November 2016

In November we closed on our former house and said goodbye to a beautiful home where we spent 12 great years.  This photo sums up all the growth that happened.  Thomas and Brennan from September 2004 and November 2016!  The house got a face lift as well.  We put a lot of love and work into our Amberley home.  We know the new family, with their 2 little boys, will enjoy making their own memories there!

We took this shot of the laundry room wall where 3 families marked the heights of the combined 7 children who lived there from 1983 on.  Again, the new family will enjoy adding their boys to the wall! 

The front door of our new home.  We started moving in in early October 2016, moved in completely on October 25th, and it certainly feels like home now.  I'll have to post some pictures of the house soon.

Marching band continued and wrapped up in November.  I spent 3 weekends in a row at Lucas Oil Stadium and didn't see the Colts play once!  What a great experience for Brennan to be a part of.  The band is now getting ready to march in the Inauguration Parade in D.C.!

Our Wine Club gathered in November gathered at Cindy and Eric's and enjoyed a meal together of family holiday favorites.  We had a fun night reminiscing.  Wonderful food and wine.

 And we had a cut-throat game of Jenga.  I lost :(

I spent Election Night with Kelly Benjamin and husband Scott as she was officially elected Judge.

Ginger and I met up at Starbucks on a cold Sunday for a glass of wine.  Wine at Starbucks is quite a treat!

 Our second annual Brew Bus Tour in Indy took place in November.  We had a ball.  The teens hung out at the Marriott, gaming and dining together, while we toured 4 brew pubs in Downtown Indy.

We celebrated two birthdays that afternoon.  One person turned 50.  The other didn't :)

Our pool table was delivered.  The guys are really enjoying it.  Here is a frequent view from my reading chair!

Thanksgiving in Mississippi!

With cousins Taylor (15) and Ellie (12)

With Grandma Carolyn

Our new house has a small theater room.  I hosted my first party there - we watched The Gilmore Girls Revival on the big screen.  Such fun!  We all brought food from the show to munch on.  Thomas and Brennan were the real winners though.  Because if we ladies ate like Gilmore Girls, we'd never make it.

 We inherited the custom Christmas tree from the family we purchased the new house from.  Do you see that some lights are out?  We plan to address that next year!  It's a stunning tall, narrow tree and fits perfectly in the living room.  It was so pretty to look at each night.  This is before we decorated it.

Jeanne and I met up in Louisville for lunch to exchange Christmas gifts.  We met at Guy Fieri's restaurant.  I loved this grilled okra as an appetizer.  Really delicious meal there.  I would recommend it.  It was packed for a weekday lunch in downtown Louisville.

October 2016

Catching up on the family blog.  I rely on this blog so much for old photos.  So I'm keeping it going!

October 2016 was really the month of Moving & Band.

If we weren't cleaning out our old house and moving into the new house, then we were at a band competition with Brennan.  It was an exhausting month, but a great one, and we managed to celebrate a birthday and have some fun with friends as well.

Here I am as Gloria Steinem at the Women's Giving Circle's annual event.  These masks are so cool!  They had lots of different ones at the selfie station.

We went to Ethnic Expo (annual international food festival) with Bailey and had a great time.  As we were leaving we saw the "no pets" sign.  Oops.  Bailey enjoyed it anyway!

We had a final Kelly Benjamin for Judge "meeting" at our old meet-up place, 4th Street.  It gave us a chance to talk about last minute things before the November election.

The Litwits met at April's to discuss "The Nightingale".

My friend and former neighbor Joan took me to Café Batar - a place I'd been wanting to see for a long time.  It's decorated so cute. 

Wine Club was a special one.  We hosted with Jan and Roger and Charlie and Jayne.  It was David's birthday, and sommelier and friend Joshua Ratliff led a discussion for us on 3 forgotten grapes.  Such a fun night!

Lots and lots of band with Brennan.  All sorts of competitions, football games, and late late nights.  He was a trooper, making it to semi-finals at the Grand Nationals.  Here is the transport vehicle decked out in the year's theme - Slither.

David and I made it to Kelly and Sam's Halloween party.  We picked out our own costumes.  Yep, David was a chicken. 

Not a good sign for a soon-to-be judge!

Jeff the Skittles Guy

Impressive!  Lots of great costumes.  I didn't take enough photos!

Bailey and I left a bowl of candy at the new house because we went to the Mike and Leslee's house again - our 13th annual Halloween in their neighborhood.  Could this be the last year?  It's more of catch up time for the parents vs. the high schoolers and college kids trick-or-treating these days!  But we had a blast anyway.

Thomas was the only one of 5 kids who dressed up, and even he didn't go Trick-or-Treating!

We love our new house, we're so happy that our former house sold so quickly (via facebook!)  We're thrilled to be all settled in.  David's "new house to do list" is dwindling as he finishes project after project.  We enjoyed the holidays in our new home.  And my favorite part - we did a major clean-out as we moved.  I estimate we sold or gave away 20% of our belongings in order to slightly downsize in to the new home.  It's an awesome feeling!