The first month of the year is already gone, and while normally January is not my favorite, this year it seemed to fly by. I am hoping to keep up with this whole documenting our life thing here on this old blog, and decided to break our monthly updates into the top 10 moments from each month. But then January decided it had a top 12, so I guess we are doing 12 each month. We shall see, but without further adieu, I give you our January in twelve short paragraphs.
1. We quite literally rang in the New Year splitting our time between Logan and Bear Lake. It's always lots of fun being with our families, and when you throw holiday bell concerts, gift exchanges, and sledding into the mix, well it's almost too much fun to handle. After all of our holiday partying and travels, we were excited to arrive back to our lovely home and a fresh start to 2016.
2. January holds a couple of big days for our family, especially for dad and Miss Stella. Both turned another year older, and we had lots of fun celebrating each of them. Stella's birthday post is still to come, but after dad spent his last birthday in his pajamas cleaning up his children's puke, I was hoping to make this year's celebrations a bit more memorable. For Ryan that simply means making him breakfast, surprising him with treats at work, and arranging for a sitter so we could go on a little birthday date. I think he would say it was a good day.
3. I was able to go participate in Stella's career day at school. My friend Rachel bought this ridiculous mouth costume on mega-clearance because her husband is a dentist and she thought it might come in handy at some point in their lives. She let me borrow it for the morning, and the kindergartners loved deciding if they should feed the mouth healthy fruits and vegetables, or the once-in-a-while-treat of cookies and cakes. I've gotten used to teaching adults about nutrition, so I was a little nervous to bring it down to the five-year-old level, but I think it turned out fun. It made me proud to be able to use my eduction help teach my own daughter and her friends about the endless possibilities life has to offer.
4. I loved this little moment in the bathtub. Those princess toys are 100% the most played with toys at our house. They travel from room to room, ride in the car with us, and even provide bath time entertainment. I love watching those cute sisters play and imagine together.
5. We decided to start a new tradition of family game night. We put the baby to bed (she would not have been helpful in this situation), popped some popcorn and busted out the board games. The girls got a lot of new games for Christmas, so it was fun to try them out. Princess Go Fish is now a current favorite pastime, and only ends with someone in tears 5% of the time, so I think we are good with it.
6. Outdoor winter activities are not exactly our family's thing, but dad thought it would be fun to take the girls tubing at the little ski hill just outside of town. We woke up to poor weather and the reality of packing every one's stuff, gathering snacks, and driving the hour to the hill. When it comes down to it, it's often very easy for us to feel like all the effort really isn't going to be worth it. But we decided to persevere, and headed out on our Saturday morning adventure. When we arrived at the hill it was snowing and blowing, and neither mom or dad was looking forward to what was ahead. But we had made it this far, so there was no turning back. After about twenty minutes of bathroom runs and getting everyone dressed, it was time to get tubing and miraculously the snow had stopped. Everyone grabbed their tubes and we spent the next hour and a half being pulled up the hill with a rope, and having too much fun sliding right back down. The girls loved it so much, even Ivy who was passed between mom and dad's laps and certainly had her share of snow blown in her face, couldn't stop smiling. Stella was a crazy woman and couldn't get enough, and eventually Eliza got more comfortable with going on her own. It was a fun and tiring morning (even without having to climb the hill, this 19 week pregnant mama was exhausted!), and as drove away from the mountain Ryan and I both felt proud that we stuck with our plans. Thankfully they don't have to happen every single day, but when they do, those special moments are definitely worth the work.
7. Miss Ivy's personality is certainly starting to shine through. She is so silly and sweet, and has at least four adoring fans who stalk her every move. I think this little breakfast photo will always be one of my favorites.
8. Doesn't this just look like a picture perfect capture of a morning spent baking together in our pajamas? Well the real story includes lots of eggshells in the batter, a freshly bathed baby covered in cooking oil, and a mom who had to change her church clothes due to the evidence of a morning spent baking with three little helpers. The purpose of this early morning baking session was to prepare a treat for dinner with the missionaries later that night. After the eggshell fiasco Eliza said, "The missionaries will eat this and say 'Ew, yuck! This is gross. We are going home!'" Well in reality we ran out of time for dessert and sent them with a plate of cookie bars for the road. So I guess we will never know how they really felt about our treats.
9. The girls have really been into art and painting this month. I used to feel like even getting the watercolors out was such an ordeal, but after three and a half kids you tend to relax a little bit. Plus, more painting means less TV, so that means I'm a really good mom.
10. This dad and his daughters--I just love them! Stella had a daddy-daughter dance at school, but Ryan was getting off work late that night, so it wasn't going to work out to attend. Not surprisingly Miss S was a bit devastated, but our favorite Chick-fil-A was having it's own daddy-daughter night that same evening (what are the chances?), so the day was saved after all. I headed off to cub scouts, but came home to hear about what a fun night they had meeting the cows (the boy cow and a princess cow), eating chicken and treats, taking pictures with crowns on their heads, and even riding in a limo. Props to Chick-fil-a for throwing the party of every little girl's dreams, but even bigger props to an amazing dad who spent his night enjoying it all with his girls. He's doing pretty good at this dad of all girls thing.
11. 20 weeks!!! We are halfway there, baby.
12. A pre-church "groupie". When dad's at meetings and you are still ready for church 20 minutes early, I think a photo session to document the occasion is basically a requirement. Love these ladies of mine. We've definitely got a good thing going here.
No comments:
Post a Comment