Catching up, part two

Onward and upward, to Christmas......

Wow what a great year. It started snowing before Christmas, which was absolutely wonderful. I was so hopeful for a white christmas this year since my parents were coming for the holidays. I knew that would just top off the season so perfectly.

Nana and papaw arrived on Christmas Eve day just after lunch. We were able to visit for a while, and even took time to bake sugar cookies for Santa. That was the best, seeing as how the boys had never done that before.




After all that was done we got dressed and headed off to the Christmas program at Church. It would have been wonderful, I'm sure. I say that because within the first 20 minutes, Ryan threw up. ON CHRISTMAS EVE!!! I was so worried he would be up all night vomiting. We went home and mom and I ran to the store to pick up popsicles and sierra mist. Luckily we arrived at Meijer with 5 minutes to spare :) Oddly enough, Ryan never got sick again. For that I was truly grateful.

Santa came later that night and oh the loot he brought!!! I think he really outdid himself this year. The boys were overwhelmed with gifts, so many that I had to put a few away. Between Santa, us, nana and papaw, and grandma and poppy---well let's just say next year santa is going to have to tone it down just a bit...







All in all, it was a great season. The boys had a great time, and we had a great time spoiling them. We are so blessed beyond measure.

Catching up, part one

It seems as though I run a special some times on "catching up".

I'm always catching up on laundry, paying bills, cleaning the kitchen and the floors.

So now is a short opportunity to catch up on some blogging. I'm starting out with Ryan's 7th birthday--which was in November......yes it's been a while.

This year for his birthday, Mike and I gave in and actually let him have a big party. Last year was his first in school, so he didn't really have a lot of friends. This year though he had a few more and wanted them to come. So.....we booked a party at Monkey Joe's inflatables over near us in the Hamburg area. I had tossed around the idea because it's a no mess, no fuss, pay and they do it all type of thing. As loud and annoying as the place can be, the kids really do get to expend some energy indoors which is soooooo needed as the weather cools off.

We went to church that morning and all went smoothly (for those of you who know us, it's not always the easiest). We had lunch out then headed to Monkey Joe's. As we arrived, they escorted us to our room, which had his name above it--he totally loved that.



The kids were allowed to play for about an hour before being called back to the room to sing happy birthday and have cake/ice cream. We only had about 6 friends that came, but really that's all he needed. He was super excited just to be the one that day :)







Of course, I made a cake....this was not my finest creation by far, but Ryan was happy and the kids found it interesting. I don't really enjoy using fondant, I would much rather use buttercream, but he wanted a volcano, so that's what he got.



All in all it was a great day. The kids ran off a LOT of energy and crashed once we were home. I'm sure this was definitely one of the moments of his life he will never forget.