December 2016

Joy, a feeling of great pleasure and happiness, is exactly what comes to my mind when I reflect on the month of December!  Although, it is always incredibly busy and somewhat exhausting, my heart inevitably is filled with joy:)

The month begins typically with our basketball team adopting a family to buy gifts for.  We use it as a way to help our girls experience doing a great deed for others.  I usually bring my kids along to also be a part of the experience and of course they always find a way to act goofy:)

 After we shop we always head back to GISH to wrap up the gifts!  

Next up for our family was the Christmas program at church.  Reeve was again an angel and Joden was a shepherd.  He got to have a few speaking parts for the first time and did very well!

 Reeve with her good friend Ellie.

This picture is for sure an example of joy in my heart.  I absolutely love being their mom and watching them become such great friends/siblings!

Basketball games have officially began!  We are off to an exciting season.  Last year was definitely a year where we had to persevere through tough times so that we could see some payoff this year!  Varsity is sitting at 4-5, which is double our wins from last year.  As for our 3 other teams, they all currently have winning records.  Let's hope we keep moving forward in the same direction!

JV crew

Freshman crew

Practice action

Love that my kids get to hang out in the gym with me!

Holiday tournament



Varsity crew after going 2-1 at our holiday tournament in Lincoln and getting 5th place!  

So I was planning to host a team brunch at my place, but the weather had other plans.  This is the picture I sent the girls showing them how much food I had to somehow eat without them!


One Saturday while I was away for a basketball game Mike helped the kids build this little house:)
 



Another joy and first for us was watching Reeve perform at the downtown Christmas.  With this being her first year of dance, she had the option to perform for the downtown Christmas and we thought why not!  She had a blast and we even hit up the Happy Brush afterwards to do some painting!
 

 

It seems as if there are always many exciting Christmastime events going on.  One our church puts on is an Advent Dinner I believe it is called.  We actually just have dessert and coffee:)  My friend Angie and I decided to team up to decorate/host a table this year.  Here is a picture of our table, which we thought turned out pretty darn good!  And of course our company was wonderful:)


Reeve got to dress mismatched for the letter M.  I just love her so much:)
 

A snapshot of my students working on a task that they will have to be assessed on this spring for the state of Nebraska.  It was so hard for them, but many of them did fairly well on this practice task!



My wonderful, patient husband helped make sugar cookies for our annual cookie decorating!  We have been doing this for 9 years now and this was my 2nd time to host.  I knew Mike would be great at making the sugar cookies because he is very precise with everything he does!  


All dressed and ready for their Christmas program!  This is definitely another great example of joy...I truly cannot believe they are both in school now, but at the same time I love all these fun moments watching them mold into their little selves:)


Gates has a tradition where they bring all students on stage at the end to sing.  It truly is a very beautiful way to end their concert each year!




Christmas for us began on Friday the 23rd.  That morning before we headed off to Sidney the kids opened gifts from Mike and I.  For some reason Joden decided to do so in his undies:)

 Next up I surprised Mike with the truck he had been wanting.  He basically had all the details discussed with Blake, the car salesman, so I just had to tell him I was ready to finalize everything.  Funny thing was Mike tried to do the same thing with Blake after I did-so Blake had to blow him off:)  

 We finally made it to Sidney!  Joden enjoyed snuggling with the dog while we played some cards:)

 Here we are all dressed up for church on Christmas Eve.  

 Mike took Joden hunting with him, so unfortunately he had some allergies afterwards:(

We took many pictures from Christmas morning so here are just a few!  
-Nate got Kati a shotgun

-Kati got Nate a kegerator

-Joden gave Uncle Dan a hat

 
-Then Joden gave himself a dress:)

Snuggles with one of my favorite people!

 Crazy weather on Christmas day, but hey in the end it was a white Christmas!

 Later on the Hausmann crew came over so we opened a few more gifts!

Joden is always goofy and I think Nate's belly was full:)
 
Mike's dad kept telling me he wanted to win the lottery for Christmas so we got him a box full of lottery cards:)

Playing the mouth game resulted in lots of laughs and slobber!

 Nana building legos with Joden!

After we left Sidney we stopped by my parents house at the lake to do a quick Christmas!

 He was so pumped about this gift he held it while he slept on the way home!

 Reeve's after Christmas gift was a fever for 3 days so she napped every day.  Luckily she did not have any other symptoms!  

 I had really wanted to try the new brewery in town, so in between Christmas and basketball we were able to sneak away one night for just a few hours to go on a date!  The beer was delicious and my favorite was a coffee one:)  We will for sure go again some time!

Joy is for sure snuggling up with my 3 kids:)  Sometimes my lap is not quite big enough--especially as the kids get bigger!

During the holiday basketball tournament I took Joden one night so Reeve insisted she go on a date with her dad:)  They played arcade games and ate at Sonic!  I just love that she loves doing this with her dad:)
  

We enjoyed New Years Eve with our dinner group in our pajamas!  We played a few Minute to Win It games and then just relaxed before toasting with some champagne at the end of 2016.  Joy is spending time with our dinner group, which we have now done for 8 years.  They are just like family to us all and we are very thankful for this gift.  

The girls decided to stuff Joden with the toilet paper we used for one of our games:)  Wish my picture would have turned out clearer.

May the God of hope fill you all with joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
-Romans 15:13

November

November 
Busy is definitely a good word to describe the latter half of November.  Basketball has begun, resulting in more stress--but it truly is a good stress!  God has for sure blessed my whole family with an amazing basketball family and for that we are very grateful:)

My students did a lot of group work this month and here is a snap shot where they were working with partners!

Joden wrote a riddle and got selected to go to the PTA meeting to read his riddle.  He is flying through elementary school, which is bittersweet, but also amazing to watch him grow each year!

We went to the Stoddards for a football game and Reeve snapped some pictures of us:)

Amongst all the chaos I am trying to be diligent about reading the Bible 10 minutes each day.  When I opened up my Bible the day after the election this verse was comforting in a time of uncertainty!

This is a great example of God blessing us with a great basketball family.  Alex is our head coach and this is his sone Miles opening his gifts for his first birthday.  We have grown very close with them and enjoy hanging out often!

 All the kids helping Miles out:)  

Every year right before season we (maybe more so I) enjoy going to a Husker women's basketball game as a family.  We enjoyed some sushi and watched the Huskers pick up a W.  Great times had by all!

Mike's passion that he is passing on to our children!  Sadly it is not a passion of mine....but I am thankful Mike is very passionate about deer hunting and shows our children each part of the process. What kills me though is that this man hates needles, but will clean a deer!!!

While they were cleaning deer I was decorating for Christmas!

And the first week of practice began...

Craft project I did with my sister!

Kids' idea to take a goofy selfie!  Love being their mama:)

In lieu of Thanksgiving I taught my students how to shake hands with others properly and also had them share something they are grateful for.  

Teambuilder:  With only a scooter and a jump rope get from one end of the court to the other.  I think we for sure had some cheaters:)  

This man is my rock!  I say it often and will say it always--God definitely blessed me with one truly amazing man:)

 Mike's family stopped by my sisters Wednesday night prior to Thanksgiving.  It was good to see them all!

 My sisters:)

 Licking the mixers from the mash potatoes!  They loved it:)

 Uncle Mike with Anslee<3

 Stem activities for the kids!  They had fun with it:)

 Some of my favorite people on Thanksgiving day!

 Cousins enjoying a game of Sorry before bed!

 Reeve wrote this in the car on the way home from Aunt Lindsey's :)

Ready for the jamboree game we had against Hastings.  I sure love doing fun things with Reeve's hair!

  
Jamboree game in Hastings to kick of our season!  I sure love getting the opportunity to coach every single one of these girls!  They hold a special place in my heart and I am incredibly thankful for this journey God has led me on.  

Great way to end the month...finding this picture on my phone that I did not know my kids took.  This is a great visual of their personalities.  They light up my life and make me smile each and every day.