We jumped right back into life after the holidays. The kids went back to school and we went back to work - it's been good. Our babysitter Emily stayed with the girls during the day on the first week because Jamie and I both had to be back at work. This lady is solid gold awesome! She helped them get through all their work each day, and always had a fun extra project or activity for them to do.
Saint Emily and their gingerbread house
One day she stayed late so we could grab an outdoor beer!
I don't have much exciting news to share, January can be pretty blah!
Chocolate experiments?
Maggie is really into writing comic books right now; I need to scan them, they are great!
Ben rocking the double-chin
Easy Bake Oven cookies
Ben really loves doing puzzles. There's always a lot of "So... ok... let's see" when he's trying to figure things out:
Grammer got a cookbook for the girls to work on kid-friendly recipes. They both enjoyed making mini muffins!
Evie trying to smoothly kill some time for Maggie (she was still finishing her invention, so Evie covered). I love her little nervous keep-it-going voice.
Ben working on some family names, my favorite is the way he says "Evie":
Jamie got me a visit to our local Rage Room (yup, that's a thing!) for my birthday, so we went over Christmas break. It was beyond amazing, highly recommend! They gave us two tubs of breakables, some bats and sledge hammers, and provided all the protective gear. I even got to play my own music (Sia for this occasion)!
Christmas was different than usual, but really wonderful!
Merry Christmas!
Posting our Christmas card for posterity
We have had the tradition of going to Bronner's in Frankenmuth every Christmas Eve since Maggie was born. So we went for a brief visit first thing in the morning, and the Sandoval family joined us! We usually have the big Bavarian chicken dinner and stay at the Bavarian Inn - this year we grabbed takeout and drove 20 minutes to eat in Amy and Rex's church dining room. It was pretty darn great and way less hassle compared to keeping 3 kids still at a restaurant!
Trying to get a Santa picture for the year - it was cold!
Ben got a school bus ornament because he is obsessed with Wheels on the Bus right now
This Santa is way less scary than last year, Mom!
After that we had a distanced gift exchange with the Odglens in their gym, and the kids got to run around a bunch! I'm glad we got to see them at least a little bit, especially my sweet niece and nephew.
One of these is not like the others
Henry loved to roam!
We came home, did church from the couch, had a dinner of leftovers, opened our family pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa and then off to bed to wait for Christmas morning. The girls were SO SO excited, Maggie was very concerned that she would not be able to actually fall asleep and then Santa wouldn't come (she made sure to wake up as early as possible on Christmas Eve and ran up and down the stairs 10 times to help ensure she was tired enough for sleep).
Testing out his gift from Aunt Amy and Uncle Rex before bedtime:
Christmas morning was lovely and sweet - all three kids were genuinely excited. Ben didn't care too much about the gifts, but was just happy to be part of the fun. We had french toast, sausage and fruit - yum! After that we "zoomed" with the Donoghues to open presents remotely. It actually worked out pretty good; we cast the zoom to our TV, so it was easy to see and hear everyone. Nowhere near the real thing, but it worked.
Best morning of the year
Santa set up our dolls with an empty cookie plate, we know who ate them!
Great minds think alike - his and hers whiskey?
Got a few things that came with stools to climb on... who could ask for more?
My boys
Here to save the day!
The girls each got a Switch from Grandma and Grandpa - pretty grown-up stuff!
So much focus
Our little climber needed his own stool, painted by Daddy
We went to my parents' for dinner with Bobby's family. We usually gather a couple days after Christmas, so it was kind of nice to see them on the day this year. Dinner was awesome, the kids were so happy, it was a great time! By the end of the night, we were all ready to pass out.
One game of foosball
Allison's name is finally on the Peg-Leg trophy!
Bobby instilling the important virtues of peace and compassion
Ben cuddled with Aunt Allison for like 20 minutes... this is unheard of!
Gotta check those heights!
After that we pretty much just hung out as a family, didn't really do much. I enjoyed some time away from work, which was definitely helpful.
Daddy took the kids sledding one day. Ben really doesn't like the snow and tried his best to just stand still and stay upright.
Sled experts
I'll just be waiting right here!
We have A LOT of Lego sets in the house. I'm doing my best to be patient with the never-ending clutter on the table. I'm really trying...
All three have sets to build!
Evie is starting to follow directions and building things on her own (had some help with this one though)
I took the girls on a hike in the woods one afternoon. We climbed on fallen trees and discovered a really cool fort! They've got big plans to make their own top secret fort next time we're there.
A door and a roof, it's perfect!
It's so cozy in here, Mom! (no it was not)
Exploring
Check me out
Girl date!
Our friend Fr. Brian is home for the holidays, so we got together for a stroll through the zoo one day. Chilly but lovely!
Hangin at the zoo
Old friends
The arctic fox was so so cute!
Daddy and Maggie had a special date to see the Marvel exhibit at Henry Ford. Maggie was over the moon, Jamie said it was a really cool experience.
Somehow she is a girly-girl and a tomboy at the same time, love it!
Black widow
Maggie's favorite Avenger
Peace
We bought Maggie and Easy Bake Oven for Christmas, but I didn't realize that you need special kits to actually use it. So we made "cake" using a DIY recipe... while it was thin as paper and tasted like cocoa powder, they were absolutely thrilled at their accomplishments (thankfully Grammer ordered us some real kits to use):
Chocolate cake with reddi-whip and sprinkles?
So proud
Here are some other randoms:
Whenever I'm cooking, Ben pulls up a chair so he can taste all the ingredients... he likes to grab for knives too. Stressful, but cute
Maggie and Evie used a fort-building kit to create a store for selling their Hamma bead designs. I just love the signs. She originally set the prices starting at $0.01, and Jamie told her that was too low... so she went with 100x markup
Maggie's application to Santa to become an elf.
Evie likes to tap along to songs, looks pretty cool
So cool, so casual
Check out my awesome hat from Aunt Allison (via her mom's skills)
If you can't find Ben, look down the street and he will be cutting the sidewalk
Walking around downtown on a nice day
TV within a TV within a TV within a TV... trippy
Found Ben like this one morning, guess he was feeling toasty
