The Baker Blog: Whirlwind time of year

I just thought this picture of Evan is so funny. He looks like a jelly fish or something. :)

Eliza and Evan got to play with some Ooblick (sp). Evan was way more into it than Eliza. She didn't even want to touch it with her hand.

We had a wonderful visit with Uncle Geoff this month. He came over for lunch and hung with the kids and read books to Eliza. Always nice to have a visit from him.

The Wade's came over to watch the Kiddo's while Mike and I went to his birthday party this month (sorry forgot to take a picture of that). But they stayed the night which was super exciting for the kids. Somehow we had enough beds for everyone in this picture. :) After breakfast we all headed to church for the Preschool/Sunday school pageant.

Eliza was an Angel in the church play.

Evan was a wise man and Alex was Joseph (We couldn't get a good picture of him)

Auntie Em came over to make cookies with Oma, and us. Maggie decided to stay as well and join in the fun.

While we were all busy in the kitchen Mike was building me the cabinet I've wanted for the kitchen for 3 months. It finally went on sale and we purchased it! I love having a place for the kids crafts in the kitchen now.

Eliza helping with the cans. The kids always love to help recycle cans.

Eliza is almost tall enough to get the cereal down.

My master builder Evan showing off his skills.

Preparing the children for Christmas.

Both Mike and I were able to go to the preschool Christmas party this year. What a treat that was!

We went to Red Robin and decided to take an angry face picture. It's perfect!

We switched Eliza to a fluoride toothpaste this month. So now she has to "drink and spit, drink and spit, then drink".

We made it up to Bronner's to visit Santa. We were up there by 9:30 on a Sat. morning. Got to love early rising kids. It's an hour and a half drive from us. Santa was a very nice man and talked to all the kids like they were the only ones that mattered.

Oh the faces of Eliza. She's so.....

We also decorated our gingerbread houses and ate lots of candy while doing it. I didn't buy the premade ones this year, so I had to make them and then have the kids decorate them. It worked out in the end.

Alex is loving books right now. It's really fun to see. We are currently reading Harry Potter to him, which is a fun activity.

Conductor Eliza. We asked if she was a conductor and she said "No, I don't have my hat." So she returned with her hat and then started ordering us on to her train.

My Cat Egg dish I made one day.

We headed to Henry Ford Muesum with Auntie Em and her sister. While we were waiting the kids kept playing with the coin making machines. These people were kind enough to give the kids money to make a penny each, which is $0.51. I never have that kind of change on me.

The is Me, Emily's sister Sara, Emily, and Emily's Mom Mary. We all enjoyed the museum with each other one morning.

Sadly Eliza had one of her bloody noses while we were visiting the museum. The only thing I had in the diaper bag that was absorbent was a diaper, so that's what I put on her face until we got to the restroom to clean her up.

We finally went to Christmas Eve service at church. The kids were very interested in holding the candles.

All of us at the Christmas Eve service.

After chruch we headed over to Nana's for Christmas Eve. We opened gifts...

Took the kids for a walk to burn some energy...

And had a lovely meal together.

Christmas morning. That's right, the sun isn't up yet.

Evan was over the moon about getting his own watch.

Building the big police lego set that Nana gave them.

We had Dad and Jodi over for dinner and shared an evening with them and the Wade family.

The next morning we headed to the Wade's house to have Christmas with Mom.

We were all very happy about getting some new bird feeders. It was the year of the bird feeders. :)

Eliza went outside for about an hour in this outfit, and it wasn't that warm out. For some reason she decided not to put on a coat.

When she did come in from playing outside we played Pretty Pretty Princess together. I won!

Alex enjoying his slime that Oma gave him.

I've been busy with trying to make bread this month. This was a sun dried tomato, basil, cheese bread.

This is a cinnamon swirl bread I made.

Evan stealing some cheese from my cheese bread.

This bread was delicious and I will totally be making again!

My handsome Evan getting some sledding time in.

My handsome Alex enjoying sledding and snow.

While the boys were out sledding Alex threw a sled at Evan and it hit Evan in the mouth. He busted both his upper and lower lip and also the part in the middle of your lip that attaches you lip to your gums. Evan had a hard time eating for a few days. :(

We had another special treat this month. The Wade family kids (minus Maggie) went to see Star Wars with us, while Aunt Shawn watched our kids. And then the Wade kids stayed over so we could play games until midnight with them.

As usual my kids were up at 6:30am the next morning, so I put headphones on all the kindles to keep them quiet until 7:30.

Then as luck would have it, the Wades children ended up spending the whole day with us and played countless games. By the end of it all I think everyone was quite tired.

My beautiful baby girl

So we've been noticing the ceiling has been looking odd in our living room. Turns out the guest bathroom toilet has been leaking onto our living room ceiling. Thankfully it was just the wax ring, but now we have to cut a bigger hole in the ceiling to do the repairs to the ceiling. If it's not one thing it's another.