Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve morning we headed from the Burke's to the Lanz's to continue our Christmas celebration. All 18 of us had a fun filled day at G'ma and G'pa's house together. The adults are now outnumbered with 10 grand kids! Very festive!


With 10 grand kids, that amounts to a lot of presents! G'ma and G'pa still insist on buying for everyone, but the kids draw names. The adults do a fun gift exchange every year. This year's theme was board games. We took home Connect-4 Launchers and Qwirkle.

Henry saw his Magna Doodle in the bag and went for it. He went a little out of turn. Then decided to put himself in the large bag. Silly boy!

Let the football and wrestling matches begin! Loaded up on cookies, time to burn some energy. Thank goodness for the grandparents big open basement! I don't think anyone of us made it to midnight on New Year's Eve. We were all exhausted from the past few very busy days. Happy New Year!

It's a New Year, time to thank God for all that we've been given. We spent the day with our family at church.

After church and naps, we headed over to U. Jeff's and A. Darlene's for more play time and dinner. The girl cousins: Jayde, Brooklyn and Breanne always giggling together. They have to really stick together since they are so outnumbered! Kellan pinning down Jayde for a smooch! Get her Kellan!!

Kellan was in awe at the amount of Lego's his cousin Devan had.

Several rounds of air hockey happened. Kellan's putting on his tough and serious playing face.

It was a very cold and snowy day on Monday, so we stayed put at G'ma and G'pa's house. G'pa built a very warm and cozy fire so we could play a good game of Sorry. This was Kellan's first time playing the game and he loved it! We all had our fake crying Sorry voices down pat by the end.
Another super visit home to Ohio. Always love the excitement in the boys voices when they know we are heading to see their cousins and grandparents. It's always hard to leave knowing it's going to be awhile before we see them again.

Great Lakes Science Center

While in Cleveland for a few days we took the opportunity to visit one of the many great museums there. The Great Lakes Science Center is fantastic!! Lots of hands on things to do, just what 2 busy boys love! U. Pat, A. Ann and Sam met us there too.

Block building 101. Henry was way more interested in knocking them down. Way to go Kellan, nice tower! Watch out, here comes Henry!

Always fun with silly U. Pat. Henry took the "hands-on" portion to the full extent.

The entire second floor had interactive exhibits, the boys went crazy! Kellan ran from one thing to the next, I could barely keep up.

This was one of their favorites. Like a giant pinball type machine.

Henry liked the floating ball and threw a couple fits when others wanted to play. Kellan and I raced our hand crank cars.

The boys loved the large room just for kids 8 and under with playground type equipment to climb on and best of all, an enormous ball pit! I think we wore them out...mission accomplished!!

Bay Village Nature Center

To give G and G some peace and quiet, we took the boys out of the house a bit. We love the nature center that is near their home. Maybe we should head to the moon instead, Kellan and Henry are ready!

Kellan loved the exhibit with all the turtles. He could reach in and "pet" them. Of course, a pet turtle is now on his list! The outside exhibits weren't too happening. There were a few birds, a deer and a skunk. The birds all had dead animals in their cages to nibble on which the boys thought were kind of gross (as did Mom).

Who's the bigger fish?!

Kellan and Henry eagerly stuck their hands out to touch the snake. I was so surprised of their courage! I was backed all the way up against the wall! Eeek!

Special G & G Burke Time

We arrived to G and G Burke's in time for dinner Weds evening. Their tree was so prettily lit up with presents for the boys under it. Of course Kellan noticed this first and was allowed to open his presents from Gma and Gpa. He happily played with his new talking Woody doll and Buzz toy. Henry excitedly got a new Thomas with tracks.

It's always fun to take a spin in G'ma's wheelchair and hear the past librarian read some books.

Kellan loves his "big" cousin Sam. Wrestling and playing video games.

Ready for the party: Gma and Gpa

Silly U. Pat making Henry giggle.

We had a fun night with all the Burke's, opening presents, playing games and just chatting.

Kellan and Henry helping Mommy open up a couple more Pandora charms. An initial charm for each of the boys!

Henry just being super silly!

Kellan showed Gpa how to play Mariocart.

Mommy and Daddy got to go our for a couple hours one evening to catch up with some friends. Heather/Matt Bianco, Steve, Big Bob, and Eric (Uncle Kiki, as the boys call him). Always a fun time with the group!