Superbowl and Katelyn's Basketball

So, I know I'm a little late posting Superbowl pictures, but still had to add them cause I thought our cupcakes turned out pretty darn cute. Nikosha went to a cake decorating class the day before and all of my kids love to watch cake decorating videos on YouTube, so we thought this would be a good time to test our skills. These are actually cupcakes. (Couldn't really tell, could ya?). For those of you who don't know, Nate's a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan, so the Superbowl ended up being kind of a sad day for us...but the cupcakes were still good. Plus I made a new Enchilada Nacho recipe that was super yummy. Nate kept saying, "The Superbowl isn't about the food, it's about the game." But the food was the best part of that game (especially since it was fast Sunday).

This was Katelyn's first year playing basketball. She was pretty timid at first but once she got more confident she did great. She even scored two baskets! Plus, she's a fast little thing and that definitely helps. And my personal opinion...pretty dang cute out on the court!! Isn't her new haircut cute? I love her face with short hair but Nate likes it long so we go back and forth. Katelyn doesn't really care. She's just happy with whatever!

Trip to Nebraska

Nikosha and I got to go to Nebraska to go visit my sister and her family. We had so much fun! Nikosha felt like a little mommy there. My sister, Jenny, has 4 kids that are 5 and younger, the youngest being 2 months. Nikosha probably spent about 90% of the time holding baby Parker and the rest of the time playing with the other 3 kids. She loved it and Jenny and I got to spend a ton of much needed time talking and hanging out together. We got to go to 2 different children's centers and go eat lunch with Remi at her school and Blake even spent his day off watching kids so that Jenny and I could go play a game of tennis. We also got to go to an indoor waterpark while we were there (I guess we never got any pictures of that, though). Nate even flew out and stayed for a day and then flew back with us. Blake just finished dental school and he is currently doing his residency for the Air Force. That's why he's wearing his cool uniform in the picture with Nikosha. We're excited to find out where they're going to be next year so we can go visit them again!

Austin Got Married!

Nate's brother, Austin, got married on Friday afternoon. He texted us on Wednesday to invite us. Austin put off inviting his family, but apparently they'd known since before Thanksgiving. Silly boy! They got married at the courthouse, but still had a pretty good turn out with most of both of their families there and quite a few friends. Don't they look so in love?!! I love it! We went out to eat at the Olive Garden afterwards with the newlyweds. His new wife's name is Kenzie, so we have 2 Kenzi Loftuses now. She has two sons that are now part of our family. Caden, who's 12, and Jameson, who's 7. We're so excited for Austin! Congratulations you two!

Annual Utah Vacation

This trip to Utah during the Holiday season has become our family tradition. It's so much fun to take a break and just spend time together as a family. We love to go see all the lights and feel the Spirit of Christ at temple square! Roman and Roberta and their kids came and joined us. We're quite the troop! We also went to PF Chang's for lunch. I love that place! Our family loves trying to eat with chopsticks too. And staying in a hotel...swimming is a must. I think we swam 4 times in the 3 days we were ther.

Fun with cousins & Winter Wonderland

The kids had a fun night with their cousins. Since they live about 2 miles away, we get to see them lots! But they still have a blast together because they are all so close in age!

Can you tell what Nate's excited for?!! It hadn't snowed yet in this picture, but his dream weather came true within a couple weeks. (Complete with a snowday from work. Yiippee!!)

This is our winter wonderland. All of these pictures were taken from within 50 feet of our house. Pretty crazy and beautiful, huh!? And these pictures were all before the huge storm that got everybody a snowday.

First Snow of the Year

We had our first snow fall of the year on Monday. My kids all had to get every piece of snowclothes on to go play in it for about 30 minutes and leave all the soak and wet clothes piled high by the door. I couldn't be too negative though because they were having sooo much fun. I had a great time just watching them and taking pictures. I'm amazed at how each child is different. One will love being outside for hours in the cold and another one will work so hard to get all bundled up and take it off after 10 minutes. And one of the others will wear their snow clothes all day, inside or outside. Too fun!!

So Many Things Happening

A quick re-cap of our last 2 months. In no particular order:

My sister, Jenny, surprised us and drove from Nebraska with her 3 kids and 1 on the way:

My brothers, Eric and Tyler, came for a visit:

Halloween:

Katelyn's birthday:

New foster brother, Robbie. A 24 year-old mentally handicapped boy, who now lives with my parents.

Nikosha playing soccer

Katelyn playing soccer

Nate's birthday