Thanksgiving 2015

The kids and I drove back to Iowa to spend Thanksgiving week with Daddy. We are two weeks into this living apart thing and are ready to be done. The way we have it arranged the most days we will spend apart is about 8 days, but that is plenty. Trevor will make three trips back to Michigan to see us and we will make one trip to Iowa to see him. The trips are proving quite difficult for him as he is also suffering from sciatica with pain radiating down his left leg. The car rides aggravate the issue, so aren't much fun for him. Things are a bit stressful for our family these days between living apart for 6 weeks, Trevor starting a new job, preparing to move to Iowa, building a new house and preparing for Christmas. Regardless, we are blessed greatly.

The first few days back in Iowa were spent making decisions on the new house from siding color to toilet height to flooring to lights, etc,. There are lots and lots of decisions to be made. I have been researching these items from afar in order to make the process go smoother with the ultimate goal of not delaying the framing process. It felt great getting some of those decisions made and crossed off my seemingly never-ending list. With decisions made or narrowed down, I was able to take a deep breath and enjoy all we have to be thankful for, of which there are many. One of which is that we are building a new house!

Another recent blessing is that our house in Michigan sold in just three days. The family that bought it is an LCS family and their son, Jacob is in Kaylee's class. Kaylee had been asking that our house would sell quickly as a prayer request at school. Then Jacob piped up and asked that our family would accept the offer, so they could have our house. It was kind of funny! Not only did we sell our house quickly, but we also managed to get back all the money we have invested in it over the past 5.5 years with updates. That is AMAZING!

Most importantly, we are blessed to have each other. We are blessed to be in good health overall. We are blessed with great jobs. We are blessed with many friends and extended family. We are blessed to have a loving Savior who died for our sins, so we can spend eternity with Him. We are greatly blessed!

Grandma Jacque's Birthday Party

We went back to Iowa for Thanksgiving and were able to celebrate Grandma Jacque's birthday with her. We had a nice meal at Granite City, good conversation and opened gifts. She was super excited about her new coat, scarves and gloves.

Iowa Football Game 2015

Trevor was excited to get to cheer on the Hawkeyes as they played Purdue despite the cold temperature. He and Anthony cheered them on in their 40-20 victory, making them 11-0.

Snow

The kids were excited to play in the snow and build a snow man.

Trace Lost Two Teeth

                   

Trace has been watching his friends lose their teeth over the past year and has been anxiously awaiting his turn. Well it finally arrived. Not only did he lose one tooth but within two days he had lost two teeth. He pulled them both out himself. He was so brave. The only problem was he expected to receive "two 10 dollar bills" and only received "two one dollar bills" from the tooth fairy. I guess we have a cheap tooth fairy...

Kaylee's 11th Birthday

Our 11 year old

Our blessings

Dinner at Sauce

Basketball gear

Swim party

Fondue party

Mom and Kaylee

Slumber party

We just finished Kaylee's birthday week extravaganza. She has officially been well celebrated. The festivities began a week ago when we went out for italian food at Sauce with Daddy before he headed to Iowa to start his new job. We came home and ate rhubarb crisp and let her open a couple gifts. We finished the night off with a Hallmark movie.

The festivities continued when she and I baked side-by-side the night before her birthday preparing her treats. She made her brownie, chocolate chip cookie and reese's peanut butter cup treats to take to  school, while I made her chocolate chip banana bread cake with peanut butter frosting for our family celebration. The next day, we Facetimed Daddy at 5:30 AM his time, so he could watch her open her presents. She had a fun day at school, as one of her friends decorated her locker, making her feel extra special. At home, we celebrated farther with her favorite penne pasta dish and a game of Life.

Daddy came back from Iowa late on Friday night. Yeah! The festivities ended on Sunday, more than a week after they originally began, with a friend birthday party. She had five friends come: Lauren Swiggum, Hannah Spohn, Katie Shane, Amelia Grupp, and Emily Willet. The girls went swimming at The Centre pool and sang the night away doing karaoke. We ate fettucine alfredo with broccoli and chicken for dinner and had chocolate peanut butter fondue for dessert. Can you see a theme here? This girl LOVES pasta and dessert! The girls thought the fondue was super fun. The night ended with a movie and slumber party. As mentioned previously, she was well celebrated!

A few facts about Kaylee:

• She is a super sweet girl! She has a kind, generous heart. She is very mature for her age and is a good friend to those around her. She loves life and has developed a good sense of humor. She loves to laugh and brightens up a room when she enters it.
• School- She loves school! She gets excited about classroom projects. Her favorite subjects are literacy and history. She loves to read, especially about World War II. She has been working on the Left Behind for Kids Series. She also just read the first two books in the Maze Runner series. 
• Sports- She loves sports! She plays volleyball, basketball and soccer. She likes them all equally and is becoming quite the aggressive athlete. She just finished soccer and volleyball season. Basketball just began this past week. She will be practicing twice a week working on fundamentals. The season ends right before Christmas with two tournaments. Back in Iowa she gets to play on her school team and will play Upward Basketball at church.
• Percussion- She just began taking percussion lessons  at school this Fall. She is currently learning to play the xylophone and the drums. The verdict is still out, as to her interest level, but songs are beginning to become recognizable. 
• Friends- She has a really nice group of friends, which makes moving to Iowa difficult for her. Her closest friends are: Amelia Grupp, Hannah Spohn, Katie Shane, Lauren Swiggum and Emily Willet. We are trying to get her lots of friend time in before we move. Thankfully she also has some friends back in Iowa, who she is looking forward to reconnecting with. 
• Games- She loves to play board games, especially Life and Monopoly. 
• Movies- She still enjoys watching Hallmark movies with me and Super Hero movies with Daddy.
• Adventures in Odyssey- This girl continues to be addicted to Odyssey. She has now listened to the entire Odyssey library via her online membership and is still listening. Now Kianna is getting hooked...

We love our Kiki Bear. Happy Birthday sweet girl!!!!

Fall Sports

FCA Soccer Sisters

League Champions

Kaylee's team signed a soccer ball and framed one of their team photos for her.  They will miss her this Spring.

Kaylee

Daddy and Trace playing under the lights.

Abram and Trace

Kianna and Tory

Kianna's team

We had a very busy Fall schedule and we are happy to report that we survived and had lots of successes along the way! Here is our crazy schedule:

• Monday- Trace and Trevor flag football practice from 6-7:00 PM. Kaylee soccer practice from 6-7:30 PM.
• Tuesday- Kianna soccer practice from 6-7:00 PM. Kaylee and Keri volleyball practice from 6:30-7:30 PM.
• Wednesday- Kaylee soccer practice from 6-7:30 PM.
• Thursday- Kianna soccer practice from 6-7:00 PM.
• Friday- Free night or games.
• Saturday- Volleyball, flag football and soccer games.
• Sunday- Church and soccer games.

As for successes:

• Trace loved flag football and pulled lots of flags and scored some touch downs!
• Kianna really enjoyed soccer and turned a corner in athletics. She worked super hard this season, had a great attitude, scored several goals and developed some fancy footwork. She played goalie a few times and enjoys that too.
• Kaylee went from not being sure she wanted to go out for soccer, to really enjoying soccer. Her team was amazing. They won two tournaments and were the league champions. Kaylee played left side defender and was a force to be reckoned with. She threw elbows and stood her ground making it difficult for girls to get past her!
• For volleyball, Kaylee learned how to set the ball and worked on hitting for the first time. She is a very aggressive athlete, which I love! Her serves are improving and she can now serve behind the service line (or very close to it) for underhand serves. 
• Another blessing this Fall were the friendships that were developed. We carpooled with the Swiggum family and really enjoyed getting to know their family better. Kianna and Tory became good friends and so did Lauren and Kaylee. Trevor and I also enjoyed getting to know Aaron and Amanda better. 

Now we are enjoying more free time and family time! I'd say we earned it!