Winter Vacation

My little family, plus mom and dad drove down to Florida a few days before our cruise departed. We wanted to take the kids to the Kennedy Space Center. I thought it would be an experience the kids would really enjoy, but it turns out, I enjoyed it so much too. I was fascinated by everything we learned and how extremely huge our solar system is!

Birthdays for days

January is packed full of birthday fun.

Dave was blessed with friends and family that came down on his birthday and helped with the shop. They ended up getting all the sheathing on the roof done. We had take out from our favorite Thai restaurant, and a chocolate cake.








Dorothy can hold up an entire hand when people ask how old she is! She had been counting down her birthday for a while, so when her day came, she was PUMPED! We made her wait to open her presents until the boys got home from school.






One of Lincoln’s best friends shares Dorothy’s birthday. He wanted to share his day with her, so we joined up with a couple families and went to the trampoline park, and had a pizza dinner together after. We feel so grateful for these dear friends!






Dorothy changed her mind quite a few times about what kind of birthday party she wanted; we ended up with a dance party! We had 14 of her friends over to our house, and we had a blast!!



























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Hike in the Mud

We took the First Hike Challenge on New Years Day! The kids and I met up with the R family to one of the Carolina Threadtrail spots. It was sooooo muddy, but we all had a great time. A couple of the boys ended up in the lake at one point (hint, one of them was Drake.)!
















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Christmas!

One of our Christmas traditions is to have a baking night with Carson and Penny. Some of our favorite treats to make are buckeyes, PB blossoms, and peppermint patties. I love doing this with some of my favorite people! Uncle Reed got to join us this year.







Christmas Sunday cuties!




We are so thankful for all the family time we had this year. Our van was back and forth to Hickory during the break. Our Christmas morning was just with our family.



















In the afternoon, the rest of the crew joined us for a Cowboy Christmas.








What a fantastic day for a birthday!




BB and Papaw got Dorothy a suitcase; she had been asking for one for a while. She loved being able to pack it when we spent the night in Hickory, and just whenever.




Papaw being silly with Pinky.




Our last night with Uncle Reed; they painted windows together.



Link got to spend the night with Atticus one night, and they had a great time. He was dragging a little bit the next day, but we still make it to a trampoline park with Penny and Carson. I looked in the backseat and saw Lincoln leaning on Drake.



Our New Year’s Eve was quiet, with finger foods and a movie (Small foot.).

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December Part 2

Dorothy has been excited about Santa this year. Our library hosted an evening with Santa, where the kids ate cookies, did crafts and got to talk to the big man.




After talking to Santa we hustled over to the school for Drake’s Christmas performance. It was adorable!




Link is getting so big! We had to order shoes for him, since he is officially in Men’s size.




After the snow, we had sun of course. The kids had fun rolling down hills after playing with friends at the playground.




Link’s school party! I was back and forth between rooms for the boys, so I didn’t get one of Drake’s class. Unfortunately Dorothy had an ear infection on the day of her class party, so she couldn’t go. Her teacher is so darling, and stopped by the house to drop off all her Christmas crafts and goodies.





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December

I ended up with 7 kids at my house in a Friday night. When they started to get too rowdy, I busted out a gingerbread house! They each had a side to decorate.




Dorothy did amazing at her school Christmas performance. I teared up when she started singing out to “Jesus Moves me.”




It wouldn’t be Christmas without going to the parade!




St. Nicholas evening was a blur of furry as they opened their stockings.




More progress got done on the shop.




We were trying so hard to finish the roof before the snow came, but it didn’t happen.







The snow came!! I love those rosy cheeks.



Our neighborhood has lots of kids to play with outside. Most every evening we had dinner together.




Link’s little veggie snowman. It didn’t last long, beside someone ate it...




Yep, it was Cain! Cain adored playing in the snow. He is definitely a mountain dog.




Dave made some delicious waffles for breakfast. We must have spend 5 hours that first day outside playing. We were tired that night!














We had so many school delays and cancellations, we had to get out once the roads were better. We opted for the nice warm heated pool!





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