2016 - The Year in Review (So Far)

As we've done for the past few years, we've included the url to this place - our little family homestead on the web here - on our Christmas cards. (*Waves hello to those of you coming here because of that*)  Those of you curious enough to dig through the archives, you can do that by scrolling down, but perhaps the easiest way to navigate through the site is through a little bit of a summary.  We've grouped some of the posts by category below.

2016 brought lots of laughs and love.  Along with some travel, a few tearful goodbyes (See you later, Mais-a-roo! and 'Thanks for all the fish, Paw Paw'), a new addition (Lizzie!), a plan for where we're going to live (we bought a lot and started on construction!) and plenty of milestones (can you believe that we have a first grader!).  Through it all, our family of five has been so grateful and fortunate to share our year with the people we love.

So, let's check out what we were up to in 2016:

Milestones

• Frankie made his first emergency room visit for a pretty good cut on his chin
• Eloise started 'big girl soccer' at Immanuel Lutheran
• SD got an upgrade to her new 'big girl bike'
• Ellie was the top cookie seller in her Daisy Troop
• Jake introduce Frankie to his first ball and bat (White Sox branded, of course!)
• Eloise figured out how to traverse the Monkey Bars all by herself
• Eloise graduated from Kindergarten and there's video to prove it!
• We lost our dear, dear Maisy.  
• SD showed off her courage with animals and critters
• Frankie and his bestie cousin grew up to be such big guys this year
• We bought a lot for our new house!
• We added a goldfish to our family madness
• SD turned four and there's video to prove it.
• We celebrated Great Grampy Ray's 90th Birthday in Naperville
• Ellie went down the 'big' waterslide for the first time at the pool
• We marked the last night of summer with a 'camping in' movie night
• Eloise went off to First Grade!  At St. Mary's of Gostyn (with uniforms!)
• Natalie took Ellie to her first ever Cubs game at Wrigley Field
• We added a new puppy named Elizabeth Bennet to our family from Wisconsin
• Frankie turned 2 and Nat threw him an epic 'Monster Mash' party
• Eloise figured out SnapChat before her parents did...
• And we finally have a house plan.  Construction started on our new place in Downers.

Holidays

• The kids went wild at the annual Easter Egg Hunt at School
• We showered Nat with attention on Mother's Day
• The kids loved trick-or-treating as usual
• We celebrated Thanksgiving with our family and friends with good beer and two tasty meals
• SD served as a 'Star' during her Christmas performance

Travel

• We got all doll'd up for Charlie and Sasha's wedding in LA and we made a quick side trip to Disneyland while we were there!
• We spent Easter at Sea Island
• The girls went horseback riding at Sea Island
• We made a stop at WDW for Spring Break
• We took a trip to Europe to visit our cousins and the kids figured out how to use a bidet.
• The girls shared gelato with their cousins on Lake Como. No big deal, right?
• Nat got to share her Florence (south of the river, of course!) with all of us
• The kids ran down the dunes at Lake Michigan and picked peaches!
• We snuck away without the kids for a wedding in Cape Cod
• We went down to Champaign for a Fighting Illini football game
• We spent some time at Grammy and Granddad's place at Twin Lakes
• We went back down to our special place for a Holiday visit

Traditions

• We had a ball at the Daddy Daughter Dance in the Spring
• The girls came to work with Jake as part of 'Take your child to work day' at Edelman
• We got to go to a second Daddy Daughter Dance in the Fall
• Nat spread her influence over all three kids with the Cubs winning the World Series
• We took the kids to the polling place to vote with us 
• The kids met Santa and his reindeer at Wannamaker's
• We cut down our family Christmas Tree with a trip to Braidwood