The Holiday Catch-up.

 In the past 2.5 weeks, we have....

1. Celebrated Jack's birthday and we celebrated it as superhero as we could.

My Jack turned 4 years old and for his birthday he requested a Superman cake.

"How hard could it be to make a superman cake" I thought to myself and I set to work with a box cake and homemade frosting. And what I learned is that making and decorating a cake is actually fun, but it can get pretty tricky (and wonky looking) when you let your 4 and 2 year old boys help with the process.

All that matters is that the birthday boy thinks it is neat...and Jack sure did.

Waiting patiently.

He knows what's sitting behind him!

See....superheros. 

The can has officially been opened....at least he still lets me pick out his clothes. Phew!

2. We (Jack very willingly participated) had ourselves a short (maybe 10 minutes) 4 year-old photo session.

I have figured out a special place in my house that gets the perfect natural light.

Now if I just had this...it would be even more perfect.

3. We made Pat desk snacks as a Christmas present from the boys. I think they are just the cutest snack jars!

These were truly super easy to make, especially when I have Jack and Iron Man helping me.

He helped me make them one day while Owen was napping. Let me clarify, I made them while he listened to/read Jack and the Beanstalk on the iPad and told me which food went in each jar. He insisted that the jar with his picture had to have the Nibs.

4. We celebrated Christmas on the 24th and the 25th, just the four of us! This year it was so important to us to start creating our own family traditions that we will carry-on for the many years to come. It was absolutely wonderful! On Christmas Eve, we played, we made homemade granola and delivered it to our neighbors, I prepared The Myers traditional meal (meatballs and cheesy potatoes) while all the boys napped, we went to church and then enjoyed the meatballs and potatoes for dinner. Delicious!

 

Before bed, we wrote a note to Santa, leaving him cookies to munch on.

Jack also threw the Reindeer Food out on our deck, in case they were hungry too.

Jack went to bed that night very excited about Santa coming. When his head hit the pillow, he closed his eyes and said, "Mommy, I am waiting for Santa Claus to come..you need to go to sleep too or else he won't come to my house."

Well, Santa Claus did come and I only have one picture to show for it (a cell phone pic). On Christmas morning, I decided to put my camera down and just enjoy the moment.

Jack with his  Spiderman skateboard (it was #1 on his list) and in his new Batman costume.

FYI-I'm pretty sure Santa got that cute Batman cap from here and the black mask from here.

O-bubs got one too, but it couldn't compete with his new Toy Story 3 figurines. 

Buzz, Woody and Jessie were in his hands the entire day.

5. We then traveled to Northern Wisconsin to spend a few days with Pat's parents, sister and my three nieces. The boys love their cousins and truly had such a blast with them.

We played in the snow a lot and relaxed a lot! 

It was fantastic.

We also celebrated Jack's birthday again while were there!

Owen loved up on his cousins the whole time. He especially took a liking to Ellie, who he called Tinkle for the three days.

Snuggling with grandma is a must and these two were seen on her lap quite often.

6. We had so much fun playing in the snow. In Michigan, we barely have any, so this was such a treat for the boys.

This is not the angle of the picture...the snow is truly up to Jack's waist and Beasley's body!

O is not a huge fan of being cold and within 15 minutes he asks to "go home". This is hard, because Jack could play outside for hours never requesting to go inside. 

But the mini-snowman made it more fun and helped buy us some time.

We also have had a terrible, awful, no good cold go through our family (so sorry to all those we have effected). Jack was the first to get it, hence the sad look on his face above. He was such a trooper though trying to have fun with his cousins through it all.

7. We then went to my mom's house where were able to play with more cousins.

And I can never resist a photo shoot with this darling, cutie pie!

Okay, so I know she is my niece and I am quite biased, but "Hello GAP, are you there? Miss Frankie must be a model for you!"

8. More playing outside and more silliness!

 

9. Due to that terrible, awful, no good cold and a developing ice storm we stayed in for NYE. But, the next night we met up with my girlfriends and their families for a Mexican Fiesta/Rose Bowl Party!

I decided to take pictures of all the kids at the end of the night when they were on the brink of the ugly, tired breakdown (well, my kids anyway). Bad idea, which is why I don't have any to share.

10. And now it's time to get back to reality! I am feeling the urge to purge and make these first few months of the new year more simple and organized!!