December...Before Christmas!

There was lots to do before Christmas this year - check it out!

Cadence goes through different phases with her hair - nowadays, she's into putting it half up!  She looks so old when she wears it like that.

Grandma and Poppa got a ton of honey from their hives this year.  The kids help label the bottles so they could be sold.

The next Buckeye basketball game, Cadence and I got to go with the boys since Mark and Mason couldn't be there.  Cadence wasn't so into the game at the beginning...

The Buckeyes put a whoopin' on those Nittany Lions, 106 to 74!  It was awesome to witness!

When we're on campus, and we have time, we HAVE to dine at Adriatico's!

The next day, we visited the Humane Society of Delaware County so Cadence could drop off her donation.  She took a portion of her proceeds from selling Buckeye gear at the farmers market and gave it to the animals.  We are so proud of her!

We spent a lot of time with all of the kitties!

After piano lessons, Cadence played with the "photo booth" props.

The kids had spirit week at school before Christmas - first up, holiday headgear day!

We finally got around to taking the kids to Star Lanes for some arcade games.  Cadence ran around finding the games that rewarded the most tickets; Colin played countless games of ski ball - each game was cheap!

Cadence also had her Christmas recital that weekend.  She played, The First Noel, beautifully!

A couple of days later, we had a gross wintry mix outside - the kids started out with a 2-hour delay, but then school ended up getting cancelled.  

We really didn't get a lot of snow at all, but the kids still had some fun!

Amazingly, 5 short days later, the weather took a complete 180!  I think the temps were flirting with 60 degrees.  The kids both had friends over and they were able to play outside.  Poppa even took the boys for a ride with the lawnmower!

Santa and the fire department made a stop at our house later that day.  It was so odd being outside without being bundled up!

Santa gave all of the kids candy canes.  Christmas was right around the corner!

November Fun Stuff and Thanksgiving

Once the kids' football season was over, we moved over to basketball!

Ohio State offers this really cool game package where you get 4 tickets to 5 different home, weekend basketball games.  The first game, Colin and Danny went with our good friends that we met through the kids' last basketball season.  Danny, Colin, Mark, and Mason had a great time on campus.  Before the game, they swung by the football stadium.

Brutus stopped by to give the kids some high-fives!

After the game, the boys stopped by Adriatico's for an awesome pizza lunch!

While the boys were out enjoying Ohio State things, we had a fun girls afternoon of our own.  We headed over to Polaris Fashion Place and had some lunch at Raising Cane's.  To kill some time before their hair appointment, we did some shopping at Barnes and Noble.  The girls wanted to buy all of the books!  Finally, Cadence got her hair cut and styled while McKenna got her hair braided.  The girls strutted their stuff down the runway and took pictures at the selfie wall.  They were so cute!

We got a pretty first snowfall of the season.  Luckily, it didn't make the drive into work more difficult.

I had to document the kids after their flu shots.  They were so nervous before their shots (mainly Colin), that I had to capture their reactions afterward so that I can show them next time - to remind them that it's not so bad!  They were excited to have lunch at McDonalds after their shots.

Colin helped me with the blueberry pie for Thanksgiving.  He was a great helper.  It ended up prettier than it tasted.  It turned out too runny! Better luck next time.

My cousin, Michelle, was in town visiting her husband's family for Thanksgiving - they came over for a little visit and we got to meet Lilliana.  She was born in July, so she was just about 4 months old by the time we got to meet her.  She's such a good baby - and super cute!

Cadence wanted to hold Lilliana too. 😊

That night, we drove through the Fantasy of Lights at Alum Creek Lake.  They added a lot of new lights this year!

The kids have fun sticking out of the sun roof while we drive around.

Up next, it was time to decorate the house with Christmas decorations and put the ornaments on the tree.

Dizzert, our Elf on the Shelf, came back that weekend as well!

6th Grade Football Tournament

Cadence was pretty bummed after cheer was over - lucky for her, I received an e-mail from a cheer coach about the 6th grade football tournament.  Basically, all of the 6th grade boys (from all of the teams) combined to create the Big Walnut team to compete in a weekend tournament.  The girls practiced completely new cheers and a really cute half-time show during the week preceding the tournament.  Cadence had a lot of fun!