Happy Birthday, Jude!

I can't believe Jude is 9!

The day of Jude's Birthday party dawned with the threat of snow showers. We decided to risk it anyway and took the kids to JUMP, Jude's favorite Birthday place. The Scholz decided not to make the trip due to weather, but most of his friends braved the threat and came to party hard.

FortNite is a big game right now. It's basically capture the flag that you play online with people from around the world. It is all the rage these days, so of course Jude wanted a FortNite cake. I scoured the internet for ideas and combined a few to make this:

Setting up before friends arrive! 

We had "Drop crates" filled with prizes which had all the kids excited.

I'm pretty happy with the way the cake turned out!

Time to JUMP!! The snow kept a lot of people away, so we had tons of room.

This group of boys is so great. 

Pizza time!

It was a great party!

We made it out just as the snow started coming down!

Happy Birthday, Jude!

January happenings and exploring a new house!

This little girl is becoming a Daddy's girl.

It won't be much longer before these four don't fit in the tub together.

Annie came over for a playdate one day and Lily insisted on breaking out the paint. She is an artist through and through.

Be still my heart! 

I don't know who took this picture of us one morning, but I kind of love it. 

I spotted this on the road one day and had to send George the picture. It's his car in his favorite color.

My scene most days as we run errands:

We were at occupational therapy for Cole one day and Lexi found these cute dolls. She played "doctor" for the entire hour, giving them bandaids and shots and helping them feel better.

George was so proud. 

We had been looking at a house in the fall that we liked, but it went off the market before we could schedule a time to go see it. It unexpectedly reappeared around Christmas time, so George and I were quick to make an appointment.

It was love at first sight! We are currently in the process of putting in an offer. It's a good year sooner than we thought we'd be moving, but we couldn't pass up this perfect house. Huge house, lots of storage, 7 acres of fenced pasture with several shelters for animals. We are so excited!

It even has a barn with a TRACTOR!

Playing with friends: 

These girls love to h

elp me cook.

Lily turned 5 on January 11th and we celebrated by going to Choo Choo Town for dinner.

We love us some Facetime! Grandmom and Pop Pop called to sing Lily happy Birthday.

New Year Shenanigans

George was working New Years Eve, so the kids and I played games while we waited for the clock to tick down.

Thanks to the Scholz, we had a blast playing this ridiculous toilet game. It combines potty humor, risk, and competition so clearly it was a winner.

(You roll a dice and plunge the toilet however many times the dice says--at some point the plastic turd flies out of the top of the toilet and whoever catches it wins.)

It might have landed in my hot chocolate at one point...

We also managed to get in a game of kiddo Ticket to Ride!

Counting down!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Chad and Darnell rang in the new year learning how to dog sled!! How cool is that?

And on January 2nd, we celebrated Jude's 9th Birthday at our new favorite place: Sushi King! 

It's gonna be a GREAT year!