Family photos

It's not often that we get to see Kerstin and Steffen while we are with Mummy and Daddy - I would say it has probably been 5 years or so since we saw them altogether, so it was time to get some documented evidence of us all together!

Mummy has changed the location of the office to upstairs, so now she has this nice room on the ground floor with these lovely bay windows. And it's really good for light. We set up the camera and the timer, and got to take some photos. They were pretty silly, but I was really glad that we took them!

A 21st Party for Shelby

Mummy had planned a small twenty first birthday party for Shelby. Her birthday was in December, but we were all in America, so she decided to have on in January with some family and friends. Josh and I arranged to come over and surprise her, and we happened to book it the weekend we went and saw Kerstin, and they decided to book a flight and come with us. We arrived on Friday night, but there plane was a little delayed, so we hung

out at M&S food, until they arrived. In the morning, I had my hair done, and we went out for lunch. Shelby FINALLY arrived, and she wasn't even excited to see us - turns out she had been expecting us to come anyway! We hung out at the house and helped Mummy prepare for the party.

There were such cute decorations that Mum had brought from America. At the party, we had tons of snacks, and yummy Thai food and then played rounds and rounds of Pictionary and Heads Up. I got really tired and super sleepy, and ended up going to bed!

Riding into the New Year

For New Years, we usually don't do anything really big, but this year we went over to Josh's cousins house. We had some dinner and it was nice to sit around and chat. Josh's cousin Hannah is really into riding horses, so she let me ride one of hers for a little while. It had been a while since I had been on a horse, but still, no matter how I tried, I could not make it move! So I wasn't on the horse for long! Then we went to the Bowling Alley with all of Josh's brother and sister - we were super tired but I love bowling so it was a great time!

A little Light Show in Bradenton

We flew down to Florida after visiting Mary and George, and flew down into Sarasota airport. It was so nice to fly into the close by airport and be so close to home! It was also nice to drive by the place where we got married! We really didn't do too much in Florida, but we did do some shopping, and saw some of Josh's family and his grandma had a party. I ended up

getting a new camera really last minute, I saw it in the store and I looked it up and it was really easy to order in White. So, 2 days later, we went to Best Buy and picked it up. We had a great time with some sparklers, trying to make light trails. In the end, we were able to make our names, and spell out 2016! It was super fun to try!

In Ann Arbor

Because we really wanted to stay in Michigan so we got to see Mary and George, Rachel and Ryan, the day after Shelby's birthday, we travelled down to Ann Arbor to see Mary and George. We only got to spend one day with them, but it was still super fun. They had made Shelby this cute little cake, and we went out to a nice Japanese restaurant.

The next day we went to Starbucks - it was super nice to be all together at one of my favourite places. And then we went to Somerset Mall - I didn't end up buying anything in the end, but I still love being in the mall with Rachel and Mary. The mall was super nicely decorated for Christmas and these are the cute photos that we took!

Home for Christmas

We headed home after Traverse City, and Shelby and Mummy arrived right before Christmas. It was really chaotic around Christmas, becuase I didn't feel ready with all my presents, and I didnt actually get any time to wrap presents! But Christmas went nicely, and we had a lovely Christmas morning, but I still, cannot get up late on Christmas morning, it is just inside me to get up early and want to unwrap presents!

This wasn't Josh's first Christmas with us, but it still feels really super special and exciting to know he is there for Christmas. Mummy bought us new stockings too! I was super excited, because on the day after Christmas, we went out to do some sale shopping, which was really fun. I even found some great new Pottery Barn stockings for Josh and I for next year!

Traverse City Brewery Tour

Traverse City has become known for its local beers and some really cool brewing places that have started to pop up all over the city, so one afternoon, Linda decided Josh and I should do a little brewery tour, so she took us to some cute places around the city. Josh liked the beer at all of them, but I was most excited by these oatmeal and

pumpkin ice cream sandwhiches. Pumpkin anything is my favourite, and so I was just desperate to try some! We had a really nice time with them downtown, going to the Pie company for lunch and going into all the little shops in town. My favourite was the one that had free "Grandma's apple cider" outside...how cute is that! It was so nice to visit them and travel a little while we were home in Michigan!