TV Off Tuesdays

I'm almost a week late ... And I don't have a good excuse.


I decided homemade pizzas and ice cream sundaes would hit the spot.


We went to the store to get all the ingredients. Christopher was all about the black olives.



He isn't the best at making pizzas, most of the ingredients went directly into his month and not the pizza.


Finally, the sauce.


Mikayla still doesn't enjoy being on the sidelines.


We played a little while the pizzas cooked.


The perfect homemade pizza with a chocolate m&m sundae on the side.



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Christopher's First Marquette Game

Mike and Christopher were given free Marquette tickets on New Years Day by some generous friends of ours at our daycare. Mike first declined because the Bears also played at Noon that day. But, then he decided that attending Christopher's first basketball game would be more fun.



Christopher had a blast and took about 20 pictures on his iPhone, but unfortunately I don't have an e-mail set up for him so I wasn't able to get any of them off to post.


He really loves popcorn!!! The person sitting next to them was apparently a serious super fan and was really into the game. I guess at one point Christopher was repeating what he was saying and doing.



While the boys were at the game, Mikayla was keeping Mom on her toes climbing all over our furniture.

Weekend Wrap-Up

I feel this is all one needs to know about our weekend :)











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New Years Eve Part Two

So part two of our New Years celebration started at about 7:30ish when the kiddos were clean and fast asleep.  Mike and I usually pick out a recipe and cookout on New Years Eve. This year we chose a tomahawk steak. I had to go to a butcher shop to get the specific cut of meat we were looking for. The butcher made it seem like it was going to be about 6 ounces on a rib, so imagine my surprise when he walked out with two the size of his head.



There were about six customers in the shop at the time all staring at me and all started bombarding me with questions, what is that, how are you going to cook that? I panicked took both of them and walked out $60 poorer.


I did not regret it one bit. Look at the sear on that baby. It was so delicious. We stuck the other in the freezer and we are saving it for Valentines Day - our fingers are crossed it will still be good!








We had a delicious meal that was only seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper. We even picked up a nice bottle of red to go with it.


And then we had mimosas in the morning with our unopened bottle of champagne that did not wake us up at midnight :) Here's to a great 2012!!!

Happy New Year Part 1

I feel as though our New Years Eve warrants two posts. We had such a great, busy, productive, fun four day weekend. We started off New Years Eve with a road trip to downtown Chicago for an AKA brunch with Grandma.


This is Christopher getting so excited about the big buildings.



Surprisingly, the kids were pretty well behaved during the brunch.



When I said this to Mike he promptly responded you weren't sitting next to Christopher :)



Christopher got out on the dance floor and danced with Grandma.



We then stopped by Frost Gelato in Highland Park to visit our friend Mr. Tom.



We had a great time and some delicious gelato - I can't wait to go back!!!



We then had quite the interesting ride home. We stopped at Burger King to change a massive blowout - I'll spare the details, only to find they didn't have changing tables in the restrooms. I proceeded to change Mikayla in the back of the minivan.  When we were finally back on the road, Christopher had to go to the bathroom. While he was taking his sweet time in the bathroom, Mikayla proceeded to puke everywhere. It was quite interesting, but boy was I glad we had the minivan. It made it pretty easy to change her into her brother's extra clothes since she had already blown through her extra clothes (no pun intended).  We were definitely ready to get home and get the kids to bed so Mom and Dad could celebrate new years ...

A Very Merry Christmas

I'm not going to lie, I woke up this Christmas before the kids did and laid in bed for twenty minutes waiting for Christopher to come wake us up. I was so excited for Christopher to see Santa's present via Grandma and Grandpa :)


He has consistently said Santa is bringing him asked for a big race car he could ride in for over a month.



So Mike and I were really excited to see his reaction when he saw it.


Both Mikayla and him jumped in it and were all about the radio.



Mikayla was ready to go for a ride, but Santa did not get a chance to charge the battery for the required 18 hours so we had to wait until we got back from Grandma and Grandad's house.


Mikayla got a tricycle and a play kitchen.


Christopher hopped on his plasma car from Uncle Seth and family. He calls it his helicopter scooter.



Dad got matching Hester jerseys for Christopher and Mikayla.



We were then off to celebrate Christmas with the Redding family.


It was a very merry and blessed Christmas for the Reddings.

Gingerbread House

Ever since I saw the Gingerbread House Kits at Target I was excited to build a house with Christopher.  Last night we decided we would give it a try.


We were all ready and started with the "glue."




Mikayla even helped out by eating the gingerbread snowman.


So our first attempt to erect the house, was unsuccessful.



Our second attempt, was also unsuccessful.




Christopher was not amused by my failed attempts, so he turned his attention to the gum drops.


I finally was able to get the house to stick together! Christopher was a little disappointed because this meant he had to stop eating the gum drops and use them to decorate the house.




We had fun putting the lights on it.


Christopher did a great job painting the door red.



He even put the door knob on.



And then, as we were painting the roof, it collapsed.  You can see Christopher running for cover in the top left of the picture.



Maybe next year we will be more successful ...