Thankful

We have loved living so close to our best friends. The kids play, we can borrow things when we're out, and we can stop by just to chat. 

The other day it was beautiful outside, and the kids were all out on our land playing. It just made me so thankful for where we are right now.

And sometimes we have an impromptu dinner!

We had a few friends over for dinner the other night. The kids planned a basketball game with the dads. The dads were good sports, and I think they actually really enjoyed it! The dads barely won 20-18. :)

These girls were the cheerleaders. :)

 It's been fun to see Joe's dream of having a nice basketball goal and a flat driveway be used so much! I'll even catch Joe out there by himself shooting baskets sometimes! :)

On a completely different note...I had to include these pictures of the girls. They are so creative and come up with different games all the time. This night they were playing "wedding" and took turns being the bride, complete with blanket wedding gown and tissues for a bouquet! 

school days

The kids love when I come have lunch with them. I'm not sure if they really like my company or like the slushees I usually bring them... :)

Norah gets to pick a "buddy" to sit with her at the parents table when we eat with her. I love when she picks Matty. And she shared her slushee with him!

 Kylah was dressed up for future occupation day. She was a dog trainer??? She looks more like a motorcycle babe to me, but what do I know!

A few of her friends were dressed up as dog trainers with her. :)

Joey dressed up as Mr. Little (their art teacher) for favorite teacher day. A little glimpse of what he may look like in the future!

We made Norah a shirt for her 100th day of school complete with 100 N's. 

This school year is flying by!

Happy New Year!

Meredith and I hosted a murder mystery party at our house for New Year's Eve. It turned out to be so fun! We had a lot of prep to do, but it was worth it.

Meredith did a great job with the decorations.

Everyone came in costume, having been assigned a character.

Joe was Chef Bameril (he had to randomly shout out "Bam!"), and I was Yuna Verz, a self-proclaimed genius.

Everyone had to mingle and converse to try to figure out who the murderer and who the victim were.

There was a lot of intrigue. :)

Josh was my favorite character, Bryan Seafoam (a very loud sports announcer---he channeled Harry Carey). He was hilarious! :)

We had 13 adults and 22 kids in our house. The kids mostly hung out in the basement watching movies. They were a little thrown off by the fact that the party was for the adults and not the kids. They didn't complain, but they didn't really know what to do with themselves! :)

A few families left after the murder mystery game was over, but the rest of us cleaned up, watched football, chatted, ate more food and waited for the ball to drop at midnight. And then it was right to bed! I always think it's funny that we stay up until midnight and then at 12:05 am are in bed!

What a fun night!

Ice skating

Before school started again we wanted to get out and hit up the ice skating rink. The day was beautiful and almost warm. The skating rink had a big layer of water on top which made for some very wet kiddos by the time they were done!

Sweet friends.

About 10 minutes after we got there Sam fell on the ice and hit his head. He seemed fine and got up, but as he made the turn towards us we could see blood coming down his face. 

So, we made a quick trip to my office, stitched up his eyebrow, and met the other kids back for ice cream in no time! :)

It was still a fun day!

14th anniversary

We don't often get to do a lot for our anniversary since it is sandwiched right between Christmas and New Year's, but we did get to enjoy a fabulous dinner out. Dave and Meredith watched our kids for us, and we ate at a local restaurant that we've been wanting to try for a while. It did not disappoint! It was fun to talk and enjoy some time with just the two of us.

Happy Anniversary Babe! I love you so much!

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! :)