!

And baking cookies!