April 2017...

Our April started off with Spring Break.  We stayed home this year and we kept busy with the girls during the week.

 

We painted pottery with friends (and made Mother's Day gifts for Nana and Grammy).

 

We went to the Children's Museum with friends.

 

Girls got haircuts, had lots of play dates, went out to lunches and dinners and to a movie.  It was a full week, but lots of fun!

 

Easter this year, we went to church on Saturday evening and then up to Nana and Papa's on Sunday.

 

 

We celebrated Jeremy and Ashley's April birthdays on Easter afternoon.

Avery lost her first tooth!

  Maddy's class at school did some fun things this Spring as well.

 

They sang during chapel.  Maddy bailed during the first song, but we were able to coax her back up.

They had a beach day at school to celebrate filing their warm fuzzy jar!

This was the sweetest thing that her teacher posted on the class Facebook page.  Her little friend, Justin, had his mom write down their phone number so he could bring it into Maddy.  They wanted to set up a playdate!

We celebrate Jeremy and Ashley's birthdays again on Ashley's actual birthday.

 

 

Opening day for softball this year was FREEZING!



Avery lost another tooth at school.  Her teacher pulled it out for her and she got to bring it home in a tooth necklace.

 

The girls finished up their Awana year with an Awards program at the end of April.  They both did so great and memorized so much.  We are so proud of them!

March 2017...

I am way behind in blogging and trying to catch up over the past few months.  So here is what we have been up to by month.

Maddy did her first dance class at Wishes this Spring.  She did the same class that both of her older sisters did at this age.  She really enjoyed it and wants to do the recital class next year. 

 

 

HSE had a corporation wide art show and Kensley had several pieces in it.  So we were able to go to the high school to see all of her art displayed.

 

Maddy drew her first person so I wanted to document it. 

 

Maddy had crazy hair day at school so here she is with all of her bows and pony tails.

 

2017 so far...

A little recap of 2017 so far. 

 

Starting with NYE...we went over to our neighbors house for dinner and to hang out on NYE.  The girls had a blast playing with their friends and we let them stay up until 9 am (gasp!).  After we got them to bed, my mom came and stayed with them while we went to hang out at our friends house for a few hours.  It was a nice low-key night overall.

The girls went back to school on Tuesday after New Year's and we got back into the swing of the school schedule, Awana and gymnastics.  All three girls have been taking gymnastics for a few months.  The big girls on Thursday evenings and Maddy was taking on Thursday mornings...however now she is onto dance classes.

 

Over MLK weekend, we had friends come down from Chicago to visit us.  We had a great time hanging out and catching up.  We took them over to my sister's house to have dinner with them and my parents.  It was great to have our kids meet and play together.

On MLK day, we took the girls ice skating for the first time.  Everyone did surprisingly well!  Kensley and Avery loved it and they are begging to go back.

 

At the end of January, I had the chance to go up and visit with my college roommate for a few days and meet her new little boy (that was born in October).  We had a great time catching up.

 

Other random pics from the past month and a half.

 Mid-January we got to meet our friends' new little girl, Emerson Rose.

 Sweet sisters...curly hair on the left and matching on the right

Fun at Elli's painting birthday party.



 

 Nana and Papa had lunch with the big girls at school.

Avery dressed as a 100 year old for the 100th day of school.

Taking dinner to the Clark's

Little cutie

The girls ready to open their Valentine's present...the new Trolls movie!

 

Christmas 2016...

Christmas 2016 we ended up with the gift that seemingly keeps on giving...sickness that is passed throughout the family.  We had to cut our festivities short due to the stomach bug that rolled through the Brauchler Christmas, but all in all we had a great Christmas season.

 

Our first Christmas was the weekend before Christmas with the Zurcher family.  Unfortunately an ice storm rolled through the night before so we delayed our trip by a few hours, but the roads ended up being ok.  We all met at Nana and Papa's to open presents and have lunch.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

 

We celebrated with the Roberts side on Christmas Eve.  We started the day with brunch, then opened presents and the girls played.  Jeremy, Avery and Maddy came home for naps (Avery had been under the weather so she needed to rest) while Kens and I went to the 2 pm service at church to serve in the 3 year old class.  We all went to the 4 pm Christmas Eve service and then went back to Grammy and Grampy's for dinner and the Christmas story.

 

We came back home for our usual Christmas Eve traditions before bed.  We read the Night Before Christmas, sprinkled reindeer food in the front yard, said our good-byes and gave hugs to Sparkles and then set our cookies and milk for Santa.

Sunday morning we woke and had breakfast here followed by presents.  We spent the day relaxing at home, playing with new presents and rearranging bedrooms to make room for the new toys. 

New American Girl dolls brought by Santa

We left after lunch to head up to Nana and Papa's to celebrate.  We had dinner and then the adults opened presents after the kiddos went to bed.  This is when it all seemingly went south...Emery and Papa spent most of the night up with the stomach bug.  We were able to keep the kiddos entertained playing and watching movies for most of the morning and delayed present opening until everyone was awake and feeling better.  We relaxed after lunch, ate an early dinner and then we all headed back home.  The stomach bug has since been passed through the family.

 The new big blue elephant she asked Santa for.

 

New fake glasses for all the kiddos.

We are thankful for the generosity of family members and time spent together, regardless of the unexpected "gift" we all shared.  We are looking forward to 2017 and are hopeful for a great (and healthy) start to the year.