The week after Christmas

We've never just stayed home for all of Christmas, so this year was a first. We did our best to make things especially fun since we had Mike all to ourselves. We packed in as much excitement as possible, including...a trip to the Detroit temple (quite the ordeal with a nursing 3 month old and living about 1 hour from the temple....6 and 1/2 hours later we were back in Ann Arbor and grateful for sweet, supportive boys that didn't mind hanging out at the church all afternoon), a few catch up errands, a cleaned out house, a sick Jace (for LOTS of days, poor boy), a trip to the outlets, a great movie, Tin Tin (which we LOVED), Chelsea Treehouse, and a few other fun moments...

Ice Skating at Yost
The boys did surprisingly well. Have to be honest, kinda glad I had to sit out with the baby on this one. All I remember about ice skating is falling down a lot and ending the day with huge water blisters. My boys are tough and willing to try anything. Love it.

 Celebrating New Years!
It's such an adult holiday, so with a sick Jace and a newborn we opted to celebrate on our own with hamburgers on the grill, fancy and delicious cupcakes, sparkling cider and a raucous game of Guesstures. It was actually SO FUN. I think we will make New Years a holiday we spend inside together playing games. Next year maybe we'll have another family over to up the excitement. Parker and James went to bed at 9 after we watched the Sydney ball drop, toasted each other and gave lots of kisses to everyone. We decided not to bang pots and pans because of Jace, but we'll get them out next time. Mike and I enjoyed watching the Rockin' New Year on TV in a quiet house. Sounds a bit ho-hum but we had a great time!

 Watching the Sugar Bowl
We are serious Michigan fans, so we loved watching them win the Sugar Bowl! The whole family gets in on the fun and we loved having friends join us for a night of good food and good football.

 Rollerskating!
Haven't done this in forever and last time Jace tried, it was a mess, but the whole family was excited for a day at the roller rink. Mike is pretty smooth out there and helped Jace get the hang of it. Parker and James cruise out there on the rink...I, am a little shaky but not too embarrassing. After all these years, I still don't know how to break.

 This outing warrants a story. The place we skate at is awesome because once every hour they do something special. At 3pm they had races. Well, Parker and James decided to enter and Jace said he didn't want to. I thought that was fine since he really just started being able to skate without falling every few minutes. Then, Jace came back and told me he was going to practice for the next 15 minutes and enter the race. I was so proud of him since he rarely likes doing things he isn't good at. Parker and James raced in the 7 and under group...James took 4th and Parker took 5th. Then they called out 8-10 year olds and Jace headed to the starting line. He took off with the pack and ended up coming in second to last, but didn't fall and had a big smile on his face. I was so happy he had decided to give it a try. We watched the rest of the races and they called the last race, "18 and over." Mike had his skates off and was holding the baby and Jace turns to me and says, "Mom, are you going to race?" I said, "No buddy. I'm not very good on rollerblades." He says, "Mom, I'm not good either, but I got out there and tried my best. I know you can do it." So, what can you say to that? I got out there for the rollerskating race. Mike was on the other side of the rink and tried to get the camera out because he couldn't believe I was racing! I came in last, but I didn't fall. Not bad for an old lady. Sometimes you just have to walk the talk :)

We had such a great week as a family and really got to explore Michigan. So glad these boys are mine!