Point of this is to give you all a little photo taste of the last two weeks! We have packed sooo much in this holiday season, and we are just now barely beginning to recover. I say recover, because two kids and the smorgasport of activities made for a pretty intense time. So much fun, but we kind of just had to throw all of our usual routines to the wind and embrace the chaos.
Our first adventure was to California for about 9 days. Since Ben couldn't take that much time off work right before their busy season, he only joined us for 5 of those days, and the flight home.
Me and the boys on the first leg of the trip! Honestly, it went super well overall. Toby slept a bit, we had the whole back row to ourselves, and the flight attendant was super sweet and even held Tobe for me while I went to the bathroom.
When we landed, however, it was like 10 pm our time and everyone had had enough. We ended up in a tiny stall in the crowded bathroom (family bathrooms were full and I had a 3-year-old who had held his pee the whole flight). The strapped on baby was fussy and cranky as we all maneuvered around our bags in this tiny stall. 3-year-old was not cooperating while I was trying to put on his pull-up for the ride back to my parents house in case he fell asleep. The screeches and whining were echoing throughout the whole bathroom. It was a mess. And then some woman had the audacity to give me the stink eye as I struggled to wash the hands of Asher, who loves touching all the pieces of the toilet in any public restroom. I mean, seriously lady? You think I am enjoying this?
We did make it safely, however. =)
Sweet baby Stella! She has changed so much since last time we saw her. And she is such a dolly!
Toby loved Stella too. It started with some "gentle" touching of her sweet lil' head.
Then he leaned in to give her a sweet, yet slobbery, kiss. We were all oohing and aahhing.
That quickly turned into a firm (and loving, I'm sure) chomp upon her perfectly round forehead. He was able to manage quite a grip and left some frightening teeth marks. Poor Stella. Anytime she was on the floor, he would make a beeline. Generally it was just kisses, but he can't help trying out his new chomping skills either, so a close eye had to be kept. Which Joe managed just fine...we saw just how protective he was of his lil' girl...I hate to see what he does when the offending party isn't a 9-month-old ;) (love ya Joey!)
Mimi has all the coolest toys and activities. Asher sure loves a good pattern puzzle!
Trying on Uncle Jim's motorcycle helmet. He was a little scared at first, until he realized that he could see out of it just fine and it wasn't dark in there.
Okay, this holiday season, we realized just how much this kid loves dressing up. He will find whatever is accessible and pop it on and wear it for a whole day if you let him. Doesn't matter what it is (picture is case in point). So its time to start investing in dress-up clothes!
Okay, this was the sweetest. Reese has some kind of special affinity for Ben. It started before this, but she hasn't let it go. She woke up the morning after he arrived, jumped in his arms and snuggled right in. At any given time, we would find her climbing on his lap, waving hi, or just so excited to show him something. So cute!
So I didn't take many pictures of our friend/family events...but I did manage to get a picture of this. I asked my brother John to make a charcuterie board. He claimed he didn't even know what that was. When I described it to him, he kept saying he wasn't sure he could do it. And then BAM! he made the two boards in the back, with cheese, nuts, meat and olives. Basically he is awesome.
Oh, and the plate on the bottom right is an amazing lil' appetizer I discovered on a blog called "What Molly Made." They are little roasted sweet potato rounds with honey goat cheese, chopped walnuts and dried figs and fresh rosemary. SO GOOD!
Christmas Eve hike in the canyon! All the cousins on Slide Rock-a favorite from our childhood!
These lil' guys are the definition of frenemies. There was plenty of squabbling over toys, and lots of screeching when the other did something they didn't like. But then it was snack time in the canyon and they plopped right down next to each other. Like really close. So cute.
Our family "Chopped" experience. We had done this with the Dill family and loved it. I only have pictures of one of the three rounds. This was an entree round with Ben and Krissa competing against John and Heather.
Their mandatory mystery ingredients were:
-Whole Tilapia
-canned garbanzo beans
-saurkraut
-tomatillos
I didn't get many pictures of the process, most were videos...but I managed to capture this one =)
John and Heather made tilapia tacos with a saurkraut slaw and garbanzo bean guacamole. It was actually really good (they won!)
Ben and Krissa went a totally different route and made pan seared tilapia with a tomatillo relish and a garbanzo bean/saurkraut mash. Really unique but super tasty.
Final products!
My group had frog legs in our baskets, with some other things... It was really fun! If anyone ever wants any pointers or things we learned along the way, let me know! We also have a judging rubric that we made up so it helps guide the judging.
Aeslyn "reading" to Reese and Toby.
Mimi, Papa and their 9 grands! We'll be adding one more next time! (and before you get too excited, by "we" I mean John and Amy are expecting a baby in March...)
After California, we flew home, arrived back around 1 am on Thursday morning. And then on Friday we left at 9 am for central IL for back-to-back Christmas celebrations with Ben's extended family on both sides. Ben wasn't able to go due to circumstances at work...so the boys and I piled in with his parents and siblings and took an adventure of a road trip with 8 of us in a van!
Arrived and the boys were kind of a mess, so we ate dinner and then had bath time at Grandma-Great's. Made all of us happier.
Back to Asher in dress-up clothes. This time it was a vintage ladies hat and a shirt that had been his grandma's when she was a little girl!
I love this picture. This is Asher, his grandma LaRae and her dad, Warren (who Asher's middle name is after). Asher was helping Grandpa-Great Warren open some gifts.
Asher also liked Shelby, Ben's cousin. He would go find her randomly and wave, or just sit by her, as in this picture. Teenage girls are his favorite to hang out with.
More costumes! He is in his element!
Tried to get a Nativity picture with some of the great-grandkids...Mostly worked, but our lil' Angel Nora was not particularly pleased with the arrangement!
6 great-grand babies were born this past year in Ben's extended family!
I didn't get any good pictures of the other side of Ben's family and their celebration, but we had lots of fun there too!
Now we are back home...everyone is out of whack. Toby has been sleeping terribly and is barely eating any solids at all (Taking any advice anyone has... Asher was a great sleeper and ate ALL the solids, all the time, so I'm a little lost and kind of worried).
But we started today with a new structure to our days and Asher is responding well to it, and I am feeling hopeful for where this year is going.
I'll write another post on resolutions and goals and such...
For now...au revoir.
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