We had a great holiday season! We kicked off the break with some cookie baking with our buds, so fun!
Molly and Noah have a special relationship. Mostly he tries to love on her and she tells him to go away, it's cute.
Christmas Eve was spent with the Rodriguez side of the family and all the cousins!
Christmas morning at home began right around 6:30am!
Isaac was happy with some beyblade toys!
Noah was happy with his pokemon swag and controller.
Sam was happy with the new hoverboard!
No adults were injured in this filming!
Emily came in her best Christmas attire.
Isaac was pretty excited about his new snorkel mask.
Kjersten found Josh a mystery puzzle box that began with duct tape unwrapping: totally perfect!
The day after Christmas, we headed over the Burr Ridge for some Benhart family fun. Bamma and JoJo took on a project with (gasp) glitter!
Mike introduced the adults to Malort.
Josh is not a fan.
Ella, Adeline, and Meg resurrected a toy tattoo machine that I had gifted them many years ago and re-gifted it to Isaac. He happily obliged by giving everyone a tattoo.
I mean, EVERYONE.
When the 11/12 year old crowd is grinning, usually no good comes of it.
Several of us went to see the new Star Wars after the kids slept over at Bamma's house; good times!
I took the kids to gather with the ole high school crew, we had a good turn out this year!
How have we known each other for over 20 years?!
Then, came the big excitement of getting the new kitten. We settled on the name Minerva (aka Minnie), because she looks like the cat Professor McGonagall (from Harry Potter) transfigures into. And, Minnie and Molly sound pretty cute together. We got her from Barb's Precious Rescue, in Palatine!
The boys were all very excited to get her home!
After just a few minutes of acclimating, she quickly started her take over of the house and it's inhabitants. She is a force!
Within the first couple days she was comfortable roaming the house and meeting Barry.
Molly took some convincing. She parked herself on the top of the couch and just glared for a good few days. Finally, she started to come around to the idea that maybe this little one isn't so bad. Sam did a nice job of trying to get them to play near each other.
Noah got some hand me downs from Nick and is looking more like his older cousin every day!
Miss Minnie makes herself cozy wherever she sees fit.
She can also be very helpful when you are learning to tie your shoes.
She's pretty social and comfortable being handled. Noah enjoyed a Lion King-esque moment.
We really enjoyed a lot of down time our last portion of break. Sam and I experienced a historic triple war, which he of course won.
Molly started to get more comfortable and decided she could now tolerate us all again.
Tiny girl loves her belly rubs!
Lazy winter days on the couch are the best!
Back to school and Noah got his new 6th grade shirt. Only a few short months of elementary school left! His future is so bright!
Spot claimed!
Sam and his antics. He put his legs thru the arms of his sweatshirt and looked like some sort of circus act.
Everyone is settled now, truces have be made and we are happy.
Noah is gearing up for his black belt exam, in just one week!
She's a good supervisor of puzzles.
How can you resist these cute faces!
As a residual of being bottlefed, Minnie enjoys a nightly nibble on my fingers.
She's starting to get bigger, just like all the kids in this house.
So peace and order restored, ready to hunker down for winter and spend time staying warm!
