Catholic Schools Week!

No one had any picture-worthy dress up day outfits but St. John's did a castle theme this year and it was awesome as always!  Here's my room and my dragon down the hall.

I got to open house at St. Wenceslaus too.

The bigs had grandparents day and a community competition they really enjoyed.
 

Happy 18th Thomas!

Thomas requested smoked brisket for his birthday dinner and Jeremy did not disappoint.  

He made brisket, a pork butt and "burnt ends".  Amanda joined us for dinner and the Littles and I set up a balloon drop.

Happy birthday Thomas!  We love you and we know you will do great things!

 There's a video of all the balloons falling on Thomas but it takes so long to upload videos on our old computer, I'm not even going to try.

Happy 10th Nicholas!

Nicholas turned 10!  Everyone is double digits at our house.

We had cake and dinner at home.

Our first free Saturday after his birthday (read with no wrestling meet) we invited four boys over for a laser gun fight with the guns Nick got for Christmas and his birthday.  Ainsley, Braxton and Jacob suited up and headed out into what was left of the snow.  (Grady wasn't here yet in the picture below).

It turned out to be a beautiful winter day, close to 40 degrees!  After two hours outside they only came in because it was time for hot chocolate and cake.

 Happy Birthday Nicholas!  We love you!

One Last Christmas

 With the Vranas!

We had a fun time and Thomas made sure to keep his status as funnest cousin.

He was supposed to have a wrestling meet the next day and was very close to overweight.  He wasn't so happy about not being able to enjoy all the Christmas goodies.  Then we got a text that the meet was cancelled due to weather.  This is the picture we sent the coaches.  :)  Happy Thomas.

A Couple other December Things

Julia still cleans once a week at my friend's salon.  For Christmas this year she got a balayage as her Christmas bonus.  It's super pretty!

There was enough snow for a little family of snowmen.  Meet Jeff.  Nicholas likes the name Jeff, he uses it often.

Then there was Frieda, which was the closest thing to the feminine for of Jeff we could find.  The other one had a name too but I've forgotten it.

 

Julia's Teeth

We've known for years Julia's adult upper canines would need to be surgically removed.  They developed way up by her nasal cavity, had little for roots and pointed forward, not down.  It finally came time to get it done when the braces weren't moving her teeth anymore because of the canines.  We have an old college acquaintance who is a periodontist, which it turned out was not what Julia needed, but he referred us to an oral surgeon we felt very comfortable with.  We decided after Christmas but still during break was the best time to do it.

Fr. Lee came over to give her anointing of the sick the day before.  He also gifted us this hard puzzle which everyone enjoyed doing.

Julia was not excited about the surgery.  Can you blame her?  Everything but the first try at the IV went smoothly though.  She was really ready to leave afterwards.  The first thing she said to me while still very groggy was "It over?" and then she tried to get up to leave.  The boys were disappointed to hear she did not do anything hilarious while coming out of anesthesia.  She just talked using only the most important words.  Thomas had wrestling so he, Philip and Jeremy went to that.  Nicholas stayed at my parents for a couple days so Julia and I went home to a quiet house with lots of soft food and a big juice stop drink.  We watched 9 episodes of Agent Carter that afternoon and by the next day she was feeling quite a bit better.  She had a little bruising and we kept her on advil and tylenol for a couple days and then she went back to life as normal sans a couple of weird teeth.

 

 

Carlson Christmas

We had a day and a half of Christmas fun at my parent's house.

All the cousins were there of course.

Sisters.

Brothers in law.  Philip and Nicholas gave Jeremy the shirt.  It was a hit.

All sorts of nice gifts.

And of course a cookie competition the next day.

Lots and lots of fun!