I'm such a slacker. Falling behind is the worst, because it makes it feel that much harder to get posts done. A big reason why I made it a daily goal to write, so that each post wouldn't take so long! But it's time to buckle down and get totally caught up.
Wednesday, December 17th we left Dan to spend a few more days at our house on his own and were on our way to Ohio to spend Thursday and Friday with Adam's family enroute to Connecticut. We left at 4pm and got to my in-laws' house at 1:30am. The kids honestly did so great and we felt relieved - I think it always helps when a lot of the drive is in the dark. Makes them sleepy and they slept a good chunk at the end of the drive. I was worried about the transition from being asleep in the car to getting settled in bed at their house, but they honestly did really well with that too and settled back to sleep quickly. Hallelujah! 🙌
Our time in Ohio was short, but fun - we hung out at Mic and Jenni's house most of the day and the kids loved getting to spend time with their Grandma and Grandpa. We only planned to crash at their house the first night because they are in the middle of some bedroom/bathroom renovations and only have one working stand up shower at the moment, so not very conducive to having all of us there to getting ready each day. We decided to stay at a hotel in Toledo so we'd be closer to Adam's brothers families and could also see them. So that Mic and Jenni could still spend time with us too, they got a hotel room as well. After dinner on Thursday, we headed over to the hotel and on our way stopped at the Cookie Jar in Bowling Green to get some hot fresh cookies. Those cookies are amazing!! They made me realize that Crumbl actually doesn't compare. I've realized there's a difference between a warm cookie and one that is hot and fresh from the oven. Those cookies seriously melted in our mouths - soooo good!! On our way to the Cookie Jar though we happened up this house that had a CRAZY Christmas light display that plays to music. It was the most intense one I've ever seen at just a regular house. They certainly went all out! The kids had fallen asleep in the car, but would have died if they could have watched live too. Adam took a video though so that they could at least watch after the fact. It was pretty awesome!
When we got to the hotel we found out that our rooms that were supposed to be next to each other were going to be nowhere near each other and on different floors. A red flag should have went off for Adam when he was on the phone trying to verify that would be the case and the lady helping him didn't speak the best English. 🙄🤦 So that was a bummer, because it made it impossible for us to stay up together after putting the kids to bed to play games. But basically we ended up just letting them stay up later than normal so we could still get in some games together. Always a fun time to play games with Mic and Jenni, especially boggle when Adam makes up tons of words and we gang up on him the whole time. 😂
Thursday night I learned that babies and hotels don't mix well, because boy was Nolan not wanting to sleep well in the pack n play there! I kept having to pull him into bed with us, fed him a couple times, and he still wouldn't settle well so it wasn't the best night's sleep for either of us. But we all got to sleep in, since the older kids weren't bugging us at their normal early hour, so that helped. Friday was fun because we went out for a late lunch at Bravo's with Nate and Ava (Adam's middle bro and daughter), while the kids stayed at the hotel with Mic and Jenni. It was nice to enjoy a lunch out without the kids being crazy and of course their food is always awesome! I need to learn how to make their bread - it is soooo good! I tried to find a copycat version, but couldn't find an exact replica.😒 Unfortunately though it seems like their menu changes regularly, because every time we go, I want to order what I got the time before because it was so amazing and then it's not on the menu anymore! 😩 Just my luck haha. Luckily it's hard to get a bad meal there though. Nate and Ava came back to the hotel with us afterwards and we all just hung out the rest of the night. The highlight of the night was Jenni gifting us our 2020 Christmas ornament, which was an ornament with text all over it about the pandemic. Ironically, it came from China and there were about a million typos on it - some words were so bad that you couldn't even figure out what it was supposed to say. 😂😂 It gave us all a good laugh - that's 2020 for ya right there. Pretty fitting!
On our way out Saturday morning, we stopped by Nate's house to see his arctic fox (yes, it's a pet) and that thing was soooo soft! Pretty cool to see in person. We also stopped by to see Adam's best friend Andrew and his girlfriend Rachel. It's always great to see them! We chatted for a bit outside until we were too cold and couldn't stand it anymore. The drive to my parents' house from there was not quite as smooth since it was all in daylight. Nolan definitely didn't nap as much as he should have and really wanted out of his seat by the end, but we survived.
We had a few days with Gram and Gramps before everyone else showed up and it was a true Christmas miracle because we showed up to a foot of snow on the ground. 🙌🥳 I was sooo happy about that and the kids were totally excited, but also not well versed with snow so it took a lot to convince them to go play in it and try sledding. We all played outside with Gramps for a bit and sadly it was very powdery snow which made it almost impossible to build a snowball. With the help of a spray bottle, we managed to get a small one built. Maeve couldn't be convinced to sled, but the rest of us did down their little hill and Nolan especially loved it! So cute to hear his giggle. Rowan continued to go time and time again, sitting on the sled with one of us adults, but didn't react much. Didn't love it, didn't hate it! 🤷 We had a few quiet days otherwise with just Gram and Gramps and of course enjoyed playing games every night after the kids went to bed (except for the one night where the kids decided to not go to sleep until 11pm, but we still pushed through and played games anyway with them near us trying to "go to sleep" on the couch. Didn't work, but oh well, at least we still got to spend our time how we wanted to cause staying up till 11pm one night ain't gonna kill any children.).
Dan gave us a heart attack when he texted us the day before him and Rach and her family were supposed to show up saying that he tested positive for Covid. He had us all convinced that we were about to spend Christmas with just Gram and Gramps alone and I was so bummed about it - but come to find out, it was a total joke and they ended up shocking us and showing up a few hours later at the front door. Little did we know they were already driving in the car when they sent that text! They had to make it in time to take advantage of all the snow before it melted away with incoming rain and warmer temps. With the big Fiet kids around, you better believe we enjoyed a couple more sessions of more intense sledding down a bigger hill and thanks to all of them Maeve was convinced to give it a try. Everyone loved it and before long, the kids were going down by themselves and Rowan's favorite was going down laying on top of someone else. 😂 We made many trains and managed to connect all of us and even Zoey took a trip down the hill in my coat so she couldn't jump out of my arms... 😂😂 Good times.
All in all, our time together with everyone was tons of fun. Lots of cousin time, whipped out 3 or 4 puzzles in our 2 weeks time together, played lots of games at night, did some shopping, took some hikes, went and saw our old New Fairfield house that we lived in when I was Maeve's age, got Frank Pepe's pizza, ate way too many delicious desserts, and of course celebrated Christmas and New Years. The kids were soooo excited for Christmas morning and all the presents were a hit! Maeve won best reaction when she opened her Santa bag, pulled out her new bitty baby and exclaimed with next level excitement, "My wish came true!!!!" She was also the cutest about asking who got her every single present so she could say thank you to the right person after she opened it. She is so dang thoughtful for her age. Warms my heart! 🥰
I did ring in the New Year with some heartburn and then some serious nausea in the middle of the night, so that wasn't a super fun way to welcome in 2021 but what can you do. Also, because our kids are wild animals, it wasn't all fun and games when time and time again they were the worst behaved children in the house. It's a serious bummer that even though they LOVE seeing family, they also are total creatures of habit and being on trips throws them off their grooves and always brings worse behavior. It's too bad my family always has to see the worst of it and I certainly had a couple of breakdowns worried that everyone was thinking I was the worst mom in the world that doesn't know how to discipline her kids. Unless they were lying to me, turns out that that's all just stuff I've made up in my own head. Probably because most of the time it is trial and error around here and I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm doing the best I can. 😅
Some major laughs during our two weeks at Gram and Gramps' house include:
1. Rowan telling Gram that she was "super kind" 😂🥰
2. Watching this SNL Christmas morning video and dying over it. The empty stocking and the dog getting tons of presents and a robe too! 😂 Soooo good! https://youtu.be/FOVCtUdaMCU
3. The roles completely reversing on Christmas night when instead of all of the adult children having lots of presents to open, we had close to none (we got cash from my parents) and for the first time in the history of the world my Mom and Dad got piles of presents from each other. I'm sorry, but what universe are we living in now?? Never thought I'd live to see that day. 🤯
4. While getting all our snow gear on before heading sledding one of the days, Rowan said "Snow up guys! It's time to snow the world!" 😂🤔
Unfortunately our good luck ran out during our drive home. We split it up over 2 days and man, both days felt long, but especially the second day. That might be because within a 1 hour time span Nolan spilled soda all over the car, Rowan peed his pants, and then I found out half of my Taco Bell order for dinner was missing from the bag after we already had driven away. 🙄🤦 And also because Nolan thought it would be fun to cry/whine for the last few hours of the drive. Sometimes you just can't win! 😭😂 But hey at least we made it all home in one piece to our home sweet home! Always good to be back after a couple weeks away from home.
And now for tons of pictures!!
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| How Benny managed to join us on our trip! He even surprised the kids with new little Frozen sketch pads 😉 |
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| I can't begin to tell you how excited they were to eat breakfast in bed that morning in the hotel! 😂😍 |
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| Love them all laying together like that! 😍 |
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| Christmas tree pancakes |
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| I can't get over how cute and old Maeve looks in this picture! 😍 |
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| She was cracking me up using the baby's carseat to prop her foot up 😂 |
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| Immersing myself in the winter wonderland! |
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| Zoey didn't know what to do with herself in all that snow! Definitely not the norm for her. |
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| 😂😂 His hat and hood! |
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| I fear for my future with this girl 😳😅 |
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| The love that Rowan has for these two older boys is unmatched! Always always always following Bennett and Liam. 🥰 |
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| Rowan's face 😂 |
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| 3 year old tantrums 🤦 |
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| He reminds me of the boy in A Christmas Story 😂- |
I couldn't help but stare at his little puffy body in that snowsuit!
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| Rowan's squishy face on Zach 😂😍 |
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| Lap sitting for days 😍 |
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| Rowan came out wearing angel wings to act out the Nativity even though Maeve was the angel. 😂 Apparently it's the only costume piece that really fit him haha |
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| He loved to crawl between these chairs and pop out the other side. Always made me smile to see him pop through! 😊 |
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| All eyes on the Santa tracker 😂 |
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| I'm just now realizing that Zoey even made it into this Christmas Jammie picture! 😂 Don't mind that my kids matching jammies didn't show up in time for Christmas eve like they were supposed to and Rowan is the only one throwing things off with his blue jammies 🙄🤦 |
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| Soooooo much excitement for Christmas morning! Rowan is really nailing the excited face here 😂 |
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| Maeve, Zach, and Rowan absolutely killing it 🤣🤣 |
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| Maeve 😂 |
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| I asked her to act excited and this is the face she made 😂😂 - holding up her "favorite" present that changed every time you asked her. 😂 |
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| Rowan and Liam - his little arm resting on Liam's arm! 😍 |
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| Total lover boys! |
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| 3 year old tantrums at their finest. He peed his pants right after I took this, thanks to his rage. 🙄 |
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| 😍😍 Powdered donuts for the win! |
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| From our hike! I can't even stand how pretty this is 😍 |
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| Oh my gosh, these girls were killing me with their babies in their jackets!! 😍😍 Little mamas in the making. |
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| Rowan sat illegally like this way too many times. Must be with the big boys. 🙈 |
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| Matching camo! |
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| Baking with Gram! |
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| Our New Fairfield house - where we lived when I was 5! |
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| Charlotte 😂😂 - Ringing in the New Year! |
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| We drove through the prettiest sunset on our way home! 😍 |
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| Nolan was ready to take over 😂 |
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| Zoey found her new favorite spot in the car! 😂 |
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| "Mom, take a picture of me holding my fruit snacks on my head so we can send it to Gram!" 😂 - this girl went through major withdrawals after leaving her Gram. Can't tell you how many times she told me missed her! 🥺 |
Peace and blessings. ✌️
