december round up

So, to catch up on the month. 

Ben's birthday was December 3rd. Ben and I went to Pittsburgh for they day on the 2nd. We had breakfast and coffee in the Strip District, went to Market Square, putzed around Pittsburgh for the day. We ended the day with a bunch of my family at Church Brew Works for dinner. It was a really fun day.

On his actual birthday, his parents came over and we had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. And, as always, one of Doh's delicious cakes!

After a long Summer and Fall of building for the Kozels, they finally moved into their new house. The kids had pizza as the first official dinner in the house.

While the guys took a breather in the garage.

Ken and Joanna signed the papers and, just like that, the house is theirs!

We even snacked on some Larry the Cable Guy chips in between trips to the basement.

These lovely leaders caroled at our house for Ben's birthday. So sweet!

We've watched all the great Christmas movies:

The Christmas Story

Elf

The Grinch that Stole Christmas

White Christmas (Ben and I watched that one at the theatre)

Home Along (a gazillion times and I have a new appreciation for it)

Christmas Vacation (my all time favorite!)
The Bishop's Wife

After their first viewing of The Christmas Story we had hot cocoa with marshmallows.

Sophie lost a top front tooth. The other one is loose but she waits until they are practically falling out of her head before she and Ben battle it out. This tooth was hanging by a thread and fell out while she cried about it in front of the mirror. She didn't even touch it. (In the New Year Sophie we are starting to fix that crazy cross bite she has).

We've done some baking. This is a special recipe Ben learned about while listening to Mike & Mike on ESPN radio. The name is semi-inappropriate but involves a layer of chocolate chip cookies, a layer of Oreos, topped off with brownies - WOW!

Sophie drew this sweet picture of her with her friends:

Sophie, Madison, Lily & Ellie

The fun thing is that I love their mama's so much!

After the New Year painting begins. I LOATHE picking paint colors.

The kids have made a few gifts this year. They were very excited to give these gifts and were really good about actually picking out, painting and wrapping.

We made chocolate chip cookies for Uncle Jim.

Ben was on kid duty one Monday night while I went out with some friends. Caleb and Ben have spent zero time together and Caleb snuggled up and took quite a nap! Ben texted us this picture making sure it was ok for him to be napping.

Sophie with baked spaghetti one night for dinner. I have no idea why we took this.

My sister moved a couple of weeks ago. Ben, Daniel, Alex, Nick, BA & Rusty helped with the big move. We are very, very grateful for their help!

This is going back to after Thanksgiving when we put the tree up. You know, by the time Christmas rolls around I'm really ready to take the tree down. I mean, a tree in the living room. It's lovely and all but I'm about over it. Ben and I agreed on January 2nd.

Some other highlights from December include:

• Ben went to a Steeler's game and a Penguin's game
• The kids' holiday program at school which left a lot to be desired
• Dinner with the Kings, Lutyens and Daniel (the area YL staff) to celebrate another great year
• Ben went to DC for 3 days to visit our friend John
• Ted playing basketball (I really can't say much good about it right now, so I'll just move on)
• lots of family game playing