Movie Theater!

This was an exciting day for the Lents family......first time taking Addison to the movie theater! We were going to go to Trolls World Tour for her 4th birthday. I will insert a commonly used phrase here "But then COVID hit" Ha! Ugh. 

Super dark photo, but it's me, Addison & Ryan. Grandma Rita & Grandpa Ron were nice enough to babysit Mason for us so we could enjoy the afternoon at the theater. We of course got a giant thing of popcorn and snuck in our own pop :) 

Things had changed at the movie theater in the probably 8 years since we had been. Giant comfy reclining chairs. But it was FREEZING in there. Addison alternated from my lap to Ryan's trying to keep us all warm!! I was looking at the Ankeny movie theater online the other day and I see they have heated seats (brilliant). 

Anyways, we went to Sing 2 and Addison thought it was great. She keeps asking to go to another movie. Every time she sees Sing 2 at daycare, school, or a commercial on TV, she reminds us we saw it in the movie theater. Her daycare was supposed to go to the movie in Ankeny last week (and it was Trolls 2) and the older kids said they didn't want to see that movie. I felt bad for Addison, she was soooo disappointed. They instead did a "drive-in" where they took cardboard boxes and decorated them and then the daycare ironically rented Sing 2. haha! She had fun but I promised we would take her to the theater sometime. 

Grandma Rita gave Addison $10 to buy some ice cream at DQ after the movie. We shared 2 blizzards and Addison was pretty excited. It was a great afternoon with our girl, but on our way back to get Mason she says "I really miss Mason". Ha! Two and a half hours without Mason and she was ready to see him again :) 

They were throwing things out at work and this giant calculator was in the pile. So I brought it home for Addison. She loved it. She has her notebook and calculator and was getting her work done. 

One of many photos of our little dude's luscious locks. Ha! We loved that long hair. 

I can't remember exactly what time I took this, I think it was about 2pm. I took this photo because school was canceled due to a big snow storm. Yea...... it didn't snow until after school would have gotten out. Ha! Addison chose to go to daycare that day but still. A waste of a snow day!! 
 

Ryan's Birthday

After spending so many days trapped in the house, the kids got to pick some chips for a snack - ha! 

Celebrating Ryan's birthday with ribs and a birthday sundae at Hickory Park! As you can see, Addison was definitely distracted by that ice cream :) 

Best gift ever! Addison's kindergarten glass made this Christmas gift for us. It's a piece of tile with this photo on it, then she painted the Christmas lights. It worked out perfectly as she was wearing her Christmas light shirt that day! 

Does playing with a tractor in the doll house make it more manly?? 

It was a somewhat "warm" aka not freezing on a January afternoon so Addison and I went on a quick run/bike ride. We took a picture of the moon and sent it to Grandpa Ron. 

 

Stuck at home

While we were stuck at home with covid, we had to find things to keep busy. Addison loves these sticker projects. 

It was so cold out but we tried to get the kids outside some. Addison was helping Ryan shovel while me and Mason watched. Ha! 

My happy little guy with his curly hair. 

Needed to make sure we got a picture of our gingerbread house this year. It was a good one! 

Had to get Mason in (notice their matching jammies).

They were eating "8 cookies" aka Kringla that Grandma Rita made. They love Kringla! 

This little dude figured out light switches over Christmas break. It entertained him while we worked. He pushed a chair across the kitchen so he could reach the light switch. 

As I'm 6 months behind on posting, just last week Mason was able to stretch and reach the light switch in his room to shut off the light. He wants to do it so bad without a stool. Ha! He could just barely get it with his finger tips. It was an exciting moment in our house! 

 

Happy Anniversary

Well here is our annual anniversary photo, celebrating 8 years. This year had potential to be one of our most exciting anniversary, but by the picture, you can tell it didn't end up that way! We were going to go to MN to a Thomas Rhett concert with my family. They had gotten a limo and everything. I was looking forward to actually having plans this year!! 

But..... we got covid. UGH. We traced it to the Lents Christmas, quite a few of us got it after spending 5 days together. I took a test on Wednesday of that week and it was positive. Which meant that we couldn't go to Violet's birthday party that day. Addison was absolutely heart-broken. So was I. This was the first friend party she had been invited too. She was sooooo excited. There were quite a few tears in our house that day :( 

So we had to cancel all our plans that week. I'm still mad. Bitter. UGH. 

But we enjoyed our time together. We were trying on Addison & my new headbands we got for Christmas. 

We played lots of games, watched movies, played with all the new toys from Christmas, wii bowling, etc. 

The kiddos managed to stay pretty healthy. Mason had a little bit of a rough time on New Year's Day, but he felt better quick and he tested negative. 

We talked to Addison about our wedding and she asked lots of questions. We got out our wedding photo album and took a trip down memory lane. It was fun to show her and re-live the memories. 

Although Ryan and I were not feeling like it, we opened a bottle of champagne. We felt we HAD to have champagne on our anniversary! We were drinking hot tea the rest of the night - haha! 

Our 9th Anniversary is going to be much better!! I'm determined we are going somewhere or doing something exciting :) 
 

Christmas Break & wii bowling

Addison loved playing Wii this winter. My favorite is wii bowling but Addison loves the sword fighting. Ha! We played a lot of wii over Christmas Break and Addison got a high score for her in bowling. 

This was a Christmas gift from Mason's daycare, its an ornament with his photo in it. I LOVE the photo of Mason they got. 

Mason running his farm that he got for Christmas. He loves the tractors and the cows that came with this set. Eventually we will use it as a water or sand table like it's intended! 

Aw, my little buddy! He was so tired he fell asleep on the couch. He's so sweet. 

The kids had so much fun playing with these boxes. Playing hide & seek, being a jack in the box, etc. It was good entertainment for Christmas break. 

We bought Big Nolan a waldo book for Christmas and Addison was trying to find waldo. She has gotten pretty good at it! Then we find the extra items too. She's good at finding the scroll, I can find the bone and Ryan always finds the tail of the dog. I struggled with the tail! 

 As with Iowa weather the past couple years, we had a crazy windstorm in December. It was awful and a little scary after the derecho!! The wind was pushing so hard at the front door that we decided we better jerry-rig a solution to brace the door shut. It was kind of a nerve-wrecking night but we made it through pretty unscathed! Addison is always worried now with every storm that the power will go out (since it did with the derecho for a few days). 

Christmas with the Lents family

It was beautiful on Christmas day at the Lents farm. All had fun running on hay bales! Took Ryan and I back to being kids and running on bales, one of the more fun memories from my childhood. My dog Chip used to jump up and run and play tag with me and Landon :) 

Dale, Evonne & the grandkids. Mason was 1, Addison 5, Garrett 4, Nolan 6

Addison had fun playing with her cousins. 

Decorating cookies with Grandma Evonne. Not sure they will get asked again, I think they drove Grandma Evonne a little crazy with lots of sprinkles and wanting crazy colors of frosting! 

Had to capture this, Mason giving Brad a high-five! Mason wasn't the most friendly with others at this time (still isn't), but dude loves him a high-five! 

Addison was helping me make lunch when they call came to our house. She did a great job filling the eggs. 

Addison took a photo of the Lents adults. 

Aunt Cathy playing cards with the kids. The kids love playing with Cathy, it was good to see her as it had been a while!
 

Santa came!

Santa came! Kids slept in, I was shocked!

Stocking toys, Mason got a light up tree and Addison got a light up gingerbread man. 

Mason got a big gift from Santa, the kids had a blast on the slide. 

Addison opened up the doll and said "This is exactly what I wanted!" Santa brought the things she asked for - a doll, kinetic sand, and a unicorn. 

 We had an awesome morning before we had to leave the house. We relaxed, open gifts, played with new toys and had homemade cinnamon rolls. It was everything I wanted for our Christmas morning until we had to leave for Ryan's parents. It's a very special time for me and I want to create the memories while the kids are young and everything is magical. :)