Ninja-Go!

You gotta love Lego.  I mean, despite the outrageous prices they charge for pieces of plastic!  The newest craze at our house is Legos - Ninjago!

Let me tell you how it all began . . . the week after Christmas, we received our *free* Lego magazine in the mail.  I use the term *free* because this magazine has contributed to the purchasing of many Lego sets.  In this issue, were ads for this new Lego set and even a pull-out poster of Ninjago!  How was my 6 year-old to resist this great marketing?!

Luckily for him (and for me), he had a gift to return from Christmas and came home with a Target gift card - to be spent as soon as the Ninjago was on the shelves! 

Not only can you buy the usual sets, but you can also just buy the characters and their coveted  legendary gold weapons!  In our case, this was great - my boys usually just want the characters anyway.  On Monday, M and I took a trip to Target and he came home with two (!) characters.  Once opened, the boys have entered a world of ninja battles and trading cards.  My favorite part is the battle cry to begin each match - "Ninja-Go!"

Let the Ninjago battles begin!

Day 359 - Day 1

Day 359, Sunday, December 26th

Wow!  I've survived - another crazy Christmas and almost the end of Project 365!  Today was a great day to stay home and play with some of our Christmas presents.  This is L's - all put together! 

Playing Mexican train dominoes with the family.

Day 360, Monday, December 27th

Time to put Christmas away.  We usually aren't this rushed to put it away, but because we had gotten our tree earlier, it was time to!  The decorations were just falling off!  It is nice to have my house back in order.

Day 361, Tuesday, December 28th

Some of the best presents are the boxes they come in!

Day 362, Wednesday, December 29th

I guess this is how boy's bond?

Day 363, Thursday, December 30th

We watched my sisters kids so they could go to this restaurant - we had fun with all the kiddos, but they ate better!  Wrestling . . .

and hanging with Toby!

Day 364, Friday, December 31st

Good-bye 2010!  I can't believe my days actually came out right?! 

Bringing in the New Year with some great friends!  The guys were there too, but they didn't with the game, so we got to be in the picture!

Happy New Year!  I have officially completed my Project 365!

I will not be participating again this year (Thanks for hosting Sara), but keep coming back for updates and pictures of our growing family!  Hope yours is a great year!

Day 352-358

Day 352, Sunday, December 19th

Baby Girl loves this stuffed santa from our small group white elephant exchange!  She walks up to it and just shoves him over! Ha! 

Day 353, Monday, December 20th

Hubby is home for the week on vacation and decided to go through some of his memorabilia . . he gave me his I.D. bracelet!  Did anyone else ever have one of these? 

Day 354, Tuesday, December 21st
When mom is at work . . . the boys play!

Day 355, Wednesday, December 22nd
I really wanted to finish out strong, but just had a difficult day and wasn't up for looking for something to take a picture of at the end of it all.

Day 356, Thursday, December 23rd
Another find from Daddy's "old stuff" - his YMCA soccer shirt. 

Day 357, Friday, December 24th
Christmas Eve.  Too many pictures taken . . . loved this one!

Day 358, Saturday, December 25th
Merry Christmas! 
Again, too many pictures taken, too many places to go, too much time in the van, too much materialism . . . so wanted to remind myself what it is really all about!  (This is from a tree we decorate at my parent's - the kiddos put the ornaments on, each one has a scripture verse and represents a name of Jesus).

Day 345-351

Day 345, Sunday, December 12th

Tonight we went to church for the Advent Night of Carols.  This is what happens when you leave these boys alone for a minute!  And this is what happens when you play with my camera when I'm not around - you get posted on my blog!

M has another loose tooth!

Day 346, Monday, December 13th

I haven't posted a pic of our beloved Toby for awhile . . . this is what he has been doing a lot of lately.  Aahh . . . to have a dog's life!

Day 347, Tuesday, December 14th

What is missing from this picture?  Baby Girl has been playing with this, a gift from my grandmother.  I love having one the kids can play with.   

Day 348, Wednesday, December 15th

Science co-op!  Today was a game/review day with some cookies and snacks thrown in.  All set and ready to go!  I loved seeing what they've learned.

L drawing for the boys team (which lost by the way) . . . can you guess what it is?

Day 349, Thursday, December 16th

J had his Christmas concert tonight.  He's the middle head in the picture :)

And my attempt at getting a picture of Baby Girl enjoying the music . . . not what I was going for, but definitely worth keeping! 

Day 350, Friday, December 17th

Nothing like the smell of burning plastic.  Thankfully, I noticed the smell before any real damage was done, but it was NOT fun to clean up and I really think I still smell it when the woodburner gets hot enough.  This was after I pulled it off of the side of the stove.

Day 351, Saturday, December 18th

Hubby caught this one for me.  Impressive bubble!  

Day 338-344

Day 338, Sunday, December 5th

My sister's Christmas tree tied to the top of their car. 

Day 339, Monday, December 6th

Baby Girl playing by herself, in one spot, for an extended period of time!  This doesn't happen very often, so I thought I'd better document it! 

She caught me!  Gotta love that smile!

Time to play out in the snow!

Day 340, Tuesday, December 7th

Baby Girl on the way home from bible study.  She didn't quite make it home.  Of course, the 3 trains I caught did not help!

Yeah, I sat there for a long time and took some more pictures!

Day 341, Wednesday, December 8th

History day!  After reading about early African history and some of the Anansi stories, we made our own Anansi's.

Day 342, Thursday, December 9th

Hubby making sausage-in-jalapenos for a work carry in:  halving and deseeding . . .

stuff with sausage and cooking in soy sauce . . .

cooked and all ready to eat!

Day 343, Friday, December 10th

Happy Birthday to my nephew!  He is eating his first cupcake - with a fork!

Day 344, Saturday, December 11th

Celebrating another birthday - trash truck style! 

One of the games - spin and then see how fast you can dress in the coveralls!

Day 324 to 337 (Minus a few!)

I finally have my camera back!  I didn't know I would miss it so much.  I guess this Project 365 has made it become a part of me!  So I am making up for 2 weeks and filling in with some pictures taken after the actual day  - they are noted with an * - cause you know, I'm just like that.  Enjoy!

Day 324, Sunday, November 21st

I really can't believe I didn't take a picture!  My sister and her family arrived on Saturday, L made it home from his overnight camp (he had a blast and wasn't in the house 5 minutes before he asked to go back to my mom's to see his cousins!) and we had a Thanksgiving feast at small group.  Oh yeah, I didn't take a picture, because I have this video!  Sorry for the poor quality and baby squealing in the background!

Day 325, Monday, November 22nd

M lost his first tooth!  It had been loose for quite a while, apparently he is not much of a tooth wiggler.  He came home from Nana's with it in a plastic bag - he had gotten her to take it out for him!  Thanks Nana!  What a cutie!

Day 326, Tuesday, November 23rd
Again - no picture and I did have my camera!

Day 327, Wednesday, November 24th
Breakfast with my sister and then to United Art and Education!  What a wonderful time!

Day 328, Thursday, November 25th

Happy Thanksgiving!  Grandpa Gorbics showing us his antique coffee grinder.  

Day 329, Friday, November 26th*
An early Christmas present from Grandma Gorbics.  A beautiful Advent Calendar!  Thanks Debbie!  You are one talented woman and we have already enjoyed using this!

Day 330 & 331, Saturday & Sunday, November 27th & 28th*
Yes, it actually did take us 2 days to decorate our Christmas tree!  We discovered when we put it up on Saturday, that we needed more lights . . . and you can't hang any ornaments on before the lights are on . . . it was very hard for M to wait!  This is the earliest we have ever put up our Christmas tree - let's hope it survives until Christmas!

Day 332, Monday, November 29th*

I was very sad we didn't have the camera for this event - Turtle Racing at Cub Scouts!  L brought home a piece of wood with a pattern that he and Dad had to cut out.  He then got to personalize it - Super Turtle!  The whole in his head is where the string went through that was pulled to make him "walk".  He did have 2 eyeballs before the race!

Day 333, 334, 335, Tuesday - Thursday, November 30 - December 2nd

No pictures :(   Not starting the last month of Project 365 very well!

Day 336, Friday, December 3rd

I have my camera back!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Gorbics for dropping it by! 

Yeah - and this is all I took a picture of - J being silly!  I'm sure I'll use it to embarrass him sometime in the future!

Day 337, Saturday, December 4th

M's turn for the Advent Calendar.  One thing I like about this one is that Baby Jesus stays on the whole time - that means no one fighting over who gets to put him on this year and me not being able to recall whose turn it is!

Blogging . . uh . . . break?

In case anyone out there's been wondering why I haven't posted anything  . . . we had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my father-in-law's, so great that I left my camera there and I haven't gotten it back yet! 

I guess I will be missing more of Project 365 than I planned on!  I do have some great pics to post from before I left the camera behind.  I have really missed some great photo ops too! 

Hope to be back clicking away soon!