The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The weekend after thanksgiving we pulled out the christmas tree and ornaments.  The kids were so excited to get the tree up.  We had a fun time decorating and the kids did a very good job being careful with each ornament.

my sweet girl

nolan pretending to drink out 

of the hot chocolate smore

my cuties

hot coco

gracie was really into putting up all the red berries on the tree

and for the boys it ended with wrestling

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a Wonerful Holiday with Family and Friends.  That you are blessed and that you have an amazing new year!

Merry Christmas from the Schenk's!
Troy, Candace, Gracie & Nolan

Maybe 2015 will equal getting back to my Christmas Cards;)

Christmas to Me

Saying I LOVE Christmas is an understatement.  I love this time of the year, the cold air, the snow, the crazy people running around to buy Christmas gifts, putting up the decorations, the music, the real reason for the season, and family.  All the crazy family get togethers are just the best.  I love spending time hanging out talking and going for walks.  I just like the quality time.  Ok so I love everything about it, did I mention the hot coco with cinnamon?

Growing up we were a single parent family.  My mom worked hard with two little kids.  We never had much for Christmas but we were blessed by many.  Somehow even with very little we loved all the special things we did do.  Church, Christmas Lights, and time with my grandma.  I always have had great memories.  It was never present filled it was always about family and learning about baby Jesus.

This year we have been talking about traditions.  My family has some that I love but some of those are done only when we are in Cincinnati. I really wanted to establish ones we do every year despite who we spend our Christmas with.

1) Start listening to christmas music as soon as possible.  I love teaching Gracie & Nolan all the songs.  Sadly I am a terrible singer despite my prayers that God would change that;) I do remember my mom singing in the car and I would be so embarrassed, I am now that mom.  Luckily my kids are not embarrassed of me, yet.

2) Decorating the Christmas tree happens in pj's with hot coco.  I have a lot of ornaments that my grandma use to give me every year, they make up most of our tree and I love them.

3) We do a new ornament every year.  This is something my family did, my grandma did, and I wanted to keep it going.  Sometimes I buy them and sometimes I make them, just depends on the year.

4) Rent as many Christmas movies as possible.  Some movies just remind me of the special time with my family and grandma.

5) Make cookies of every kind and then deliver them to neighbors and friends or cookie exchange.

6) We started in Canton driving through Monument Park to see there awesome light display, actually we live so close we often drove threw it a few times.  Throwing the kids in the car on a night they don't expect in there pj's and look at lights.

7) Giving: this is one we will do every year but what we do will change.  This year we did Operation Christmas Child which was a lot of fun and Gracie actually went with Troy and filled boxes for feeding the starving children next year Nolan will be able to participate in this activity which will be fun.  I have a list of things I want to do and would love to do something a little different every year.  I really, really want my children to understand how blessed we are and how they can use their kind hearts to bless others.  This tradition hits really close to home for me.

8) Christmas Eve: we open one gift on of new pajama's.  Now when we are at my parents my mom does this other wise we do this at our home. We then read the story from the bible and sing happy birthday to Jesus, cake and all.

trying to get in a family selfie

New Tradition to Come: The tradition that I think is so familiar to so many is Elf on the Shelf.  I can list the numerous reasons why I don't do it but I will list just 2 the elf is super creepy and I in no way want to do that every night before bed I rather lounge;)  Instead I want to do the Kindness Elf(check out this blog here) which will probably bring in some of the above traditions.  You know those commercial where someone does something nice and it spreads, I am that wishful dork that hopes that when I get to help someone it will make their day and spread it to another.

Ok some of these are not exactly traditions but things we do but, they are a must every year. My kids have the christmas gene for sure, they love it, every part and I am so glad and will proudly claim that they got that from me.

Dress-up

On this particular day the kids found entertainment in my drawer of pj's.  They tried on as many as they could and had a blast I thought I should stop this but why when the drawer need gone threw anyway and they were having a blast.

can you tell she is my daughter?!

my little posers

yes this is my bra but when I asked what 

Grace was doing she said, "sun bathing".

and of course Gracie's workout outfit

Cincinnati Thanksgiving {part 3}

Of course we celebrated thanksgiving and made too much food.  We didn't even come close to finishing half of each dish.  It is a tradition in our family that the kids get to pull the wishbone and make a wish.  

 Nolan won.

As we all stood there watching we told Nolan to make a wish and he said,

"I wish for a baby".  Yes a baby.  My parents went into shock/freak out mode because they thought we planned this as a surprise.  Let me be clear there is no baby and we did not plan this but it was so funny. Because he doesn't talk about babies and of course we were shocked and looked at each other in disbelief and then quickly went into recover the room before my mom starts crying.

 We told Gracie she could make a wish too if she wanted.  She wished for pie.  Her wish was granted.

 we pulled out my brothers old K'nex and Gracie loved them

above is the jeep with the trailer.  she said she needed the trailer for her bunny to ride in

 horse drawn carriage

 fish 

 butterfly

Cincinnati Thanksgiving {part 2}

A very long time ago I talked about my family doing no shave november and us all running in the turkey trot as a new tradition.  Of course by all member had dropped out.  Troy has had back issues, my mom can't with her, and Steve was in Cali but the twins and my dad just were not up for a 10k so I went it alone.  It was a lot of fun.  My parents came down to watch and support.  I am proud of myself and although I knew it was a hilly course I had forgotten until I hit them.  Maybe not the best place to do your first 10k but I loved it and will do it again. Below is the picture my showed me when we got into the car.  I was like nice shot and I then zoomed in on myself.  She had no idea she got a shot of me she was just snapping like a crazy person and then realized I was there.  She tried to video tap me.

there you go

 we took the kids up to my dad's office to warm up and to visit snoopy

a quick family shot

Before the finish line troy called me about a mile out to tell me where they were standing.  As I am down the hill i looked and looked and even slowed up my run which I hated because at the end I usually speed up as I did not see them I assumed they probably see me and I am just blind so I ran threw the finish line....boo we had all missed each other.  I was bumped I love seeing the kids when I run.  Just going to have to do it again soon.

 after most marathons they give you this giant foil blanket, its to keep the body warm.

well my brother taylor want me to get one but that does not happen for a 10k it's too short.  so when I got home he decided to wrap me in saran wrap.  he just thinks he is funny.

oh and my trophy

Cincinnati Thanksgiving {part 1}

We headed down to Cincinnati the Saturday before Thanksgiving to attend my cousins wedding.  My cousin Robby was supposed to get married in October but his father, my uncle Bill died the night before there wedding.  Then Robby's grandma passed and Robby has been sick with colitis.  His family has really had a hard time so we all wanted to be there to support a great day that was happy and sad.

my family

 reception fun kid free

 Nolan loved my parent s frog not sure why

pearl & gracie having girl time

 lunch with friends is a favorite

 all of our kids are pretty close in age

i love they will grow up being friends

 best part is the parents can actually sit and talk for hours with 

little distraction from the kids while the play, thank you chick-fil-a