Family time

After the party we stayed the weekend with my parents to celebrate Christmas early since Lauren was in town. We also got to spend some quality time with her new boyfriend Eric too. One of the traditions my family has is to make Poppyseed Pancakes. It's a Slovac dessert and is a long process...especially when you quadruple the recipe! Basically it's a potato based dough rolled out thin like a tortilla. You heat them up in a hot pan until they get some brown spots on them, slather it with butter on both sides and spread a ground poppyseed/sugar mixture on them. Then you tightly roll them up. They are so much better reheated so that a little of the butter melts and makes the sugar liquify a bit. Ahhhhh we could eat like 8 a day! Soooo bad for you, but totally worth it! You will fail a drug test after eating one of these ;)

Micah and Hilary were the rollers, Lauren and Eric were the flippers, and I spread the butter and poppyseed. Aiden just made a mess, and Devin cheered us on :)

Yeah, there is flour everywhere and it is such a mess!

Smooches!

That was a shirt Lauren made for an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party last year...the bow was my idea ;)

Since we had the whole family in town for probably the last Christmas for a few years at least, my dad really wanted to take us back to a spot where we have taken a few family photos in the past. Alas when we arrived, we found that the tower we took our pictures on was gone!! So we made do with the playset instead. Note that it was obviously cold out, and Devin had just woken up from a nap. He was not a happy camper.

And then when Devin kicked Aiden in the head, Aiden was no longer a happy camper...

We finally got a decent shot with someone's camera-thanks to Eric for taking the pictures for us!

I think Lauren was hamming it up for Eric a bit.

We found a fence to put our cameras on to use the self timer and get everyone in the shot...this was a test shot.

I didn't make it in time for this one, and as you can see, Aiden was just done with the whole being out in the cold situation...

And of course the last shot I get doesn't turn out! There was no way the boys were going to tolerate any more picture taking. I'm sorry this was really the only picture that Eric was in with all of us...oh well :(

Christmas Party

Micah's parents had their annual Christmas party earlier in December, and we were fortunate enough to have the time off to go. My sister Lauren was also in town, so it was great to spend some time with both our families :) Be sure to check out all the videos!

Sorry about it being sideways...I always seem to forget that I can't shoot the videos that way on my still camera. Aiden loves to sing this prayer before we eat, so they gave him the microphone and let him pray for us. Apparently he felt compelled to dance a little too...

Aiden boogying down with his Aunties :)

The boys had a good time!

Devin really was all tuckered out!

It was a lot of fun-Kiki and Grandpa know how to throw a great party :)

New Year's Resolution...

To not throw the kids out in the snow...

Boy was I tempted to after seeing this! I was cleaning up the house from our New Year's festivities and all of a sudden I turn the corner to the kitchen and came upon this site. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed my camera and resolved not to put him out in the snow with a "Free to a good home" sign. I really am going to make an effort to remind myself that they are just kids and I probably pulled the same stunts when I was little!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year! We had a fun time ringing in 2010 :) On the 30th we hosted a party for our friends here in town, and had a lot of fun with everyone that came-especially all the kiddos. My mom gave me a bunch of New Year's hats from our wedding 5 years ago, so we let the kids go to town. Here are some fun pics of them all playing "dress up". Somehow James escaped me though...

Mike and Hollie were trying to get Noah to put one on...but he really wasn't having any of it ;)

Aiden and Dylan

Dylan

Ally

Baby Justus

Gracie

The Devinator

The Boo "sup?"
Then on our Anniversary, Micah was scheduled to work the hockey game that night. We were planning on just taking the boys with us to the game and come home to ring in the new year. But our great friends Ben and Laura offered to watch the boys for us while we enjoyed an evening out by ourselves :) So we were able to go and grab some sushi and enjoy the game together. We picked the boys back up and headed home just in time to watch the ball drop together. It was a great New Year's Eve and Anniversary, and I was so happy to have had the chance to celebrate alone with Micah and then be together as a family at midnight :)

Thank you to everyone who helped make this past year so special, and we are looking forward to an exciting 2010 :) Many blessings to you and yours in this upcoming year!

5 years

It's our 5th year Wedding Anniversary today. It's amazing how much has happened in such a seemingly short period of time. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was planning our wedding, and here we are 5 years and 2 kids later. Micah became a doctor and in another 5 years we will finally be settled down for good in a practice somewhere and enjoying whatever life's twists and turns have to offer us. We've had our share for sure, but we wouldn't be the couple we are today without them. So Happy Anniversary love...I love you! And I can't wait for the rest of our forever :)

Our families became one!

Cheers to our future and the New Year!

Belated

Merry Christmas! I know it's a little late, but it's still the season :) We have had such an incredibly busy couple of weeks, as I know many of you can attest to as well. We celebrated Christmas a bit early with my family and then enjoyed Christmas with Micah's family, and now we just hosted a party for a lot of our friends tonight. Devin has been cutting his canine teeth and has just been a totally different child these past few weeks-to the point where we don't know what to do anymore! It was so bad for a few days that I could get absolutely nothing done-because if I wasn't holding him with both of my hands-it was just the end of the world. At any rate, we're getting through it and enjoying everything the holiday season has to offer.
I have many more things and events to post about, and will get to them in the next few days or so-but right now I cannot get my camera to connect to my computer. So I have not been able to download all my pictures that make posting more fun. We have a lot going on these next few days, as tomorrow is our Wedding Anniversary, and then Micah leaves to go do a pediatrics rotation for 6 weeks. We'll be helping him pack up and move, so it will probably be later this next week before I will have the opportunity to try and figure out what is going on. But rest assured I will get to it soon! :)
I hope you have all enjoyed time with your families and friends this past week, and that this upcoming year brings you lots of joy!

Time out

As many of you can attest to, a Christmas tree is just too much temptation for a toddler. Since we put the tree up I have been reminding Devin not to touch it or take any ornaments off. And of course he cannot resist sometimes. During my days of baking, I was on my own as Micah had been on call and stayed at the hospital when he was post call to finish up work...so I did not see him basically for 3+ days. Toward the latter part of that time I was starting to get to my wits end with the boys' misbehavior and finally had enough when I walked around the corner to see Devin sitting in front of the tree with an armful of ornaments-like 8 of them! So I put Devin in his first timeout ever. I was fuming on the inside-and a little on the out...and I knew we had to start punishments at some point. We did the whole routine when he got out by telling him what he did wrong, he had to say "sorry" which is more like "yea yea" and he gives us a kiss. Well, he didn't learn the first time around, so it became a routine for the evening of him touching the tree, being sent to a timeout, etc...So these pictures are more like the 4th timeout than the first...but it was the same day. I'm sure he doesn't feel the same way-but for a mom-it's an occasion worth mentioning! So brace yourself...these photos may break your heart just a little...but still cute ;)

Oh yeah, and as you can tell by the icing on his face, this was just post-cookie-snatching too...

Oh, but I must say that the touching of the Christmas tree has diminished quite a bit and I've only noticed it maybe once or twice since that day!

Baking cookies

I went into Christmas cookie baking mode. All day Sunday and most of Monday were spent in the kitchen. Of course Micah was on call and so it took me two days to get everything done with the help of the boys. I was hoping for some more pictures, but with messy hands and things constantly coming out of the oven, I was only able to take a few here and there.

One of my favorite memories growing up was helping my mom in the kitchen and the special jobs that were just for us...including unwrapping all the Hersey kisses for the peanut butter blossoms :)

Aiden was so systematic and they all had to be facing up.

Devin got to help clean off the spoons...it's a dirty job-but someone's got to do it!

So I had finally finished and organized all the cookies on plates and platters that were going to specific places...and I catch Devin red handed-literally! He's got red icing on him from somewhere and I have yet to find the cookie he got into-I'm thinking it's somewhere in his tummy....

All the cookies I put together for my neighbors. We bundled the kids up and set out to deliver the cookies, cards, and do some caroling to spread Christmas cheer! All of our neighbors loved it and it was fun doing it old school ;) Merry Christmas!