Winter Break

So most of our Winter Break passed by uneventfully- lazy mornings, playing with new toys, TV time, etc, etc (intermingled with one day of Tyler and Penny puking) but we did have 2 fun days. Wednesday we were going to go to Splash Universe with our new pass Tyler's parents got us. Only as we started our drive there, I realized the pass didn't start until Jan 1st so it wouldn't work yet. This led to some very disappointed kids. I was just grateful we hadn't driven the hour to get there and then realized it wouldn't work. So we came back home, ate lunch and regrouped about where to go. 

We ended up deciding to go  to the Natural History Museum in Ann Arbor. It turns out it closes Jan 1st and will be reopening in a new building (next door) in 2019 so it was lucky we went there. It was really our last chance to see it in that cool historic building. I was worried that the kids would be bored but they actually had a lot of fun. Like any kid, they really enjoyed all the dinosaur bones and exhibits. Honestly, I love that stuff too and wish I was able to read more plaques but kids can be a bit distracting.

Please note the pretend frightened faces in many of the pictures I took- I mean dinosaurs are super terrifying, right?

There was also a lot of heads getting stuck into creepy mouths happening...

And a picture of an adorable posing Penny mixed up with all the head eating.

They had a fun station where the kids could make chairs out of blocks and surprisingly, there chairs actually worked.

They also had mammoth bones that were actually found in Michigan. Pretty Cool! 

Our second fun thing was on Saturday, we finally went to Belle Isle. It's an island off Detroit and it would probably be better to visit in the summer when you can play on the beach and go down a giant slide they have. But we still had fun at the indoor things they had. 

It was freezing outside so I was lucky the kids like to pose and I got two pictures of the cute things outside. A fish riding in a seahorse pulled sleigh and my 3 little snowmen.

Our first stop was at the Aquarium. It was nothing fancy but it had some fun fishes & reptiles. A favorite was the alligator turtle that sat at the bottom of it's cage waiting for prey. Everyone had to do their best imitation of it.

They also had a clownfish (Nemo), electric eels, seahorses, and stingrays which were also some of their favorites.

After that we walked quickly through the speedy cold and into the Conservatory. This was a nice warm place with lots of neat plants. We made Steven stand by a plant called "dumb cane." He did not appreciate us making him pose by it. Lucy, however, was very willing to pose by this pretty, bright plant below. 

I think the banana trees were a favorite- of mine too! There's just something cool about a banana tree. Maybe because you don't see them very often?

I especially loved the dessert room. Tyler, was not impressed. I loved seeing all the cool different kinds of cactus's and succulents. I made Tyler take a picture with me and he refused to smile nicely- until I decided to be silly too. He's seriously the worst to take pictures with.

Our last stop on Belle Isle was the Great Lakes Museum. It wasn't a very big museum but their was some fun interactive stuff. It was too bad our kids were being cranks and deciding to fight about every little thing (even who got to pose in a picture first). We didn't last too long at it due to their cranky-tudes.

The building this museum was in was really a neat, historic building with lots of ornate carvings and this neat stained glass display.

Ben worked hard on loading the boat so that it wasn't tipsy and wouldn't crash.

The girls learned how to communicate with flags. Ok, Penny just waved them around but Lucy tried to spell the letters in her name with them.

There was a neat part of the museum that made you feel like you were at the front of the ship, steering it along. It gave a nice view of the Detroit river and the kids enjoyed pretending to man the ship- even if they kept fighting over whose turn it was *sigh*

And those were our adventures for our first week of Winter Break. Next week Tyler goes back to work and the week is busy with a couple appointments and babysitting for a friend one day so these might be our only adventures for Winter Break. I am definitely feeling like I can relate to the line in the Christmas song that says, "Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again." Oh, children.

Christmas is Here

Christmas Eve was on a Sunday so we had an hour long sacrament meeting in the morning. It was such a nice meeting with pretty music and good words spoken- I sort of wish church always had lots of great music and lasted just one hour. It's a good thing I have a testimony. Here are the kids all dressed up in their Sunday best. I always buy Christmas dresses for the girls, and am a total fail for the boys. This year they noticed and asked me where there Christmas church clothes were, ooops!

After church we decorated cookies for Santa. The kids always put on a ton of frosting and icing gel. This year Ben chose to use a lot of black icing gel in particular- poor Santa! 

On Christmas Eve it started snowing which made me super excited. I have NEVER had a white Christmas but this year I finally got one! I had to document the snow fall, even if it was extremely cold outside. Seriously. It has been in the one digit and negative temps lately and I am not a fan. I will take the snow for my white Christmas but does it really have to be THIS cold!?

That night for dinner we had a Bethlehem meal (like what we did for Easter). It consisted of things that would have been eaten in Bethlehem- only made kid friendly. We had pitas, hummus, cheese, fish sticks, grapes and grape juice. This is an easy meal to do and super fun for the kids. Afterwards they opened up their jammies, posed for pictures and then we drove around to look at Christmas lights. It was a good Christmas Eve! Especially made so because I got to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" while getting Christmas ready. I just love that movie and it has become a tradition for me to watch every Christmas Eve.

Night itself is always not super restful. The kids are up frequently trying to sneak downstairs, which means my sleep is restless, I'm always thinking I am hearing their steps. They didn't actually wake us up until 6:30 though. I made them pose at the steps before taking their picture- I was surprised they didn't just trample me. Afterwards we tried to slow down the present opening by making them throw away the wrapping paper after each gift. It kind of, sort of worked but it just always goes so fast. They wait a month for their gifts and they're all open and done in less than 10 minutes.

I love the above, right pictures of Penny with her earmuffs. I feel like the girls always give such great reactions when opening the gifts. They were super excited about the doll clothes Grams and Poppy Brady got them too (Below Left Picture).

However, all the kids gave a lame reaction to the "experience" gifts we wrapped. We took a paper with a pic of karate (The Brady's gave karate lessons to the 3 oldest) and wrapped it within several boxes. We did the same with the Hatch gift, only it was a pic of Splash Universe(his parents gifted a membership there). I seriously thought they were going to jump for joy or SOMETHING but they all wondered away before even reading the papers. I guess kids have a hard time getting excited about non tangible things. I think they will be way more excited when they finally do those things. They did pretend excitement for me on bottom right pic though. Yeah for being good posers.

The kids with their loot. Lucy's Santa gift was a doll (imitation American Girl). She also got a high chair and bunk bed for it. However, she almost immediately discarded the doll and started using the bed and high chair with her old dolls. Oh well, hopefully someday she will grow to love the doll. The girls also both were given a digger. I think they'll have a lot more fun with it when it's not freezing cold outside and they can dig up some dirt.

Penny also got a doll from Santa and she also prefers her old baby dolls to it. Some of her other gifts were a stroller, a stuffed puppy that came in a carrier, and a music player that she refers to as her phone.

Ben's Santa gift was a Lego Ninjago set. He spent most of his day putting it together. He also got a PJ Mask game, a kit to make a book and soccer goals to share with Steven. His favorite gift was definitely the remote control poop that his sister got him. I completely forgot batteries for it though, mom fail, but I made it up by getting them the next day.

Steven's Santa gift was a bike. He also got a marker maker kit and a rock digging kit. Because my Christmas wish came true- snow- he was unable to ride his bike so he spent most of the day making markers, digging for rocks and trying to get Ben to let him play with his Lego set.

Tyler's Santa gift was a saw that he has yet to take out of the box yet. He also got a ukulele which has been his most used gift so far. He's already taught himself several songs on it. 

My Santa gift was a wood burner tool, which is really tricky to use but I think it will be fun once I get the hang of it. Tyler accidentally got me a diamond paint by number kit- he thought it was a paint by number kit. It's going to take me forever to finish it but it's a nice mindless distraction. All you do it pick up beads with a special tool and stick them on the correct number. I also got some new hand lettering markers and a beautiful Mesa Temple pic (from my parents). 

When we finished unwrapping our many gifts, I made my traditional reindeer pancakes. I am not sure why I put so much effort into them- for the cute picture? The kids don't get that excited by them and half of them had filled up on cinnamon rolls and didn't even eat them. 

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent playing with gifts for everyone- but me. I spent my time cleaning up messes, helping kids with new toys/games/crafts and making mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes for Christmas dinner. I failed on the sweet potatoes though- didn't boil them long enough so they were crunchy- it was bad. Other than that fail we had a good dinner at Laci's that evening. We decided to brave the stomach bug they were passing around and went ahead and had Christmas dinner with them. The other 2 families were not willing to brave germs so it was just us. (Our reward for braving the germs was a sick Tyler Thursday and a sick Penny Thursday night but it was probably inevitable). Anyways, it was a good Christmas and it always feels sad when it ends. 

Christmas is Coming

This week zoomed by! Monday night (as part of our 12 days countdown) we took the kids to 5 Below to buy Christmas gifts for each other. Lucy and Penny kept changing gifts (it was like buying ornaments all over again). On the other hand, Steven and Ben had troubles even choosing one. In the end (and this is top secret info) Lucy got Ben a remote control poop emoji (weird I know), Penny got Steven a nerf like gun, Steven got Penny an Apple Jack purse and Ben got Lucy Shopkins. I think they did a pretty good job shopping for each other. 

Tuesday for our countdown we painted ornaments. Penny had a reindeer one that she painted all black. I think she just really didn't want to stop painting so she just kept slopping on the colors. That morning (and the next) was a real struggle to get Lucy out the door and to school. She sobbed and sobbed that she didn't want to go. She just wanted to stay home and play. She broke my heart and made me continue to feel guilty about sending her to school. I think she loves school, but I also think she loves being home with her sister. The great thing about school though is that she is finally learning so much. The other night she sang the alphabet and wrote down each letter by herself (see pic below). This is a huge deal! Also this morning I asked her what sound each letter makes and she knew most of them. I am so proud and I just wish we wouldn't have this roller coaster of emotions with getting her to school.

Wednesday I watched my friend's baby which was so nice. I wish more people would ask me to babysit. I feel like I'm always asking other people to watch my kids while I sub but no one ever asks me. Also on Wednesday we had hot chocolate as part of our countdown. I had thought about going in town to a Starbucks to get some but I have been a bit of a homebody lately so we just made some at home. 

Thursday for the countdown the kids all got new Christmas socks, they were pretty excited. And then came Friday, Friday was such a busy day. It was one day that Lucy was actually super excited to go to school because she had a field trip to see a play in the morning. She insisted on dressing up fancy- dress, bow headband, bracelet, and necklace (see pic below). She was going to see the play "Snow Queen" or so we thought, they ended up seeing "Sleeping Beauty" instead. She said her favorite part was riding the bus because she didn't have to wear a seat belt, ha ha!

Friday morning I helped out at Ben's Grinch party. They made Grinch light bulbs, ate Grinch themed food (I made applesauce reindeer and I helped with the Grinch Kabobs). They also did a little ornament and then played a game where they found holiday words that rhymed. Ben seemed to have a lot of fun and it is fun to see how well he gets along with everyone in that class.

Below is a pic of Ben with his best friend Andrea. I am pretty positive that he sees her as just a friend but sometimes I think she might have a bit of a crush on him. She only wanted a pic with him, she did not want anyone else to get in on the pic. She also bought him a Christmas gift (a book about pranks) so he got her a gift too (a stuffed Polar Bear).

After Ben's party I went to Lucy's class. They were not having an official party, I think because they had the field trip that morning, but parents were invited to come in for lunch and a craft. I ended up being the only parent there, it was kind of awkward. I think other parents opted just to take their kids home early since there were 7 kids gone. So I ate lunch with Miss Lucy and then helped her class with an ornament craft while Mrs. Richter helped them make a fun jingle bell necklace. Lucy seemed very happy to have me there so I think it was worth being the awkward only. 

After she did the craft and had a treat I checked her out of school early and we headed to Steven's class for his party. They had an amazing party planner who had lots of fun stuff planned. They made 2 ornaments, decorated and ate a cookie, played a fun saran wrap game and ended with a game of family feud (which I would've bombed if I had actually been playing). It was super nice to be able to help out in all their classrooms for once but it was also super exhausting. My day was not over when we got home though. We had our traditional graham cracker house party that evening.

Tyler pre-made the houses (which always makes things go more smoothly) and we had over 3 familes- the May's, Farquharson's, and the Brandley's. The kids had a lot of fun decorating and actually really took their time (even if it may not look like it). Then all the kids got wild and crazy afterwards and had a lot of fun playing (and making a mess). It was our first party in our new house and it was definitely a successful party. My favorite parts had to be Lucy devouring her whole graham cracker house and Steven being all sweet with the May's baby girl.

Other news...Tyler patched up the roof and is hoping he patched the right spot and our roof won't leak anymore. I tried to call and see if any responsibility could be put on the Inspection company for missing the leak but they said they are not responsible for looking at the whole roof. That was the dumbest thing I have heard and I will not recommend them to others.

Also, the Brandley's littlest came down with a stomach bug today and I feel at fault just because we had it before, even though we stayed away from them while we had it. Since they are hosting Christmas dinner for us and 2 other families there is a chance, if it spreads through their family, that we may be on our own for Christmas dinner. I had Tyler buy a ham today just in case and part of me is almost hoping it is cancelled. I love hanging with friends but the cooking side dishes for friends always worries me (mashed potatoes, rolls). I worry if it will taste good, if I will have enough, if I will get it done in time. If it's just us I won't have those worries because it's just us. I know that's silly but I am a worry wart. I guess either way I will be ok- we are totally prepared to dinner on our own but if it still happens, I will get to socialize so that's nice too.

Still can't believe Christmas is only 2 sleeps away- getting excited to see all the kids and their reactions to all their fun gifts!