January Updates

Earlier in the month we had Adam and Jared's birthday party. (Jared's birthday isn't until February, but Leah didn't want to share her party with him). As always, we just had family over, but it's a large crowd so we had a good time and lots of food. We opted for fewer and larger gifts this year because with moving, I didn't want 25 more little toys to find homes for just to pack away in storage soon. Plus we had just recovered from Christmas. Collectively, the boys received an Imaginext Space Rover, 3 new trucks/tractors, a mini roller coaster, a couple outfits, a few smaller items, and a farm wagon (from me and Jake; it hauls 1,000 pounds and was more for the family than just for him; but he's 2 so he doesn't care). Adam also got Carhart coveralls, real work gloves, and a toy Husqvarna chain saw; just like Jake's. He's ready to work out on the land now!

 

 

  

Our 9th anniversary was in December, but because of the craziness of the holidays and life in general, we opted to wait until January to go out. We went to the Governor's Inaugural Ball. It was fun to get all dressed up; we joked that it was like prom all over again.  

 I haven't done much in the way of getting our family on a schedule yet, but have a rough draft typed up that I'm still editing. I have been trying to get up before the kids; the mornings I can do that are much smoother. Then days, like today, when they're all up at 6:15 make for a little crazier morning because I don't get any time by myself to prepare for the day. But I feel like I'm doing better at being more patient with them, and I can see their attitudes and behavior reflecting my choices.

We think there is a family waiting to make an offer on our house once their house sells, but we haven't heard from them in almost 2 weeks, so I'm not getting my hopes up. We've moved some things to storage, and continue to box things up here and there. We're trying to remember it's still January and not get too impatient about selling. I just really hope we sell within the next few months so we can build this year. The kids are all so anxious to get out to "the land." I suppose we should decide on a floorplan, too.  We have it narrowed down to these two:

Storybook House with 4 car garage or Storybook House.

Both of them would require some alterations, but we like them both; just need to wait to see what our house sells for and decide how much we want to spend. I feel much more indecisive this time around knowing it is our "forever" house.  

We have plans made for Spring Break and we are all looking forward to fun with family. We've enjoyed the warmer weather. Adam even took his PowerWheels for a 40 minute drive the other day. But the kids have yet to play in the snow or go sledding, but there's still no snow in the forecast so they'll have to keep waiting.

As of next Monday, Isaac will be done with speech therapy; he's been receiving those services since he was 2 1/2 so it is a great blessing that he's made so much progress and is now caught up with his peers. 

And Mr. Caleb is still growing and smiling and as cute as ever! Though days like today make me wonder how he stays so happy with all he has to put up with from his closet-in-age brother. Just this morning, Jared sprayed Caleb in the head multiple times with a spray bottle of water, tried to share Isaac's leftover orange juice from breakfast (resulting in orange juice all over his clothes and carseat since we had just returned home from taking the kids the school), and replacing his toy with one of Adam's wooden puzzle pieces. And it's only 11am....