All about Ellie!

We've been having a fairly quiet January around here.  Well, quiet as in not much planned, but not ACTUALLY quiet.  It's never quiet around here unless there's trouble.  The colder temps have forced us to make sure some wrestling or other crazy indoor activity happens to keep people sane.

 Ellie has been the recipient of a lot of love and a lot of ire lately (as is usually the case).  She loves her boys!

 But don't let her old lady/docile demeanor fool you, she is still a naughty pup!

 January has also been the month of legos.  Uncle Josh helped the boys (by "helped" I mean "did it mostly by himself due to poor attention by the little people") complete the 1300 piece millennium falcon over the course of 3 Sundays.

 Week one in the books!

 Scored some pretty sweet Storm Trooper ski masks on clearance, they have come in really handy!

 More Ellie love!

 Some good dad snuggles too, it's cold!

 When Bamma's around, there's bound to be chocolate and cute projects!

 "Hey Sam, you should totally put like 10 extreme sour patch kids in your mouth at once" - Noah

"Ok!" - Sam

 Time to work out baby!

 Random mustaches of awesomeness!

 Trainer session number 2!

 Progress on week 2 of Lego project!

 While Josh was hard at work, Sam snuck in with Kjersten, smooth kiddo!

 Darn these self adjusting iPads, don't they know I want to watch upside down!

 Perler bead zombie!

 Another winner project with Bamma, footprint police car by Sam!

 Sam got to celebrate his half birthday at school this week.  Wahoo for 5 and a half!  Isaac and I got to visit and read a book (of course a Piggy and Gerald book).

 Week 3 of Legos, almost done!

 BB-8 is our favorite!

 It's finished!!!!!

 And, today, we celebrate Ellie's 10th birthday!  You've had ups and downs dog, but we love you through and through.

 We made a special cake just for her (dog safe, of course), enjoy the day Doggers!

Christmas 2015

Wow, so that was a fun Christmas!  It began Christmas Eve with our usual night at Papa's house.  All the cousins were there, it was a full couch!

We were all able to meet Anya, Danny's little girl.

Xavier was his usual cute self!

Some quality family time over Popeye's chicken, what could be better!?

The annual tshirt grab bag resulted in matchy sisters in law!

The boys netted some adorable matching storm trooper jammies!

And some very expensive tequila met it's match with our family.

Christmas morning came at my parents house in Burr Ridge and the excitement rolled on!  Santa was here!!!!

Very cool Star Wars stuff!

 Cute shark blankets were a hit too!

 Josh and Ellie got some hilarious ugly sweaters.

 More quality family time over breakfast!

 Sam got a shark game that bites randomly, he loves it!

Sam also got a hologram projector that requires focusing and using brainwaves.

 Christmas night brought the arrival of several Benhart cousins and a fun saran wrap/candy game just before bed.

 We tried out Pie Face (like everyone else apparently according to Facebook) and it was hilarious.

 We celebrated some holiday birthdays with melty ice cream pie!

 Saturday brought us to the cooking competition and the lip sync video competition.  There were several good egg dishes!

 Dan and Brian showed up with a family wheel of fortune game, so fun!

 It was fun to spend so much time with extended family!

 Sunday was our Star Wars day!

 Nearly 20 of us gathered together to go see the new Star Wars!

 Imax, 3D?  You betcha!

 It was a great movie and the boys all loved it!  Thanks to Meg for staying back with Isaac so Mike and I could both go!

 After a restful day back at home, Noah and I met up with some high school friends for breakfast.

 Sam and Isaac stayed with my mom while Noah and I joined Philie and Fred for our own, self guided Chicago Fire tour.  We saw the site of the O'Leary farm and several other landmarks before hitting the Chicago Historical Museum.  There was a cool hands on exhibit where Noah became a chicago style hot dog.

 And they took a green screen flight over the city!

 Very neat diorama display showing the fire.

Watched a short movie about the history of Chicago.

Visited the water tower before lunch.

 And hit the lego store before heading come, it was a full day but lots of fun!

 Mike went to Champaign for work for a couple days, but then was back home and took Isaac to his first haircut at Supercuts.  He screamed, but ended up with a decent look.

 We enjoyed several laazy days at home watching some cartoons and trying out some new gifts.

 There has been a lot of candy eating around here too!

 Lots of playing with new games like Sam's mini bowling set, Farkle (fun dice game), Catan junior, and our new PS4 (kung fu panda is the latest favorite game).

 Sharing is very tricky when you are two!

 So we're enjoying our last day of vacation and then back to work/school tomorrow!  What a great holiday season!  Happy New Year all, hope 2016 is a great year!