GG, Pinewood Derby Car, Evelyn

Last Friday, Nico had been invited to go to Urban Air with his friends across the street. I texted their mom and she said that Rylan actually had wrestling practice that day so they weren't going to be going. But they did go on Saturday! Nico was gone when we made pizza but came home in enough time to eat some and finish watching the end of "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", chosen by Guy. It was quite a funny movie, I enjoyed it. When Nico came home we told him we could switch to a different movie but he wanted to watch that one. He liked it.

That night while he was lying in bed he said, "I don't really feel like myself right now. I don't feel like myself whenever I go out in the evening." He was sad for a while.

The next day was Guy's and mine Anniversary! 13 years married on the 13th of January. Guy scraped my windows that morning 😍

Sunday was also the first day back at it with Bible Study. We are doing a study called Overcomer, about the armor of God. It looks good, it's a DVD study with a study guide and optional book.

Tuesday we visited GG in Nampa. We gave her a gift from the Grandparents Russell that had been lost under the tree and we didn't find until after GG had left.

Nico spent some time putting together a puzzle with Aunt Pat. Melody came over for a visit while we were there, too (Aunt Pat's daughter).

GG sent us home with a handful of oranges.

That evening, Guy and Nico went to Cub Scouts to drop off Nico's pinewood derby car. Guy and Nico have been spending a lot of time working on it, getting the weight just right and painting it lime green (Nico's favorite color!)

It wasn't an official Cub Scouts meeting, they just dropped the car off, Nico played tag for a little bit, and they came home. No uniform required. The race is tomorrow evening!

Tonight Evelyn came over for dinner. We aren't doing every Thursday with her like we used to, we've slowed down to about once a month. Before dinner, Nico was insistent that he wanted to read his book and wanted Evelyn to read a book too but he didn't want her sitting next to him. She chose to read on the bed like this. (And hey check out our new cabinet!)

Nico had checked out a new book from the library today - Tom Gates: Everything's Amazing (sort of) and he was very anxious to read it. He was not in a playful mood. They ended up playing a bit after dinner.

Chicken nuggets. Yummmm

And now some random pictures!

Nico said, "take a picture!" so I did.

Nico has had a lot of math homework lately, doing multiplication and division, and he was getting super frustrated until I told him he could use his numberbots to help him. He said "OH YEAH!" and he has been excited about it since. We bought him some multiplication and division wrap-ups to help him learn his times tables, and he has been enjoying that too.

I've also really been enjoying our new Instapot pressure cooker. It turned these frozen turkey legs into something tender and yummy.

Allicia and I attacked this huge pile of sock mismatches on Tuesday morning. We found a few socks that belong to us in the pile, too!

 Snow on Wednesday morning. Leaving for school early for Chess club.

Stopped in their tracks trying to solve a chess problem.

Part of Nico's homework yesterday was to log on to a typing website and spend 10 minutes learning to type. He spent about 45 minutes! (He's wearing around his neck a new medal he got in Chess!)

That's it for this week!

GG, Rush Hour game

It's been a pretty low-key week here. Nico had another baseball practice on Saturday that Guy took him to. We had pizza that night like usual. It was Guy's turn to pick the show and he chose an episode from the new season of MST3K.

On Monday I took Avery out to lunch at the Boise Fry Company. There was no one else there, we chose a spot in front of the tv playing a hockey game. I bought him a carton a milk with his food and we filled up his 3 dip containers with fry dip and he said "I love this place so much." Then I took him to preschool.

I know that's not Nico news, but it was super sweet so I had to share :)

Tuesday we visited Nampa to see GG and Aunt Pat. Aunt Pat gave him a bird book that used to belong to Uncle Fred!

As always, so fun to see them. Nico brought a game with him to play called "Rush Hour" where you need to get the red car out of the grid by moving around other cars.

We had bought him a new set of cards for the game for Christmas, plus a new car, and he re-discovered the unopened new card set on Tuesday and has been very excited about it. 

Today was supposed to be another baseball practice, but it was cancelled due to wind. I was expecting a cancellation due to rain, but right after school the clouds opened up and the sun came out! But then the wind. Oh well! On Monday we had gone to Dick's Sporting goods to pick up a few more items we needed - baseball pants (he got his team shirt on Saturday, he is #9), a bat, a hat, and some grip tape for his new bat. 

That's it for the news!

Christmas, Christmas, happy time of year!

On Friday the Grandparents Russell arrived! They stayed up in the suite while they were here, so they were just a staircase away. Quick hanging-out access! Nico enjoys taking baths up in the suite's huge bathtub, so he did that on Friday night after dinner (which we ate in the suite!) He opened a gift that night, a very funny book called "The Dumb Bunnies Go to the Zoo". Grandma read it to him, then it was bedtime!

Saturday was a full day. Pancakes in the morning, then we drove over to Nampa to celebrate Christmas with GG and Aunt Pat. Nico opened a quilt that Grandma Russell made. My favorite is the Three Stooges fabric you can see in the corners, it has sayings from the Three Stooges like "Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk". It is an awesome quilt. We put it on his bed that night!

While we were in Nampa, Nico had a birthday party to attend, one of his friends from church was turning 8 years old. Straight from there we went to the Christmas Party at the Grandparents Salisbury's house. GG also came along with us! We ate pizza, sang songs, Papa gave a devotional and read the Christmas Story from the book of John. A fresh perspective! And then we played games! The saran wrap game started with a huge ball of saran wrap that had prizes wrapped up in it. (Thanks to Aunt Jill Marie for putting it together!) Everyone got a turn trying to unwrap part of the ball, while someone else rolled dice until they got doubles. If you unwrapped a prize while it was your turn, you got to keep the prize. Then the person who rolled doubles  had a chance to unwrap the ball while someone else rolled the dice. It was so much fun! Lots of prizes for everyone.

Thanks to Uncle Jonny for catching this picture of us :)

I think Nico won both bags of M&Ms that were in the ball (they are his favorite candy) so he was a tad over-sugared that night. heehee. We had so much fun. Thank you Papa and Grandma Salisbury for the incredibly fun time!

On Sunday we went to church, a shorter service than usual and Nico read from his Bible Luke 2:10-12, part of the Christmas story. Then the children sang Away in a Manger on stage and everyone joined in. Sunday was a lazy afternoon, Grandma and Nico went out snow-playing. They walked over to Quarry View Park.

After we ate dinner, Nico opened a gift from Guy and I, a board game called Cat Lady. We played it that night before bed.

I finished wrapping presents that night and we stuck everything under the tree. Nico didn't stay up at all, and didn't hear Guy say "Ho Ho Ho, Merrrrry Christmas!", he was fast asleep. The first thing Nico did upon waking is open his stocking. Then all of us gathered for breakfast (cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, bacon), and started opening presents! While Nico was waiting to open presents he had pulled all of his from under the tree to make a big pile.

That afternoon we watched White Christmas while Nico played with toys and read his new books. What an enjoyable and laid back day! Grandma and Nico went on another walk that day to Quarry View to play in the snow again.

Some random pictures from our time!

Playing with his Alphabots

Most of these pictures are thanks to Grandma Russell!! And then below you will find a video of our time, most taken by Grandma.

Tuesday morning after breakfast the Grandparents Russell headed to the airport. We planned out a few of the next trips this next year, and we will see them again in March during Nico's spring break! They are adding a kitchenette up in the suite that will be there when the Grandparents come next. Yay! Thank you for the visit, the visiting, the sitting, the talking, the watching, the eating, the laughing, we enjoyed your visit very much!

Tuesday was a day of cleaning-up-Christmas for us. We don't necessarily take down our Christmas tree the day after Christmas, but this year we did, it was dried up and leaving its green petals everywhere. We pulled it out through the front door and parked it next to our front window in the corner until trash day. Then we packed up our Christmas box and shipped it back down to the cellar. That afternoon we sat around being lazy, reading, playing with toys, watching a movie. 

Wednesday was the start of Nico's Hitting Clinic for baseball. Held at Timberline High School, he is doing 3 days of the camp where he practices hitting baseballs. He has had so much fun the past 2 days. Wednesday after it was over, Guy and I and Evelyn picked him up and then drove over to the mall. Nico received a Build-a-Bear gift certificate for Christmas from Jeff & Allicia so he could get a YOSHI stuffed animal! So we went there to redeem it. Evelyn also got a gift certificate for Christmas. Instead of getting another Build-a-Bear (she already has one, a dragon named Toothless, from How to Train your Dragon), she brought Toothless with her and bought him a saddle.

Afterwards we ate lunch at the mall, then stopped off at See's Candy to get everyone one piece. Nico chose a lime truffle, the same one he had chosen from Aunt Pat's See's candy box when she offered him one on Saturday. Evelyn chose a strawberry cream one. Guy picked up some Starbucks coffee at the mall using the Starbucks gift card I won doing the saran wrap game, then we headed back home. 

Nico has been carrying Yoshi around everywhere with him. Feeding him food. He even brought Yoshi with him when he crawled into our bed in the middle of the night.

Enjoy the video!!