Happy GOLDEN Birthday, Chad Ryan!!

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It’s true.

Our gentle giant, Chad Ryan, is now 18 years old!

Eighteen on the eighteenth of December!!

We were blessed to be able to celebrate Chad with a meal of his choice, some gifts, and a delicious cake!

And I have exactly five photos of it all, thank you very much!

Chad chose marinated grilled steak, hasselback potatoes, green beans with bacon, a tossed salad and a fruit salad.

It was yummy!

Please take note of Chad’s fan club!!

Addie Mae made Chad’s cake!

We decided that we need to start making two cakes so there is enough to go around, ha, ha!

Chad’s Mama may have been the only one having ALL of the feelings that day!

They are all growing up way too fast for my liking!

Chad, you bring so much life to our lives and our home!

You are such a hard worker, full of quick wit that keeps us laughing, a good big brother and uncle, and a good friend to have!

We are SO thankful for you!!

Happy, Happy Birthday, Chad Ryan!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

December School Days

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We took a nice Christmas break, but we did have several weeks of school in December before that.

We have been doing a lot of very fun things, and we are doing them TOGETHER!

Ahhh, such a favorite!

The beginning of December brought our Advent Calendar – a book we have loved before and loved again.

The kids enjoy putting an ornament on the tree each day after our reading!

The beginning of December also brought Christmas hymns to our worship time.

We have some favorites that we like to sing!

It is always a goal of mine to have music playing in the house at some point throughout the day, so we listened to a lot of them too.

We stayed mostly on track those first weeks of December, but had a bit more flexibility in our schedule for the busyness the month brought.

Each day, no matter what was going on, we had our Bible time together, read aloud, and piano practice and lessons!

Those two cuties are excelling quickly in their piano skills, and their Mama had to up her game and study a bit to keep up with them.

I took piano lessons as a child but never continued with it and it has actually been fun to learn with Tate and Eliza!

We have read some GREAT books this year, and A Place to Hang the Moon is an all time favorite now!

We always made room for our water coloring art classes as well!

I LOVE water color as much as they do!!

Now that Christmas break is over, we are back into full days of school.

January through March usually brings the quietest time of year for us, as it is just so cold outside and we do not have as many things on our schedule!

There will be lots more school day posts to share!!

It is a BIG part of our world here!

If you haven’t read a good book or tried your hand at painting, I would encourage you to do so!

It is more fun than you would think!!

Happy New Year, friends!!

Here’s to some fun school days ahead!

The Rotary of Lights

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Every year for probably the last five years or so, some (or all of us!) have volunteered for an evening at the Rotary of Lights Christmas lights display in December.

This was the first year that I went along, and I hope to not miss it again!

There were a couple of years that Tate and Eliza were just too little, and another year where the weather was really bad – so I had stayed home with them.

Team Moschel was all together that night this year!

It was SUPER FUN!!

The weather was good for it this year – cold – but not windy, snowing, raining, or sleeting.

Our jobs were to collect money and food donations, load the food truck, and to direct traffic.

We were mostly together the whole night, except when Grant and Lane would run together to other drop off points to gather the food donations to go onto the food truck.

I stood at the spot where the cars were leaving the drive-though display holding the donation bucket and must of said “Merry Christmas! Don’t forget to turn your headlights back on!” close to 2,356 times, ha, ha!

I always had someone next to me to grab the food donations and put them in the truck.

We worked a two hour shift, and Chad was on traffic duty the whole time.

He really enjoy it!

After our shift was over we walked through the light display all together.

Some of us were getting tired!

What a fun night and a wonderful Christmas tradition to have with the kids!

This is organized through Blake’s work, and we are always so thankful for how much they get involved in supporting our community!

We always do this the first weekend of December, and it is a great start for that month.

Do you all have fun traditions like this too that you do with the whole family?

Here’s to many more years of the blessing of participating in this, Lord willing!!

The Rotary of Lights is a beautiful place to be!!

A Family Outing

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I messaged Kayla one morning on marco polo to ask if the kiddos and I could come over that day after their afternoon rest time to love on those grand babies.

Of course she said yes!

I told her we would be over but then we planned to go to town to meet Blake, eat at Chipotle, and run errands afterward.

She messaged me right back and said “can we join you for dinner and errands in town?”

Tate and I gave each other a huge high five before we messaged Kay back to say OF COURSE!!

Addie was off of work that day, and Chad decided to come to town to meet us too!

We headed to Kay’s (Lane stayed with Chad) but didn’t stay at the farm long as we wanted to get to town early enough to accomplish all the things!

We had a two car caravan to town through the most beautiful and longest ridge top sunset I have ever seen!

We started our town adventure at Target to help Kayla get the things she needed.

Seeing the world through these kiddos eyes was inspiring and hilarious at the same time!

If you are counting kiddos in this next photo, like I did the ENTIRE time we were in that store (ha ha), don’t worry!

Briar is in the cart – can you see a bit of her little blond head behind River?

Next up was dinner at Chipotle.

We accomplished the goal of filling all the bellies with yummy food!!

Chad followed Kay to her next stop to help her with her grocery pick-up orders, and the rest of us headed to the grocery store to get our own grocery.

Two huge carts full!!

Things like this are what my dreams are made of!!

Just doing life TOGETHER.

We were just missing David and Grant!!

I have a few Chipotle gift cards in my wallet so we will have to do this again soon!

It was a super fun outing and gave the kiddos a chance to experience town during the crazy Christmas season!!

In full disclosure, I do not like to shop….but I LOVE to shop when I have kiddos and grand babies that make it so much fun!!

Memories made and memories kept!!

I love making memories with my crew!!

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