Random November pics

Here is our random November photo bomb!!

Me and "the twins". I mean, the totally could be, right?

Miss 'tella face wearing her mouse ears that Vivian gave her.

Evie's bathroom artwork. At least it was crayon, and on tile... And yes, she drew her masterpiece while sitting on the toilet.

Task master Daddy made her clean it off! Hopefully that will cure her from bathroom art from now on...

Sunday fun day! Jon and I at one of the Colts games.

I am Doctow Evie, Supew-hewo!!

Ollie and the birthday card that he made for Lukey. Mike was in Indy on business, so we were able to send Luke's birthday gift and card back with him! He came over for dinner one night while he was in town, and it was so great to see him and catch up!

Oliver wearing the Karate kid headband that Luke sent him from Japan. He wore it to school every day that week!

Littlest (and cutest) Wabash fan!

Seriously, girl clothes are the best! Could she get any cuter??

Milk drunk at Ollie's swim lesson!

Blueberry pancakes are my favorite!

Snack time on the kitchen floor.

Playing in the leaves! What a gorgeous day.

Cheese!

Mom's 60th

On Friday night, we had one more surprise for Mom! We took her out and had a little surprise party with some of her close friends. Poor Jon stayed home with the kids since we don't have an Elkhart babysitter. It was a fun night, and mom enjoyed herself! Every time someone walked into the bar where we were waiting, she had such a look of shock on her face! We are so glad that she had a great birthday.

Our fam

The girls and Mom

Mom and Dad's crazy sword dinner! Our waiter was a guy that we had gone to church with growing up, so that was kind of fun too. Thanks to everyone who came to help celebrate!

Gingerbread houses

On Friday, we got all of the cousins together again for more playtime and fun! A few years ago at Thanksgiving, we had a gingerbread house competition. This year, we decided to do it again, although having all of the kids help out was a different element... They had a great time though, and ran around and had fun while Erin, Kylie and I finished up our masterpieces.

Playing games with Grandma

Evie helping mix the frosting.

Our house had a little mishap... It did not travel well.

Later I re-iced the entire thing so it would hold together better. Here are the Rans house, Haug House and Hamm house!

60 years of memories

Thanksgiving night, we had a big surprise for Mom. Her 60th birthday was November 30th, and Erin, Kylie and I had put together "60 Years of Memories" for her birthday present. We sent out an e-mail to family and friends asking them to send a memory of mom, and then we put each one in an envelope for her to open and read. It was so much fun to see what everyone had to say! Mom was very surprised, and loved it! It was such a neat present. We made her a book to put all of the letters in so she could read them whenever she wants to.

Opening the box.

And reading through her memories.

Happy birthday, Mom!

Turkey Day!

This year we headed up to E-town for Turkey Day. We drove up Wednesday, and had such a great visit. The kiddos love playing with their cousins, Mom always makes fabulous food, and we finally got to meet Ty, the giant dog! I was pretty busy eating and drinking, but did get a few pics!

Here are the Thanksgiving crafts that the kids and I made. They were off of school the entire week, so it kept us occupied before we left!

I also found these cute felt Turkey tie shirts on Pinterest, and made them for the boys!

Evie LOVED Ty, but got a little scared when he would start chasing her. He is so gentle and sweet, but big, so she was a bit overwhelmed.

Ty loved Elliot too. Probably mostly because he had just eaten lunch and had some food on his face and hair that Ty was all too happy to help clean off!

The only picture we got of the three kids. Elliot looks like he is ready to cry for help! We are so very thankful for our beautiful children.

O-ster and Lanie.

Elliot's first Turkey Day!

Little E and Daddy.

Ollie playing with Papa's bell. It's his favorite thing! He likes to pretend he is the train conductor.

Watch out for these two! Evie and Ryder always have fun together!

Kid's table!

Jon and Ollie being silly the next morning.

And I had to include this picture of Evie's school project. I mean, who wouldn't be thankful for rocks?? In her other class she said she was thankful for her family, so I let this one slide. ;)

10 year anniversary NYC

The week of our anniversary, Jon was out in NYC on a business trip. We were fortunate enough to have Gramma 'Rie come babysit for a few days so I could fly out and meet him for a long weekend to celebrate our 10-year anniversary! It is amazing how quickly 10 years can fly by. I guess we have accomplished a lot though-travel, double grad school for Jon, several jobs, two homes, and three beautiful children. We have a really great life, and had a fabulous weekend to celebrate it!!

I popped into Harry and Izzy's at the airport for lunch before flying out. I have never been a great flier, so had a delicious Bloody Mary before to help calm my nerves. It was a pretty good flight until just outside of NYC when we hit some wake turbulence. I didn't even know that this was a thing, but apparently there was a big jet in front of us, and we were in the same flight path. Not fun, and the lady next to me was freaking out!! I think that's what the tiny passengers on Ollie's planes feel like when he throws them across the room... We landed safe and sound though, and I jumped in a cab and headed to check in to our hotel and meet Jon.

View from our hotel room. Love the big city!!

Our first night in Times Square. We saw Once on Broadway, which was fabulous! Then we headed over to a Cuban restaurant to grab a snack before bed.

Friday was our anniversary. We ended up going to lunch, because dinner reservations were almost impossible to get at the fancy restaurants! Jon called right when the reservation line opened up and was on hold for 45 minutes. They were completely booked for dinner by the time he got through, but we took a lunch reservation. It actually worked out great! It was a 3 hour multi-multi course menu of fabulous food, and we loved it!!

Us in Eleven Madison Park for our anniversary meal.

Cheers to us!

After eating all of that wonderful food, we got to take a behind the scenes tour of the kitchen. So cool! We asked about a billion questions, and the kept bringing us treats. We loved it!!

After our lunch, we went back to our room and took a nap for a few hours. We then regrouped and headed out for a long walk through NYC, and ended up cabbing to Little Italy for another great meal! 9 pm dinner was perfect.

Window at Anthropologie. Jon had walked by earlier in the week and there were artists in the window hand painting these nesting dolls. How crazy is that??

30 Rock

On Saturday we met up with our friends Ali and Jeff for brunch at Park Avenue Autumn near Central Park. After another fabulous meal, we walked for a long while through Central Park.

We hung out and strolled for a few hours, and then went back to relax a bit before getting dressed up and meeting them again for dinner at Catch. Yes, we ate our way through NYC and loved every minute of it!! What a great weekend.

Geese!

Every fall, Jon's dad gets some special 'nusiance permits' to goose hunt on area farmer's land. Jon always tries to go out with him at least once or twice. Usually when he goes hunting, he brings home already butchered meat in a nice plastic bag that goes straight into our freezer. For some reason on this day, he brought home two whole geese. The kids thought it was great! I opted to stay inside while they butchered them on a board on the kid's picnic table. Gross!! They thought that it was awesome though... And for all of you anti-hunters out there, we did eat goose that night for dinner. We even had our neighbors over, and they all thought it was delicious. Probably the freshest meat I have ever eaten!!

This guy is heavy!

Here they are!

Of course this guy is so excited. He can't wait to go out hunting with Daddy and Papa sometime soon!

Playing with the goose. He is making him say hi!

And using his beak to scratch his wing...

Time to carve them up!

Goose leg.

Of course this one is in on the action...