May/June

 May was a busy month for the kids wrapping up their school year.  It was lots of ceremonies, and state testing, and planning for their next year.

Arya had her chorus concert, which was amazing.  She also had some awards ceremonies.  Now that Casen is in high school, they have his during school and parents aren't invited, so I don't have the pictures from his stuff.

I, of course, got spoiled for Mother's Day and we also finished up the school year with a trip to Brusters.

For the past few summers now, we've made a summer bucket list as a family.  We really really enjoy it, so this year was no different.  The kids always surprise us with how simple their choices are.  This year is things like go to the beach, family lego night, and go fishing.  I think we knocked four things off the list right off the bat with our mini trip to a little beach town.

I forgot to get pics of our airbnb, but it ended up being our favorite one we've ever stayed at.  We got to make smores, play new games, enjoy empty beaches at night, and go to the cutest restaurants.

Once we were home we decided to cross the family lego night off the list.  The boys picked a set and us girls picked a set and we got to spend the evening working on those.  It ended up being one of the most fun nights we've ever had.  I highly recommend.

For my birthday this year, Caleb surprised me with tickets to go see Gavin Degraw at a winery in Williamsburg. He was playing an acoustic set and it happened to be the day after my birthday. Williamsburg is one of our favorite places to go to, so we hired the kids as dog sitters and got a little get away for the day.  We ended up getting to be so close at the concert, too.  

And then Casen somehow turned 15.  He's at the age where there isn't much he asks for anymore.  He wanted to spend the weekend fishing with his friends and have a game night with us, so that's what we did.

And we have honestly had one of the best summers as a family that I can remember.  Any night that Caleb is off, we are up way too late playing games and having the best time.  We've had so many fun adventures and in about a week we get to head to our next one.  I'm so thankful for this family and I'm already bummed for them having to go back to school.

March/April

 March was a pretty uneventful month.  We finally got some painting done and some furniture swapped out.

April ended up being our month of visitors.  We rarely get much company down here, maybe once a year, so this month was awesome.  We can't thank people enough for going out of their way to spend time here.

Caleb's parents made the long trip down.  We're so thankful they stayed late to play games and spend the extra time with our kiddos, (and extra patience with our smallest ;))  We always enjoy ice cream trips, good conversation, and lots of laughs while they're here.

Morgan and family made us a stop on their spring break, which was extra fun.  We got to celebrate Rae's birthday and have a crew for easter.  Having extra kids made all the holiday things even more fun.  I somehow ended up with zero pics from the egg hunt, but we got to enjoy that, as well as park visits, cookie making, game playing, and just lots of fun all around.  I'm not sure how you manage a long road trip with four kids, but i'm so glad they did.

And then we got a dinner date with Jonathan's whole family.  It was only for a couple of hours, but I think the kids squeezed in as much as they could into that time.  We're really happy it was able to happen.

And that about wraps up the most exciting month we've had in awhile.  

May is the last month of school for the kids so we're onto making our summer bucket lists and looking forward to sleeping in.

January/February

 2025 has been a doozy.

We got quite a bit of snow.  The kids ended up getting an extra week off of school, but enjoyed it immensely

Caleb, unfortunately had to work on his birthday.  He's never really liked or care for celebrating it, but we at least had some emo fun with decor.

We made some early Valentine's Day cookies

We celebrated Arya's 12th birthday.  

And then it went back down hill.  We had a crazy ice storm that ended up knocking down trees that completely blocked our road and left us without power for quite a few days.  Being winter, the house was quite cold.  Thankfully, the kids were troopers and we were super thankful for people like Auntie Mo who had pizza delivered the days following as we were having to throw out the entire contents of our fridge.  Also, so thankful Caleb was able to stay as safe as possible having to be at work in all of the weather craziness.  The kids got yet another week off of school.

And with a complete lack of pictures, onto March.

December

 As i'm writing this, 11 days into January, the kids still haven't returned to school.  January has certainly started with a bang. We got quite the ice storm that has made a ton of roads undriveable and surrounding counties are without water.  

December was pretty awesome though, so I'll just go back to that.

Arya is taking chorus this year and they are much more serious about it down here.  They have uniforms and have to take singing tests for grades.  She had her first concert and it was amazing!

We, of course, decorated for Christmas.  I somehow completely forgot to get pics of the kids decorating the tree, but honestly, the older they get, the less of a big thing it is.  Everyone's favorite addition this year was some old movie poster prints.

We decide every year as a family what we're going to choose for the current year's new ornament.  This year, everyone picked our summer fishing trip as the highlight memory, so we went with a fishing ornament.

We had a Christmas cookie making and chestnuts night.  Our December traditions really our my favorite.

Caleb had to work on Christmas eve this year so we celebrated and did all our traditions a day early.  The kids open their stockings that evening.

And then we open our special box of chocolates and turn on White Christmas.  Caleb and I have had this tradition for over 10 years now, but it's even better with the kids being old enough to enjoy with us and they now both love the movie as well.

And then Christmas Eve Caleb had to head into work, but I got the awesome opportunity to do a ride along with him.  It was pretty special getting to spend what turned into Christmas morning with him and watch him do his job.  He is amazing at it!

We got home early Christmas morning and woke the kids up to open presents.  

It's not the crazy morning of ripping through toys like it used to be, but I really really enjoyed our Christmas this year.

I'm annoyed that this picture decided to be mostly blurry for no reason, but we went with filets for our Christmas dinner this year and we all were very happy with the decision.

And then a few days after that, sickness decided to join our household and hasn't left.  It's been a really rough few weeks.  We did our best to enjoy our New Year's Eve.

Here's to hoping January finishes better than it's started.