Manthe Christmas 2016

 We headed up to Kansas for Christmas. All 6 Manthe boys and their families were all together, so it was really special (we haven't ALL been together for Christmas for eight years.)

The first night we got there we had a celebration for Jody's retirement. The grandkids put on Grandpa's old work shirts and made up a little song for him. I love the line, "you're retired, you're retired, so now you don't have to be tired." :)

There was a lot of love going around that night.

Jody and his six boys.

 We all went in together and got him a new TV for his living room. And they were all there to install it too for him.

These two boy cousins just melt my heart. Silas loves Joey and just follows him around everywhere. And Joey is so sweet with him, which I just love.

Our kids enjoyed lots of cousin time. And they got to have more cuddle time with sweet Riley.

The pinball machine was back in action.

Wrestle time. Or if you're Brooklyn, just sit on Joey's face. :)

Us sister-in-laws played quite a few games of Dutch Blitz. So the kids got their own deck and got in on the action.

We got to sneak away for a while to celebrate another nephew that was about to be born. Heidi is pregnant with Thomas and due in just a few weeks. She looks great!

Katie made an awesome hot chocolate bar, and we all made ornament wreaths. Well, I tried, but unfortunately I had glass ornaments! Oops!

Back at the house it was time to put the kids to bed. The cousins that were staying at the big house all opened their matching pajamas.

I think it was around this time that Kylah told me her stomach was hurting. Since it was close to bedtime I was pretty sure she was just not wanting to go to bed.

Turns out I was wrong. Let's just say I've never seen such a small person puke so many times. Poor thing. We didn't get much sleep Christmas Eve.

But, the rest of the kids were up bright and early Christmas morning. We let our kids open their gifts from us that morning.

Thankfully Kylah was starting to feel better by then. At least she was done puking! She didn't eat anything all day and didn't have much energy, but much better than the night before.

She loved her boot slippers that she got.

I stayed home from church with the sickie (and disinfected the house while they were gone!), but the rest of the family got ready for church.

How cute are these two?!

This was the best family picture we could get, but I'll take it!

 Dinner was fabulous: prime rib. 

After dinner we did presents with the whole family. You can imagine the chaos.

This is half of it...

And the other half...

And all those stockings! 

Such a wonderful Christmas!...minus the sick part...

Arkansas cousins

 James and Brianna stopped at our house on their way to Kansas for Christmas. We talked them into stopping for a few days since they were going to be in Kansas for so long. It was so great to have a few days with just them and get to spend some time with sweet Brooklyn and Riley. 

My girls love having baby cousins and take their job as caretakers very seriously.

Riley is one of the sweetest babies I've ever met. She is always happy and smiling. 

Joey got some cuddles in too.

Brooklyn also really liked Joey. Who doesn't like Joey...??? :)

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On a different note...we got a dusting of snow, and my kids made sure to build a snowman. They literally swept the snow into a pile to make this sad little thing. But they were very proud of it! :) 

December activities

 December was a pretty crazy month for school activities, parties and field trips.

We met some of Kylah's friends from school for ice cream one Friday.

Norah got to eat lunch with her buddy Oliver one day at the parent table with Oliver's mom (are any of us surprised that she has a lot of friends who are boys at school???) :) She does also have some sweet little girls she plays with, but she definitely plays with those boys too!

Joey's class had a bowling field trip. It was probably the easiest field trip I've ever been on!

And our picture reminded me of a similar picture we took for his Christmas class party in Kindergarten.

Norah had a field trip on the Christmas train. We sang a lot of carols and ate cookies and hot chocolate.

We went to a Christmas musical that some of our friends' kids were in. It was an awesome production.

That's some of what we've been up to this month. And Christmas isn't even here yet!!

Office Christmas parties

 We hosted both Joe's office Christmas party and my office Christmas party this year. And we did it two nights in a row... Maybe a little crazy, but it turned out great! 

We managed to host almost 50 people for Joe's party and had plenty of room. So fun!

There was even a cookie decorating contest.

The next night we hosted my work and had a great time too. 

 There was even a photo booth for both parties. As you can imagine the kids had the most fun with that!

 We are so happy to be able to have a house big enough to host things like this! 

Tree cutting and mini Christmas

While my parents were still here we went to a local tree farm to cut down a tree. We have gotten real Christmas trees the past few years, but usually we just get them already cut at a local store. 

I found a tree farm less than 15 minutes from our house, so I was so excited!

They even had a hay ride that went throughout the tree farm.

It was pretty windy and chilly.

We walked all around and came back to this beauty. Since we have tall ceilings in our house we decided to get a nice tall one! :) Turns out the tree was also very wide!

Joey had the honors of cutting the tree.

We decorated the tree the same day, and put presents under the tree to have a mini Christmas the next morning with my parents.

The kids even got new matching pajamas to put on before bed.

And posed for a picture with Papa and Gramma in front of the tree.

And the next morning it was time to open presents.

We had such a great time with my parents and loved getting to celebrate TWO holidays with them! 

Thanksgiving 2016

We were quite excited about this Thanksgiving. WE STAYED HOME! We have not had a Thanksgiving in our own home since, well since ever. We have always done holidays with either my parents out of town or Joe's parents out of town. Now don't get me wrong...we have loved all of these holidays. But there is something about staying in your own home for a holiday once in a while that is pretty awesome. 

My parents came to visit us over Thanksgiving for a nice long weekend. It was perfect. 

Of course the kids hit up Gramma for games and gum the minute she walked in.

My dad got straight to doing what he does best...playing with the kids and getting them all riled up. :) 

Preparing for Thanksgiving dinner was really fun. Joe took care of a turkey on the Egg. My dad took care of the turkey and stuffing in the oven (homemade Italian sausage stuffing...fantastic!). And I did sides and rolls and desserts. It was perfect. We had a lot of little helpers in the kitchen. It was so fun to see my dad cooking with my kids and teaching them.

The girls had fun watching Joe prepare the turkey for the Egg.

Kylah was very into helping prepare dinner. She had a blast. 

And we all loved that this kitchen had so much room for everyone to be cooking and helping.

My mom doesn't like to cook, but she took on the very important role of washing dishes and keeping the kitchen cleaned. It was perfect. Every time I turned around all the dishes were washed and counters cleaned off. She even got the girls to help wash!

Joey was helping us as well, but for some reason I didn't get many pictures of him. I think he was also busy playing with his Nerf guns. We had to make a rule of no Nerf guns in the kitchen!

A few years ago my mom gave me my Grandma's china. I have never had a chance to use it (or store it...), so this was the perfect time to bring it out. I love how classic it is. I love knowing it was my Grandma's and she used it for special occasions like Thanksgiving too!

 The Adairs came for Thanksgiving too. And one of the perks of having your best friend living up the street from you is that a quick phone call to her has her coming down to your house with a large bin of decorating items and her decorating your table! It was perfect, and I loved it! (and she brought a ton of yummy food for dinner too!)

She pulled a "Joanna Gaines" and went out to our back yard and found all of these fun sprigs to put in the little vases. So fun!

Kylah finally got dressed for dinner and helped Papa make the gravy.

(You can see the potfiller in the background that our wonderful plumbers put in. I love it and use it all the time!)

I loved having my mom here.

Another view of the finished table. You can see the kids table in the background. It was great to be able to all be in the same room together.

In addition to my parents and the Adairs, we also had a friend from my church and her two kids join us.

The kids table full of kids. 

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the adult table with all of us around it.

And I wish I would have taken a picture of my plate full of all the delicious food we had! By that time we were so hungry and everything was just so yummy!

I have a lot to be thankful for this year.