The Great Outdoors!

A couple days after Christmas, we went with some friends to the Nature Center. It was actually freezing out but the kids had some energy to burn so it turned out to be a great idea. The kids ran nicely walked around the nature center while the moms chatted (Pat used this time to go to Home Depot) and then we went on a hike!

Christmas Day

After we finished our Christmas and had time to play with our toys we headed over to my parents house to celebrate with the rest of my family. We started off with a meal of pasta and salad and then got to the present opening! We spent the rest of the time eating Christmas treats, playing the Oregon Trail card game and generally enjoying hanging out with each other!

Christmas Morning!!

Owen continued his reign as first riser on Christmas morning! We waited about an hour before we woke up Paige and then we had the kids wait upstairs while we started the scones, made some tea and checked to see if there were any presents under the tree.

Waiting....waiting...

Finally! Stockings first!

Owen picked out some jelly beans for Pat, Reese trees for me, and an adorable stuffed seal for Paige 

Paige shopped at her school's holiday shop this year! She got me a crystal flower, soccer keychain for Pat, and a mini soccer game for Owen. She also made us this tile at school with her picture on it!

Paige has been wanting a Baby Alive doll for a long time so she was super excited that Santa brought her one!

The aftermath!

Christmas Eve

We started our Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve with Pat's parents! They came over right after lunch so we started with presents, which the kids were very excited about! Ok, we all were;) They gave us a new game, called Pictopia, that we all enjoyed and is one of those rare games that puts everyone on an even playing field, despite your age. For dinner, we enjoyed this soup and followed it up with Christmas cookies before we headed off to Christmas Eve mass!

New Hedge Trimmer!

Owen was enjoying the bows

Paige too!

Learning to play Pictopia!

Lights

Merry Christmas! We went for a holiday lights excursion a few days ago and even though there was some sibling fighting and Owen fell asleep 3/4 of the way through (he was still tired from a sleepover the night before!) I'm still going to go ahead and count it as a success! We stopped at McDonald's for some hot chocolate to drink during the drive and managed to hit 4 different spots. We got out at one stop so we could walk through and take some pictures.

Snaps

Here are some fun Christmas-themed snapchat filters we've been playing with!

Junior Police

Owen joined the police department on Wednesday and officially became a junior officer! For a couple hours:) The kids gathered at the police station and before Pat and I left we heard the kids ask some hard-hitting questions like, "What kind of pizza will we be eating?" and "Can the three of us be in a group together?" Ha ha! Owen had a blast! They checked out the police station, got to go for a ride in the bomb squad truck and check out the robot that defuses bombs.

Birthday Baking!

It's the annual baking/birthday post!! Hooray! We started out the baking tradition with more complicated desserts and it seems like we choose something a little easier every year... :) This year was a trifle with chocolate cake, chocolate and cookies n cream pudding, cool whip and Oreo cookies. Sooo good! We celebrated my mom's birthday and also exchanged Christmas presents with some family we won't see next week.

Happy! It only took two tries to get that smile:)

Measuring milk for pudding is a very precise job.

Off to the Tower! Paige was the only one not amused here..

Cousins!

Uncle Bill, Aunt Marlene, Paige!

Zsaz spent some time trying to figure out Uncle Bill and Grandpa joined in too

Happy Birthday to you!

Owen and Aunt Jamie!

Soccer

Paige has been playing indoor soccer on Sunday afternoons and Owen just finished up his indoor soccer session!

Nutcracker

Most of the girls in Paige's dance class participated in the Nutcracker this year but Paige decided she didn't want to do it. I never got a straight answer about why because she loved doing the Spring ballet and wants to do it again this year! I took her to the first performance and she and I had a great time watching and looking for all the kids we know. The dancers did a great job! We brought flowers for her to hand out too which she really enjoyed and her friends were very excited! I have a bunch of pictures of Paige and individual friends/dancers but they get a bit repetitive so here's one of her before the show and one of her after!

Dinner!

What do you do when there's a Risk game covering the dinner table? Eat on the floor, of course!

Art!

We made it to another Family Fun Day at the art museum! The theme this time was "Merry Making" so the kids constructed hats/crowns, noisemakers and spinners and also learned about art conservation! We spent a lot of time in the new interactive/kids area and then looked around a little before we got some lunch (mac n cheese, turkey melt and flatbread pizzas) and dessert (cookies and an amazing fruit tart). We split up for the second half of the visit so Paige could do one more craft that Owen wasn't interested in and everyone could hit the spots they wanted. Eventually we had to leave to get Paige to soccer but we'll be back soon to hit the spots we missed!

Fun on the steps! The museum was pretty empty at this point.

Owen was fascinated by the cushions:) and Paige found a painting she liked!

Owen and Paige "made" some pottery in the kids area. 

We were the first people at the craft tables! Owen made a crown and Paige chose a wide-brimmed hat.

The kids learned about conservation and why it's important not to touch the artwork. They also learned how to make their own qtips which they really enjoyed!

Paige also liked this piece of art.

One more picture on the way out! Even the hallway to the parking garage looks nice:)