Thanksgiving and Christmas 2021

We had an amazing holiday season!  Thanksgiving we always host my family, my mom and her husband, my brother Patrick, and his girlfriend Katie.  We made all the usual Thanksgiving food and stuffed ourselves silly.  There may or may not have been some political bashing by some, but that's a story for another day...Welcome to the family Katie!

We of course had to get the obligatory family pics!

And I REAAALLLLLY tried to get a super cute Christmas card photo of the girls.  

Sigh.....

I literally lost my shit on them, it was easier bribing them when they were little!!!

Finally (after 20 MINUTES!!!) I got a decent one, and called it good.  Just because they were such shits, I added the crazy pic on our card, haha!!!  Don't mess with mom....

Now that everyone has jobs and boyfriends, it's not as easy to have everyone here on Christmas Eve or day, so we decided this year to celebrate the weekend before.  We ate, played games and the girls opened gifts.  I tried to get them to wait until it was dark out so it at least "felt" like Christmas, but that was a hard no from them.

After opening gifts, they complained how it didn't feel like Christmas...

#alwayslistentomom

Christmas Eve we went to Brad's sisters house around 2 and stayed until 7ish, came home and hung out.  Christmas day we had Brad's family here to celebrate.

We were all pooped, and Josie and Maci faked being friends, it was so cute.  Also, notice how the tree skirt is not there.  Maci might be 107, but she turns into a wild woman when the tree skirt comes out.  I don't get it.

It was a very relaxing Christmas this year, the older the girls get, the less busy it gets, which I love.  Happy hours with friends during the season is the best!

Emma College Move In Day

Emma moved in to college on August 26, literally the hottest damn day of the year.  Thankfully the college has this move in business down to a T and everything went so well!

Her move in time was 8:30, we pulled up, unloaded everything and then headed out to lunch.

After that we made a Target run and spent about a billion dollars on things she really didn't need.  except fans, she definitely needed those!  We got her all moved in and fridge stocked!

And then after we got her all moved in, she promptly came home to shower and nap in the air conditioning, HA!!

The next Monday was the 1st day of school for Rachel and Emma!  Rachel is in her third year and in the nursing program.

Emma started out going for nursing, then changed to business and is now back to nursing haha!

So far they are both loving school!  Emma absolutely adores her roommate, I seriously couldn't have picked a better roomie for her!

Random

Well well well, did ya miss me??  I am trying my best to get caught up on blogging life.  Too many fun milestones that need to get documented.  As I was finishing up our Florida vacation, I already forgot the name of the restaurant we loved so much lol!

Anyhoo, here is a smattering of some fun stuff we've been up too...

Our church did a "Garden Tea" and the older two and I decided to go, it was such a fun morning hanging out and listening to missionaries speak.  It is Emma and Rachel's dream to go on a mission's trip.

Firefest is a country music festival that a town close by us puts on every year, they get pretty sweet big name country stars and this year the headliner was Dustin Lynch.  I LOVE HIM!!!  I was so stoked that we went, and he did not disappoint, it was amazing.

Jake doesn't looked thrilled here, but it was literally just the timing of the photo haha!!  Again, I love that my girls and their friends love to hang out with us!

The end of July we went up to my dad's for "Christmas in July".  It's the one time of year we all get together for the weekend and hang out.  We had a blast, the best times are all the singing we do around the campfire!

Also, never really realized how much my brother and I look alike!!

August brought a cabin weekend with Brad's sister's family and we had such a great time and seriously laughed all weekend!

 

Also in August was our annual friends "Lobsterfest".  We have been doing this for several years and it's so much fun.  This year I bought Brad and I t-shirts.  Duh.

4th of July 2021

It was another wonderful 4th of July!  As it seems with every blog post I've done this year, each event is dependent on Covid.  The church which puts on the 3rd and 4th of July festivities canceled everything in April already which was such a bummer.  Thankfully the parade is put on by the Lions Club and not the church, so that was still on!  I'm pretty confident that when Brad and I are old and crusty, these kids will still be wheeling us up to watch the parade, haha!  Just one of those family traditions that will never go away...

On the 3rd we went to our friends house for a bit then went uptown to have a few drinks.  It was surprisingly very quiet in town which is usually packed with people, such a bummer.

The morning of the 4th I made my usual cinnamon rolls with icing and red white and blue sprinkles.  Then we all headed into town to watch the parade.

Alayna may be 15, but she is still hard core grab the candy!  Of course she gives it all to the little cousins...The weather was gorgeous and it was just so nice to do something normal with lots of people.

I also love that my mom and her husband still come every year!

We had everyone come over later in the afternoon to swim and hang out.  Always such a fun time and lots of yummy food!  Of course Brad made his flag meat and cheese tray.  We did not do a fire since we haven't had much rain which was a bummer, but I had bought a bunch of sparklers for the girls so they had a blast doing those!

Definately one of our favorite days of the year!

Emma’s Graduation

Emma Jo graduated on June 5 and I am still trying to wrap my head around how that happened...It just seems like it was yesterday that she was starting Kindergarten...

We were a little nervous that there wouldn't be an actual graduation ceremony, but thankfully there was!  It was originally supposed to be outside on the football field, but it was also supposed to be 99 degrees so they changed to inside.

We are so proud of Emma, she graduated with honors all the while taking college courses and working her tail off at the nursing home.  During Covid!

I just can't even tell you how proud I am of all three of my girls!  Brad, we done good!!!

We were so fortunate that the grandparents could also come!  Brad's dad was having some back issues, so he stayed home.

Such sweet friends Emma has.  We love that they always want to come over and hang out!

Emma has the biggest heart and we are just so excited to see what God has in store for her!

We had Emma's graduation party on June 19th which is also Brad's birthday.  It was the only day we could make work and it ended up being the most perfect day.  Despite the weather being so hot and sticky previously, the day of her party was GORGEOUS!  Not overly hot and no humidity.

You can see in the picture below, my dad made a birthday sign for Brad with him and Josie, we were DYING when we saw it!  Turned out awesome!

As fun as these parties are, it is SO MUCH WORK haha!  Thankfully my dad and his wife came down on Friday and helped, along with Brad's sister.

Emma wrote out some of her favorite Bible verses and I laminated them and cut them out, loved how these turned out!

For food we had smoked pulled pork, sloppy joes and a couple salads.  Emma wanted cookies instead of cupcakes.

Of course she had to have her iced coffee!!

Thankfully we had a friend of ours who offered to make Emma a cake, I loved how it turned out!  And it was just as delicious!!

We had SUCH a fun night!  Barb and Darrin brought their karaoke rock box and we pretty much sang all night, so fun!  We were so grateful that everyone was able to come out and help us celebrate.