Christmas Visit to the Clarks

After our big get together with my side of the family, we used Sunday for a quick visit to Sean's grandparents place. His parents met up with us there and so did Sean's brother with his two stepsons. It was great seeing them all again!

The kids with Grandma & Grandpa Clark.

The kids with Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Clark.

Sonny w/his two stepsons, Jackson & Riley, and Grandma & Grandpa Clark.

Sean posing with the snowman the guys and kids had made after they had gotten done sledding.

Looks like quite the leafy snowman to me!

It was great seeing everyone again since it had been quite awhile. After all that partying with the families on Saturday and Sunday, our kids were pretty tired by the time we started to head home!

Can anyone say wiped out?!

Hinners Christmas

We've always celebrated with my mom, dad, siblings and their families on Christmas Eve. It's been getting harder every year and our time celebrating keeps getting shorter because we like being in our own home Christmas morning for the kids to get their "Santa" gifts and with over six hours of driving now, it's been crazy. My brother also usually has to get back to celebrate with his son before getting him back to his mom either later that evening or the next morning.

That being said, we were tired of rushing through our meal and opening gifts to just rush out the door to get home. We decided to change our tradition and move Christmas to be earlier. This year it worked out to do it two weeks before and it was awesome! We were able to just hang out, have a few drinks and play games without worrying about a long drive home on Christmas Eve. And we had lots of time to just enjoy our family that we don't see very often!

Santa & Mrs. Claus even came to visit the kids. They each got a coloring book and M&Ms! They even left the adults a large box of chocolates. YUMMY!

I think it's safe to say that the kids were happy with all the gifts they received from the exchange and Grandma & Grandpa Hinners!

Aubrey in her cute attire!

Jessie & her cutie, Jacey.

Uncle Rod w/his godson, Mason.

1/3 of the grandkids awaiting their turn to open their gifts.

These two tend to hang close every get together :)

Quick shot of mom and dad before taking dad back to the health center.

The kids playing Apples to Apples upstairs.

We had such a wonderful afternoon/evening with my mom, dad, brothers, sisters, OUTlaws, nieces and nephews!!! To my family, there will be more pictures on Facebook soon for your viewing pleasure :)  

Christmas Concerts

Last week was a full week of concerts for the Clark family. Madison and Noah had their concerts a week ago Monday. It was also Madison's first band concert. I wish I would've remembered to grab a picture of her with her oboe, but I will have to do so next time.

Madison & Noah in between concerts.

Noah with his buddy Ian.

Summer had her preschool concert last Friday. Her class had been practicing their songs for quite awhile and she was so excited to dress up and sing!

Summer all ready for the concert.

Coloring with one of her good friends.

Summer getting into her song/arm movements!

With her teacher after she was done singing.

It's always fun to watch the kids at these things. The only negative is that we live so far away from all of our family that no one can ever share in these memories with us. These are the times that I wish we did live closer so my mom could see my kids in some of their activities, but that just isn't going to happen anytime soon. For now, pictures will have to do. And believe me, I take plenty of them :)

Easter Seals Christmas Party

Mason started going to Easter Seals this year for speech therapy. He's 2 1/2 and only uses a handful of words. We are usually ones that like to wait and see if things will come on their own (Noah had similar problems with speech, but his wasn't quite as bad), but we decided to try it and we are happy with that decision so far.

Easter Seals hosted a Christmas party at Timber Pointe Lodge for their patients and families over a week ago and we decided to take everyone. I think it's safe to say the kids had a pretty good time.

Telling Santa and Mrs. Claus what they wanted for Christmas! Mason didn't want to have anything to do with this.

Summer telling Santa about the Lalaloopsy doll she wants for Christmas.

After visiting with Santa, we headed downstairs to the arts/craft area. The kids kept busy down there for awhile. Two tables were full of beanie babies and stuffed animals to choose from for the kids to adopt. Decisions, decisions. Not sure how long it took for Mason to choose just the right one :)

Madison adopted this soft little bunny!

Noah getting help putting the reindeer antlers on his candy cane.

Mason concentrating hard on coloring his picture.

And my sweet little Summer!

New Thanksgiving Traditions?

This Thanksgiving we did a few new things that we haven't done before. To start with, the kids wanted to run in the Turkey Trot run so we started our morning heading to Miller Park to run/walk it as a family.

Turkey Trot

Summer & Mason cuddled under a blanket to stay warm. Summer is purposely not smiling for me. She really was in a good mood. Really.

Sean ran with Noah because Noah didn't want to walk much. They finished in a little over 30 minutes (we were at the very back of the pack so after taking around 30 seconds off, that's my guess).

I stayed behind with Madison and pushed Summer & Mason in the burley. Wow, it took a lot inside of me to keep patient. Madison wasn't really in the mood to run so she liked walking a lot AND whining a lot! We strolled in at around 40 minutes :(  But at least she came out and did it. I'm sure next year I'll be telling a different story.

The Clarks sporting their Pumpkin Dash shirts!

The kids holding their participation ribbons.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Sean and I made a snack for the kids when we got back and got moving on making our Thanksgiving dinner. He was in charge of turkey (which was already in the oven), homemade gravy and the homemade cranberry sauce (which was done the night before). I was in charge of homemade dressing, mashed potatoes, green been casserole and corn casserole. The pumpkin pie was made the night before. It was all so very yummy!

Upper left: Madison and I picked out paper plates this year to save the energy of doing so many dishes :) They had the perfect verse on them.

Lower left: Our table set including our fine crystal. Yes, we are nuts for letting the kids use it, but they LOVED it!

Upper right: Madison made name cards for all of us. She does this every year for us, but does something a little different each time.

Lower right: Sean getting ready to carve the turkey at the table. And no, the kids don't have wine. They have what they call "fake wine" which as everyone knows is actually sparkling juice in a wine bottle.

Evening Activities

We usually end the day by watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We started to watch part of it, but the older kids were anxious to play Risk with Sean so they started that game half way through the movie.

Conclusion

I believe that we will keep the tradition of doing the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning and Sean may keep making his homemade cranberry sauce. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day as a family and need to remember to always count our blessings!!!

Tis the Season to go Shopping!

Almost two weeks ago I left town and headed for Iowa City area to meet up with my three sisters and my mom. It was that time of year when we take the weekend to do some Christmas shopping together and get to spend time as sisters/daughters/mothers without all the kids interrupting every few minutes.

Below is a picture of us getting back to our hotel after being out all day Saturday!

If I had to guess, I would say the pregnant one in the middle outshopped all of us! She was like the Energizer bunny: she kept going and going and going :) We love you Lizzy!

We had a great time as usual. We started off by hitting the Williamsburg outlet mall Friday evening and then ordering pizza from the hotel. Then we shopped most of the day Saturday with a lunch break at Buffalo Wild Wings where we got to watch quite a bit of the first half of the Hawkeye game. Lastly, the topping on the cake was the awesomeness of being with my mom and sisters!

I miss and love you guys! Can't wait to see you soon for our Christmas celebration!