the following is our january.
after our 2 week christmas break we started school back up.
i was dreading it!
however, i've discovered that the girls do so well adjusting back into our "sort-of" schedule.
i am so thankful for that! it so helped my bad attitude.
we visit our library often.
so often, that i take them a plate of christmas cookies every year and thank them excessively for all the help they give us in finding all sorts of books.
the cookies also serve as a peace offering.
i know their hands get tired of writing up all my over due slips.
yummy cookies will help that for sure!
i just love the fact that children that came from sam and i even enjoy reading.
neither of us really "enjoy" reading.
we are sailing through school these days.
the kids are motivated and get their stuff done quickly.
sometimes starting before i'm even out of bed.
history and science are favorites this year.
sometimes kye sits on my lap and listens but mostly he lays on the rug playing cars and blocks.
it's musical beds in our house right now.
lia and kye take turns being "scared" during the night and make their way to our bed.
and when sam and i come to bed at night we take guesses on our way up the stairs as to who will be in what bed.
this next photo was just too hilarious.
smokey sleeps with everyone.
he doesn't have a favorite "spot" so you just never know where he's going to be sleeping.
kye didn't even know he had been in his bed.
more of the musical beds.
i made kye put vasaline on his chapped lips before bed--looks like he has lip gloss on. ha
lia still has her paw-print on from the basketball game that night.
she loves her pink-baby. sleeps with her draped across her body every night.
mid-january kye, sam and i took a trip to des moines so sam could take his licensing exam.
he had been studying since last fall.
it was a huge deal!
i arranged for the girls to spend the night with friends and kye and i went along.
the weather was predicting a big snow storm so we took the truck.
the 3 days prior to that we had played outside at parks wearing only sweatshirts.
got up to 60 degrees one of the days.
crazy iowa weather!
anyway, we took the truck for the 4-wheel drive.
we were kinda concerned that kye was a little too close to the tv...
we couldn't figure out another way to rig it up.
at least he was happy!
and of course---he passed!
we came home to a couple inches of snow.
here's sofie, lia and our neighbor kyndra enjoying it.
and yes, that would be lia climbing to the top of that ladder with only kyndra and sofie holding it so she could put the top snow ball on their super-tall snowman.
here comes little brother to throw a few snowballs.
here's our little smokey.
who isn't so little anymore.
we are super excited to be going on our first family mission trip.
except kye isn't going with us.
we are leaving for haiti in exactly 1 month.
the kids and i are making salvation bracelets to pass out while we are there.
our goal is 200.
we have 35 made.
we'll get there though.
i saw these cute valentine's mailboxes on a blog i follow.
i just loved them.
and they looked so easy.
the mailboxes are from the dollar bins at target.
and the candlestick holders are from goodwill. i just spray-painted them.
sam and i will fill them with notes the week of valentines day.
and then we'll use them for our annual valentines party too.
we switched beds around last night.
took 2 1/2 hours! won't be doing that again anytime soon.
but, the kids are soo soo happy with how it turned out.
sofie needed to be closer to the ground so smokey could sleep with her.
so we moved her loft bed into lia and kye's room and got rid of the bunk bed that was slowly falling apart.
i took this picture last night before i went to bed.
they each have a pillow!
we have one spoiled but very loved cat!
