This is why we like the snow!

The first big snow of the year is always fun and Jane got to experience snow for her first time this year and Lucas who last year proclaimed he hated sledding in the snow was even caught sledding and actually enjoying it!

Pioneer Project

I have no intention of posting every project my kids do in their school years but I couldn't help posting Lucy with her pioneer project. She has LOVED LOVED LOVED learning about pioneers and came home with tons of enthusiasm for doing her pioneer project. She chose to do a diorama and put a lot of time and effort into this project. Nice job Lucy!!ct. Nice work Lucy!!

Love the Holidays!

I love all the fun that comes along with the holidays! Christmas cards, baking, parties, and gingerbread houses to name a few. And since living here it has become tradition to take a day off of school (oops!) and go to the Indianapolis Children's Museum with Sara and her girls.

Here is the group that went this year. One of Sara's friends met up with us along with Amber and her kids.


The kids enjoyed visiting with Santa - well with the exception of Jane. She didn't like him one bit!! Can you tell?!??!Here is Ethan trying to convince Santa he is a good boy!!

We love to go in December because they have this great slide set up from the second floor down to the first floor. Here are Lucas and Jenna racing down.


Jane likes to try and be a big kid like her older siblings. Here she is ready to dig the dinosaur bones!

Gingerbread houses have also become tradition in our family. The kids look forward to it each year! We certainly don't need the candy but it's lots of fun!
We always look forward to watching christmas movies. Jane loved it too. Here she is snuggled up with Lucas while they watch a Christmas movie.

And it wouldn't be Christmas without some sort of Nativity. Lucy was a sheep along with Libby and Eliza for our ward party. Unfortunately I didn't see it because I was home with a sick Ethan!! (poor boy!)

Now that's SILLY!!

Not sure if this is as big of a deal to your kids as it is to ours but the latest and greatest are silly bands. They remind me of jelly bracelets when I was young but they have a shape to them. I first saw them about a year ago when Libby (what a trend setter!!) showed up with them at the bus stop. Over the spring and summer they became very popular and by Lucy's birthday she had more than any girl should have!!

Rickshaw Girl

Every month Camie and Lydia do a book club with some friends. We got to join them for one of them. They told us the title ahead of time and Lucy and I had fun reading it together and joining in on the book club discussion. We read Rickshaw Girl. It was a good book and Lucy and Lydia had fun dressing up for the evening!! Aren't these girlies cute?

Thanksgiving in Cold Country: AKA Minneapolis!

It may be the coldest place on earth but it's also a lot of fun! We had a wonderful time with Matt and Camie's family for the week of Thanksgiving. We went to a zoo (yes, an outdoor zoo), Mall of America, went sledding, and ate lots and lots of food!!

I love visiting camie because we both like to cook and spending lots of time in the kitchen leads to lots of chatting. We spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen trying new recipes and everyone benefited eating like kings and queens! I walked away with some good recipes!

We made plenty of pies for everyone. Here are the kids pointing to the pies they want to eat!!

We enjoyed a visit to the mall of america where andy and I got a work out trying to find everyone when we got separated by accident. We let the kids ride on a few rides in the mall. Lydia and Ethan our dare devils wanted to go on the big roller coaster. Here is Ethan just getting started. He told me as he started to go up the first hill he thought "oh no, what have I done?"But when it was all said and done he loved it and wished he could go again!!
Shopping happened also. Camie and I went to Toys R US which opened up at 10 pm the night of Thanksgiving. We figured nobody would go out on thanksgiving so we'd give it a try. We walked less than 1/4 down the line when we decided it was way too cold so we went home in disbelief of how many crazy americans really went out shopping on Thanksgiving!! (I guess we were part of the craziness!) Needless to say we woke up at 5:30 and got some doorbusters. It was lots of fun! Matt had the deal of the day though and woke up I think around 2:00 am and waited in line at best buy where he scored a computer for camie!! nice work matt!! Here we are showing off all our purchases!!

Thanks for all the fun Matt and Camie!!!

Happy Halloween

We had fun dressing up as the Incredibles this year. Between the ward trunk-or-treat party and trick or treating on Saturday night we are not lacking in the candy department!! Lucas was in heaven. I don't think he remembered much from last year. After about ten houses he got so so excited and looked at me and said, "mom, this is soooooo awesome!!" It was darling. I love this age when everything is so exciting to children.




Once we got home and Jane discovered what was in everyones bags she was in disbelief. We have caught her now on many occasions going through the bags and find her with candy stuffed in her mouth - wrapper and all! Oh my is she my daughter or what?!?!? Here she is thoroughly enjoying the loot from this year!
The kids LOVE coming home after trick-or-treating and lining up all of their candy. In fact Lucas woke up at 6:00 am and didn't seem to care that nobody else was up with him and he began to sort his candy and Ethan joined him a short time later and that is what they have done all day.


We had a nice weekend and to finish off our Halloween festivities - Andy and I curled up to watch What Lies Beneath. For some CRAZY reason I had been in the mood to watch it. I haven't seen it since it was in the theater. I'm not sure what I was thinking because I SCREAMED throughout the movie and there were a few times Andy said "Amy, I'm just worried you are going to break my arm" Once it was over I promised I'd never watch it again. It's so so scary!

Fall Break

Our kids had Thursday and Friday off. I have mixed feelings about days off. It's nice to not race to the bus stop and fun to have a relaxing morning but sometimes the days can drag - especially when your husband is out of town for both days and you live in a really small place. However, we ended up having a great weekend. Kicking it all off, Mindi did a movie night last friday night. What she thought was going to be a handful of kids in her home turned into the entire neighborhood in her home to watch a movie and eat popcorn - not to mention leave a lot of popcorn on the floor. Then with the kids being out of school for two days we knew we'd need something to entertain so we planned some halloween activities/games for the neighborhood. We had a cake walk, sugar cookie decorating, pumpkin craft and donut eating contest. Amber beat all the moms in the donut eating contest! We also had a fun Kelly Kids halloween party Friday night and the ward trunk or treat Saturday night and trick or treating Saturday night. Let's just say we all had a fun filled weekend and I am officially sick of candy. That's not to say you won't catch me eating any tomorrow but I am sick of it!
Here are most of the party planners!
Lucas with his decorated sugar cookie

Ethan in the donut eating contest

Homecoming at IU

Last year Andy was so busy with school that we didn't have time to participate in many of the IU events. So, this weekend we had fun going to some of the IU Homecoming events. We enjoyed a parade on Friday night and the football game on Saturday afternoon. It was a great weekend.

The kids loved the parade "This is the best night ever" was heard coming out of their mouths. Perhaps it was all the candy thrown to them which led to pockets full of candy that made it the best night ever. It really doesn't take much to make them happy!Makenna was darling staring at the parade while covering her ears

While we were waiting for the parade to start we had fun eating pizza (thank goodness for Little Caesars $5 pizzas) and the kids found themselves enjoying the fall leaves.And if you were lucky enough to look at the right time you may have found John IN the parade. That is some pretty fancy footwork for an MBA student!!
At 7:00 am Saturday morning Sara, Jen, and I left for the farmers market and to enjoy a quiet breakfast at the bagel shop. We had a good time and found some of the biggest pumpkins ever at the farmers market. Jens feet may have been frozen by the time we got back in the car. And we might have been the cause for her getting a parking ticket!
We had fun at the game with the Powells, Bunkers, Soelbergs, and Pawlowskis. The little kids loved playing in the bleachers, the girls loved cheering and watching the cheerleaders, Ben enjoyed a tumble down about 3 bleachers, and I loved eating out of Sara's bag of snacks.

Jane

I think it is safe to say that Jane is a full time walker. It only took us over 15 months to get to that point but hooray she is finally doing it!

A knock at the door

Last Saturday night I was home alone and heard a knock on my door around 9:30. As I went to answer it I thought how silly it is of me to open the door that late without knowing who it is. However, I preceded to open the door only to see this lovely skeleton face staring at me. It startled me but quickly seeing it was Jen it made me laugh. Then Mindi popped out from the side of the house and then the fun began. We went to Amber's house, then to Sara's and stopped at Juliannas also. It was really funny - or at least we thought it was funny. Then I decided it'd be fun to scare andy when he came back home. So I dressed in black, put on the mask and hid by the bushes while Mindi and Jen hid behind the house. We were all giggling. As it turns out, Eliza and Kamryn came looking for their mom and as they knocked on my door they looked down and saw me. They screamed loud and ran as fast as they could. It still makes me laugh thinking about it. It was never our intention to scare them but of all the people that night we got the best reaction out of those two!! Andy finally arrived home and seemed very confused as he stared at me and then jumped back a bit not sure what was going on. I think all of us girls thought we were very funny and maybe it wasn't as funny as we think it was but it sure was a nice break from the norm!

Look who turned 8!!!

This was a big birthday year for Lucy and she has been looking forward to it for a LONG LONG time! She turned 8 this year which meant she was old enough to be baptized. She has been preparing for and waiting for her baptism for a long time. We had a fun birthday week. I took her to see Mary Poppins in Indianapolis (we saw it in Chicago and loved it so much we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see it again with our friends), we had a birthday party, Grandma and Grandpa "C" came to town, and most important she was baptized. It was a busy weekend and the fun never seemed to stop. Not to mention we were happy to escape the pink eye that seemed to be spreading like wild fire the week of Lucy's birthday.
We were glad grandma and grandpa "C" could join us for this special day.
Lucy, Kamryn, Eliza, and Libby did a GREAT job singing at Lucy's baptism

PARTY TIME
I think girls are just a lot easier to do parties for. Lucy chose a Luau theme and the girls had so much fun doing crafts, eating dinner, dancing, and playing games. The time flew by and Lucy loved it. I think it's safe to say the party was a success! (Jane doesn't like to miss out on anything. As you can see the girls were good to include her in the fun!)
Maddie and Eliza drinking orange julius out of their coconut cups. Andy and I LOVED hanging out in the kitchen listening to the conversations going on. We pretended to be busy doing things and acting as though we could care less about what was being said but Andy and I would catch each others eyes and smile as we listened to the girls chat. Seems our little girl has grown up a lot. Hard to believe that 8 years has already come and gone.

Andy had music going throughout the night and we always seemed to find the girls congregating on what tiny floor space we have to dance. It was pretty cute and they seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Lucy loved all of her gifts from friends and family. She loved opening up her new scriptures from grandma and grandpa.

As always it was fun to have grandparents around. We enjoyed walking around campus on Saturday after Lucy's soccer game and before her baptism. The kids loved doing a craft with my mom, wrestling with my dad and hanging out. And it wouldn't be a true visit from grandma and grandpa if they didn't leave us fully stocked with treats.

On our campus walk we came across a few trees with faces. It was pretty funny!
On Thursday before Lucy's party weekend, she and I went with Sara and family to Mary Poppins. We had tons of fun being with them and once again loved the show. Not to mention that Joe did a fabulous job getting us GREAT GREAT seats. I don't think I've ever been so close to the stage before. From now on I will always book through Sara's husband Joe when I need broadway tickets!! He! he!
The two birthday girls. Sara turned 30 on the same day Lucy turned 8. I love that two of my dear friends have birthdays on the same day as members of my family. Lisa, from Michigan shares a birthday with Andy and Sara shares with Lucy. I love it!

Hooray to all of the birthday fun. We love Lucy!!!