Ryan's Birthday

Ryan's Birthday Sundae at Hickory Park. Here it is, Halloween, and I'm posting about January 7. Yikes! 

Happy kiddos with ice cream! 

And of course a chocolate cake! Addison LOVES celebrating everyone's birthdays. She is constantly going through the calendar and listing everyone's birthdays in order. She is slightly disappointed that we don't do parties for everyone, she would love to party all the time. Ha! 

Silly boy in Addison's "teacher glasses"

My little point-guard! She said she didn't want to do basketball this year, but Mom and Dad told her she doesn't have a choice! Ha! I told her I will be her coach and that made her happy. 

She has made herself a list of things that she should work on each day after school. She doesn't go to daycare anymore, so she has some free time at home before we get home. She split the tasks out by days of the week. Some of her items are: push-ups, wall-sits, jumping jacks, bridges, splits, head stands, and of course reading books. 

 Mason was doing some farm work in his little room. He had to get some work done before he could go to bed this night! 

New Year's Day

We decided to spend New Year's Day at Perfect Games bowling. The kids had a blast! Addison had been wanting to go bowling for a while. 

She got a spare! She was pretty excited to get a spare in the first frame. Although she was pretty hard on herself that she didn't get a spare or strike in each frame. Ha! 

Love this picture of my little buddy! It was his first time bowling and he thought it was pretty cool. 

Addison has bowled before, but it had been a while and she was excited! 

Had to take a picture - I won :) 

Addison working on her backbend with the contraption Brayden & Nolan gave her. 

Brayden and Nolan also got her a tumbling mat.... which she has used for tumbling but also to contain all the students in her class. Ha! 
 

Lents extended family

The highlight for the Lents extended family Christmas is that Veronica and Aly bringing their cattle. ha! They were leaving for a cattle show in Oklahoma after the Christmas. Addison and Mason were excited to see them! One of the cow's name is Opal, so we have a toy Opal now too. Mason was just playing with it yesterday! 

They love Erica & Grant's house with all the toys to play with! 

Playing games while they wait for Nolan and Garrett to get back. Mason did the splits with his nose to the ground. 

Early morning Sequence

Celebrating 9 years on New Year's Eve using our shot glasses from St. Maarten. It's almost 10 years now! 

 

Lents Christmas

Mason got a new train magic car so he immediately demanded we get out the tracks and set it up for him! The trains went fast! 

The kids were pretty excited to give Garrett the fighting robots. They love their bumper cars so they thought Garrett would like the robots. They were a hit and they played them so much the batteries died! 

Addison really wanted this "live" turtle, so she was excited!! The commercial says it's alive and says it walks.... I had to try to tame her expectations and explains it's battery operated. Ha! It is a favorite bath toy when they take bathes! 

Haha, I saw this picture and laughed. This is her hiding to eat a Kit-Kat because she was the only kid eating a treat. She is used to hiding to eat, we make her do it around Mason - haha! 

The kids love lottery tickets, so I let them scratch mine from Dale & Evonne. Mason won!! He said "winner winner chicken dinner!!" 

Then we convinced the Lents' to play a Julius card game. Addison LOVES Chase the Ace and wanted to play so badly. It took lots of convincing, but finally we got everyone to sit down to play a few rounds. I can't remember exactly right now, but in the picture on the left, some people were out of the game and Addison still had all 3 of her coins. Then on the right, she cut an Ace. Ha! She did still end up winning. 
 

Ice Skating Practice

Addison had the day off of school and I had the day off work. She was invited to an ice-skating party in January, so we thought we would go to the open skate in Ames and practice! 

It's not quite like riding a bike.... it was harder for me than I expected! Though it's been 17 years since I had skated.... 

We had a fun afternoon and she caught on pretty fast! 

They loved their personalized books from Aunt Tracey. They read them constantly! And now, 10 months later, Mason is still obsessed with it. They call it their "Polar Express" book :) 

Miss Addison working at her new desk. 

She lost her first tooth! It was a good 5-6 weeks from when it first became loose until she finally got it out!! She really wanted it out on Christmas Eve so Santa and the Tooth Fairy came on the same night. That didn't happen. Maybe it will this year though....she has about 3 barely loose teeth right now. Ha! 

 

Julius Family Christmas Pictures

Each family takes their pictures with Grandma & Grandpa. 

Tracey brought Addison a Vikings sweatshirt 

Makena got her and Addison BFF Snoopy necklaces. Addison was so excited! 

All 17 of us!! It only happens once or twice a year, so we have to get a picture :) 

Just the kids from 2-16

We just rearranged. ha!