baking with grandma

As is pretty much a tradition now, Ivy and Grandma had to bake something together. This time they made spritz tree cookies, and Owen got in on the action (at least long enough to get a taste of the cookie dough).

Yum Yum!

fishing

While I was busy packing our suitcases again to move on to our next destination, Papa and Daddy took Ivy and Owen down to the pond to first feed the fish but then they decided to go fishing. Notice that Ivy and Owen are in their light spring jackets and Papa and Daddy are in T-shirts. It is nearing the end of November, and the weather this weekend was incredibly warm!


With Papa's help, Owen ended up catching 3 fish with their make-shift fishing pole of a stick and fishing line...



...while Ivy's lone catch of the day was a catfish!

It was a great day of fishing!

ochs thanksgiving/christmas

While visiting Papa Snack and Grandma, they used this time to celebrate Christmas with just our family so that they could see us open and enjoy the presents they picked out for us. I guess this can be chalked up to a good reason for living so far away from our families - we get to celebrate Christmas BEFORE Christmas, AND we get to celebrate Christmas on SEVERAL occasions!



Letty got to unwrap her very first present EVER...

...and all she wanted to do was eat the paper...




...or put anything she could get her little hands on into her mouth!


On Sunday, after my sisters and brother and their families had arrived, we had our Thanksgiving meal and then the little ones exchanged the gifts they got for their selected person. (To save on everyone's budgets this year, we decided to only exchange names among the cousins.)

Owen got the PERFECT gift from his cousin Nathaniel - Uno Moo. And, I must say, he plays with it ALL the time!


Ivy also got a GREAT gift from her cousin Kaya - a Little Mermaid Polly Pocket set.

Letty got a very cute present from her cousin Ashton - a dog named Violet that sings songs and plays music and can be programmed to say her name and other stuff. As a side note, when we went to program the toy on the computer, her name was not listed in the options so the closest we could get to sounding like her name was "Lenny." Do I sense a nickname brewing for our little girl??? :-)



As our Ochs Thanksgiving/Christmas was nearing to an end, we took the opportunity to get our entire family's picture taken since we never know when all of the kids will be together again. My brother's girlfriend, Amber, was nice enough to take these wonderful pictures. Thanks so much, Amber!




Then, I attempted to get family pictures of all of my siblings, but unfortunately, I never got a picture of my oldest sister Natalie and her family.

Here's my little brother Keith and his lovely girlfriend Amber though.

My older sister Julie and her girls Kaya and Riley.
Our attempt at our own family picture...



Paisan decided that he didn't want to be left out of the family picture and came and sat right in front of us to be included in the picture too.

It's always good to get to see my sisters and brother and their families as I don't get to see them that much throughout the year. I am so thankful that we were all together and that we could catch up with one another. And, I always love to see our kids get to play with their cousins.

Happy Ochs Thanksgiving, and Merry Ochs Christmas!

ice cream truck

"I hope the ice cream truck comes today like it did last time we were here," remarked Kaya.

"Kaya, I don't think the ice cream truck will be coming today. It's November. I would think it stops going around once the cold weather hits," answered Aunt Kim (me).

Not even 5 minutes later...

"Mommy, look what's coming!" Ivy excitedly declared. "It's the ICE CREAM TRUCK!" :-)

WE GOT POPSICLES!!!!

YUMMY!

cruisin' in the caddy

Ivy asked Papa Snack if she could go for a ride in his Cadillac.

Can Papa ever say "no" to Ivy???

Not this time, at least!!!