February happenings

 So, February has been pretty standard around here.  We had a freezing pipe issue that resulted in some outdoor maintenance and ripping out the basement carpet.  Fun!

 We had a bout of the flu with Noah and Sam falling ill for about a week.  Sam had some very evident "fever ears" but everyone recovered well, thankfully.

 We have been rocking some puzzles lately for winter fun.

We celebrated the Super Bowl with some Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches, Go Eagles!

 Isaac's preschool had an Olympics Day that I was able to attend.  Gold medals for everyone!

 We began some lessons in our 80s childhood experiences!

 Isaac and Bamma enjoy sending me "Smootch Selfies" when I am at work!

 We got quite the February snowstorm with combined totals over a foot in the span of a week.  The boys did have one snow day, which was fun!

 We had an Olympic/birthday celebration in honor of Fred and Kelly (friends with February birthdays) at the Worst's house.  They happen to have a pretty good sledding hill nearby!

 Mom matching at it's finest!

 Big boys realize the physics of added weight!

 Back at the house, we posed for the pictures in true Olympic Style!

 And enjoyed an Olympic Downhill cake!

 Go team USA!

 More snow, more shoveling, rinse and repeat!

 Dad came out and did some tackling this time too!

 Valentine's Day was pretty fun, Isaac came home with quite the swag bag!

 And Mike came home with gourmet cupcakes for all!

Noah earned his brown belt in karate, now he is referred to as "Mr. Rodriguez" during class.

 This weekend was the Nerge Fun Fair!  It was your typical fun fair: loud, hot, crowded and filled with long lines of overhyped children.  But, the guys loved it.  Mike and I, well, we endured it.  The balloon artist was a big hit!

Last night, Mike, Noah and I went to see Black Panther.  And Bampa came to hang out with the younger two.  We all know that Sam likes sushi.  Isaac kept telling us he liked it and wanted it (even though he'd never tried it).  So off they went to a local sushi place!  Sam, per usual, did great!

 Isaac declared, "I don't care for the sushi" and convinced Bampa to go to Jewel to buy ice cream and cookies.  Go figure! 

So, here we go into the birthday season of March!  Can't wait for all the excitement ahead!

Holiday Wrap Up 2017

The holidays were a blast, as usual around here.  I finally have a minute now to post it all!  Sam opted to get a "real" haircut just before the holidays and he looked very model-esque!

We got a new chair for our living room!  You know you are peak adult when you are excited about furniture!

Isaac enjoyed his last day of gymnastics, he will be trying out indoor soccer for the new year!

 We took a Sunday afternoon trip down to Naperville to go to their christkindlmarket with Josh and Dan.  It was cold, but very fun!

 The Friday just before Christmas was a special Baking Day with Bamma!  The older two had no school while Isaac still had preschool.  So we did a lot of melted chocolate dipping project while he was at his school party.

 Bamma taught Noah the art of peanut butter ball making!

 We were all able to go watch Isaac perform with his preschool friends for their little winter holiday program, so cute!

 In the afternoon we watched Beauty and the Beast (Bamma's favorite)!

 We ended up with a pretty good assortment of cookies to take around to the neighbors!

 Noah and I went to see "The Last Jedi" and really enjoyed it while Mike took the other boys to see "Ferdinand."

 On Christmas Eve, Sam pulled out another tooth!  We laughed about the Tooth Fairy meeting up with Santa at our house and how probably Santa shared cookies with her!

 Christmas Eve with the Rodriguez crew!

 Cousin matchy matchy!

 Christmas morning in our home was pretty special.  Sam got the Hatchimal he'd been waiting for over a year to receive!

 Our littlest scientist got a skeleton puzzle and microscope!

 The electric blanket Santa brought has been a huge hit during the brutal cold!

 The highlight for Noah was probably the Nintendo Switch that Bamma and Uncle Josh gave all the boys!

 The rest of the day was spent playing a lot of mariokart!

 A brief pause in the gaming for the younger two to go out and sled a bit in the backyard.  My favorite part is that I can watch from the warm indoors!

 More Mariokart in the evening with Bampa and Uncle Josh!  It was a highly successful Christmas day!

 A couple days after Christmas, we hosted some of my beloved High School friends.  The not so happy part about this picture is that just about everyone pictured ended up with a terrible 24 hour stomach bug in the following days!  But it was great to see everyone before the sickness hit!

 The LTHS crew!

 Maggie plays, "which aunt do you love more, sponsored by cookies" game!

 After more than 20 years, we still have a lot of fun!

 We also took a trip with Bamma, Uncle Josh, Maggie, Brian, and Dan to Uncle Julio's to try out the chocolate pinata.  Pretty fun!

 We babysat Xavier one evening too, Sammy is his buddy!

 New Year's Eve was a night with Bamma and the Worsts.  It was fun, but I can say we won't be going to a restaurant filled with horn blowing children again any time soon!

 Happy 2018!  (we celebrated with Paris at 5pm, best plan ever!)

 The week following New Year's was COLD!  So we spent one day beating the chill by going to an indoor pool!

 And another day by curling up with blankets, pillows, and books fireside!

 We ended our break by going to watch Nick play volleyball in a local tournament (he's #24 in white).  The boys were pretty impressed!

 So this week it was back to school and back to projects with Bamma!

 Poor Noah was hit with influenza and was out of school for 2 days!  Mike was able to take Isaac and Sam to do some art projects while Noah and I did a movie afternoon at home.  Happy New Year all!  Hope your year is filled with good healthy and great memories!