New Year's Eve and the kids

We spent New Year's Eve celebrating at our very brave friends' house, the Rumbuc's. This is always a fun night, and a little crazy, with all of our kids celebrating with us. We enjoyed lots of food, good company, outside play for the kids and fireworks at midnight. Nicole and Morgan loved staying up and watching the ball drop and Mr. Rumbuc light fireworks. Rachel started saying she wanted to go home around 10pm so I am sure you know how that went. I was able to shoot a few pictures of the kids as they played outside. Not all of them were cooperative with my attempts because that would have meant time away from snowball fights and making snow sculptures. But here are a few pictures.

The girls were trying to make a snowman, but the fluffy stuff wasn't cooperating. So they decided to make smaller versions. This was Kaelyn's masterpiece.

Julia Rose eating snow. I am sure Jen will like this shot!!!

Morgan and Jenna

Ian

SNOW BALL FIGHT

Braden and Ian trying to get a fort going.

Roanoke and Russiaville

So I know you are wondering where in the world are Roanoke and Russiaville, right?
Well after Christmas we took a family trip down to Indiana. The weather was not so nice both there and back, but we wanted to catch up with my Grandfather and our friends who relocated to Indiana a few years ago.

My grandpa Johns lives in Roanoke, IN. We had a great time catching up, playing games and playing outside in new snow on his beautiful property. We were lucky to be down there with my Aunt and Uncle and my two little 1st cousins Celia and Hope. My cousins are my girls ages and they had a great time together.

Grandpa and Great grandpa, Grandma and Great Grandma Carolyn, my girls and Celia and Hope.

Cousin Hope


My grandfather has a great little piece of property with a little pond and lots of great space to play in.

Grandpa Johns loves antiques. And his home is filled with them. Which can be a challenge for little girls, but, this antique was free game. The sled. He thinks it is from the 30's or 40's. After a few runs on the driveway to loosen up the rust, it worked great.



The girls were giggling and having a great time, even with a couple of white outs.




My grandparents have decorated the yard with lots of fun stuff.


My Uncle Steve, pictured here, and I were volunteered to pull the girls "off road" through the yard. Now, I think of myself in ok shape, but I seriously felt close to a heart attack after one jog around the yard pulling the girls. Steve and I were exhausted. Work out done for the day.


The girls loved playing the new SpongeBob game they got for Christmas. It is in 3D. Sponge bob was a whole new experience for the grandparents!


After our visit in Roanoke, we drove about 1 1/2 hours south west to Russiaville, IN. This is where our friends the Austin's moved to. Let's just say, I kept saying to Mike, "do they really live in the middle of nowhere?". We had a great time catching up and letting the girls get reacquainted.

Veronica and Rachel are both 4 years old.

More snow fun, but less time out this day. The temperature was about 15 degrees colder than the day before.


Thanks everyone for some great memories in Indiana.

WARNING...This post contains lots of pictures of our Christmas Celebrations

We had a great time celebrating Christmas this year. Enter this post at your own risk. I have put up a lot of pictures for my family that was unable to celebrate with us this year. The girls were really excited about this holiday. They were so aware this year of what Christmas means and what that means to them.

We started our Christmas morning, for the second year in a row, lighting our Advent wreath and reading out of Luke the Christmas story. This was all before they were to go downstairs and look at what Santa had brought. They were so patient again this year and I really love starting off the morning this way.

Mike's mom got Mike a table air hockey game. This was a favorite that morning.

All of the girls asked for Snuggies this Christmas and Santa delivered. I will say, I am NOT a fan of infomercials, but they are cozy little things.

The following are the letters written to Santa and left for him to discover. This is another one of my favorite things. I love to see what they each write to Santa and how it has changed over the years.

Morgan recieved a Razor scooter from Santa and rode it around the house all morning.



Getting into her presents from Grandma Nugent.

My brother, Chris hosted dinner on Christmas day this year. Here is my dad with the youngest Grand babies, Rachel and Drew.

Papa Kelbert with Nicole, Morgan and Jacob.






Some of my pictures are a little rough this year. I received a new camera from Mike and I am learning all of my settings.

This was the girls present from Mike's brother Brian, Uncle Brian. He had given each girl a different key. Each key has a tag labeled with the girls' names and says the following, "You have in your hands one of nine unique keys, each more than one hundred years old. This represents the key to your imagination. With it you can unlock your dreams and be anything you want to be. Please bring this key to every Nugent and /or Tepper family reunion as it will always connect you with any one of your six cousins. With love, Uncle Brian." I thought this was great.



Morgan inspecting the evidence that Santa had come.


Morgan is a silly girl. This year she is all about jokes and making us laugh. Before Christmas day she was telling me how it would be nice if Santa played a joke on her. So, she received a lump of coal in her stocking. Yes it was chocolate.


This is what our house looked like after opening gifts.


Rachel recieved her Whoopsie Do Doll. This is a doll when fed water/juice by bottle, it pees and poops. WHOOOO. How exciting.


Our tree this year. Lots of homemade ornaments. I try to get away with not bringing them all out. But my girls remember everything.