December Highlights (part 2)

Fun Time with Extended Family

We loved hosting a Schleicher Family Christmas in Texas this year! Matt's parents came out to visit for three weeks, including one week with each of their sons. We enjoyed our week with them as well as our time with Matt's sister (Beth) and her husband (Andy) from Minnesota. We spent some time just "hanging out" at home, in addition to going on some fun outings. Here, Uncle Andy joined Ian and others at playing a second-grade version of four square in our cul-de-sac.

Ian shared some of the comic books he has written with Aunt Beth and Grandma.

Ryan thought it was hilarious to play the "steal-and-then-wear-Uncle-Andy's-hat" game.

Nathan enjoyed his time playing outside with Aunt Beth!

Grandpa and Grandma joined us for some of our Advent box adventures. One of these was going to Dollar Tree so the boys could secretly buy gifts for each other. It was fun to see what they picked out for each other, and it was nice to have Grandma and Grandpa's help keeping everyone in different aisles! Ian chose a glow-in-the-dark ax, a launching car, and a solar-powered toy for Ryan.  Ryan chose a Star Wars notebook, a color-changing ink pen, gumballs, tops, and a puzzle for Ian. The older two chose gummy bears, stickers, a car, and a light-up chick that Nathan was obsessed with while we were there for Nathan. After Dollar Tree, the boys wanted to show Grandpa and Grandma their favorite Christmas light display in a nearby neighborhood -- a house whose elaborate display is set to music.

One morning, everyone (except Jason, who had to work!) met up at the Tire Park. The boy cousins loved the usual things, especially the zip line and tire swing. This time, the older boys also had fun doing races and playing other games in the grassy area and on the wood chips. Uncle Jon also gave Ian a mini tennis lesson. Ian still gets frustrated with himself quickly, but Uncle Jon is a patient and talented coach! Grandpa, Grandma, Beth, and Andy seemed to enjoy the warm weather and watching the boys play.

Grandma read the boys lots of books during her time with us,

and she also joined in on play time activities like playing with Play-Doh.

Another fun Advent box activity was getting build-your-own-frozen-yogurt sundaes. Yummy!

One morning, some of us met up at Bouncin' Bears, an indoor inflatables playground. It was hard to get good pictures there, but the boys enjoyed jumping!

Grandpa helped us with a few projects around our house, like replacing the wheels on Ryan's Hot Wheels Jeep that had been worn down to the rims. :) He also trimmed some of our bushes.

Uncle Andy was one of Ian's #1 playmate choices since he's not only good at chess but also at Super Mario Brothers!

Nathan liked showing Grandma where he sits to help with meal prep. :)

It was a blessing for the whole Schleicher family (plus Kim's parents) to worship together at Salem on Christmas Day. Jason did a wonderful job leading the service (including the message AND music AND everything!), and Kim was honored that Jason asked her to join him as a song leader!

After naps for some of the littlest ones (and some bigger ones, too), most everyone came over to our house for Christmas dinner, playtime, and present opening. Unfortunately, Jason (and then Amy) stayed home with Cody who wasn't feeling well.

Grandpa and Grandma treated all four of their older grandsons as well as their daughters and daughters-in-law to see the movie "Sing" in the theater. What a cute movie! We met up with the dads and younger cousins at McDonald's for lunch afterwards.

The Schleicher guys were VERY pumped about driving up to Dallas for the Cowboys-Lions football game on December 26. It made for a super late night, but they enjoyed their time together.

Meanwhile, Uncle Andy and Aunt Beth came over to spend some extra time with our boys. Uncle Andy helped Ian with his crystal-growing set and Ryan with his new Hot Wheels tracks. (What perfect gifts, Beth and Andy!)

Grandma entertained the littlest guys on the piano. :)

Thanks for making the long journey to see us, Grandpa, Grandma, Beth, and Andy! We loved our time with you! :)

Nephew Time

We were so happy to use a couple of our Christmas break days to help Amy and Jason go on a "baby moon" to Austin!! (They had generously watched our boys in November when we had a getaway to Fredericksburg!) We enjoyed the extra time with Cody and Jaden! They are very sweet, obedient boys. Sure, having five boys made our house a little louder and a little crazier than usual, but we all had a lot of fun! We tried to plan some extra activities to channel everyone's energy in a positive way. :)

We spent lots of time outside. Here, the boys took turns sliding through the tunnel of each other's legs. The boy at the top of the tunnel would be the next to slide down.

We took silly pictures to send to Amy and Jason.

We watched "The Secret Life of Pets" as a quiet movie night, especially since Cody was still recovering from strep.

The boys spent lots and lots of time coloring, mainly with colored pencils. Ian was the designated color pencil sharpener and anytime a pencil was even slightly dull, the younger ones would hand it over to Ian to be sharpened.

One of the boys' favorite activities was riding bikes to our neighborhood doughnut shop.

Kim ran ahead as "line leader" while Matt and Nathan brought up the rear. With two or three stops, the 0.6 miles there was easy for everyone.

Everyone loved choosing and eating doughnuts. The ride back was a little rougher. We had to stop about ten times, constantly changing the order of which boy was in the lead behind Kim, giving water, motivating and encouraging. It may have been a bit ambitious, but we did make it home! :)

The boys begged us to let them paint, so we did that soon after getting home. Cody was focused on finishing up his coloring page from earlier in the day.

After naps, we went over to our neighbor's backyard to jump on their trampoline and look at their daughter's 4-H rabbits and chickens.

On the final day, Matt led the boys in some "Follow-the-Leader" ...

...before we had some play time in the CLHS gym AND

rides on a golf cart at CLHS, too!

We met up with some other family members for lunch at Aviators' Grill. Isaiah and Nathan were SUPER excited to see the planes landing and taking off!

We were all happy to see Jason and Amy later that night and hear that they had really enjoyed their getaway! We couples agree that we'd like to give each other another time away once Baby Girl Schleicher is old enough to be without her momma!

Noon Years' Eve

Amy hosted a fun Noon Years' Eve party again this year on December 31. She had the boys open up lunch bags at set intervals. Each bag had a slip of paper inside, that listed an activity we could do as we counted down the time to the "noon year."

We decorated paper circles ("balls") that could drop as they counted down from 10.

We played Minute to Win It games, including catching cotton balls in cups,

blowing pom poms with straws,

and sorting out the numbers 2-0-1-7 into piles.

We played a fun dice rolling game, rolling all of the hours on a clock from 1-12.

We also brainstormed some of our favorite memories from 2016, ate a yummy lunch, and (if we were little) just played and had horsey rides.

As noon approached (or maybe even a few minutes after ... shh! An advantage of having only one boy be able to tell time yet!), Amy and Jason got everyone set for the countdown. They gave everyone noisemakers and started a one-minute video of a New Year's Eve countdown on the TV.

Ryan got the honor of pulling the ribbon that Amy had used to sew two tablecloths together and keep all of the balloons up on the ceiling. The boys loved watching all of the balloons fall and making as much noise as they could as the "Noon Year" arrived!

Then, everyone pulled their poppers and had a toast and dessert!

What a fun, wonderfully-planned party!