Happy New Year!

Our New Year's celebrations were filled with fondue, grown up sleepovers, and family fun! We didn't get a chance to review our goals yet like LAST YEAR which we will do for family night soon but we had an amazing New Years and hope that we have started some new traditions.

We were planning to go up to Tacoma for New Years Eve and stay for two nights but with Miles being so sick, we decided to postpone our Tacoma trip for a day later. It was great having Max home on New Year's Eve. I got a good run in, and a shower and a trip to the grocery store, Max cleaned up the living room and put together his birdhouse gift from Charlie.

Throughout the day, Miles seemed to be feeling much better so we followed up with our friends Richard and Marissa who had previously wanted to do something with us for New Years Eve. They invited us to go stay the night at Marissa's parents house for a New Years fondue party and then we could put the kids to bed and stay up late and play games. We couldn't refuse, it sounded like so much fun.

I have known Marissa's parents for as long as I can remember as Marissa's older sister Rochelle and I grew up together. We enjoyed a delicious cheese fondue dinner shortly after we arrived and then we put the kids to bed, their house is plenty spacious to accommodate all of us and Charlie was pretty excited for his big boy bed, he got to stay in.

Miles' smiles are proof that he was feeling better so we were excited to see him so happy crawling around in all the space.

After we put the kids to bed, we went upstairs to play games with Richard and Marissa, and Marissa's parents and sister. And then we made the chocolate fondue., and indulged maybe a little too much.

We enjoyed watching Harry Potter 3 on the projector while we waited for the New Year to roll in. I ended up sleeping through a good chunk of it since I had spent a lot of time this last week awake in the middle of the night tending to sick kids. After the movie we all went to bed.

The next morning Cindy and Marissa made us an amazing breakfast of Bacon, and German pancakes, with fresh whip cream and fresh cinnamon. It was DELICIOUS!

Charlie and Lacey spent a little time playing in the basement before we needed to head out.

I remember playing with this same dollhouse when I was little and came over to visit Rochelle and Marissa.

Just before walking out the door, Charlie and Lacey were practicing their magic by turning the Christmas lights on and off.

We left and started our trek up to Tacoma only to stop at our house and grab a couple things that we had forgotten. I also made lunches while Max went and filled the gas tank, then we were really on our way except for when Miles woke up and started screaming so I nursed him a block away from our house and then realized we forgot Charlie's eye patches so we had to go back again. Then we were really really on our way.

The drive was pretty uneventful, I ended up driving because Max became drowsy and he ended up sitting in the back to entertain Miles.

We also were able to bring up all the Christmas gifts from the Portland family so it was kind of exciting to arrive and bring a whole bunch of gifts even if they weren't all from us.

When we arrived we got ready to go to Chuck E Cheese. Elizabeth and the kids gave Charlie some money and a coupon for us to go to Chuck E Cheese when they were down here visiting on his birthday. We ended up not going for various reasons so we made sure to make it work when we went up to Tacoma. Max helped Gwenevere get ready by doing her hair.

The little boys played together a little bit.

I attempted to do Gracie's hair.

When James came back from some errands we went to Chuck E Cheese.

The family that skeeballs together stays together.

And we had to hit up the Chuck E Cheese photo booth. The top picture here was from 12 years ago when Max was 16 and I was 17. It was one of the first pictures we have together. So it was fun to take a comparison picture of how we and our family have grown. It kind of makes me all sappy thinking about how great life has become. 

And then back to more arcade games.

I was surprised to see Miles pass out...but he did.

Then all the boys did some Jet skiing.

I don't know what's going on with Charlie's hair here.

And this was Chuck E Cheese's attempt at making an active arcade game. That high score was achieved by James.

We had a fun time then came back, Charlie and Grace fell asleep in the car while Miles screamed.We made homemade pizzas back at the house. The kids all made their own shape and decorated their own pizzas. Elizabeth thinks of the best things to do. After dinner, the kids all needed baths so that is what happened.

After baths, the kids got to open the presents that we brought up from Portland.  Everett was so excited about his ball from Uncle Austin.

 In the morning Elizabeth made us an amazing breakfast of Waffles, bacon, and hard boiled eggs.

After breakfast the kids played while the grownups cleaned up  a little and Miles and Everett took naps. 

I went out and took photos of their Rabbit farm. This has been a new hobby of James' and it has pretty much already paid for itself with all the rabbit meat they've received from them. The girls are also able to help take care of the rabbits and dont seem concerned that they have to die to make meat. 

Fun with Kinetic Sand! This stuff is amazing. Charlie got some for Christmas and it has been an amazing activity that keeps him entertained and quiet while Miles is sleeping :)


After nap and lunchtime, we took the kids to the mall to run out some energy.

 This photo makes me smile!

We stopped by Target to get one more thing for dinner then went home to a delicious smelling house with a crockpot full of rabbit curry. James got home from work at the same time. As dinner was being prepared, I worked on getting most of our stuff packed up so we could just get the boys ready for bed and leave after dinner. We ate an amazing dinner then cleaned up and got the boys in their pajamas and brushed their teeth. We then finished packing up.and said our good byes. We are so grateful for family and friends that take us in. We had such a fun New Year's celebration.

Holiday Cheer

I had my Christmas shopping done and under the tree two weeks before Christmas was here so I was pretty excited and eager. And then there was Charlie who thought the presents were interesting for about 3 seconds then found something he cared more about. I love that each holiday my kids get to participate more and experience the magic. I know I am now in the years that people long for and then miss as they go too fast and I keep that in mind as we are making traditions and involving our children. This was also the first year that I really felt we could introduce the nativity story to Charlie and have him comprehend it to some degree. He also would participate more in singing Christmas songs, decorating the tree, picking out and wrapping presents, and preparing for Santa. I already know that I will miss this when my kids are grown so I really have to make these years count.

Anyway, here are some event from our celebration

Santa makes house calls for us :) This was a week or so before Christmas but it was fun to have Santa come over. Miles cried when Santa walked in but warmed up quickly, at least when Max was holding him, 

On Christmas eve we kept with tradition and went to my Green Grandma's house to eat dinner and open gifts. I like getting together with this side of the family and it doesn't happen enough....

The best part...I didn't have to watch my kids and I wasn't worried one bit! I have the best cousins!

Also, I didn't pull my camera out at all here so I took my dad's photos.

My cousin Andrew who is about 8 years old was thrilled when Charlie came over. (He has 5 sisters) and he played great with him the whole time!

This is my cousin Carolyn who is amazing because she will graduate high school next year with an associates degree and then go on a 9 month Catholic mission trip to Ireland. It's so refreshing to know such amazing young people. 

And here is most of the group. We were still missing my brother's family and my grandma and Dad and Uncle Gary aren't in the picture.

My grandma was just as generous as always picking out individual gifts for all her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. 

Just before leaving, my uncle Gary said he had something in the garage for our boys so Max went down to get it. It turns out that he had recreated a rocking chair that he had purchase a couple years ago that I was completely in love with. Here's Charlie in the chair right after they got it. I threw out some not so subtle hints that I would love a rocking chair for my boys. 

We were surprised by this kind gift that he had been working on for a long time.

We then went home and got the boys in bed right away because I was incredibly excited to get the house in order for Santa to come. I decided I had to clean first before I set up any toys or filled the stockings. We got the kitchen and living room all in order and even set the table so we would be ready for Breakfast. 

The night was rough though. Charlie woke up screaming and with a fever. Luckily Miles had the best nights sleep he's had in awhile. Charlie ended up in our bed and threw up once. It was a rough night with little sleep for Max, Charlie and me. When I woke up with Miles I fed him and Max and Charlie were sleeping peacefully so I decided to let them sleep even though I was incredibly excited to go downstairs with them. Miles and I ended up going downstairs so we wouldn't wake Max and Charlie so Miles got an early peek at some Christmas gifts. 

We also got breakfast all ready and on the table and Charlie and Max were still sleeping. Miles eventually went down for a nap so I crawled into bed too. 

Charlie just saw this picture and said "I wanna be sick again!" haha! Daddy cuddles are THAT good!

Miles only slept for about 40 minutes so Max and I woke up and were noisy enough that Charlie woke up too. :) and then we finally got to go downstairs as a family...here is a video of that. 

The chair that Charlie thought he got actually has nothing to do with Christmas, Max had been saving up his personal fund and got it on Christmas eve. 

We had some fun looking at some surprises and checking out our stockings.

We then had to reheat our breakfast. We filled out bellies, all except Charlie who didn't have much of an appetite.

When it was time to open gifts Miles was all about eating the paper and Charlie was somewhat zoned out and when we told him it was his turn to open a present he said "you do it" But he did make this great gift tower.

Exhausted but still not done. Poor kid, He didn't really express the excitement that I was anticipating, hopefully next year he'll feel a lot better.

We decided to stay home and have a cuddle, movie day. Well Max went out and did some yard work. You can't stop him from working...ever...even when his boss gives him a 5 day weekend. Grandpa Roemhildt came over and spoiled us with more gifts. In the evening, my family was gathering at my Red Grandma's for turkey dinner .Charlie wasn't feeling up to going so I went with Miles so I could eat and bring a plate of food back for Max. We had a good visit at Red Grandma's house and Miles was the only little kid. We spent some time looking at old photo albums which I always think is fun.

The day after Christmas, Charlie woke up at 10am and his fever was gone. He went over to Max's uncle Jay's house for Christmas dinner.

Luckily August brought some toys so they weren't just playing with Jay's old ripped up underwear like at Thanksgiving...you think I'm joking??

And then Santa decided to crash our party.

NO matter how old you get...whoopie cushions are still pretty funny..especially on Santa's lap.

Apparently Santa thinks these boys have been naughty

All the cousins!

We had a good time with family but Miles was done so we went home. Miles screamed on the way and acted like he was choking/coughing/throwing up the whole way home. He ended up waking up at 5am with a fever and is still working on getting over that now. Oh yeah, and Max has a fever now too. Geeze. I guess I'm next! But anyway, we really did have an amazing holiday and it was so fun to have more involvment with my little boys. Now we'll just hope for a healthy Christmas 2015