Post Christmas fun

Grandma and Grandpa Horn came to visit us the day after Christmas.  The kids convinced them to take them to Dave and Busters for lunch and lots and lots of games!  They were so happy, and so spoiled!

December 28th is Dad's birthday!  We celebrated late the night before with cupcakes from our favorite fancy bakery!

Christmas 2018

We spent Christmas Eve with our friends the Basiles, it's our tradition.  Christmas is a great time to celebrate traditions.  We met them at their church for the children's mass then went to their house after for Christmas cheer, food and fun.

These 3 are growing up so fast.

We were  home in time to put out milk and cookies for Santa.

They are pretty excited and ready for Santa's arrival!

It's Christmas morning!

One more gift.  The boys had puzzle pieces in their stockings to put together to reveal their final gift....

A Disney Cruise for spring break!

We celebrated Ruby and Louise's 5th birthday on Christmas day too with a special treat!

Christmas night basketball game in their favorite animal onesies!

A favorite tradition of mine is preparing our prime rib dinner and eating off our china in our dining room, complete with the kids' special blessing cups that they made at their first communions.

We are so blessed.

Horn family Christmas

We hosted the Horn family to celebrate Christmas this past weekend.  We feel so fortunate to live nearby most of our family, especially during the holidays.

Eric and his brother, Dan showing off their sweaters!

While I'm proudly displaying the secret ingredient to family fun, I mean the ingredient for our signature cocktail!

Cousin time with Jackson.

Grandma, Aunt Deena and Aunt Angie, all trying to contain their excitement!

More in December

Sam had his 5th grade band concert right before break.  They performed a few holiday carols and some classics as well.  He did such a nice job and loves to play the baritone.

Ben and his buddy Zach proudly displaying their participation trophies for the fall basketball league.  Ben had 2 of his buddies on his team, which always makes basketball more fun!

The boys and I traveled to Illinois for the Schraufnagel Family Christmas celebration, while Eric had to stay home for work.  The family keeps growing.  Jaxon is the baby now and is so much fun to spoil with gifts!

Ben modeling his most favorite gift ever!  Aunt Lisa knows him so well!!

Greatest Aunt ever!

It's always fun to attend church at St. Mary's.  Eric and I were married here and this was my church where I was baptized and where I grew up.

Santa comes to Roundstone!

Another favorite tradition for our family.  Santa travels though our town during the month of December on the back of a fire truck visiting all of the neighborhoods.  Gotta love a small town!

Eric and I enjoyed a quiet dinner together at a favorite farm to table restaurant, The Loft.  There was a harpist playing beautiful Christmas carols.  It was a romantic dinner for us under neath the huge Christmas tree!  

Ruby and Louise were just at the puppy spa!  They smell so good!

December

Ruby and Louise were very interested in the Christmas train!

or maybe Ben might have been holding them captive....

Ruby continues to be Santa's little helper.

There is never a shortage of things to do during the month of December.  We wisely chose to go see the Zoo lights at the Indianapolis Zoo.  Sam brought a friend along and we enjoyed a warm night looking at the lights!

Next up we spent an evening strolling through the art museum enjoying their light display.  

The Lilly House was also decorated and open for tours.  So pretty!!

We had supper with Santa at the Indiana State Museum.  This has become our new tradition for visiting Santa and we all are fans!  

We took in the rest of the museum after supper.  There was a super cool Lego exhibit to see!

As well as an innovative, cardboard, hands on, fun exhibit.  The cardboard and supplies were all ready for the kids to create.  Ben was totally in his element!! Your creation could stay at the museum, or come home with you.  I'm sure you can guess which way our boys went with that......

Happy 12th Birthday Nick!

We celebrated Nick's 12th birthday a few days early with his friends.  He chose to have a party at our home on Sunday with friends, NFL football, pizza and cake!

Nick's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year.  The perfect day to be thankful for our perfect 12 year old son!

The night before his birthday we went to Red Lobster, Nick's favorite place, and dined on his fave: crab legs! 

We hosted a big gathering of friends and family on Thanksgiving day/Nick's birthday.

At age 12 Nick still loves all things sports!  In fact, he has decided he would like to be a sports broadcaster someday.  His favorite activities are all sports related: playing soccer, baseball, basketball, and playing ping pong with Dad.  As well as watching all sports, including football.  He is growing into such a fine young man and we couldn't be more proud of him!

October

Eric and I were invited to a crab fest at a local restaurant, St.Elmo's.  Check out the size of these crab legs!  They were caught off of the Alaskan coast, flash frozen and flown to us the following day for this crab fest.  So ridiculous, so delicious, and so much fun!  This is an annual event that we've been fortunate enough to attend a few times now with our friends, and it never gets old!

Lisa, Grama and Grampa came to visit for the weekend.  

Ben's friend hosted a family Halloween party.  Lisa, always up for a party, agreed to be Sonny to my Cher when Eric had to work.  We sang an amazing rendition of "I got you Babe"!

Halloween!

I loved the boys' costumes this year.  Nick and I made his Kit Kat costume, his favorite candy.  Ben is all about sharks!  and Sam has a love for all things penguins.  

The boys all went different directions with their friends this year to collect candy, after trick or treating through our neighborhood all together, first.

Ben was the only one who wanted to carve a pumpkin this year.

Do not tell our dentist about all of this candy!

The boys got an obscene amount of candy.  Lucky for them their parents helped them eat some of it!