'Tis the Season...

I've been out of pocket for a while. Been busy livin'. Or just the normal hub-ub of the holidays :) With the colder weather we have been doing more and more activities inside but here's a sneak peak at our lives lately:

This is how Sunday night looks like in the girls' rooms: Outfit planning for the week. The top is Izzy (note her dresses and leggings every day and hung up) while the bottom is Laney (not so many dresses but she loves having it all laid out...undies and all!). I leave the house by 6:30 every morning so we have to be organized at home for Mike to ready the girls each day.

Board games. The girls are getting to the age where they know the rules and don't cheat. It's actually quite enjoyable now!

Sneak peak at our holiday cards:

Lots and lots of napping. It's winter. We hibernate.

Occasionally we do gymnastics. And by we, I do include myself. 

Both Mike and I got new jobs in the last 2 months. Mike is with a new bank doing the same thing while I am at the same company in a new role as Associate Buyer in Women's Running Shoes. We had a lunch date a few weeks back to celebrate. Lots of change going on in our house...for the good!

We've made great new friends in our neighborhood that we often hang out with. Instead of drinking in our driveways or in our basements while the kids sleep we actually went out for dinner! Was a fun night. Let's just say we ran home instead of taking a cab. Not the greatest idea in the world. But the memories are worth it! 

Another night out was with these beautiful ladies. Was a mini #PSMEX13 reunion that didn't disappoint!

Chilly walks to the park to play with friends...

Daddy got new glasses and the girls love trying them on. I will admit that Mikey looks quite handsome in his new specs!

A few weeks ago we had severe weather come through central Indiana. Tornadoes tore apart an entire town just 20 miles north of us. The start of the day weather was unseasonably mild so we took a walk while we waited for the impending weather. Just 30 minutes after this post we were all hunkered down in the closet under our basement stairs listening to tornado sirens go off all around us. Was truly quite scary.

Had to share this pic of the girls wearing their Badger gear. Broke my heart to cheat on IU but they discovered the uniforms in their closets and just had to wear them. All day. Notice Laney is cheering with loofas. Ha!

I'm still CrossFitting. Five days a week, just no two-a-days at this time. That was exhausting. A few weeks ago Meggie asked me on the fly to participate in a 2 person team competition to raise money for a local shelter. Duh. I was in. With 48 hours' notice. Meggie and I did really well, even made it to the finals against a pretty legit team from Bloomington. Had a fun day with my girls (Meghan competed, too, and did amazing!).

My team from Bracket Buster is competing this weekend in another 4 person team competition so we've been putting in extra hours training together. I've been going to a local box near my house on the weekend and am loving the extra coaching we're getting there.

For Thanksgiving this year my side of the family came in to town again. Love that tradition of ours, spending Thanksgiving together. We've done that for almost 10+ years! My Aunt Gail, Uncle Thomas and mom all flew in on the Monday of Thanksgiving and stayed the whole week. Very special. We started the festivities off with a "Feast" at Laney's school. I've never been able to go to these before as I've always been at work. But this year I took that whole week off to spend with my family and was fortunate enough to attend this Pre-K celebration.

And of course we hosted our 2nd annual Hops Trot Thanksgiving morning. Our crowd was much larger this year and the weather was much colder. I handed out hand warmers as party gifts before we took off so as to keep the crowd of friends and family happy.

Izzy rode 1 mile on her bike before ditching it to get a free ride from my mom and aunt in the jogger.

Falciones

Jaims

We ran out of my butter spiced cider so mom just decided to go right for the hard stuff :)

My sister and niece ran the 5k as well (ahem, it was 3.6 miles...whoops!).

Tradition with my family is games. Be it dominoes or Rummikub. If there is a dull moment we pop open a game. Whoever isn't in the kitchen cooking or taking a nap is playing. This year Izzy joined in on the games and actually did very well (Rummikub is a numbers game/analytical and her little mathematical brain just exploded with excitement).

Fun with cousin Dylan's hat

The whole family

Last weekend we got a few inches of snow and the girls were chomping at the bit to get outside to eat snow. And eat snow they did. A lot of it.

We have a small hill behind our house and the girls would slide down and run back up for another go at it. Over and over. Then Mike attached the dog leash (it's multi functional) to the sled and took off. Giggles ensued as they were pulled back and forth across the backyard. Not sure who had more fun :)

All the decorations are up at our house and I love coming home to the glow of Christmas tree lights in the front window. One more week of work and we're off for almost 2 weeks. Special time with family. The magic of Santa on Christmas morning. I can't wait!