Whirlwind Thanksgiving - Part 2 - North Dakota

We continued our holiday celebrations with the Storm family in Fargo. One of the first things that we did upon our arrival was pick out a Christmas tree for Grammy Nola and Grandpa Ken's house. Lucy and James helped with the important decision. ;) 

On Friday evening we celebrated November and December birthdays. Lucy has a November birthday while Dan and Brad have their special days in December. Next year we will need to add a 1st birthday for baby Storm to the December birthday list! Thank you to Amelia for the beautiful and delicious lemon cake.

Roman didn't want to be left out and snuck in the picture too!

Lucy was so excited to open her gifts. Check out these sweet unicorn slippers from Uncle Brian, Auntie Amelia, James and Neal.

Uncle Brad got a Super Mario for his birthday so Lucy and Roman were exposed to the wonderful world of Nintendo for the first time! They loved it! All of the graphics and music brought back memories of the Christmas of 1987 when my cousins got a Nintendo and I played so much that I came home with blisters on both of my thumbs!! Hahaha!

I had to include this picture because Lucy is obsessed with making her space beautiful when she travels - whether it be a hotel room, Grammy's house, etc. She makes sure that everywhere she goes is filled with unicorns, glitter, and magic! Is it a pain in the butt to gather up all of her belongings as we come and go? Definitely! But it is so dang cute that I don't really mind! :) 

Lucy loves to snuggle with her sweet little nugget of a cousin, baby Neal! I absolutely love babies that are 5 or 6 months old - they are not so fragile anymore and I don't get so nervous about my big kids holding them! 

Lucy and Roman love their baby cousin and they can't wait for their new baby brother or sister to arrive! 

Our stay at the Storms included lots of great food, like Grandpa Ken's famous pancakes for breakfast! 

Lucy and Roman helped Grammy decorate the Christmas tree!

These two love wearing their Christmas jammies and decorating for the holidays.

We snuggled on the couch and watched some Xmas movies together.

We took selfies and prepared for our early Christmas celebration!

We got lots of wonderful gifts - thank you to everyone for moving the festivities up by a month to accommodate Baby Storm's arrival. :) The picture of Lucy with her Uncle Brad shows them reviewing her subscription for Little Passports! She is so excited to get little packages in the mail and learn more about the world. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the neat gift!

Roman was pumped to get his first very own hunting vest!

Post gift exchange = more time for snuggling and finishing up our movie of the day - The Star.

The next day we woke up and headed to church to celebrate Neal's baptism! Unfortunately, Nola wasn't feeling well so we went to service without Grammy. It was so precious! I just love this picture because big brother James refused to take off his coat for the big event! Gotta love 2 year olds! Haha!

Here was our view of Neal getting dipped in the water.

Here is Neal with his pack of cousins!

Our family loves this little guy so very much!

Brian, Amelia and their boys posed for a pic with Uncle Brad.

Grandpa Ken with his grandson. What a special day!

I think that Lucy's Thanksgiving school work pretty much sums up our weekend - 

Lots of pie consumption.

And, here is her weekend recap: Eating pumpkin pie, going to a baptism, Santa came early, and playing video games. Pretty much the best weekend ever!! :)

 We love you Storm Family!

Whirlwind Thanksgiving - Part 1 - South Dakota

Thanksgiving fell early this fall and, because we won’t be going on our annual Tour of the Dakotas at Christmas time due to the upcoming arrival of Baby Storm this year, we decided to make a quick trip home to celebrate multiple birthdays, 2 Thanksgivings, 2 Christmases, and a Baptism over the holiday break. Whew! The time was short but we had so much fun! 

 

The children love seeing their South Dakota cousins! Here are Lucy and Abby - reunited and it feels so good!

 

Roman adores his older cousin Paul.

 

On Wednesday evening we celebrated the November Birthdays at Austin and Mallory's house - Lucy, Paul, and Abigail are the November kids.

 

Our newest cousin Elijah is getting so big!

 

Here is a picture of Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Glen with all of their grandbabies. At the end of December there will be 10 kids! 

 

Look at this fun cookie to celebrate the November birthdays - an emoji for Lucy, a baseball for Paul, and ballet slippers for Abby. 

 

The big girls had a sleepover at Austin and Mallory's house and Paul came to Grandma's so that he and Roman could have a sleepover. Roman was so excited! These two played games, watched Home Alone, burped the alphabet together, and had the best time. Thank you to Paul for being such a fun older cousin!

 

 

On Thanksgiving morning we all circled back at Mom and Dad's for a day of food and fellowship. We took our annual picture of the three big girls on Grammy's bench. They are growing up so fast!

 

 

It was a beautiful day so we played outside and took some family pictures without winter coats!

 

Here is the entire crew. We are so thankful for our family! We are also thankful for good health. On Thanksgiving Day, Daniel woke up with a sore throat and his tonsils looked awful! Since it was right on the heels of Lucy having strep, we were pretty sure that he also came down with the same germs. Insert big frowny face here. That being said, he was able to hop online and complete an e-visit with his doctor back in Rhinelander on a holiday morning and have a prescription for antibiotics sent to a pharmacy in South Dakota within less than a hour! Technology is amazing, people!

  

We played outside on Grammy and Grandpa's tree swing.

 

We ate the best meal! Just look at this spread - yum!

 

The boys sat at the adults table, the big girls had their own table so they felt pretty special. :)

 

 The little girls had their own table too.

 Umm ... I was definitely eating for two on this day. Hahaha!

 

After our delicious lunch, the kids got ready to perform their annual Christmas play. We always act out the Christmas story before we open present. Lucy dressed up as an angel.

 

 

Roman was Joseph!

 Elijah was the baby Jesus this year!

 

 We opened Christmas gifts and played outside some more. Roman was pumped to pass around the football with Paul. :)

 

We were also able to see our dear friends Jen & Paul on this Thanksgiving Day as they stopped by Mom and Dad's house while they were in between family meals. We are so grateful for these friends as they are the reason that Daniel and I met all those years ago!

 

The kiddos had one more sleepover on Thanksgiving night and, instead of shopping on Black Friday, we hit the road to Fargo. :)  

 

 Thank you Hoekman family for a wonderful November Birthday party / Thanksgiving/ Christmas celebration! 

Lucy is 7 Years Old!

I can hardly believe how quickly the past few years have gone by but our sweet baby girl turned 7 in early November! Lucy fills our lives with magic and kindness. We are blessed to have her in our family!

This year Lucy requested an ‘All Girls’ birthday party. Roman attended the big event but otherwise we had a unicorn themed pizza party with ten 6 and 7 year old girls. Whew! It was so much fun but also a little bittersweet knowing that some of the little boys/families that Lucy has grown up with won’t be at her birthday parties ( at least not for a few years! Hahahaha!)

We did some party prep with Grammy Nola - so thankful that Grandpa and Grandma Storm were able to attend and provide and extra set of hands! They are the best! 

We had pink cupcakes with pink frosting, sprinkles, and unicorn toppers. 

This year we got a party room at Pizza Haven. Lucy was so excited for the big event! She requested to wear her Easter dress to the party. :) As a side note, between the food and crafting stains (we painted suncatchers) from the evening of partying, this dress is pretty much trashed! That being said, I am a big believer in not letting these fun and ‘fancy’ outfits just hang out in the closet! I used to try and ‘save’ Lucy’s sweet baby dresses for only special occasions and be so careful with them but you have to let kiddos have fun! Our babies grew out of their clothes so quickly anyway. The Easter dress was just from Target and Lucy felt super beautiful on this night so it was well worth the fun even if it resulted in pizza and paint stains! 

We love this seven year old girl of our so much!!

The girls started to arrive and we colored unicorn pictures while we waited for the other guests. Roman was sporting a unicorn horn party hat. :)

We made some unicorn horn snacks with sugar cones, frosting, sprinkles and candy. (Thank goodness for Pinterest, right? How else could I plan these children’s birthday parties?!)

We had a race to pin the mane and tails on the unicorns. Lucy drew the bodies, horns, and eyes! :)

Here are Lilly, Brooklynn, and Isabelle with their horn treats! We used licorice and sour rainbow candy strips to decorate.

We played some pin the horn on the unicorn. 

Of course we ate pizza ...

And feasted on cupcakes!

Lucy opened her gifts after cupcakes.

And we wrapped up the evening with a unicorn piñata! I am either mom of the year or worst mom ever but, because Lucy’s birthday falls so close to Halloween, we always fill her birthday piñata with the kids’ Halloween candy!! It is the best way to get it out of the house and share with friends. :)

Another successful birthday party on the books! Again - a huge shout out to Ken & Nola and our friends Kaitlin and Amber for helping out at the event! We love you to the moon and back Lucille Lorraine!