good-bye 2013

We had fun at our church's New Year's Eve Party. Pinatas, authentic Mexican food, dancing, prizes. It was a blast. The boys LOVED every second, and had wayyyyyy more energy than us come Midnight :). haha. 

no shortage of snow

This Winter has made up for the lack of snow the last 2 Winters. Wow! Lots of snow and lots of fun playing in the snow. 

staying entertained

No plans during Christmas Break for us. So, we've been hanging out, having fun, and making a "creative" mess. 

lights

This house is about 15 mins from us. It won the ABC (TV channel) family "Light Fight". They won like $50,000. We took the boys last night, and they loved it. It was a really fun show to watch. Long, but fun! 

her day

It's Grandma Inez's birthday today! Happy birthday, young lady :)! We love and miss you and hope you have a great day!

Math lessons

Benson wants to be an astronaut when he grows older. I told him Astronauts need to be good at reading and good at math. Well, he's been reading non-stop and he is insisting I teach him math now. So, here we go. 

Christmas

It's been a successful Christmas. 

Christmas Eve...McLane style

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

 I went running this morning with some friends. It was ridiculously cold. Oh well. Welcome to Winter in Chicago. Funny part were the icicles that froze to my eyelashes. 

Josh's early Christmas gift to me was shaving off his beard. UGh. That thing needed to go. Of course he tried to get away with keeping a mustache. That had to go too. Merry Christmas Eve to me. 

cold

Thanks, Mother Nature. I already knew it was Winter. No need to rub it in my face!

quote

Happy Sunday, all! I saw this quote on my friend's Facebook wall and I loved it! Had to share.

Winter

It's officially Winter. Ugh. Though it's cold outside, its fun inside the McLane house today.

Spaceship games all day!

Preschool Party

Benson's class Christmas party was today. They sang songs, did a presentation, played games, ate yummy food, and listened to a story. The whole family got to come and we made bird feeder ornaments and Benson presented us with a gift and a card he made by recycling paper. So fun!

This is a video of Benson's part of the presentation. All month long the class "flew" to different parts of the world to learn about how other cultures celebrate the holidays. One day they went to Israel and so I got to come in and teach the kids a littler bit about the traditions in the Israeli culture and I taught them the dance for "Hava Nagila". Haha, so fun! Oh and don't mind the crazy videography. Cason kept trying to take the phone out of my hand. 

food

Made homemade pita chips today. I was feeling all good about myself for being so healthy. I've been really good the last month of only having homemade snacks for the family. It's been great.

I celebrated my "homemade snacks" success by treating the boys to lunch at IHOP. Mom of the year award. Haha. It was the opposite of healthy here, but the boys had sooo much fun. Totally worth a cheat day!

Cantigny

Seriously, we have an obsession with museums. This one is close to our house and it's free. The boys love climbing on the tanks that they have all around. I'll be honest, I have more fun here in the Summer, but the boys didn't mind the cold and had a blast. We even had a snow ball fight. 

They didn't love the actual war museum though. Duh, Kiera! I should have thought that one out better. They were a little scared of the exhibits, as it goes through all of the major wars of the 20th century. For adults, however, it's an AWESOME museum. We only lasted about 20 minutes inside. haha! 

Chicago

Off to the Museum again yesterday. It's such a great way to entertain the kiddos in the Winter months.

After the Field Museum we met up with Josh and saw the Zoo Lights at Lincoln Park Zoo. It was cold, but fun! Successful Monday!

her day

We had a niece born today!!!! Savannah Noelle was born to my sister-in-law, Marilee, and brother, Andru. Congrats!!!! I love her name (especially her middle name :) ). 

As soon as I get a picture I'll post it here!

snow cave

Let me tell you what a good husband I got. Last night after the kiddos went to bed, Josh stayed up late (on his birthday!!!) to make a snow cave for the kiddos to play in today. 

They were sooooo excited!!!!

his day

It's my main man's birthday today. I sure do love this guy. I've known him for 10 years and I still find myself lucky to be able to call him mine. 

Happy birthday, Joshie. I've loved our adventure so far. I hope forever is long enough 

Love your guts. 

we're free!

We've been pretty desperate in our house the last couple of days trying to find ways to stay entertained. Luckily, we've been lice free long enough now that Benson could go back to school today!! Yahoo!

Cason loved getting out of the house and playing at the Nature Center.