Fun Time with the Adjiblys

Katie (my college roommate) and her kids came for a quick visit, and we had a wonderful time with them. The kids enjoyed playing the Wii, soccer in the hall, hide and seek, and having a sleepover together. Katie and I snuck away for a pedicure and lunch. I'm so grateful for our friendship that has lasted 20 years!

Yummy Brownies

Kelsey had so much fun using her new cooking gifts - she made delicious brownies! She felt so grown up as she used her child-size oven mitts to take the brownie tray out of the oven all by herself. Later in the day, Conner mixed up brownies (completely from scratch) while we were at our friends' house. He had to wait to bake them until we got home, though. This morning Kelsey asked if she could make cookies - I told her we probably should take a day off from baking (the real reason is that I'm going to weigh 300 pounds if the kids bake anymore!!! :)

Christmas Fun

We had such an amazing Christmas! We feel like the luckiest family alive to have such a wonderful family and so many friends. We woke up Christmas morning to a note from Santa. Kelsey was really worried that she would get coal this year "because of the way she has been been acting" (as she put it)....Santa reassured her that she did not get coal because God gives us a lot of grace! It was so fun to watch the kids open their presents. Conner received custom made golf clubs and lots and lots of iTunes money - he was thrilled! McKenzie loved her new clothes, Abercrombie gift card, and her mini-fridge. Kelsey was ecstatic to get a new comforter, fleece sheets, and a very fuzzy blanket. Every night she almost cries as she gets into her "cold" bed - it would help if she had a little more meat on her bones! She also loved her box of baking mixes, "Kelsey's Cookie Kitchen" apron, oven mitts, recipes, bowls, sprinkles, and a cooking class. After opening gifts, I made a new banana coffee cake recipe, and we watched "The Christmas Shoes" movie (sad, but good). We had a wonderful Christmas dinner at Aunt Mary and Uncle Dan's house. It iced up once again on our way home, but we all made it back home safely.

Christmas Eve

We had such a wonderful time at Mom and Dad's house on Christmas Eve. We played Boggle, and Mary beat us all (like usual). Dad impressed us with his smarts, as he came up with words like "quoth." We also had so much fun playing a card game with the kids that Jim taught us (I think 11 of us played)! We had a yummy Christmas Eve dinner, and I ate the best pumpkin pie that I've ever tasted. Mom has mastered how to make pie crusts, and Dad made the filling. We ended the night with all of the adults opening a present that they had bought for themselves (Peter and I watched since we forgot to buy our gifts, oops!). It took us three tries to get up the hill from Mom and Dad's neighborhood, and then we safely made it home. Kelsey typed up the note to Santa and made sure that he had chocolate milk and cookies for his visit to our house.

More Games!

We weren't able to drive anywhere again today, so we decided to play some more games. McKenzie and I played a new game that we checked out from Piccolo Mondo. Kelsey and her friend played Life while we played Earthopoly. Later this afternoon I spent quite awhile shoveling the ice and snow off of our driveway. A neighbor girl told me that I should try using an ice pick rather than a snow shovel. I took her advice (I never would have thought of that and would still be out there if it weren't for her....), and the job went much quicker. She and her brother helped me for about an hour. They said "I love our neighborhood. We're like family because we help each other." I gave them a gift certificate for 2-dozen cookies. They are the family who frequently asks if we have any cookies. It only took Peter 1 1/2 hours to get home tonight (unlike the 4 hours it took him to get to work today)! We had a yummy teriyaki chicken and rice dinner with broccoli - Conner almost completely covers his broccoli with cheese, so that he can barely taste the broccoli. We watched "Martian Child" (good movie) and are finishing up the night watching the Blazers beat Denver (hopefully...).

More Winter Weather!!

Last night Peter barbecued some delicious steaks for us - nothing like barbecuing in the snow! We woke up to even more snow this morning. Peter said it actually is like Wisconsin weather - which he has never said before. He couldn't make it in to work today, so he had a day off. Today I walked up to Bethany Village two times (once by myself and once with Peter and McKenzie) because I just had to get some decent exercise. The walk was so peaceful and beautiful. I have never seen so many people in Starbucks! Kelsey got to play at her friend Kayla's house today, and Conner played in the snow with his friends.

Today is the first day that I'm feeling a little stir crazy. This is the second day where I have had to get my 10,000 steps done in the house. The kids are getting very used to Peter and I jogging around the house or jogging in place while we watch television. My excitement for the day is cleaning out 7 drawers in the kitchen - which took me a couple of hours. They were pretty bad. Actually, the excitement for the day is Conner made us all a delicious macaroni and cheese lunch! This is the first time that he made a "meal" from start to finish without any help. He even cleaned up which is the biggest treat of all. I just called our neighbors and invited ourselves over for a game/movie night. We're bringing all of the cookies from the cookie exchange before we eat them all!

Sleepover Fun

Kelsey loves having sleepovers with Sara! We went for a long walk in the snow, and the girls brought home ice to do an "experiment." They put snow in a mug and added cheerios, tobasco sauce, lemon juice, etc. It was so delicious that we decided that is what we'll bring for Christmas dinner. We sure have plenty of snow for everyone to at least get a bowl. In the morning we made some very cute pancakes.

Cookie Exchange

Thanks to Sam and Jim driving everyone in the snow, we were able to go to a cookie exchange at Amy's house today. Everyone brought beautiful cookies! Mary made the most amazing lemon sugar cookies - I ate four of them (or maybe five) today! It was fun hanging out with everyone. Jim and Maggie kept busy while we all baked.

Game Time with the Hearings

The kids had their 5th day off of school! We had fun playing lots of games today. Sam, Mary, Sara, and Alex came over for Boggle, Rummikub, and Mexican Train Dominoes. Of course, Mary killed me at Boggle. She also beat both Sam and me at Rummikub, and Sam won at dominoes! Maybe I'll have better luck next time. Sara is going to have a sleepover, so Kelsey is in heaven.

Can you tell that I have a lot more free time since I'm blogging almost every day? We've been having so much fun together on our "snow days." Today the kids made cookies with hardly any help at all, and they were delicious. They made up their own creation of half and half cookies and double chocolate M & M cookies. After we baked, we went out for lunch and did a little bit of shopping for a family of one of my students who is in need of a few things. The kids exchanged presents from each other tonight - they have been wanting to open "just one" present..... They earned money from the cookie business to buy each other presents, so it was fun to see what they chose for each other (Conner bought Kelsey a Webkinz parrot and McKenzie some gum and $5. McKenzie bought Conner a $15 iTunes card and Kelsey a $15 McDonalds card). Conner said afterwards that it felt really good to spend his money on someone other than himself :)

We Love Snow

Today was so much fun! We spent hours outside sledding, having snowball fights, making snow ramps, etc. Kelsey said she had a dream about tasting a snowflake, so she decided to see what one really tastes like today. Kelsey and I walked over to Sami's neighborhood where there is a fun hill. Sami has a real sled that goes much faster than the other plastic sleds! It was nice to go in for some hot chocolate before walking back to our neighborhood. Peter came home from work early, so he was able to watch Indiana Jones and play games with us!