New Journey

I haven't posted in a while, not because we haven't been up to anything, but because we have been up too much...

At the beginning of January, Riley was offered a new position at work.  Along with this new opportunity comes a new location.  Riley accepted and will begin in Clay Center in the middle of March.  Clay Center is much closer to my job in Riley, so we will be moving.

We thought we would try selling our home on our own before contacting a realtor.  We cleaned our house, I posted photos on Facebook on Wednesday, and we had people reaching out immediately.  We showed our house on Saturday and were under contract by that evening.  Everything moved much faster than we could have ever anticipated.  We don't close on our house until the beginning of May so that gives us a bit more time to find a new home for ourselves.  Let the search begin!

A Baby and an Undergarment

As embarrassed as he will probably be some day, I just had to share this photo.

Oliver came walking out of my bedroom holding this up just as shown with a huge grin on his face.

I haven't laughed so hard in quite some time!

Banks Christmas & New Year's Eve

We celebrated Christmas with the Banks side on December 30th.  It was relaxing and a fun time catching up with everyone.

We also celebrated NYE the following day.  We played lots of games and enjoyed each other's company.  Some of us had too much to drink and threw up all over the bathroom.  

What a way to bring in 2017.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was spent with Riley's family.  

I think its safe to say, the amount of presents was a bit overwhelming!

These are my kind of ladies:

Christmas Morning

We had a quiet Christmas morning at Riley's parents house this year.  The rest of the crew didn't arrive until later so we had a nice relaxing morning with Ollie opening some gifts.

Riley did the majority of our shopping for Oliver.  He can handle this when everything he buys comes from work.

Santa brought him a tricycle.

Just as with the helmet the day prior, he was not too thrilled with his gift.  

(I know that he will love it once spring rolls around and we take it for a spin.)

He opened quite a special treat from grandma and grandpa.

Christmas Eve Tradition

Once Christmas Eve mass was over we headed to Riley's parents' house.  

Oliver got to open the traditional new Christmas jammies.  

(We also gave him another copy of The Night Before Christmas.  The one we gave him last year was one of those Hallmark recordable ones that I fear won't last forever.  I found a gorgeous hardback copy  of The Night Before Christmas in my Scholastic book order at school and I just couldn't pass it up.  I promise next year, he will not be receiving a third copy of the book for his third Christmas.)

It was way past someone's bedtime!

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve always begins with my dad's side of the family.  We get together at this beauty's place:

 

We decided not to do any gifts there this year.  Just get together and hang out, which was more than fine by me.

 

There was lots of good, yummy food, but of course, Oliver just wanted to eat junk.  His favorite was a green Rice Krispie wreath which made him look like he had eaten the Grinch.

  

  

Jello shots were also present, which is not out of the ordinary for this family.  My mother's jello shot taking skills are less than to be desired.

Oliver, however, took the jello shot opportunity to practice his fine motor skills with stacking.

 

 

 

 

After Christmas in Meriden, it was off to my parents' house. 

Santa had come so we checked out what was in our stockings.

Riley's typical demeanor toward me and my picture taking:

My parents got Ollie a helmet to go with the tricycle that Santa would be bringing him Christmas morning....he really wasn't a fan.

Following all the presents we ate supper and then went to church together.  Usually we get some family photos beforehand, but it just didn't happen this year.