January!

After our insanely busy December, we enjoyed a little slower January. Here were a few of the highlights:

James loved putting together his new Christmas Dino from Mimi and Papa!

Mike became a world class smoothie maker with his new Christmas gift from his parents. It has received a lot of love and attention. 

The weekend after we returned home from San Diego, Parker had a tournament in Mesquite. Mike ended up with too much work, so my mom saved the day by coming along with us. Parker played like a champ and we loved having some one on one time with him!

Some of Mike's good friends from freshman year were in town, the Mulliners, so we had an impromptu throng reunion. It was a BLAST! It is so much fun to see the husbands and wives all mingling together and our kids all getting along. 9 square was an especially fun way to break the ice!

Piercey makes good buddies everywhere he goes!

The throng

The throng + wives

Second generation

At the end of January I got sicker than I had been in at least a year. I tried to tough it out, but I ended up in bed all day long and for part of the next day with aches, fever, chills, and a stomach bug. It was miserable. Mike was so good to me and worked from home that day so that I could get some much needed rest. That afternoon I sent him a text with everywhere the kids needed to be. You don't realize how much you do until you have to write it out for someone else! When I woke up on the third day and made the boys their breakfast and lunch, they all did a happy dance and were so excited to see me up again! 

These boys really took to skiing this year. We tried to make it up as many times as we could, even little Piercey did great!

For Martin Luther King Day we headed to the Car Show. These boys LOVE their "sweet cars." They are just so cute!

Preview of three years from now. Such a good lookin boy.

They even had a zipline at the car show!

James found the coolest banana...a two in one and had to take a picture of it!

James did such a great job studying for the spelling bee! He advanced to the school spelling bee and out of 41 students from grade 3-6 he ended up in 8th place. He was awesome...love that kid!

One cold day, Pierce and I stayed home for hours in our jammies reading, playing games and playing puzzles for hours and hours. With the other boys I had a chance to do that all of the time, but with him life just gets so busy. We both loved our lazy, lazy day!

The Pinewood Derby was at the end of January and the boys did a great job. I love that Mike lets them take charge of their own cars...they usually end up in the middle of the pack and have a lot of fun!

Thanks grandma for cheering us on!

I love this picture of these three!

Parkie worked super hard on his Science Fair project and ended up with an honorable mention in the school science fair. I love the way we works so hard at everything he does!

Mike is the biggest pillow hog. One night I went to bed after him and he literally had every pillow in our entire room surrounding him. 

After teaching Zumba for 5 years, I taught my last class at the end of January. I felt surprisingly emotional as I reflected on all that Zumba had taught and given to me. It had come to me as a gift during a time of life when I would need it most. It was a physical out and allowed me to continue dancing and exercising when my world had been turned upside down. It gave me the opportunity to make friends and connections with women I will be forever grateful for, and helped support our little family while Mike was in school. I am so grateful that Marci introduced it to me at just the right time and that I had the courage to pursue it when I felt nervous and inexperienced. It was a tender mercy in my life I will be forever grateful for. While it was sad to be done, it was also time for a change and I embraced that too...feeling thankful for the journey it took me on. 

This cute almost teenager spends a lot of time in our room at night sharing his texts with me and talking about girl problems. So glad he is open with me and feels comfortable sharing his thoughts and feelings during this crazy time of life...sometimes I wish he could do it an hour earlier, but I'll take it!

I have been lucky enough to go on lots of field trips with James. This one was especially cool...a trip to the Natural History museum and then to see Timber a super cool lumber jack/cic de soliel!The kids all loved it!

It has been fun to help with the PTSA student board. Lots of work and more than I really wanted to do, but a great opportunity to associate with the kids!