Category Archives: Instagram

Merry [post] Christmas everyone! Looks like I’ve got some catching up to do… we’ll start with the last month’s worth of Instagram photos with witty explanations (which is code for Michelle rambling – I took a Muscinex DM this morning and it might be going to my head).

My boys love to help with baking, mostly because it means they get to lick the beaters when I’m done mixing. I’m okay with that since I have such happy memories of doing the same thing – though my mom mostly made oatmeal raisin cookies and that dough is not nearly as good as the stuff for triple chip blondies.

My boys are a little obsessed with “Gangnam Style” and in the photo above we were listening to it and they were running around dancing and cracking me up – especially Jack’s little strut move I sort of captured.

We decorated for Christmas – including our first family tree – the bejeweled bird Liam is holding is his favorite ornament. I’m hoping we can some day find an upgrade tree, one you can’t see through.

I just love his smile.

‘Tis the season for nonfat, no whip peppermint mochas.

Having long hair affords me the chance to play around with ideas I find on Pinterest… I am going to miss it when I cut it off for Locks of Love.

This kind never ceases to amaze me with the things he does.

All dolled up for my work Christmas dinner.

The “cheese” on Calvin’s campus (I believe the metal sculpture is supposed to be an abstract representation of Jonah and the whale, where you can be Jonah by sitting in the belly – sounds good to me).

This kid and his faces – he just has zero personality.

The Santa we visited at the mall was Awesome – he asked good leading questions and repeated what the boys told him so we could hear. We had to wait for a bit while they loaded paper in the printer and he chatted with Liam while Jack looked at him in awe and rubbed his hand along the fur at the edge of his coat. Unfortunately the fur was a little too inappropriately placed so when Jack hit it, it startled Santa a bit as I’m quite certain it was a little too close to a place Santa would not like to be hit. My child molested Santa – not many people can say that.

I made Chex mix… just a bit. The stuff in the upper right corner is special just for Simon – just the three Chex cereals and none of the other stuff (like pretzels, cheese-its and nuts). Good thing I love my husband enough to make him special Chex mix.

Sunrise over the power substation.

Making treats is my love language… this tray got delivered to Jack’s teachers at daycare.

Chocolate chip scones for my MOPS table… Jack loved these until they were baked and then I had to make him choke a bite down (while dry heaving) in order to earn a piece of Halloween candy. Seriously.

About twice a year I get crafty. Inspired by Leah, I made two trees out of the felt I had purchased to make a King Pig costume (over a year ago when I made the boys’ Angry Birds costumes). I need to make two more, in darker green and red to balance out the bright green of this one.

Continuing our annual tradition, we decorated Christmas cookies with friends. I did not share these with anyone else as Jack would alternate sprinkle application with licking the sprinkles off of his hand.

My kids declared the Saturday before we left for my parents’ house as “Cra-z Day!” They did their best to live up to the billing; hopefully now that Christmas is over, they can go back to being calm and docile. Ha.

Someone is growing up – I see a future teenager in this picture. Hold me.

Christmas Eve selfie with my big kid! Sadly the bags under my eyes only disappear when I’m frowning (how this is fair, I don’t know).

It finally snowed on Christmas Eve… Jack was a bit mesmerized.

My boys initiated their cousin, Max, into the world of wrestling and jam piles – much fun was had. It, of course, ended in tears.

A rare photo of me with one of my brothers… the eldest of our triple M clan (Mike, Marty and Michelle – weren’t my parents cute?).

Getting my baby fix with [great] nephew Ethan (who my mom semi-hilariously kept calling “Keegan” because my friend Kara [who has the same last name as my niece] has a son named Keegan; Ethan has a new nickname). Doesn’t he look like his planning a world domination?

Simon and I are continuing our tradition of wishing the world Merry Christmas at the end of Christmas Eve.

Once again looking years beyond his age, Liam spent Christmas morning reading every name aloud from his 200-page Star Wars Lego Character Encyclopedia. He dubbed this his favorite gift, until he thought more and then decided it was his new Star Wars Wii game, and then his DreamLite, or maybe the trampoline or sock monkey Santa brought. Jack just loves it all, though I believe his favorite is his “Minja” Turtle from Grandpa and Grandma.

Aforementioned sock monkey. Thank you, Amazon, for the quick delivery after Liam asked for this from Santa. Well, this and a real dog that would sleep on his bed… Amazon doesn’t deliver live pets, so sock monkey it was.

This is what happens when the adults play cards and turn on the TV to distract the children.

No matter how much he spins, Jack never seems to get dizzy.

Woah, Nelly, there are a whole lot of pics in this post but I’m playing catch up. Make yourself a little snack and scroll away.

We have had a baby gate around our TV/entertainment center since we got it. For Liam we just had the six sections of the play yard stretched out in front of our TV and fireplace and he never tried to go behind it even though the ends were open. Jack went behind it almost as soon as he started crawling so we created a fence around the important things (the electronics) and this has worked for us for years until a couple weeks ago when I walked into the living room to find Jack as pictured above. In his defense, a piece of food had fallen onto the floor inside the gate and he had figured out a way over so he could retrieve it, not to cause havoc. And I know what you must be thinking, Michelle, your son is nearly 4, isn’t it time to take down the baby gate? And you would think that but one of the last times we were at my parent’s house, we found Jack in the living room feeding DVDs into the VCR. So, no, we are not yet taking down the baby gate and I have moved the chair he used to scale over the baby fence – after I had him reenact how he did it.

These are Triple Chip Blondies – do yourself a favor and make them, or find someone to make them for you and don’t look at the recipe so you will never know how much butter and brown sugar is in them.

Afghan from my childhood, now in my home. This makes me happy. And warm.

Jack has amped up his affection-showing lately, always wanting to hug everyone in our immediate family, including poor George (ironically, his increased affection for us has not translated to affection for others and when you ask him to smile for or hug others, he staunchly refuses, typically with a look of disgust on his face – a real charmer, that one). George in general tries to steer clear of close proximity to the children but on this occasion, Jack was eating some food and George was hoping to get some so he got too close to Jack and was rewarded with a tight squeeze.

Me and my littlest boy-o. I just love this picture.

I made a ball out of paper – gotta love the ideas you find on the Internet.

Cake batter muddy buddies are delicious – I’ll be honest and say I quickly get sick of the traditional muddy buddies but this cake batter version is addictive!

Simon and I at the fun. concert… not pictured the three girls who sat in front of us wearing coordinating outfits (everything was red, black and white) who were way done up for a concert in a field house and wearing 4-inch heels that made it comical to watch them walk up and down the bleachers.

Liam has been branching out more with his Lego creations, including the “people” he is putting together – this is one of my favorite combinations.

Liam’s also gotten into drawing comics – this is his redo of Captain Underpants. By Liam Bennett and Illustrated By Liam Bennett.

A collections of pics from my GWA (Girl’s Weekend Away)… clockwise from top, left: we made infinity scarves, painted our nails, ate yummy snacks and played Ticket to Ride (so fun!).

The view from our weekend house: Lake Pentwater (or is it Pentwater Lake?)

Liam likes to hang out with me and read. I love it.

The boys decided it was time for a new sticker chart so they created their own, all categories have to do with being good, either in general or to specific people in our family. Apparently that is it.

The boys are not wallflowers.

All sunset shots from the same night.

Thanksgiving Day, post-dinner, pre-pukefest. I love that Chris looks like he’s about to take flight. It’s a running joke as to how Chris is going to accidentally damage Liam when we get together – this time Jacob took over for his dad and unintentionally clotheslined Liam. Happy memories.

Jack from Thanksgiving Day – full of life over at Grandma and Grandpas house and then passed out on the hardwood floor in the entryway at Uncle Mike and Aunt Joan’s house.

But in less than 24 hours, Jack was back to his normal self, building towers bigger than a preschooler and glaring at the camera. This is the face I got when I asked for a smile.

You’d think they were facing an execution squad, but no, we were about to take them to get a slushie from the gas station – which was apparently the highlight of Liam’s trip to my parents’ house this summer, getting a 44-ounce slushie every day. When I asked him who he was the most thankful for, he said, “Grandpa, because he buys me slushies from Speedway.”

Friday night I got to cuddle my sweet godson, Ethan, what a little nugget. I’ve still got the magic mom arms to put the babies to sleep. Love him.

The boys wanted to play with Ethan, Ethan could not be bothered.

Liam sweetly told me that he wrote me a note, then passed me this piece of paper. Le sigh.

Left: photos from 2011. Right: photos from 2012. One of these things is not like the other. I’ve got a bit of catching up to do.

Call me crazy, but I love black licorice flavored anything but taffy is especially my favorite. Thank you, Horrocks for having this back in stock. I also love that Jack knows when he comes to my office, he can check the second drawer of my pedestal for candy.

Jack and I played cars. And by played, I mean, I sat there while he circled the cars up and told me not to touch anything.

This is one of those forever weeks – I am surprised today is not Friday but sadly, there is a whole day left to the remainder of this week! Weekends feel so short and weeks feel so long, wish it were the opposite. How does one get two-day work weeks and 5-day weekends? Now my dad will gloat that everyday is a weekend to him – someday I will be retired.

The sun was on fire one of our morning drives last week – times like that I wish I had more than my measly camera phone.

See, so pretty.

I’m a little in love with large velcro rollers. Minimal effort, big impact. Having long hair is fun while it lasts… Simon is counting the days until I can chop and donate it!

We took Jack to his very first movie [in the theater] – Ice Age: Continental Drift. These are the lovely photos we have to document the experience, but since we have none of Liam’s first movie, I’d call it a win! He was pretty good for the movie but asked a TON of questions – thankfully the theater was pretty empty on a Thursday morning.

Liam was Jango Fett for Halloween – after making costumes last year, I was all for buying one this year. He was all for being a Star Wars character, too bad I had to explain to everyone who Jango Fett is… Angry Birds were universally recognized last year.

Little brother loses out and has to rewear Liam’s old costume… in reality he was thrilled but doesn’t the little brother always get the short end of the stick?

Why does my hair always do cute things when I am home for the night? I did this fun, oh-so-shiny bun after the kids went to bed on Halloween night. At least I can share the fun with Instagram and my lovely blog visitors – you guys are so pretty.

Liam approves of Spoonlickers. I do not approve of his new face for photos. He thinks he’s pretty neato, clearly.

The boys on our way north last weekend. Liam was suitably excited, Jack did not want to smile for the camera. Too bad, buddy, still taking your picture.

We saw snow, then it went away, and then it came back again and then it went away. I am an excellent observationist and storyteller.

The boys were super excited to get new swim goggles. Did they actually where them in the water park? Nope.

Saturday, after dinner, we drove into town for some libations. Simon picked them well. The boys slept upstairs. We watched Juno downstairs. Everyone was happy.

This is Liam’s interpretation of flying that I asked him to do so I could try and score a free ticket from Southwest Airlines.

Again, Jack is not willing to cooperate for the photo, but they really did have fun.

Sunset on the way home – the end!

What we’ve been up to: drinking smoothies, hanging out, snuggling babies, going to the dentist and eating burgers. Just life.

This was taken on the day we bought the “homeless” man a smoothie. We enjoyed Blimey Limey and Pomegranate Plunge.

Sometimes Jack cuddles with me, usually when I let him watch TV.

Found love – sometimes it’s the little things.

Jack’s princess toothbrush. I love that this perfectly depicts life – Jack lounging about on the floor and George waiting for me to just sit down so he can rest (he follows me around wherever I go – everyone else he will relax for and go find a place to curl up, but for me, he is at my side. I am his person.)

Day four of smoothies… Jack gets his own cup because he will break the Styrofoam cups 90% of the time. This time around it was Blimey Limey and Guava Punch.

Sweet baby Ethan – I just love him and those cheeks. Wish we could have stayed for hours…

The capitol building in Lansing… not D.C. as Liam questioned. Did you know a building is spelled capitol and a city is spelled capital? Google is educating me every day.

On our date night @ Stella’s – Simon had a high-maintenance burger: “Can I get the Government Cheese Stuffed Burger… without tomatoes and pickles and can you add bacon, sauted onions and barbeque sauce?” I had The Mr. Fables (olive burger with blue cheese and subbed aged white cheddar for the Swiss). I am dreaming about that burger.

It stormed two nights ago and George could not get close enough to me on the couch so he curled up on my lap and wouldn’t move. It’s a good thing he weighs less than ten pounds, he can be a legitimate lap dog.