Oliver's 6th Birthday - Dinner at Texas Roadhouse

Oliver chose Texas Roadhouse (no surprise!) for his early birthday dinner following his well-check appointment.  The birthday boy ordered mini cheeseburgers, but sure didn't eat much after his SIX rolls.  I guess he was trying to eat a roll for every year he has been on this earth.

 

Pais cheesin' with her chicken critters.

January Snapshots

We are nearing the end of replacing doors and trim.  This was our (hopefully) last load of door we will need to pick up to finish up the project.

Paisley is my best workout buddy.

Loving some McAlister's.

Friday night pizza and movie night are a favorite in out house.

Daddy and his girls (with Oliver hanging on his back).

Hauling them all upstairs up for bedtime.

Helping Daddy pick up a baler.

Big girl sitting in a shopping cart for the first time.

Oliver got his cast off.

Freddy's is a family favorite.

Paisley is super proud of her flower tower.

Oliver and his giant no-bake cookie.

Paisley and her giant peanut butter cookie.

Nine Months Old

 Eden continues to grow and grow.  Our little chunk weighs a little over twenty pounds!  As you can see, she is a super smiley girl.

She's finally decided that baby food isn't that bad, but she still prefers real food and I can't blame her.  She does really well picking up puffs to eat and she sure can shovel them in quickly.

Piercing Eden's Ears

 We pierced Paisley's ears for her first birthday so we wanted to do the same for Eden.  We ended up doing it a few months early due to convenience.  Rarely is our whole family in Manhattan without us rushing around with a ton of stuff to do, so this January day at the end of Christmas break seemed fitting.  We kind of decided on a whim, but she did great and they look cute as can be.

She was such a good girl and hardly cried!

Getting your ears pierced is exhausting.

New Year's Eve

 I really can't remember the last time I stayed up until midnight to ring in the new year.  The last several years it seems like we have had Banks Christmas on or around New Year's, but haven't really celebrated it. 

Oliver is getting old enough that I thought it might be fun for him to celebrate with a little New Year's Eve party.  He understands the concept of a new year on the calendar and about making resolutions.

Staying up until midnight was never an option in my mind.  At first I thought maybe we would let the kids stay up until 9:00 or something and do our countdown early.  I decided to search online for a kids countdown and found that there were lots of "Noon" year celebrations happening.  What a genius idea!

Eden required a morning nap to make it through the noon festivities.

We tired watching a Noon Year's Eve countdown with the Kansas Children's Discovery Center, but the internet kept freezing and messing up.

Eden's squeals of joy were the best!

Riley came home for work during lunch for a few minutes to do the countdown with us.

We went to the store earlier that morning and I told the kids they could pick out a special NYE lunch.  They both chose lunchables, haha!