Thanksgiving in Iowa

Our Thanksgiving was spent in the great town of Marshalltown, IA at Chelsea's grandparents house.  It was the first time that we took Ace to another person's house for an extended period of time and he did great.  The weekend was spent playing games, eating food and shopping on Black Friday.

Here Chelsea is playing Bocce Ball with Grandpa, Uncle Brian
and his girlfriend Justean while Ace looks on.  Every time someone
threw a ball, Ace would freak out and try and go after it.  :)

Grandpa with a good toss.

Chelsea about to dominate this round.  Ace giving encouragement.

Here Grandma Jan is busy preparing the feast inside.

Playing some Wizard after a battle in Bocce Ball.

Cousin Tori and Ace bonded pretty quickly.

From L to R: Josh, Caitlyn, Taylor and Emily playing a game.

Playing some cribbage.

Chelsea, Aunt Brenda and soon to be Uncle Dan looking
through the ads to prepare for the deals on Black Friday.

My view from the aisle in Walmart at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Over my right shoulder, Chelsea is down the way a little
waiting to snag some $6 jackets for the younger girl cousins.

Jon helping teach Cousin Drake hope to bid in Wizard.

Grandpa and Uncle Brian fell asleep watching....

Cinderella!!!  :)  No children were even in that room.  Pretty funny.

After a (TIRED) Black Friday success!
Jon, Chels, Aunt Brenda and Dan

While we were shopping, we kept Ace at Aunt Brenda's house.
Ace loved hanging out with Brenda's dog and Dan's dog.
Here are the three amigos.  :)

On the ride home from shopping, Tori holding Ace.

We had a lot of fun with the Aunts and Uncles, Grandma and Grandpa and all the cousins while in Iowa.  Thanks for the fun times and we look forward to seeing you all again soon!

CFRM Certificate, Young Roads Game Night, Dinner w/ Cousins

On November 13, Jon completed his final course at Indiana University to earn his Certificate in Fund Raising Management. After taking four courses this past year, Jon was happy to be done.  Next up for Jon: starting his Masters in Philanthropy from St. Mary's University in Minnesota in July.

  

 The second full week of November/third weekend of November was pretty busy.  On Friday, November 16, we hosted a game night with some of our friends from the Bible Study we lead at church, Young Roads.  The night was great and included several fun games: poker with muscle men as the chips, Just Dance and Michael Jackson's Thriller Dance on Wii, Catch Phrase and Careers.

Jen hates standing in the middle; not sure why she feels that way... :)

The Wills, Val and Chels 

CU Tennis!  Go dogs.  Jon, Jer and Kyle

Some of the guys from Young Roads.
Jonathon, Jon, Aaron and Dustin

Breanna, Chelsea and Val getting ready to show their moves.
(Jen, Kate and Michelle watching intently in the background.)

While some of the ladies were dancing, Kyle dominated the
guys in poker with his first hand, getting four of a kind!

Kyle, Jer and Jonathon playing some Michael Jackson Thriller. 

Kyle was getting really into it.  Look at that concentration...

We looked over, and all of a sudden, Ace was climbing Aaron.
It was kind of funny because Aaron hadn't made any noise
or made it aware that he was being annoyed by Ace.  :) 

A little catch phrase is always a great group game.  Jeremy's
clues were the best.  Everyone else would agree with that.  :)

Michelle was lucky enough to be on the guy's team.
She looked thrilled... :)

The next day, on Saturday, November 17, Jon's cousin, Sandra and her fiancee, Lonny, had us over for dinner and games.  Chelsea had been invited to Sandra's bridal shower but was unable to attend since she was in Montana.  Part of the shower, every person was supposed to give a gift for every hour of the day, and Chelsea was assigned 1 p.m.  What's better than a board game after lunch?  So, we bought her the Game of Life because Jon remembered playing that game with Sandra and her brother Luke while at Grandpa and Grandma Schleicher's house when they were growing up.

Lonny ended up dominating everyone in the game but it was
still a fun time and a great meal.  Thanks Sandra & Lonny!

Billings Visit to See JAJC

The second weekend in November, we flew to Billings to watch Kailea's state volleyball but also to see Jon's brother and sister-in-law, Jason & Amy.  It was great to spend time with our two newest nephews, Jaden and Cody, who had just turned 5 months old.

Jaden and Cody recently have noticed each other more.  It's pretty cute.

One of the days where they were wearing the same outfit.

Jaden and Cody love the stacking cups and Cody especially
likes knocking them over and making us rebuild them.  :)

Uncle Jon feeding Cody.

Aunt Chelsea feeding Godson Jaden.

One of the many times rebuilding the cups.

I love Cody's (Brown shirt) face. "I'm gonna get it...."

Both boys were usually pretty content and happy our entire
time together. Jon sympathized with Amy for how hard it is
to hold both boys at the same time.

Uncle Jon reading the boys a book we had gotten for them.

Jason and Amy have feeding twins down to a science.

Love this picture!

Jaden is pretty cute too.  :)

Uncle Jon making the boys laugh.

While Amy took Chelsea to go look for winter clothes for the
boys at Target and then to get coffee, Jason and Jon got the
guys to nap while they enjoyed watching some football.

Amy and Chelsea with their coffee from CityBrew.
Thanks for the treat Amy! 

Another perk of visiting JAJC is getting to see our college
friend, Katie (Douglas) Mlnarik. Katie teaches at Jason &
Amy's school and she and Josh worshipped with us on
Saturday evening.  It was great to see you both Mlnariks!

We even found some time to play some cards.
Jason & Amy destroyed us in Rook.

Special thanks to our friend Karen who watched Ace for us
while we were in Montana for four days.  Karen has her own
dog and two cats at home and Ace loved every minute at
her house!  Thanks again for watching Ace and taking
such great care of him.  He was sad to leave.  :)