The only perk to the boys waking up early on weekday mornings: snuggle time with Daddy before he goes to work.

I surprised Erik with an early Christmas gift: we went to Zanie's in Chicago to see one of our favorite comedians, Jake Johannsen. We stayed with my cousin Stacey and her husband and had a really great time. We stayed up way too late on Friday night and had a nice late breakfast on Saturday morning before heading back to pick up the kids.

 That Sunday, Erik rushed to get the mulching done one last time for the season. He was racing against the snow that started coming down while he was still out on the tractor. 

The next day, our yard was covered in snow! Our local deer friends came searching for fallen apples in the orchard.

 Happy St. Nick's boys! St. Nick filled their stockings with Santa hats, Candy Canes and a Yogi Bear movie!

 Will really loved his Santa hat. He wore it pretty much every opportunity he got this holiday season. Even to Costco to have his picture taken with the bear. Again.

Erik dressed up for the Ugly Tie Contest / Holiday party at work. I had a sweater vest I had picked up over the summer that I was saving for my aunt (she is always looking for one for an annual work party) so Erik donned that with a tie. He easily took first place with his beautiful ensemble. Mostly because he was the ONLY PERSON in his entire office that dressed up. Looking good, honey!

John was busy before naptime. 

 I found a snowman wreath on Pinterest last year and recreated it with grapevine wreaths. I like how it looked on our red door this holiday season.

John gets the best bedhead I've ever seen.

Puzzle building! Good job, buddy!

Irony is breaking your leg lamp night light while vacuuming. Luckily, Erik did not use all the glue up on purpose. I was able to fix it and it's back in our half bath where it belongs.

For years we've been tossing phone books whenever we get them as they seem to serve no purpose with Google readily available on our cell phones. Will discovered one we were getting ready to toss into recycling and thought it made a fantastic coloring book.

I ordered Will some new snow pants. He kindly modeled them for me in front of our Christmas card display. I think the fake Poinsettia bouquet really makes the picture.

 Some pictures of Stella because she is usually so neglected on the blog these days, even though it's named after her! Plus she's snuggling with her "Stellaphant" that she got for St Nick's :)

Christmas Cookie Baking! We setup to bake cookies with my family this weekend, but a snow storm decided to ruin our fun. The boys and I baked cookies at home together instead! We made snickerdoodles (they're Erik's favorite)

 The boys love to help me put ingredients into the mixer. They also helped me form the dough balls before they had to cool in the fridge.

Time for M&M pretzel treats! Will was a great helper at laying out the pretzels on the sheet pan while I unwrapped the rolos.

John didn't want to miss out on the fun!

After cookies, it was time for the snow! The boys loved running around outside and playing in it. The only down side? It was too powdery to build a snowman.

We let Stella run around off leash. I think she was the most excited of all our kids!

 "I'm going down the slide, mommy!"

 Watching his snow dog enjoy her favorite time of the year.

It was fun out in the snow, but nothing beats coming back inside for hot chocolate with marshmallows and some Yogi Bear!

If you're ever looking for a unique, handmade gift for someone who loves their pet(s), check out my friend Kami's Etsy shop: Bird Nerd Goods. She created this beautiful portrait as a Christmas gift for my brother in law, whose dog is one of the most important guys in his life. I was so excited to send him his Christmas gift this year. She even framed it and wrapped it beautifully so all I had to do was mail it off. It was a great experience and I was thrilled with how it turned out.

4 year checkup for this guy! It was a little late because I totally missed his originally scheduled checkup right after his birthday and had to reschedule. Whoops!

Building gingerbread houses and baking cookies with Grandma & Grandpa! We missed our original Christmas cookie baking date with my family thanks to the snowstorm over the weekend. 

 Will & Grandma!

John giving his version of a thumbs up with Grandpa!

Will had his Christmas concert for school that night. The boys sure looked handsome and all ready to go! The concert was really cute. Will was a little nervous during the rehearsal, mostly because he wanted to be with me and not with his classmates. But that night, he did great! They sang He We Come a Caroling, C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S, All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth and Up on the Housetop. We left right after the preschoolers were done with their portion of the show. Grandma Karen came ot watch with us/keep John contained so that Erik and I could watch Will perform. 

I tagged my mom in a Facebook post about a messy bun hat. Before I knew it, she made me one and had orders for a lot more from family and friends! I even asked her to make some as teacher gifts for Will's teachers. I love my little photobomber in the second photo.

When daddy comes home from work its time for Movie Night: Christmas Edition! He builds the best pillow/bean bag forts to snuggle in.

We did our cookie exchange with my family and ended up with more cookies than we could possibly eat!

What's the best part about decorating cookies? Eating them, of course!

Stella took the opportunity to snuggle up in the pillow fort.

I guess she thought Erik made a new bed for her!

Pretty girl laying in the sunroom trying to catch a tan.

Each year, my family gets together on December 18 to celebrate my Grandpa's birthday with a pizza party. With school and weather, this year we weren't able to make it. In fact, I don't even recall if everyone got together. But we still kept the tradition going at our house with a pizza night with our boys. Love you and miss you, Grandpa!

Thanks to Pinterest, Will and I made these cool popsicle stick ornaments. I raided my sewing basket to find all the buttons and Will painted them all by himself. So cute! These will make great gifts to give to grandparents, aunts & uncles!

I updated the growth chart for both our boys. As you can see, John is always trying to catch up to his big brother. He has been right behind him at just about every age. I'm going to have 2 tall boys on my hand!

Another day, another barefoot car ride in the middle of winter.

Sometimes I'm brave enough to take these little hooligans out to lunch by myself. Today, it was Noodles & Co for some spaghetti and mac & cheese. They boys ate well and were really well behaved. In the middle of lunch, Will really needed to go potty, so I scooped John up and we all headed for the restroom. Much to my dismay, upon our return, the busser had cleared our barely eaten plates. I went up to the counter, explained what happened and got 2 fresh plates of food for the boys. If you ever have to leave your food unattended, make sure to let someone know so this doesn't happen to you!

They call it play time. I call it a dumped out basket of train tracks.

We got Christmas cards from both my brothers' families this year. One of them needs a spelling lesson! You were close, Pat!

We went to sweet Sophie's 4th birthday party just before Christmas while Matt, Kellyn and family were in town. It was so much fun seeing the Fischer side of the family and watching the kids all run around together. 

I volunteered at Will's class Christmas party. They made gummy candy snowflakes, decorated Christmas cookies and had a "snowball" fight (with cotton balls). I love being able to volunteer at these events and seeing how he interacts with his teachers and friends. 

All the kids snuggled up watching a movie together with daddy. Stella's disappointed she doesn't fit on the couch with them.

Whatcha eating, John? Oh, just a racecar, mommy.

I made a special gift for all my cousin's kids to hand out on Christmas Eve. Coal!! It's edible and made with rice krispies, food coloring, marshmallows and Oreo cookies. It may look gross but it sure was yummy!

I started getting sick on Christmas Eve, so by Christmas Day I was feeling pretty awful. And It just kept going from there. 

From my Instagram:

"I've been battling a cold and have pretty much slept the day away recovering from all the Christmas festivities. Will brought me some water and toast and his most prized stuffed animal, Bear, to snuggle with while my boys eat dinner and I hang out on the couch. He told me he's sorry I'm sick and that it makes his heart sad. It's a really good feeling to know I'm raising such a sweet little man.

Everything better, coffee does make. I was excited to use my cup because we were going to see Rogue One that afternoon!

We successfully made it to Rogue One for a day date. sadly, I still felt awful so I sent Erik to pick up the boys so I could sleep. After they were in bed he met some friends of ours out for drinks and I cuddled up to watch A New Hope (because that's what you do immediately after seeing Rogue One!)

Silly Will wearing his bowtie with his jammies again. And eating an applesauce.

Chef John looks extra funny - there's something dark right behind your hat buddy!

We find him laying with his arms behind his head like this all the time. It is the cutest thing and we have no idea where he picked it up!

By New Year's Eve I was feeling much better. It was a good thing because we had decided to host a New Year's Eve open house for the afternoon and evening. We decorated, made some food and bought some beer and ended up with a pretty good size group that joined us throughout late afternoon and evening. It was mostly our friends with kids as well as  my parents and some of Erik's cousins. I made a pasta bar with salad and garlic bread, which was very easy and a big hit with everyone. A great time was had by all. And we had so much fun entertaining that we didn't take a single picture of the evening. Thanks to everyone that came to join us on New Year's Eve! I'm still impressed that our kiddos made it up past 10 o'clock with the Suha family!