From the Benich Family...

 


  The Benich Family wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2013!

 

 

Love,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle    
 

The Holidays Have Arrived!

 

We started out by decorating our windows with some snowflakes.  At first glance, they look pretty and show that we're embracing our winter season (however reluctantly by some of us).  But you have to look closer to realize that these aren't just ANY snowflakes, they are Star Wars snowflakes!!!  Over a period of several days, with a lot of patience and an exacto knife, I cut out each and every Star Wars design that was available.  I downloaded the entire collection from here.  (And since then, I've found even more... but I don't think I am up for cutting out any more.)  Here's a close-up of a few of them:

   

Fun, huh?  Kyle knew what they all were and absolutely loved them.  :-)   Then we were getting our house ready for a holiday party, as my family was going to celebrate Christmas a bit early at my house to accomodate everyone's schedules.  Since I had been asking for years to fix our bathrooms up, I asked if we could simply fix a few things before the party.  And somehow it morphed into practically remodeling both bathrooms.  A couple of weeks before the party, my husband decides to take my holiday and pre-party stress to a whole new, yet unachieved level by tearing apart both our bathrooms.  So, here's our lovely downstairs half bath before (showing the lovely brownish/orangish sink and toilet):

 

   

And here's our just as lovely upstairs full bathroom (you really can't see all the little areas that are falling apart in these pictures):



 

I thought we were just going to paint, fix the floors and do some minor changes.  And then this is what the downstairs half bath looked like:

   

Seriously?!?  We were having a party in our house in a couple of weeks.  It was time to bring in help, so my parents came over and one of Kenny's buddies, Chris.  And somehow, after a lot of work from everyone, our bathrooms finally came back together before the party.  I'm thrilled they are looking a lot nicer (since I've pretty much wanted to remodel them since Dee was two), but next time let's not be doing any house remodeling during the holidays and just a couple of weeks before a party at our house.  

Downstairs half bath:  

 

 

Upstairs full bath:  





 

Whew!  After an intense cleaning, it was time to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family (complete with remodeled bathrooms).  Our family, my mom & dad, grandma, sister and her boys and boyfriend were all there.  We ate way too much food, had a lot of fun opening and sharing gifts, and played some fun games.   

 

The kids were thrilled to open some gifts early.  They've been wearing new clothes to school this week and playing new games.  It's helping make this last week before Christmas vacation not drag on so long.  Three more days to our two weeks break from school (and Dee's birthday too)!

~Dani
 
 

Thanksgiving and More!

First, Kyle and Delaney would like to extend their third online holiday game challenge. This one is called Super Santa Kicker 2 (think holiday angry birds only with Santa), and they had a lot of fun -- with just a bit of frustration here and there -- getting through all the levels. Can you get through all the levels? Let us know!



If you missed their earlier challenges from the last couple of years, here is last year's Super Santa Kicker (the original) and Factory Balls, The Christmas Edition.  Good luck!  The kids love to hear other success stories (or failures) -- so please let them know how you did.

This year we had our Thanksgiving celebration a week early due to scheduling issues, so that everyone could be there.  We ate way too much food and had a nice time visiting everyone, and the kids had a great time visiting.  So for the actual Thanksgiving day, we just had a nice meal here at home just the four of us.  Kenny made an awesome turkey (with a new recipe), and we had another yummy meal.  :-)  Before we ate too much again, Delaney and Kenny headed out to play soccer in the morning at the 13th Annual Turkey Cup at the Dyer Indoor Soccer Arena.  This is Delaney's second year playing, but Kenny has played a few more years.  They had a great time.







We're having a wonderful Thanksgiving Break.  It's going by too fast.  (* sigh *)  We did get our Christmas decorating done in the house though.  :-)  The kids did a great job starting on the Christmas Tree.





 

  I came down to help finish up (and fill the gaps on the tree).  :-)

 

While Kenny started hanging our stockings and some of the more difficult decorations.




But he did come back in time to put on the most important ornament: the one that plays Kenny Roger's The Gambler with Santa going all in!





  Tah-dah!  Our Christmas tree is officially finished!

 



  Great job, guys!  :-)

 

And the rest of the house has been decorated too:









I also finally finished the new cushions -- behind the door and behind the couch.  YEAH!!!






 
  And last, but not least, we can't forget our soccer tree!!!  :-)



Luv,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle
 

The Latest Events at the Benich Household!

First of all, Delaney decided to get her hair chopped yet again!  :-)  It's QUITE short now, but we all love it.  Hopefully, she will too (she's wanting less maintenance).   

Then, somehow it was Halloween already.  Kyle was supposed to pick a real person from history to dress up as for school, so he chose Blackbeard the Pirate.  (Kyle wants you to know that his real name was actually Edward.)  Kenny decided to go as a Chicago Fire player, while Delaney dressed up as a nerd.

   



She and a bunch of her friends went out trick-or-treating together.  They had a great time and afterwards, had a huge trading event switching out candies they didn't like with each other.

   

In November, Kyle started taking guitar lessons.  He's only had two lessons so far.  He's learned the parts of the guitar, a few notes and a few chords.  Maybe next time he might even learn his first little song.  



In the meantime, Delaney finished up her soccer season.  She's currently in a little bit of a break before winter training starts up.  Her last tournament was all the way down in Evansville, and Kyle and I opted to stay home that weekend (a bit too much driving for us). 

 

 

 

 

   

They also gave out the awards for the season that weekend, and Delaney received the award for Most Goals.  Way to go, Dee!

 

Is it sad that we're already looking forward to Thanksgiving Break?  :-)  

Dani

 

Grandparent's Day and More Soccer!

Kyle's Grandparent's Day Program was last Tuesday on the 9th; both the 4th graders and the 3rd graders performed together.  It was super cute.  The grades were split into two "camps."  The 4th graders, Kyle's class, was the Technology camp (a good fit for Kyle!), while the 3rd graders were the Non-Technology camp.  The ending moral was that a good mix of both was best -- not to rely entirely on one or the other. 

   

And after the performance, the kids' favorite part: cookies with the grandparents.  Here's a quick picture of Kyle and PaPa enjoying some of our Oatmeal Molasses cookies that we brought in:

   

And Delaney's fall soccer season continues, of course!  Her Three Lions team is working hard in the top division in the state, currently they are 5-5-3 -- with one league game and one tournament left.  Delaney's leading in goals and assists right now.

 

   









Her team even wore pink ribbon socks in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month at their last tournament. 

 

And Kenny has been temporarily helping Three Lions out coaching here and there, while Dee's coach is back in England.  So I've snapped a few pictures of him as well:

 

It's hard to believe that it is the middle of October already -- a few of Delaney's recent games have been frigid!!!  I am so not ready for the cold weather.  :-(

~Dani