Christmas Tree and Gingerbread House

The second weekend of December, we went out to Prince Tree Farms with my parents for our annual Christmas tree trip.  We found them pretty fast this year, and were back home by lunch.  Will did pretty good with the cold and snow.  Kate and Liv loved it - they would've walked around and played in the snow all day.

our family of 5

Kate and daddy with our tree

Liv and Grandma

snow angels!

Later that day, we broke out the gingerbread house kit, and the girls worked together to put it together and decorate it.  Kate was all about decorating the house.  Liv just wanted to eat all the candy.  With a little help from daddy, it turned out beautiful:)

This is how you decorate the Christmas tree when you're 5 and you can't reach any higher...

And this is how you decorate the tree when you're 2 and you find a good branch...

FMG with friends

We met the Johnson's at Frederik Meijer Gardens one Tuesday morning.  Everything was decorated for Christmas, and it was so fun for the kids to play together in the Japanese Play Room.  Yay for friends!

Christmas Cookies!

We made Christmas cookies while Matt was working a long weekend.  It was quite a mess, as you can see, but super fun!

Will 8 Months!

Kate's 5th Rainbow Birthday Party

Kate picked a rainbow theme for her birthday party this year.  We had a lot of fun with food and decorations, and even more fun spending time with family.  

FIVE!

I really can't believe Kate turned five in November.  All the birthdays have been bittersweet, but five just seems so old! 

Kate got to go to school on her birthday (it was a Monday), and she gave all of her friends a bouncy ball.  After school, we met up with Grandma Kadzban, Uncle Bryan, and Aunt Lisa (they were still in town from my grandpa's funeral) for lunch at Jimmy Johns - Kate's choice:) She opened her gifts from us after dinner.  We had a really fun day.

At five years old...

• Kate is almost 45 inches tall, and oh, so skinny.  
• She loves school and enjoys learning.  
• She can be very thoughtful and sweet, and also very wild and crazy at times.  
• She's sensitive and inquisitive, always wanting to understand why things work the way they do and how things work.  
• She's a lover, and she's bossy.  
• She loves to organize things and create things.  
• She likes reading and she loves hidden pictures and playing games.  
• When she grows up, she wants to be an artist.  
• Her favorite foods are steak and edamame, but she's a really good eater - she eats fruits and vegetables that most other 5 year olds would not touch - and she eats most meat, too.  She also loves sweets.  Pretty sure she gets that from me:)
• Her current favorite movie is Tangled.
• She loves playing outside, usually with friends, but sometimes with Olivia.
• She really likes coloring, and is getting very good at it!