Scribble and Scrabble

Christmas 2016

by Heather | 0 comments

Wow, it’s January already! I had every intention of sharing these a little closer to Christmas, but time got away from me. The weekend before Christmas we spent some time with Andy’s parents and Jared and Becky’s family. The weekend after Christmas we spent with my mom, Paul and Justin and Kate’s family. In between we had our Christmas at the house (and we got to skype with my dad, Leslie and Christopher in Hawaii).

Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at our new church. Grainy pictures, it was dark! Somehow Andy ended up with all our candles by the end.
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Somewhere in 10 years of marriage, colored lights took over our house. Don’t tell Andy, but I kind of like them now :)
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Christmas morning!
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Winning the lamest parents ever award, we got Ben a booster seat for Christmas. He’s 6 and was still in a 5 point harness (nothing wrong with that, it is safer) but he’d been asking for a “big kid seat” and we figured it was probably time. He was excited!
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We were so lucky that Aunt Gabby and Aunt Danielle got to sleep over Christmas Eve and spend all day Christmas with us. Aunts are awesome at putting together lego sets!
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Andy got a book about poop from my dad and Leslie…
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Ben’s “big” gift was a pirate set with a ship and fort. We got it off of ebay, and some pieces were missing (so we did kind of feel like the lamest parents ever). But he didn’t seem to mind.
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Mermaid from my dad and Leslie. Look at those smiles!
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Gabby’s gift to the kids were crocheted blankets (knitted? I honestly don’t know the difference) Cassidy’s was a pink mermaid tail.
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And since Ben’s favorite color is purple, he got a purple dragon.
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Danielle brought her ukulele and the kids had fun singing with her. Their favorite song was “You are my sunshine.”
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Danielle snuggles.
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Gabby snuggles.
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We had our holiday dinner Christmas afternoon. Some of us were still in pajamas. And some of us don’t know how to take nice pictures. I should note that after church on Christmas Eve I thought it would be fun to use cookie cutters to make cut out pizzas. It made a mess and when the shapes baked they kind of turned into blobs. The kids thought it was fun though and I suppose we made a memory. Mom tried (life motto). The adults just make one big pizza on the pizza stone afterwards.
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The kids really enjoyed Christmas punch in wine glasses (ginger ale, cranberry juice and sherbert).
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Christmas sunset. What winter scene would be complete without snowmobile tracks through the yard?
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Finally, we have Andy’s insanely bright insanely green LED light he delighted in sharing with the neighborhood. From outside it looked like the aliens had come and were beaming us up. We saw everything pink afterwards.
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I loved sharing our low key Christmas with family this year! So thankful Gabby and Danielle could join us and make some memories.

Just keep swimming

by Heather | 0 comments

We may have watched Finding Dory three plus times over Thanksgiving.

Anyway…

We also headed to Niagara Falls as a family over Thanksgiving break. Friends of ours had won a free night’s stay at a hotel, but unfortunately moved out of state before they could use it. So they gifted it to us!

The original plan had been to visit the Aquarium and do some touristy things before heading to Andy’s parent’s house on Thanksgiving day. Andy wasn’t feeling great before or during the trip though so we pretty much just bummed around the hotel. The kids loved staying up late watching TV and eating snacks in bed. They slept pretty well (Cassidy and I shared a queen bed, Andy and Ben also shared a queen). Our room neighbors stayed up pretty late and woke up loud and early which was a little annoying, but I suppose nobody really goes to a hotel to sleep well.

The kids doing a puzzle the next morning. They were bright eyed and bushy tailed!
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Hotel picnic breakfasts are awesome!
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Poor widdle sick Andy. Haha, the poor guy did actually feel pretty crummy.
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I took the kids down to the pool and we were excited to find a mini aquarium too! I’d never actually told them we were planning to do the aquarium (I tend to not tell them things ahead of time because then I have to answer questions for days).
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So fun!
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This one was Ben’s favorite, with sharks and stingrays.
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This is a perfect depiction of the kids’ personalities :) Ben is cautious, calculating and a little hesitant to try new things (even if he is super friendly and outgoing). Cassidy just goes for it, wants to do it herself and and is very determined that she will succeed at it.
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The hot tub was their favorite part!
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Warm foamy bubbles!
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“I want to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star BY MYSELF!”
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That afternoon we headed to the arcade that was attached to our hotel. Ben had a blast.
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Cassidy kept starting games, then getting bored and not finishing them! She did enjoy this one though (we didn’t win anything, surprise).
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For lunch we went to Rainforest Cafe!
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The kids thought it was really neat!
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We had to walk around to find all the different animals.
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Ben checking out the scenery.
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We even splurged and bought the kids mugs and plates ;-) We’re not usually ones for cheapy souvenirs but, meh, it was a special little outing.
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Saying goodbye to the rainforest.
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So the outing didn’t turn out exactly as planned but I still think we had a fun adventure :)

Snow Day

by Heather | 0 comments

We had a snow day today! Honestly, there really wasn’t that much snow (maybe 2 feet by the end of the day) but it was incredibly blustery and the wind was whipping it around everywhere. It also snowed all.day.long. Both kids were super excited we got to stay home in our jammies!
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We started the morning with blueberry pancakes and eggs (and bedhead).
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Then played with legos for a bit.
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The kids were most excited to play outside!
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Even Jack got in on the action. Poor fat house cat was not thrilled. He does look a bit like a wild beastie here though :)
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It’s been such a warm, weird fall this year and we still have a lot of trees with leaves on them! Love our little apple tree.
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This is the first winter I actually let the kids play outside (in the back) by themselves. Let me tell you it was wonderful :) I didn’t get much done since I was checking on them out the window every 2 minutes, but it definitely beat being out there the whole time…putting gloves back on and picking up toddlers who kept falling down crying in the snow. They played outside for over an hour in the morning and then went out again with Andy before dinner.
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Best part of playing outside in the snow is the hot cocoa afterwards!
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All snuggled up in quilts, watching movies!
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After dinner we made snow cream too.
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Cassidy was licking some off her shirt :)
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If we’re being honest the day wasn’t perfect. It was filled with whining, complaining and bickering children. I also got peed on :-P But thankful I get to hang out with them on snow days and I *almost* feel like getting into the holiday spirit now.
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Pumpkin Hook

by Heather | 0 comments

We’ve had such beautiful fall days lately! Leaves aren’t quite at their peak (give them another week or so) but we’ve really taken advantage of the nice weather. This week we visited Pumpkin Hook, one of our favorite parks. It’s out in the country and so pretty (bonus, there’s usually nobody else there).
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Rolling down a hill = childhood!
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Swings are my favorite.
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Little man boxers!
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Cat in the Hat is one of Cassidy’s new favorite buddies :)
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Oh.My.God. she’s beautiful!
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Since it gets dark by 7pm now it’s getting harder to get outside and play at night. So thankful we managed to fit it in and burn off some of the crazies.
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Snug as a bug

by Heather | 0 comments

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It’s a pillowcass! Part of me is a little embarrassed to admit my 3.25 year old is still in her crib. The other part of me knows she hasn’t tried to climb out, doesn’t know anything different and stays put :) So for now, I’m not going to rock the boat. Haha, poor girl, maybe she’ll get a big kid bed by the time she gets to PreK next fall!

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