Shooting Stars

The kids had a great Shooting Stars season... even though I apparently hardly took a picture?  Haha!  Josh got to coach Jake's team and help with Hannah's team this year!

Valentine's Day

It's funny how these "little" holidays, like Valentine's Day, become such big events when you have a lot of young kids!  We had a few days of fun celebrating Valentine's Day!

We were ahead of the game and got our cards in January!  Jacob chose to make Valentines with Strawberry Crush!  Hannah got puppy dog cards, and Aleah chose LOL Dolls.

Lucas had to get a donut while the kids were at school:

We had our very yummy, annual Valentine's Day Feast.  One of my favorite nights of the year!

The kids got a few small gifts:

And I got pictures from a few teachers of their day:

Valentine's Day is a great excuse to remind your family how very much you love them!

Grandma T's 59th Birthday

We had fun celebrating Grandma Teresa and Hadley at El Toro for lunch one day when school let out early!

Then we had more fun celebrating her along with the Super Bowl party at our house!  

We got her a shower curtain and rugs for her new bathroom and hope to paint her bathroom soon!

Gurtler Family Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with the Gurtler side on Christmas Night.  As the tradition goes, everyone got matching jammies!

Hannah got an oil diffuser set and a fitness tracker.

Jacob got a big lego set.

Aleah got a LOL doll set. 

Lucas got a wooden train set.

Downing Family Christmas

Downing Christmas was a whirlwind and apparently I didn't get many pictures!  As you can see in the picture above, everyone opens their gifts all at once, and trying to keep track of four kids and their gifts in the midst of all of the paper is crazy!  I did get a picture of Lucas in his new Mickey shirt and Mickey hat: 

We had three Christmases on Christmas Day (including ours at home), so it was a crazy day for sure!

Our Christmas Morning

This was our first Christmas at our new house!  

We set out food for the reindeer and for Santa:

Apparently, Lucas grabbed the closest shoes to the door:

Santa came:

The girls got mermaid sequin unicorn pillows:

Lucas got a Mickey car:

Jacob got a big Cubs logo for his wall:

Aleah got a kitchen set from Papa Steve:

Lucas got Mickey & some friends:

I made Josh a calendar for his office as I do each year:

We still had our traditional homemade donuts:

Then we got ready to go to Downing Christmas:

Christmas Fun

We had lots of fun Christmas events leading up to the big day.  First was The Festival of Trees:

Then we got to decorate our new house for the first time.  I was excited to have a mantle for the first time:

We went to see Christmas lights one night:

We celebrated Jesus' birthday in beginner worship:

We read our advent book each night:

The kids had their day show at school:

And then their night show:

Hannah was supposed to wear a tropical dress this year, so that was different!

Papa Steve and Grandma Teresa made it to the day show, and Papa Bob and Grandma Jody made it to the night show:

We made our annual snowman pizza:

I made 12 dozen sugar cookies this year, which was a HUGE project:

I made these for Jacob's class Grinch themed party:

I got a fun new mug at the staff Christmas party:

We went to the Christmas program at the library:

We dressed up for Christmas Sunday at church: