Winter Break

We had great winter break! Our school district gives a week and half off for Christmas/New Years. Jim got Christmas Day and New Years Day off although he was still on call. We didn't get to play as much as we'd like with him, but were fortunate he didn't get called into the hospital on the holidays. The kids love their Monopoly Jr Party game, although Mike is pretty unhappy if someone else gets the Pirate Party!

The kids love riding around in the garage! They dressed up their scooters and bike with gloves to be silly and wanted me to take a picture.

Then they put on a dance show which was the boys trying to break dance and Nicole running around laughing. It was hilarious!

We had a huge ham for Christmas and it was fun being creative to use the leftovers. My favorite was these homemade sweet rolls with cheese and ham wrapped up inside.

We finished all of the fudge Jim needed- I made...well actually I lost count. But it was a lot and we ended up with one box left over. We were watching a family movie and heard little squeaks of joy and there was Diana on the table enjoying the fudge to her heart's content. I love how she was thrilled with her sneakiness and the way she laughed when we discovered her!

She is so sweet and will laugh off just about any injury and go tearing after her brothers to tag right along with them. She got very upset at the grocery store today when she couldn't bite through the plastic bag to eat the pretzel sticks, but it didn't stop her from trying her hardest!

She is always on the move and can open doors now, lucky us. There have been some very entertaining incidents as a result.

Mike loves his remote control car, he gave me the biggest hug when he opened that present. Talk about motivation to buy this kid gifts haha! He knows how to unscrew the car and controller, recharge the AA batteries, and then put them back the right way and screw the lids on. He is so mechanically minded! He is also always trying to make "inventions" which usually means he made an enormous mess. I'm sure there is genius somewhere in the 20 rolls of toilet paper he used in his last one!

I wanted to encourage Mike's invention-making and play-dough has seemed to helped channel that energy in a less messy way! On a random note, he said the funniest thing the other day: "Mom, it's just so hard to juggle one ball!"

Jake didn't get a scooter, but it meant that the bike Mike was using was passed down so now Jake is a daredevil on hills putting his feet in the air as the plastic wheels rattle him at lightening speed downhill.

I found this picture on Jim's phone. I think it is a good thing I don't go with them while they're building the gecko cage!

Jake and D before church. Michael took it, so it's a bit blurry, but I just love Jake in a suit jacket and he loves looking like daddy!

For our family night before new years we had the kids write 3 goals- spiritual, educational and fun. Then they did a time capsule about themselves that we will look at after we did it next year. It was fun to see what they wrote and think about all of the big things in store for us this next year!!

I took the pregnancy glucose test on New Years Eve and after I drank it I happened to read the label and it said it had soy in it! By the time they drew my blood I could feel my eyes swelling and by 4:30 I was not doing so well. I slept 14 hours that night. Jim and the kids still had a great time watching a movie and getting to bed just a little later than normal. We started school/preschool again this morning, so I guess it's not so bad that they weren't exhausted the day before school restarted. They enjoyed the new years movie we rented so much- "How To Train Your Dragon" -that they were up at 5:00am this morning so they could watch it before I woke up. Crazy kids! Happy New Years!