Welcome to 2017!

Um, where did 2016 go?  It is hard to fathom that we're welcoming in another year.  The years are flying by - how do we capture these moments in time and slow them down?

We had a fun time on New Year's Eve going over to Isidros to visit with friends and blow off some fireworks.  It was also a cookie exchange, which was very fun - we decided to do some Christmas baking and try some recipes that we hadn't done in years, so it was a bit experimental for the Zs! :)  Apparently the kids didn't mind because they have been gobbling up the leftovers!

Before the cookie exchange began...

So pretty!

3 Cookies for each platter

Cooking the hot dog by the fire

Umm....a little marshmallow....and a little on your face buddy!

After dinner and cookies, we set up to watch some fireworks thanks to William and Richard - they were lovely and we ended in time to be able to go home at a decent time (no watching the ball drop for the Zs)...although the local neighbors fireworks at midnight did keep us from sleeping properly....Oh well - apparently we're old!! :)

Watching the fireworks

Chatting with a few moms - thanks Tangie for the invite!

The rest of the weekend, we had lots of fun things going on - but first the kids decided that they needed to build the biggest fort of all time in our living room.....great fun!!

On Sunday afternoon, Jeff and Niesha came over for the afternoon, which is always fun to catch up.  Being from Canada, Jeff agreed to get into the pool with the kids (even while the other Canadian Mr. Karis refused to get in other than the hot tub!!).  They were so funny jumping into the frigid water (BRR!!!) and then they would come up gasping and start running in place to try and get  their blood moving again.  Thankfully they could warm up in the hot tub afterwards!

They're already gasping before they even hit the water!!

Kaleb eventually got brave enough to do it too!

GASPING FOR AIR!!!

The beauty of a warm hot tub afterwards!

That Monday Amy took the kids to the pediatric dentist - to have them give her the news that Kaleb's teeth are very crowded and that in order to give them the best chance of coming in we needed to pull two baby teeth on the top.   We wanted to give his teeth the best chance so we went ahead with it that afternoon.  However, in the intervening timeframe we went over to a friend's house to get some snow gear for our upcoming ski trips and while there, poor Kaleb was riding bikes with their little girl (impromptu) and managed to get their tires tangled and both bit it pretty hard (without helmets sadly, much to their mother's dismay) - he was pretty banged up from stem to stern. And then to have to go get his teeth pulled.....poor guy! Thankfully he is fine, we are very fortunate with how hard they fell.

Addison had a follow-up appointment with Amy's OB that diagnosed her initially with the lichen sclerosis - he is very pleased with her progress and said that she is doing very well with healing so we are thankful for that as well!

We were going through some pictures from the recent weeks and realized that we had missed putting some of our events on (must have been one of those weeks that Amy was delinquent in getting the blog written!) - so including a few of those now with only a brief recap:

Apopka Carnival:

She loves these jumping harnesses!

Trying out the big slide

Just swinging around...

The boys finished their first season of flag football together.  They really enjoyed playing together and the team / coach they have is just tremendous.  We had a great experience!

With Coach Darren

Giving her brother a hug to say well done!

Afterwards Zachary and Jordan had a race to see who was faster....Addison insisted on racing as well so you can imagine who did NOT win! :)

While they were on Christmas break, Miss Jennifer did some fun cookie decorating classes with them - they really enjoyed trying their hand at making some magical cookies....keep trying kiddos and we'll keep eating! :)  They also had some fun days out at the local park enjoying the cool weather!

Random pictures:

Addison loves to pose...where does she get this stuff from??

Kaleb's class doing a presentation at Adventurers

And now she knows how to take a selfie....

Addison phrase:  Mommy, my tummy hurts....I think that there may be a baby in there trying to get out!   Zachary then begins to laugh and says "Mom, you should put that on the blog!"  Gotta love it when the other family members start telling what should go on the blog! :)