After an eventful Christmas week, we put on the brakes, and had a slower paced couple of weeks. Aside from New Year's Eve, we didn't have much else on the calendar. We spent the week after Christmas playing with (and finding homes) for our new toys, trying to get the house organized and all the Christmas decorations put away and resting and recovering from our fun Christmas activities.
Elisabeth finished her first pot holder from her weaving kit. Samuel made one too. They turned out cute!
Many hours have been spent swinging on the new gymnastics bar and putting on gymnastics performances. 
And lots of new Lego sets have been constructed. Nathan finished all his new sets within the first couple of days after Christmas. It took Elisabeth a little longer to get hers finished.
Nathan also built a radio with his new snap circuit kit.
Matt took off the week after Christmas and spent his week sanding and starting the process of restaining our kitchen cabinets. That's a good husband, right there folks!
Samuel built a beach waterpark and a beach house.
And Elisabeth finished her first big Lego set. I'm glad she's starting to like Legos, because they have so many fun girly Lego sets these days that I've been itching to get for her.
Katherine got Pretty Pretty Princess for Christmas, and we played it (and her other favorite game, Sleeping Queens) multiple times over the break. I remember playing and loving this game as a kid. I'm glad she likes it too. It's especially cute when she convinces her dad and brothers to play with her.
When Brooke was over on New Year's Eve she told me about how she had spent the week cleaning out and organizing all her kids' toys, and it lit a fire under me to want to do it too.
We've been on a Lego kick lately, and one day the boys decided to have their own Lego Master competition. They timed themselves, and Elisabeth got to be the judge.
Nathan built a race track with fans, a pit station, and cameras.
My poor kids had no idea how crazy their mom was going to go over the weekend. It took me all weekend long, but I got all four of their rooms and closets and the playroom cleaned and organized. I was afraid if I stopped, I'd lose all my momentum, so I just kept going. It felt so nice when I was finally finished.
I didn't take any before pictures, but I did take pictures after we were all finished. I realized that I don't have many updated photos of their rooms really since they were babies and we moved into our house. I always think that pictures of their rooms might be something they want to look back at when they're older, so I snapped a few of the freshly cleaned and decluttered spaces.
The kids had good attitudes with helping me and being willing to part with a lot of their old toys.
Samuel finished building his robotic hand over the break. He needed a little help from Matt, but he did most of it on his own.
Katherine constantly asks me to take pictures of her now, and she always has to pose. She seems so much older than three sometimes.
These girls took all the pictures of the animals at the zoo. They documented our entire visit. They seem so big too!
We had a fun afternoon, and the kids ran and played and burned off all their energy. The new playground at the zoo if super fun. I think they played on it for close to 90 minutes and then we still walked all over the rest of the zoo.
We started back to homeschool the week after New Years, and I videoed Elisabeth reading a story to me. She's doing so well with her reading skills. It's been a joy to watch her progress.
Even though we were back at school, some of our friends were still on break, so we took the opportunity to do some fun things with them.
We met the Shondelmyers at the zoo one afternoon.
Matt was out of town the week after New Year's and everyone was worn out after our zoo afternoon, so we ran through McDonalds on the way home and called it a win. The kids must have known that I didn't have any fight left in me when they asked if they could have a picnic in the living room and watch a show while they ate.
The next day we spent the morning with some more friends who were still on break. We planned just to play for a couple hours and leave after lunch, but the kids kept playing so happily and peacefully that we ended up staying like four and a half hours. Don't mess with a good thing, ha!
Michelle and I both noticed how the play dynamics continue to change with our kids. The "babies" of the family now tag along and are playing with the big kids. Geez, they are all growing up so fast.
When I was finishing cleaning out the kids' toys, they all rediscovered their love for all our kitchen and play food. They all played so well together with all of it. Elisabeth made her own sweet shop. Just when I start to think, they're outgrowing things, they do things like that!
We spent a Saturday evening over at the Shondelmyers. Our weekends are more open and free in January, and I try to take advantage of it to spend time with friends. Wyatt, Kaydence, and Keaton got hoverboards for Christmas, and my kids found them and had to try them. They were hilarious, and of course hoverboards are now on all three of their birthday lists, ha!
