March

We had a pretty great month.

Arya is part of a future problem solving group, through her tag classes in school, that has to submit their answer to the state and each year see if they qualify to advance to competition.  She's made it every year so far, but this year, for the first time in the school's history, her and her teammate won first place and got to advance to nationals.

And for the kid's spring break this year, we took advantage of Caleb's coinciding days off and went to, what's becoming a favorite spot for us, the Northern Neck.  We went there last year for our summer vacation, but we wanted to try out one of the other towns in the area. We are in such a great time period with our kids.  It's so nice to get to go somewhere and just relax without having the hustle and bustle of little ones we once did. It ended up being the perfect weather, too.  It was cool enough for evening fires and bundling up by the water, but nice enough to enjoy playing board games in the sun room all day.

February

 February ended up being a big month for this household.

First, Arya turned 13.  It is so crazy to me that my babies are somehow both teenagers now.  

We ended up celebrating the day after the Superbowl, since the kids were off school.  Our original plan was for her to skip school on her birthday, but ice kept them out of school for 7 days and we couldn't really have her missing more.

She requested donuts for breakfast, Chinese for dinner, and a frozen key lime pie for dessert, just like her dad.

13 is a big one, so she got a new Xbox and monitor for her room.

I'm so thankful we get to have this sweet girl as part of our family.  She is an amazing artist.  She excels in school, she's in the gifted programs.  She's on the debate and Ace team, and they've placed in both.  She still loves anything to do with crafts and will talk an ear off to anyone who will listen.  She loves music.  She's started quite the collection of vinyls and wears band tees and hoodies every single day, (no idea where she got that from.)  She's the first to ask if you need help with anything and has an empathetic soul.  I'm thankful she's still not too old for a card game with mom and dad or to need her hair curled or nails painted.  I cannot wait to see what this next year brings.

After 10 sessions and over 60 hours of tattooing, Caleb finally got his leg sleeve complete.  He has such a cool tattoo artist that really brought a rough idea to life.  Each one of the characters is our family and I love that it's a family tribute without being on the nose.

And another huge milestone happened this month.  Casen got his driver's permit.  No idea how I'm old enough to have a kid driving, but it is so cool watching him grow up.

December/January

 I'm beginning to think the winter months are just not the time the Geiger household thrives.

The first half of December we got some snow.  It's a rare occurrence here so the kids, and dog, had a blast playing in it.

Arya had her winter chorus concert

And then we got to Christmas.  It ended up being a really really tough week for us as a family, but we tried to make the best of it.  We did all our favorite traditions, White Christmas and chocolates, big Christmas dinner, and this year we did a family secret santa, which was really fun.

We always do stockings and Christmas pjs on Christmas Eve.

We picked chicken parm for our Christmas dinner this year and it ended up being perfect.  It was so nice having everyone in the kitchen helping with all the jobs and we stayed up super late playing board games.

Everyone was home for New Year's Eve this year.

This year for Caleb's birthday we got to bring the kids along to the fancy steak dinner.  It was such a nice time.  It's a totally different phase of our life just getting to bring the kids and enjoy their company instead of having to worry about keeping them entertained and having a kid's menu and all that.

And then the last week of January we got an ice storm.  Thankfully, we did not lose power, which was the biggest concern with the temps.  We were stuck for over a week and the kids didn't have school for 10 days.  The grocery stores weren't getting deliveries and our entire yard was a skating rink.  It was really rough trying to clear the driveway, keep the dog safe outside, worrying while Caleb had to work, and make the best of being actually stuck.  But we are back to 60 degree days and sunshine and have had a much much nicer February so far, so am I ready for that update and pictures :)

October/November

 We enjoyed some Halloween Geiger cutouts to start October.  

We snuggled in and watched every single Harry Potter movie as well.  

Arya did some trick or treating with friends this year and I forgot to get pics of our decorations and Halloween goodies.

If Caleb's home, wherever he is, you will find Bowzer.

We thoroughly enjoyed our annual chestnuts

Caleb has made a ton of progress on his leg...obviously the most important being Monty Mole

Caleb was working on Thanksgiving.  We decided to bump our meal to Sunday.  It ended up working out perfectly because we still got to enjoy the food and football. I'm really really thankful our kids are always so understanding of moving around holidays to work with Caleb's schedule.  They're the best! We had all hands on deck this year.  Casen made the roasted carrots. Arya made the baked beans and jello salad and Caleb made his always perfect pecan pie.

And then when it came to the actual Thanksgiving day, Casen got to do a ride along with Caleb.

While the boys were at work, Arya and I got to get the house ready for Christmas.

Our yearly ornament choice this year was an oyster shell from where we stayed this summer.