Magnatile Castles!

T was very excited to have two of her good friends over for the day one Sunday in January.  M was not home so they could do whatever they wanted.  The friends parents both happen to be engineers and this is quite evident when it comes to building and constructing!  They are great with Magnatiles!  They had such a fun day and played in pretty much every room of our house. 

T: I love playing what R and A!

T: Do you like our HUGE tower?  It is taller than all of us!!!

Football injuries and practice... waiting for next year.

The NFL season didn't pan out quite like our family was hoping that it would.  In the end, we were not even too excited to watch the Superbowl. *Side note* We did watch the Superbowl with great friends and had a blast together.  

The games before the Superbowl were brutal.  Poor Brandon was so excited at one point that he threw his hand in the air and ended up with bloody knuckle!  

Football (watching) injuries happen

M: I was practicing after the big game ended! 

T Kondo Method

Oh my sweet T!  Our family doesn't get Netflix so we have never seen an episode of "Tidying Up," BUT I showed T a home video of a family with kids sorting their toys using the KonMari method.  T was hooked!  She and Brandon spent a long time going through her things and figuring out what doesn't bring her joy.  We used the phrase "bring her joy" vs "spark joy."  Since her first sort she has gone through her room many times.  While she continues to get rid of things, she is no longer organized in what she has and her shelves and room are back to the chaos of usual.  She has also tried to get rid of markers and colored pencils, cash, and things she just got for Christmas.  It is a tricky line.  We are so thankful for all of the junk she purged.  Let me assure you that we took as much as possible to a resale shop as quickly as possible so that she wouldn't back down on her ideas.

T: Do you love my fancy bed?

T: Everything is organized and beautiful! 

T: This side of the room is too!

T: Check out all the stuff that doesn't bring me joy! 

Sunday FunDay

The day after our first snow L came over to play for the afternoon while his mom (Charissa) and I walked.  The boys enjoyed some daring snow tricks outside. 

M: Ready? 

M: Here we go!!

A Snowy Saturday

Our first big snow of the season came on January 19th!  It is hard to believe that we managed so much snow in just a month!  We were on track for the least snowy winter on record.  I am sure we are not any longer.

I was SO EXCITED to wake up to the snow!  After months of brown I was eager to see a sea of white out my windows!

M: We made pancakes to celebrate!

The cats didn't know what to think of the snow!

T: I loved shoveling and playing. 

M: I loved sledding. 

M: After playing outside I worked on a new LEGO set from my grandparents. 

M: It was a really fun set to put together! 

Jacob and Esau

Our church is on year one of our first cycle through the Gospel Story Bible curriculum.  I love it so much!  I am teaching the 4K-5K class and both of my kids are in the 1-3rd grade class.  We are all learning so much each week.  Each class does a lot of acting and crafting and experimenting with many learning styles.

The children are retaining so much incredible biblical knowledge at such a young age.  At our church we do not do Sunday School in the summer so it will take us 5 years to get through one cycle of the curriculum.  The children will be doing it from 4K-8th grade so everyone will get to go through the whole process twice while they are in our classes!  The high school class does a four year survey of the Bible so if children start our classes as preschoolers they will have gone through the Bible three times during Sunday mornings!  We are incredibly blessed to be at a church which values Biblical literacy! 

M and T: We were animals! 

My favorite craft of the season were our Jacob/Esau arms.  We were learning about Jacob tricking Isaac out of Esau's blessing by putting hair on his arms.  The kids were able to make arms that were both the actual Esau arms and the trick Jacob arms.  They had a blast gluing and wearing the hairy arms!  So I don't forget, during our first week on Jacob and Esau we learned that Esau's name means "hairy."  The children repeatedly refer to Esau as "Harry" now when I ask the brother's names.  Oh how they make me smile!

Gluing!

Lots of hairy arms. 

Meanwhile my kids were next door acting out the same story.

T: I was Rebekah and my friend S was Isaac. 

M: I was Esau. 

T: My friend L was Jacob and I was telling him my plan for him! 

Content Cats!

As I mentioned in the last post, Sunshine is very relaxed.  Buttercup also loves to cuddle and rest with us.  It is amazing to me the depth of their trust and love for us.  We have worked years to develop trust with our children and are still working on issues. We are so thankful to have these two sweeties as part of our family. 

Apparently Buttercup and I both fell asleep. 

This is trust!

He is seriously relaxed!

T used to love this doll pack and play.  The cats have claimed it as a one of their favorite places to cuddle and sleep.  So thankful for a repurposed toy!

The still love being together. 

T: I can't believe it.  Buttercup was sitting on my lap like a person! 

They are a constant source of therapy and a reminder to slow down and cuddle! 

The Long Suffering Sunshine

T is not much of a football fan.  It is painful for her to endure the rest of her family watching a long game!  This January the Chiefs were doing well and we were watching many games.  She would get quite bored.  One weekend she played with Sunshine, but she was actually using Sunshine to prop up her princesses.  Sunshine was peacefully willing to let her play.  He is such a relaxed cat and endures so much with our children and with guests in our home.  We are so thankful for his relaxed spirit! 

T: Sunshine likes princess too!

He didn't mind at all.

T: I decided to get on the chair with him and he was fine with that. 

Bonus Christmas in the New Year!

Our Christmas celebrations didn't end with the turning of the calendar.  This year my parents and grandma came to our house of January 4th (last month... had to throw that in there because I am now only a month behind on the blog) to celebrate a late Christmas.  

It was actually a unique situation.  Last September at our big adoption ministry fundraiser my parents bid on and won a weekend stay at an area lake house.  My parents were planning to use it sometime this winter, but we didn't think my grandma would be joining them. In December my grandma's beloved cat companion Shadow died which left her incredibly sad, but also free to travel more easily.  

They came for their longest visit ever.  They arrived on Thursday afternoon and left on Monday morning.  They stayed at the lake house four nights!   It was a very fun visit!  

The arrived at our house late Thursday afternoon.  The kids were so excited to see them and shocked to see Great Grandma!  They love my grandma and they especially think she is amazing since she rescued the cats.  We ate dinner shortly after their arrival.  After dinner the kids really wanted to open Christmas presents. 

T: I love LEGO's!!!

That big box by my feet was my very own air fryer!  It is quite an amazing invention!  What the magic eraser is to wall marks, the air fryer is to potatoes!  I just can't believe that I can make fries that taste like a restaurant with no oil!  Amazing and yummy!

We think the cats remembered my grandma.  She sure loved on them! 

M: I am so excited to have a world record book. 

T: I got a cat magazine!

I just love seeing my children love to read. 

T is loving the new magazine and M is hard at work on the LEGO set. 

After opening presents my parents and grandma headed back to the lake.  The kids had school on Friday so we needed to get them to bed. 

Friday: 

My parents and grandma drove to an area town that manufactures some unique things to get a tour.   The tour wasn't as fun as they were hoping, but it gave them something interesting to do during the morning.  

My early morning walk sunrise pic... much prettier in real life!

They came to our house in the afternoon and chatted while we did some food prep.  The kids were excited to have time with them again after school.   They worked a lot on their LEGO sets and M finished his BIG set. After spending the evening at our house we decided that both kids would get to stay overnight at the lake house.  This was the first time that the kids stayed with my parents overnight and overall they did great.  They were in a brand new place with new noises and they all managed well. 

M: We got some joke books from the library.  

T: I have a big LEGO city! 

M: I finished my BIG set!

Grandma couldn't get enough cuddles!

T: I just love to jump on Great Grandma's lap! 

T was obsessed with making little nests for the cats under the table so they could be with us during meals.  It was quite distracting for her, but ironically, the cats loved it and did use their little fort.  T insisted on taking a pic on them sleeping.

T: They are the best cats ever!

Saturday: 

Brandon and I were home alone on Saturday morning.  I got in a walk and got ready for Sunday School and Brandon got some work done.  We headed out to the lake in the late morning and had a yummy taco lunch.  

It got quite warm that afternoon.  It was over fifty degrees!!!  This is before winter really came to our area.  My mom and I walked around a bit outside, but everything was pretty slushy.  The kids each took walks with my dad out onto the lake to check out the ice fishermen.  T was especially interested. Brandon worked on church stuff in one of the rooms and M took a nap for quite a bit of the afternoon.  

Throughout the day we played games and I also read "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."  The kids loved it and actually the grown ups all got a kick out of it too.  For dinner Brandon went and got some rotisserie chickens so we could have easy meal prep.  

After dinner we finished the book and then the kids watched some crocodile hunter on TV.  They decided that they wanted to stay another night, so we left them there and headed home.  Brandon prepped for Sunday and I deboned the chicken and got some bone broth cooking. 

T: We went and talked to some people we didn't know about fishing. 

T: It was hard to believe I was walking on a lake!  I didn't fall in!

T: I set up a restaurant at the lake house. 

T: Look at all my tasty food. 

T: Grandpa came and ate. 

Hours and hours of laughter and cuddles!

Ending the day with some crocodile hunter. 

Sunday:

It was very quiet here on Sunday morning so I was able to get the chicken soup made before church.  It was fun to have my parents and grandma at church.  After the service we stayed and chatted and Grandma told the cat rescue story to some of my friends.  It was fun to hear her tell it and for my friends to get into it too.  One of my friends later told me that my grandma and I are a lot alike.  What a compliment!  

Sunday was spent at our house and was pretty low key.  T was given a bunch of dress up clothes on Sunday morning so she was excited to try everything on.  My parents realized that they forgot the kids clothes at the lake so they drove back to the lake to get them.  While they were gone the kids and my grandma watched Polar Express.  They all really enjoyed it.  I went for a walk and my dad dropped my mom off part way through so she could walk a bit too.  

M: Grandpa still gives great rides. 

M:  Great Grandma's lap was really full!!

T: This is one of my new dresses!

T: Do you like this one? 

M: I got this new hat!

Sunshine wanted to try on clothes too!

Glued to the screen!

It looks like they are all enjoying the movie!

An evening of games and jokes!

Skip-bo Jr for the win!

M: I read them LOTS of jokes!

We got some great photos before it was time to leave.

So sweet!

My kids are not babies anymore. 

I sure do love this woman!  

We said good bye to my family on Sunday night.  They went back out to the lake and then headed home on Monday morning.  Such a great long weekend visit!