Hello 2016

Traditionally, January has always been a month without much action.  The start of 2016 was no different.  We tend to slow down in the winter time and spend a lot of time at home.  Luckily for me, my kids are home-bodies and perfectly content relaxing at home.  I relaxed too, and have not been taking as many photos as usual.  So, not many pictures for this post, but still plenty of smiles.

It did not take us long to cash in the Graeter's gift cards the kids received for Christmas.  In fact, we took them here to celebrate their last day of winter break.


Morgan loves these little toys called Shopkins.  (They'll make an appearance later in this post as well.)


Everyone stayed up to watch the entire Bengals' playoff game.  I can't even bring myself to talk about it.  When I put Charlie to bed that night I told him it was all part of being a Bengals fan. sigh.


Severe bed head.


Hanging with Grandma.


Taylor read the responsorial psalm at a school mass this month.


Taylor and Morgan like to pretend the bed is a gymnastic's apparatus and perform routines for me.




They also like to recreate Morgan's Shopkins using playdoh.


We finally had our first snow day of the year on January 20th.








Charlie's cub scouts had an outing at a Cyclones Hockey game again this year.


They accidentally scheduled it on Princess Night, but the boys were good sports about it.


The cyclones won 6-2 (which meant we got free pizza at Donato's the next day!).



My aunt and uncle won the Reds Caravan Home Takeover contest this year which meant they had a tour bus of Reds personel come to their house.  My uncle is a HUGE reds fan so I couldn't be happier for him.  I came to capture the moments for him.  Of course he had to feed the boys with his delicious wood fired pizza.


Probably one reason why they won was because my aunt mentioned this memorabilia room that my uncle has in his house






It was so cool to see him showing off his collection to people who truly appreciated it.




Here's Tom Browning sitting in his own director's chair that my Aunt's mom had made for him.  He's also sitting under a framed photo commemorating his perfect game.


Mark was lucky enough to come too.


They even made the news.  Check out this link for a great segment: http://local12.com/news/local/reds-visit-caravan-contest-winners


It was a fantastic day.


Taylor was in the school play this year.  I was so proud of her!












Morgan started soccer this month.  She was so excited for her first class.


That'll do it for this month.  I hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying this winter :)