Lately....

Well January (and February) snuck past us here in the Schmelzer house. 

Here's a quick update...

January started pretty cold. Like record cold. 

Most of our days are spent cuddled in the house. Gabe has become a huge fan of Daniel Tiger, so every once is a while he gets to curl up on the couch, eat some fruit loops and watch some good ol IPTV. 

On one of those super cold days in January we welcomed Mr. Jacob James to the family! And he is perfect!

While Aunt Molly and Tim were at the hospital, there was lots of time for cousin lovin! Not a bad way to spend a cold day off from schools :)

 We also got to watch the big kids (aka Ellie) have basketball practice. Gabe thought that was pretty awesome!

 And then there's this creature.

Gabe got to check "Go to see College GameDay LIVE" from his bucket list. We spent the morning in Ames and may have appeared on tv for .002 seconds :)

 Cold mornings at our house have been pretty rough.

But nothing some cookies and bananas can't make better.

We welcomed February with a foot of snow...

meaning lots and lots of cuddle time.

Time flies when your snugglin' this guy :) 

We'll see ya in Spring!

Just kidding. well maybe....

Christmas 2014 (part 2)

As has become our tradition, we headed to Nana and Papa's after lunch on Christmas Day. 

It used to bother me to spend time on the road on Christmas. But this year it hit me how fortunate we are to have so many places and people to spend our holiday with. And how thankful I should be to get  to "run around" and to experience so much love during the season. It may feel a little crazy, but a few days of hectic loading and unloading, and tetris-van packing is all worth it! 

It's really hard to wrangle all these kiddos ;)

 

There was lots and lots of cousin time!

 

Cronbaugh Crew

  

 Some basement fort building. 

On a side note...When I cleaned this up I found flashlights, crackers, and lil Debbie snacks. They do forts right! 

Lots of Nana and Papa snuggles!

A little crafting...

 

and piano playing... 

and board gaming...

and a night at the KING :)

Perfect. 

Christmas 2014

Christmas 2014. 

It was a good one! 

So much family, love, laughs, food, and more love. 

The Christmas season at our house was special this year. Gabe is at a fun age and started to get into the holiday, pointing out all the decorations, reading christmas books, and playing with his little nativity scene.  He was really good with the tree, minus one large ornament in the front. He evidently felt it was misplaced ;) Each time we put it back, we would soon find it in a random place in the living room. Silly boy!

This year we headed over to Muscatine for Christmas Eve. After mass, we came back to Grandma and Grandpa's to see that Santa had found Gabers!! YAY! 

Great Grandma Sue headed up from Missouri again this Christmas. It was great to be able to share a few days of our holiday with her. It was so cute watching Gabe open his big Bear. He loves giving him hugs! 

Christmas morning was spent eating bacon, playing board games, opening a ridiculous amount of presents, and enjoying time with the Billups clan. 

Did you know that corded rotary phones still exist?!?

 

 SANTA! 

Strange mustached men.