Graduation jaunt

 Had a fabulous weekend up in Minnesota for my nephew's high school graduation.  It's so crazy... I remember him as big as Sarah here & now he's coming to college in the fall! 

 Gathered in the always popular room:  the kitchen.  This was our first time in their new house.  It's beautiful & open!

 Sarah with her lovely cousin Clara

 Andrew was thrilled to have a nice big screen with cousins to play some games.  When they weren't glued down here they were running around outside like wild animals... not real conducive to photos.

 Teresa, Rebecca, & Maria had a fabulous time together.  Maria is so amazing with littles.  When Teresa came in to wish me good morning on Monday, she asked, "HOW MANY more days until we see Maria again?" 

Congratulations, Michael! 

So excited to see what God has in store for you.

ZOO

What do you do when cousins are in town?
Go to the zoo, of course!

 Teresa LOVES Maria.  Everything she does is awesome. 

 Petting the flying squirrel

 Two of a kind

Such fun!  Glad we could go with you, cousins!  

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! 
Rebecca started off the morning with a bang by finding her basket hidden in the bathtub right after waking up.

Sarah followed suit not long after when she crawled directly to hers hidden under the jumperoo.

 Teresa found hers in the ottoman.  She adores this light up Princes Sophia spinner!

 Andrew had a pretty extensive search before he found his hidden in our room in the old ottoman under some pillows. 

 After the initial diving in, we headed downstairs to find all the eggs that were hidden.  Lots of good ones!  The group favorite was one held up by darts on the dart board.

 Back upstairs for breakfast 

 Rebecca trying out her bubble spinner 

 After a beautiful, packed 10:30 Mass we were delighted to find our cousins waiting in back to say hi before they headed to Green Grandpa's.

 We ran home to change & headed over to my sister Cara's house where Red Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Fr. Jon, & my sister Chris' families were all awaiting us. 

 We had way too much fun with these huge Easter eggs.

 

 Fabulous food & conversation with those I love. 

(Look at Dad's face!  Ha!)

 In between bursts of rain the littles had another egg hunt out back.

Most of the crew

Such a fun group!  Glad we could all be together.

Happy birthday, Mom!

 To celebrate my mama's 70th birthday, we had a girls' weekend in Omaha!  It was so fun to be with her, my sisters, & a couple of my nieces.  We started off the weekend on Friday night with Stations of the Cross at this gorgeous St. Peter's Church.  It was incredible!

 Uncle Fr. Jon generously drove Sarah & I to Omaha, so he was able to join us for the evening.  My Dad also brought Mom to town so he hung out on Friday night as well.  We were sorry to be missing Doug!

 We had a delicious dinner at Upstream Brewery.

 These little ladies did amazingly well, considering how much high chair, stroller, & carseat time they had to endure.  They were hilarious together & a constant source of snuggly entertainment.  We stayed at the Magnolia hotel which was beautiful.  Spent a good deal of time relaxing in this loft room... a little too much when we probably should have been in bed!

 My mom is a tea aficionado, so after a leisurely breakfast & some Old Market shopping we had proper tea on Saturday afternoon at the beautiful Crook Manor.  It was General Crook's 1860s home at Fort Omaha full of antiques & stories.  I think that Dad would have loved it, too!  I giggle now every time that I use a tea bag thinking how much it would disgust our Tea Guide Mona.  Goodness she knew a lot about tea.  She was a riot!

 Sarah enjoyed some of the egg salad sandwiches & sugar cookies.

 Lily was just too busy to sit down & enjoy her tea.  Lots to do, lots to do!

 We went back to relax at the hotel prior to Saturday evening Mass at St. Peter's.  Afterwards we had a delectable dinner at Vivace & way too late of a night laughing in the loft.  Chris brought a personality assessment that was a little too easy to predict in our group... found out I'm gold & blue.  No surprises there!

I didn't take any more photos (waiting on some goodies from my lovely sisters) but they wouldn't do the time justice anyway.  It was wonderful.  It was much needed.  It was such a gift to be together without a million monkeys running around like usual.  So thankful! 

Happy birthday, Mom!  Hope we can do it again next year!

Christmas Eve

Day #2 at the farm added Melissa & Cara's families into the mix. With more people, more noise, & more excitement, taking photos barely crossed my mind! Then all families but ours & my parents headed out to the children's Mass. We helped Mom prep for our Christmas Eve dinner.Though we usually go disposable for sanity's sake, on Christmas Eve we dress it up a bit. Here's the little kids' table.

The big kids' table

The adults' table

& yumminess. We've had soup & hors d'oeuvres for Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. "The usual" never gets old!The new tree in the new sunroom that my Dad built was surrounded by gifts for our cousins' exchange & adults' exchange.

The tree in the family room (besides being surrounded by Chris' family) was surrounded by the rest of the gifts. I couldn't believe the abundance! But when you have that many people together, even frugal gift-giving looks overflowing!

Dinner was fabulous & jolly. Thanks, Mom! Teresa was most interested in getting Nicholas to laugh. "Tickle, tickle, Nichol."