January Little Things

The little things - the moments within the moments bring so much joy to in this journey motherhood. A reminder when I'm driving the same routes over and over again, or scrambling to keep food in the house, that it all matters. It all works to create life, and through the labor of our 'daily bread,' we are handed ordinary moments to truly soak in the extraordinary gratitude available to us through God’s love as we walk this road of parenting.

Right after we came home from Utah, Alexis felt sick. And after a day of waiting it out, it was time to take her into the doc. The office visit went a bit like this. Me: "I think she has either strep or the flu, so I brought her in for testing." The doc: "Good guesses, but it's definitely not the flu. She might have strep, but we'll test her for both just to see." :20 minutes later. Doc enters the room. "I stand corrected. She has the strep AND the flu. Good call." The combo of the two wiped her out for a few days, and took a full week from school to recover. So grateful for medicine.

I started teaching yoga again!

Took down the last of Christmas. The cards are always the last to go. I love seeing these amazing people on our oantry door remembering how they’ve influenced our lives for the better.

We put Christmas lights in each of the kids rooms and this year some cute littles decided Mike and I needed some too. These made me smile every time I walked in - they never actually reached an outlet which made the whole display even cuter.

This one I love. The light through the fog. And a whole lotta life and love wrapped in this photo. It’s the day Max was ordained a teacher and the first day of Young Women’s for Alexis.

Warm day and the scorpions were out on the driveway! Haven’t found any in the house for awhile (and I’m thrilled about that!).

Nails.

Decades day at school. Man, these poodle skirts I made with my mom have gotten SO much use over the years!!!

The morning skies have been incredible!

We’ve spent oodles of time in the peak of b-ball season. Max is actually on three teams right now - feeder for the high school, his middle school team and church b-ball. They only all overlap for a couple weeks, and it’s been so fun to see him embrace it all.



Warm winter days mean lots of time outside exploring! These two had a game of delivering “gifts” one afternoon.

Alexis is playing church b-ball as well and has had fun practicing something new!

Keeping our day of service going with MLKJ Day!

This cutie broke her glasses (in truth they’ve lasted so well and completely wore out). She was LONG overdue for an eye appt and some new ones!


These two dreamed of life with glasses...




Creative art at home!

One of my favorite views! Two littles taking the cans in and it’s so fun to watch the cans go without seeing the girls pulling them!

A workout buddy

Love finding these pics on my phone.

She loves this game after school and I love soaking her in as much as I can!

Mike surprised meeting us at the library and Abby couldn’t wait to pull out her books to show him what she’d chosen.

At the library Tayler and Alexis both had artwork from school on display for the month of January! They were beaming at being selected and it was so fun to see their creativity at work!



100th day of school. She was so excited to dress like an old lady until...she wasn’t. And almost didn’t get to school. When she asked if she could bring a book to help calm down in the car (after tears for :10 minutes worried that no one else would be dressed up), I love that she chose this book.

Her creative art for the 100th day! Can you see the 100 colored marshmallows?!

Life. Love catching them.

Met these two for a lunch date! Been catching each kiddo for lunch once a month - can’t seem to walk in pics with the older ones as easily as these two!


And for the moments we loved that didn’t capture a photo:

*We love the ongoing dinner out /movie / ice cream on Saturday nights. 

*We’ve loved our weekly outings to see Vern!

*Mike and I had a couple of fun lunch dates 

*Family scripture time in the evening has grown into one of my most favorite parts of the day. It short, it’s small, it’s sometimes crazy, but little by little we can hear, see and feel seeds growing. It’s beautiful. 

Elf

The Elf movie is a well-watched movie in our home.  Alexis loves it so much (I think she's a bit of a Christmas girl since her bday is so close to Christmas), she starts asking to watch it as soon as fall creeps in.  This year, her requests started in September.

When we heard the broadway show was coming to town, we took the two older kiddos to see it.  This was their first time going to a fancy theater, and it was such a fun time.  Alexis planned her outfit out days in advance and was so excited to wear a dress.  She even knew her hair had to be in a bun.  On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, it was like pulling teeth to get Max to wear a nice shirt/sweater and jeans.  He was convinced his sweats would be perfectly comfortable.   

While the broadway production didn't have quite the same humor as the movie (who could compare to Will?!), it was cute - fun songs and definitely entertaining!  Such a fun thing to be able to take them to.

Christmas 2012

Seriously the best.  Every year, the season becomes a bit of whirlwind, and I have to consciously stop and enjoy the moment.  Enjoy the fun little stuff.  We loved reading Christmas stories this year.  Couldn't get enough of them.  Kids loved the Christmas Train.  My favorite is always The Three Trees.  Mental goal set for myself for next year to pull together more of those stories to read all month long.

Put a big focus at home on gratitude for the month.  And, while there are always kinks in the road, I have to say it resonated with the kiddos well.  Love it when you can see things click in those minds.  Love that we've created family traditions.  And love that we're going to keep building off of them.

Before we knew it, we were on to Christmas Eve.  Had a great dinner and a fun time at our friends home from church.  The kids acted out the nativity (well, Max was actually the only one from our family.  By that point, Tayler was crawling into their kitchen, and Alexis was ready to fall asleep on Mike's lap).  But, it was fun.  

And, while we weren't with our extended family for the holiday, skype was awesome.  Used it Christmas Eve and Christmas.  Putting faces to everyone, and visiting was so great, and the kids really enjoyed seeing everyone.  

Some things I managed to take pics of are below.  For some reason, I'm terrible at taking photos on the"big" holidays.  I get caught up in trying to enjoy it in the moment, and realize that we didn't take pics later!  

Leaving out treats for the big guy and his reindeer.  Checked out locations just prior to bedtime.

 Reading The Night Before Christmas.

 Hanging our stockings.  Yes, those are bags.  My mind has an image of homemade stockings that will be hung one day, but since I haven't wrapped time into that thought, and refuse to buy something just to have it, we use still use these bags.  And, at the end of the day, they still do the same thing.

And, if you look close, you'll see our ornaments start about a 1/3 up the tree.  That's thanks to #3.  :)

 Morning of.  It rocked.  Didn't take the pre-pick of the wrapped presents, but hey, the kids were so excited to open them.  Max was convinced he heard the reindeer the night before, and couldn't demonstrate the sound enough on our floors.

He couldn't wait to play with the green ninja.  Alexis was so excited to have a doll with hair.

Tayler loved all the packaging.

 The elves built this cardboard pirate ship and left it in the basement.

 Getting ready for some german pancakes for breakfast.

So grateful we can give and enjoy such a happy time, and develop such a happy memory.  The day was full of skyping, lots of generosity from our families, and lots and lots of smiling faces.  Finished off with some dominos, playing a new matching game, legos and a Christmas movie.

KC

We were able to turn one of Mike's work trips into a mini-vacation for the family in Kansas City.  Just before leaving, we made the annual gingerbread house...

Then headed off to K.C.  Mike had meetings that afternoon, and the area we were in wasn't the most kid friendly (but an awesome spot to shop solo!), so we hopped in the car and went to Hallmark headquarters.  I felt such a huge sense of accomplishment tackling this adventure alone.  It was one of those moments where I really had no idea how the afternoon would pan out doing it solo with three little people.  Tayler is such a wild card.  And I didn't really have a set plan of how long things would be or where we'd go.  We just rolled with it.  I'd love to insert some part about how I navigated through all these complicated freeways or something alone in a new city, or how I overcame some huge obstacle, but it was really pretty slick.  Only about 3 miles away, all city streets and I had a handy GPS in my car.  And while we'd never been there before, it was pretty easy to get around and figure out where to head next.  Even writing about this weeks later, I feel such a sense of accomplishment tackling this adventure alone.  Sometimes I think to myself that the 1:3 ratio is so chaotic, but just taking them out and stepping into life and adventure, I realize that yes, it can be crazy, but it is also dang fun.  Had I played it super safe, we never would have gotten in the car, and would have stayed close the hotel.  Sure, we would have been fine, but taking that step was so much better.

The kids had a great time in the (free!) art/creativity center a.k.a. scraps of paper that didn't work to sell sitting next to oodles of markers and tape.

 Max took over for a picture:

 They left with their goody bags full of their creations.  Then we explored around the area, ate and checked out lots of Christmas decorations.

 The next day, the kids loved checking out legos...

 Then we headed to our second stop.  A night at one of those indoor water park hotels.  Slides, pools, all the fun stuff indoors.  Surprised them with a dinner at a dinosaur restaurant (hey! the food was actually good!).

 They had to take turns getting eaten!

 The kid friendly hotel had a fun story time program complete with snow.  And, a trip to Santa's lap, where my wild card surprised me with this photo!

So grateful that we were able to do this as a family.  Seriously great memories.