The fun & exciting events that filled my week

Happy Monday, friends!

Monday Mashup has returned with a brand new look!! If you’re new to Monday Mashup, click here to read my first one before you dive in! If you’ve already been wonderful enough to be a part of the Monday Mashup fun, welcome back!

Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to this past week. Or in this case, the big events of the last FEW weeks!:

-Let’s travel all the way back to the end of October to begin! Halloween was so much fun this year!! Holidays obviously become more special when you have kids of your own; your own tribe of little people to create and share traditions with. However, when they’re tiny infants they don’t understand what is going on. So you dress them up in cute outfits to make yourself happy. But there comes a day when the age of understanding begins and it. is. AWESOME. From Jackson picking out his costume all by himself – no suggestions from Mom! – to Harper preening in front of the mirror in her Belle dress, they truly had fun getting into the Halloween spirit. And solo-Mommy trick or treating with two kids lesson learned: Don’t EVER doubt yourself again on bringing the stroller. Holy sore arms, Batman.

-Jon and the Marching Hornets headed to state finals at the beginning of November. Their first year in a new class and they had an amazing final run! They ended up 5th, which was their goal for the year. I was thrown by some of the people that placed above them though! They should have been second in my book. My book of no knowledge of marching band scoring and a huge bias because their director is my hot husband. It was an amazing season though and I’m so glad they accomplished what they worked so hard to achieve!

-My sister Natalie surprised me on my birthday with tickets to go see Lady Gaga. What an amazing night! The lighting. The costumes. The music. It was everything I ever dreamed it could be. I spent all night in a state of pure bliss, fan girling away in my upper balcony seat. And I only almost cried one time. I call that a win!

-We’re getting closer and closer to the final count of my next little nephew arriving. I can’t wait to smell his new baby goodness!! My SIL Shelly is a radiant pregnant goddess with the cutest belly bump. A few weeks ago we gathered together to eat delicious food, open presents, and share our wishes for sweet baby Gauge. He is one very loved little boy already!! And my guess is he’s going to be as stubborn as all our other kiddos and stay in until his due date, just torment us all.

-We braved the cold on Thanksgiving day and headed to a park for some family pictures. It was cold. We had only an hour to work with. We had two toddlers who had just woken up from a nap. Luckily we also had fruit snacks and our PJ Mask friends to help us out! Less than an hour and we came away with some great images! More to come with that later!!

-Thanksgiving this year was amazing. We host it at our house on the Saturday after (hence the pjs all day and family picture time on Thursday) and this year we had a jam-packed house! My sisters, brother and all their sweet families set up camp for a few days. Twelve of us under the same roof and no one was seriously hurt in the process! It was so much fun to have time under the same roof again. If I could afford it and thought we all wouldn’t kill each other, I’d build one gigantic house we could all live in together! Preferably with our own private beach!! But, I digress. We went Friday night to see the Lights at the Brickyard and then to Christmas at the Zoo on Sunday. It was a weekend full of family fun and I can’t wait to do it all over again at Christmas! Jackson walked in the door after school today and asked where everyone was. He settled on believing everyone will be back “tomorrow.”

1. Sully and Belle  2. Let’s go Hornets!  3. Lady Gaga  4. Dinner with Grandpa!  5. Sweet wishes for Baby J  6. So grateful for these two <3  7. First attempt at Grandma’s Famous Cheesecake was a success!!  8. Driving on the Bricks!  9. Cousin love

Much love everyone,