January and Nick's Birthday

 We have had a very interesting January.  Not only is Kris still doing his crazy travelling (now in Feb 20 weeks).  But the kids have had an outrageous number of snow days.  So here are a few things that have happened in our crazy January.

 We took the kids to see the lights on the last night of Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo.  As always entertaining (and as usual - cold).  But a good family time.

 We celebrated Nick's 4th birthday with a bowling party.  As usual for me, I forget to plan anything until after Christmas and then run around trying to figure it all out.  Thankfully, it worked out well and everyone was able to attend.  Nick had a great time bowling.  He dances while the ball is rolling down the lane - he's very entertaining.  All the kids also got tokens for video games and tickets to 'buy' trinkets.  He had an Avengers cake and had a wonderful time.

 The below right picture is one of our many snow day activities.  The kids were very enthralled with the spin art machine.  I really have to buy some more paper for it.  They made so many pictures.  But we are having trouble figuring out what to do with so many snow days (it is snowing again as I write and Ryan got let out of school early because of it).

 

 A few weeks ago, Ryan and I drove up to MI to help Robin move out of her apartment.  It was a very snowy weekend, but we managed to get there and back in one piece.  Ryan spent the day with Nanny and my dad and I drove the truck.  Got everything done and had some fun.  Ryan and I spent a few hours on Sunday waiting out the snow at the Detroit Auto Show.  Ryan enjoyed 'driving' all the cars for about an hour and a half.  Then he got overwhelmed and hungry and we had to try to get out of there.  But he did approve the new Tacoma as Daddy's next truck!

This is just a cute picture of Nick before we went to get his pictures taken at JCPenneys.  He was so excited to be Lightning McQueen from head to toe!  And looks so awesome!

Christmas and New Years, 2013 style

 Yes, it's been a while.  Here is a brief update from our holidays.  We spent Christmas in Michigan.  Kris went out to PA on the 21st to see his family and mostly work on the house his dad owns.  We met us in MI on the 23rd.  2 hours later he started throwing up.  Yay, Christmas!

I took the kids to my Aunt Dawn's house for our 1st celebrating.  It was wonderful seeing everyone there.  My kids - if you can believe this - were the calmest there when it was present time.  Could be because they didn't really know the other kids, but they were.

We went to Grandma's house that evening.  By then my kids were tired.  Kris tagged along, but slept at her house the whole night.  He was joined by Emma at some point.  We had a fun time and played some great games there.  My family from out of town was there (mostly) and it was so nice to be able to visit with everyone.

 Christmas Day brought a ton of gifts.  The kids got so much they didn't even know what to play with first.  They loved dressing up like the Avengers characters.  And they loved singing songs on their new karaoke machine.  Kris even sang a little, but wouldn't let up get a picture or video of that!   We stayed MI to celebrate my dad's birthday and go over the McCarthy's for a small get together.  Overall, a wonderful trip.

 When we returned home, we had more gifts to open.  New tablets for Emma and Nick and an electronic drum machine for Ryan.  All were thrilled!

For our anniversary, Kris took me to see The Nutcracker after I mentioned that I had never seen it.  We had a wonderful night.  He even arranged a babysitter!  We had dinner at a Brazilian steak house afterwards and were so full!!  It was so nice to spend some time together without the kids!

 We spent our 10th anniversary on New Years Eve going to the movies alone (kids were at a drop in day care center).  Then we did some last minute shopping for car seats and speakers.  Then had our own little party to celebrate.  This was the first year we let the kids stay up, or try to stay up until midnight.  Ryan made it with no problem.  He didn't even want to go to bed after the ball dropped - makes me wonder what he would do if we weren't here.  Emma didn't even celebrate with us, she was too busy on her tablet.  Nick made it until about 11:30, then curled up in a ball between Kris and I on the couch.  He looked like a little cat.  So cute!!  A great ending to another fabulous year!