January Gems!

January feels like a lifetime ago at this point!  Our family did our big trip to Florida starting on January 20th.  I will begin blogging about that in my next post.  I am going to just combine all of our January 1-19th photos into one post so I can move on to blogging about the trip. 

Our days leading up to the trip went by very quickly.  Things were beginning to open up at church we all spend long hours and long weekends there cleaning and prepping things, taking down Christmas decorations, making lists for the nursery and ordering items, and moving things out of our basement.  It was exciting and also exhausting.  After just one week of having classes in our house we were able to move classes over to church for the January 12th weekend.  The nurseries were opened several weeks later... but that is a different blog post. 

Starting the new year off right!

The picture below just caused me to exhale and I do believe lowered my blood pressure!  There is something about Christmas lights at night that soothes the soul.

Enjoying one last night of sitting by the Christmas tree. 

The realities of most afternoons at my kitchen... trying to make dinner and clean up before the kids get home. 

A sunrise and a finished addition. 

WOW! I still can't believe I live here and I get to see this view every day! 

The school had a special night at a local restaurant so Brandon took the kids and they ran into Charissa's family.  I am not sure how long it will be until we eat there again, so thankful that they got to have this meal there.

Silly guys!

T: Look at this tower I made while I waited for Miss Kirsten (her OT).

iGnite continued to flex as spaces were finished or not finished.  The kids met in one of the nurseries for music time.

Lots of girls and lots of actions! 

Every night the cats cuddle with the kids.  Buttercup is so loyal to M and Sunshine is loyal to T.  We are blessed indeed.

M: Bedtime is better with this guy!

In January we discovered how incredible Technic LEGO's can be.  M enjoys putting LEGO's together, but Technic are much trickier and take longer and the finished product feels more like a finished toy than something that you take apart and rebuild differently.  Since M generally likes to keep projects together, they work so well for him.

M: I have been working on tis set for a long time!

M: I finished and I love it!

She absolutely thought this was a cozy spot to nap!

My chairs and tables are in the new room.... it has gotten much prettier since then... but it was no longer my basement!

In January we had a huge potluck.  I think we had 54 people.  Charissa and the kids came and as usual, we stayed up way too late talking and catching up... but it was so good for the soul.  Not an awesome picture, but I miss my friend so I am posting it.  I think that T was trying to get into the pic.

Life is better with this girl in it!

A playdate with a neighbor and everyone getting along!  Win!

I am going to include a few pics of the renovated entry area at the end of this post.  They were actually taken when we were in FL, but they sort of show the spaces well so I thought I would include them.

As you walk in...

View as you leave sanctuary. 

View from the elevator area.