Birthday Bonanza!

Hello Everybody! I'm back and I'm just jumping right in.  There will be no rhyme or reason to the posting here for the time being.  I'll be posting about things currently happening as well as things that have happened in the past 2 1/2 months-ish that I've been away from here.  Who knows? I may even post some things that happened a WAY long time ago that I've been meaning to write about but never got around to.  That being said, let's jump right in!

Last month Ezekiel and I both celebrated our birthdays! On the 3rd, Zeke turned 8. I can't believe it, I have an 8-year-old, how did this happen? I feel like I say that every year.  I probably do say it every year, but every year I mean it. How did this happen? We had a really good time celebrating his birthday this year.  Not that we don't every year, but you know what I'm saying. This year his birthday was on a Friday, and sadly for him it snowed like, an inch, and they closed the school so he didn't get to go on his birthday like he had really been hoping to do. He cried a little. It was sad. But he quickly recovered and it was a good day all the same. He got up and immediately opened his presents - a new Skylander from his brothers and a Giants cap from his parents. He was pretty excited.

Then we hung out and enjoyed the snow day. That night we had some ninja cupcakes.

The next day was the big day though. Saturday we went bowling! It wasn't just the 5 of us though.  It was us, all 6 of his grandparents, his Uncle Bobby and UB's girlfriend, Sam, Tante, Tia, and Tia's boyfriend, Ivan. Then, as a special thing he invited one of the boys from his class, so Mikey and his mom, Dania were there. Sadly, Deacon got sick that morning, so he and Josh stayed home, but the rest of us had a really good time! After bowling most of us came back to our house for cake (and more amazing cookies made by Heather) and presents and to hang out for a bit. 

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures all day.  I know my mom did and she emailed them to me, but I put them in a folder or something and now I'm having a hard time locating them. I'll keep looking. But all in all, it was a really good day, and he had a really great time.  He's already talking about doing it again for his next birthday!

My birthday was on the 11th, which was a Saturday.  The Wednesday before some of my friends surprised me at Bible study with a gorgeous Doctor Who cake that my friend, Nicole, made and some ice cream. Seriously you guys, the cake was amazing. It also tasted amazing.

Right?! On Saturday, I opened my presents from my guys, and took Zeke to Mikey's birthday party at the same bowling alley Zeke had his party at.  That's right, Mikey is cool because he and I share a birthday. Woot! However, since it was my birthday also, we left as soon as the bowling was finished because I had to get home to get ready to go out to dinner. My mom and stepdad volunteered to babysit and we took them up on the offer. They showed up, we had cake (the bottom tier from Wednesday's cake), then Josh and I went to the New Orleans Steakhouse for dinner.  We'd never been and I wanted to go, so we did.  And it was good. We were both so stuffed by the time we left.

And that's about it.  (I think this might be how I close all of my blog posts from now on so I don't have to think of eloquently worded closing lines and things.)

So Long, Lovely Locks

It was time. It was bound to happen sooner or later, he was asking for it, so I decided it was time. It was time for Finn to finally get himself a "real" haircut. I put real in quotations because he's had his hair cut by us before with the clippers. This was an actual haircut at a hair cutting place.

Who IS that handsome young man?! Finn sat so well, and did such a great job. I think we will go here FOREVER because he took it so well. Whenever we'd do it at home there would be water leaking from every possible orifice. Tears from the eyes, snot from the nose, drool from the mouth. Such a mess. But at Snip-Its he was great. Totally worth being over charged for a child's hair cut. I'm sure we will be back there soon.

Basketball

This winter we decided to sign the boys up for basketball.  The boys love to run, basketball involves running. The boys like seeing their friends, their friends play basketball. Our kids have never played basketball before, we signed them up on post.

All told, they had a pretty good time. I'm not sure it's going to be a sport either one of them will continue to play as they get older, but it was a nice experience for them, it was something to do during the cold winter evenings.

December 2013 in a Nutshell

December was a busy month filled with (mostly) holiday things. Besides going to school: 

 Aren't the sweetest?

There was visiting Santa at the Home Depot. We didn't go there to visit Santa, but since he was there while we were there, it worked out nicely.

We decorated our tree with stars and lights and all sorts of fun items.

Finn got bored with the tree decorating festivities rather quickly, so we handed him the iPad and let him chill.

 Pele photo-bombing my kids as they decorate.

For some reason we had cupcakes one day. Probably with some hot chocolate after they came in from playing in the snow.

Santa drove around post on a firetruck again, handing out stuffed animals to the kids on post. This is one of our favorite holiday traditions here.

The Saturday before Christmas was my family's big gathering. This pretty much sums up how we all feel at the end of the day: 

Which brings us to the big day - Christmas!

Like most years, we all made out like a bunch of bandits. My dad and stepmom came around lunch time to have Christmas with us. After they left, my mom, stepdad and sisters came for dinner. The following day Josh's parents came up. It's nice that we're close and everyone can come here so we don't have to pack up the boys and make them travel around on Christmas Day. Something we'll miss whenever we move.

And that's about it for the month. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!