the rest o' january

I mean, let's just jump in with the scariest thing that happened in January: that little snow bunny on the left randomly appeared on my doorstep one night.... horrifying, right? Of course, I knew immediately who the culprits were - it helped that they texted me the picture on the right the next day haha. So definitely think twice before canceling plans with Aleesha and Karlina - they WILL make you pay....

Another scary thing was my birthday! jk, I don't mind getting older. I did have to get a new license, which meant taking two kids to the DMV. Now that's actually terrifying. Blessedly the lines were pretty short and they did awesome. I was sad to say goodbye to my old picture... and I did change my weight after several years of it being blatantly false. It's still not accurate... but it's closer haha.

Few pictures from my actual birthday! Shannon's birthday is two days after mine... so we opted to celebrate with a kid-free trip to Target!! Definitely what birthday dreams are made of. Also included are Chuck gazing adoringly at me and pictures from an evening trip to the library. Glamorous way to turn 33!

I did love getting birthday texts and calls and messages - a couple of which required screenshots for posterity. First, Dan the Man admitting that we're friends haha:

and second, this ridiculous text from Emily that 100% made me cry REAL tears. Emily is amazing, so to have her think so highly of me is humbling. I should probably read this like once a week and try to live up to deserving it!

Speaking of Emily, we had SUCH a fun girls' brunch/baby shower for her and Kaitlyn earlier in the month. We opted for a rainbow theme, citing the lyric 'somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true' as our inspiration. As always, I'm in complete awe of Nycole, Kara, Paulina, and Melinda - they put incredible thought and care and creativity into making this happen and it was so perfect. And now I want alllll of that food.

The gang, just missing Nicole. Loved being together and celebrating Em and Kaitlyn. Also, am I really the shortest? What was the shoe/heel/boot situation here??

Random pictures of... three of my kids:

I was able to attend the funeral of a great-aunt with my dad. I loved hearing about her life and being able to watch my dad catch up with several of his Montgomery cousins - here's my dad with a few of them, including my aunt Diane and uncle Randy.

One day Clyde's friend was lamenting her shortage of ingredients to make cookies... so Clyde offered two eggs - delivery included. He and Carma set off on the mile walk and the eggs arrived safely! (I was heading to run an errand and offered them a ride - but they insisted on walking and having an adventure together).

I pick up Clyde from school before the other boys, and I love having a few minutes with just him to chat about his day.... these pictures are proof that he finds me hilarious ;).

And here's the January round-up of things I deemed screenshot-worthy!

Died at this one:

 Aaaaand this one. TRUTH.

 Okay, this was a video of the girl waving that wand quickly but I needed some preservation of it, so the picture works. Literally me.

 Chuck and I discuss this constantly re: our kids. Little pills!

 There's always time for a leisurely walk through heaven, aka Target.

Turns out there were at least 15 words on this anagrams game, but each of us could only find 10 haha. 

This. Jeans are occasionally necessary to wear in the outside world, but they should be exchanged for something softer and more comfortable immediately upon arriving at home. Like, store your sweatpants in the front closet and pull a Mister Rogers in your entry way.

 And since we started with something scary, we might as well end on that note too. Randomly came upon this in a twitter moments series and I laugh every time I re-read it. Kids are terrifying, yo! 

January: utah trip for baby Sammy's blessing

Once upon a time in January, this adorable chunk of baby boy was blessed and I just love his chubby cheeks and that fact that as the only boy he's already being recruited to hold an older sister's sweater.

Chuck, Clyde, and Carma all had other commitments - work, a church meeting, and a runny nose respectively - so Will and Jack and I drove down for the blessing with my dad. It was a lovely drive, minus two unfortunate encounters with Idaho and Utah law enforcement. I've skated by with warnings quite a few times on that stretch of freeway, so I definitely had it coming! 

{Sidenote: ever since a friend of mine shared some experiences of how God can consecrate any difficulty or situation for good, I've looked for that in my life. Getting two tickets... in two states... within an hour of each other... represents a pretty serious lack of good judgment on my part. It's absolutely no one else's fault - both troopers were holding me accountable for my poor choices. Without minimizing my culpability/regret, I will say that good things have definitely come from this, um, expensive experience. A) When I left town, Chuck was grumpy with me but when I called him to confess he was his incredibly sweet self and made me feel so much better because he's The Best. B) I now have a good 'something you don't know about me' story for awkward icebreaker games. C) It has had a very sobering effect on my driving. I sometimes need a few reminders before I really learn a lesson and my overconfidence in my driving ability and comfort with the road to and from Utah had definitely led to me thinking I was untouchable on that drive. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father was patient with me and after I ignored warnings, He opted for speeding tickets instead of something more devastating like an accident. I've made that drive half a dozen more times in the past year and I think I've topped out at maybe 83. Last but not least: D) it led to someone reaching out to me in an incredibly compassionate, generous, and unexpected way that meant SO MUCH to me that weekend and I have more confidence in that relationship now than before. Moral of the story: I should have held to my end of the bargain that Chuck and I made on our first date circa May 2003 that I would quit speeding, but I'm also grateful for growth and tender mercies that accompany challenges - even when the challenges are completely of our own making!!} 

Luckily we arrived safe and sound and the cousin bonding started immediately! We divided and conquered at Thanksgiving Point: Grandpa and Quinn's family headed to the Natural History part and my kiddos and Sam's family and Grandma Pam opted for Natural Curiosity, where once again Miko proved to be The Best at convincing Aunt Jana to climb up and slide down things that make me feel claustrophobic haha:

We ended up back at Quinner's house for the night where we ate dinner and played with as many toys as possible before bedtime!

Bright and early the next morning we all headed for Sam's church building, all determined not to seal our extended family's reputation and be the last to arrive ;). The blessing was so, so nice and I loved being able to be there for it. Baby Sammy was pretty happy that cousin Jett was in attendance:

I always love catching up with Terri's family - I mean, technically they're my family too, seeing as how her dad is my 16th cousin twice removed. Super surprised we haven't bumped into each other at a family reunion or something ;). And Terri's cute newest sister-in-law Brooke and I are 9th cousins once removed! Obviously we've decided to skip addressing each other by our real names and jump right to the more endearing 'cuz'.

Speaking of cuz...ins... I kept piling them onto a couch for a picture - we had one kid from each family... then Will hopped in... so then we plopped on Jett... 

and then sneaked Remi and her snacks in for a better across the board representation from the whole family: Sam's first and fourth, Quinn's second and third, and my second and third.  

Baby Sammy is a pretty loved little boy - by this group and all the extended family that couldn't make it!

After church (where someone definitely thought Quinn and I were married, ewwww), we regrouped back at Quinn's for the afternoon. I coordinated a game of 'school' for the kids - they partnered up to prepare lesson plans in various subjects and it was basically adorable:

Grandma Pam was able to stick around for the beginning of school - Jack played an inspiring trumpet solo and Will led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance haha.

Hazel and Isaac were darling as they instructed their students in the ways of upper case AND lower case alphabet letters:

Bailey and Jack were the intrepid math instructors.

Meanwhile, there must have been a soccer game on upstairs because Quinn looks pretty zoned in to the TV ;). 

Pretty fun to watch my dad with his newest little grandson!

Sammy even busted out a darling smile for us! I think it was Aunt Eden who coaxed it out of him :).

 This Sammy opted to make a more terrifying face for the camera hahaha.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening enjoying our time with my brothers and their families. 

 Ahhhhh cute cousin pictures are always so bittersweet because I wish that we lived closer to both sides of our families... alas, I survived nine months living in Utah once but don't think I could do it again, so frequent road trips it is! Sam and Terri have pretty much the most beautiful family ever and I loved that Jack and Will and I could be there for baby Sammy's special day. 

January outings

As January is rapidly approaching once again, it's fitting to remind myself that one of the only ways to get through that dreadful month is to LEAVE THE HOUSE. It's so tempting to stay inside alllll month... and generally there's a menagerie of illnesses that force you to be homebound for a good bit of it... but otherwise it's key to embark on some outings away from home. I'm trying to gear myself up for this.

Jackers did basketball and it was obviously adorable. He was so cute and intent and hilarious and took it very seriously. His approach was somewhat 'hot potato'-ish; he loved when the ball was passed his way and loved even more passing it as soon as possible to another teammate:

As is the life of a younger sibling, Carma found herself dragged along to every practice and game. Lucky!

We hit up the Discovery Center a couple times. This afternoon we rolled in about twenty minutes before it closed (we were really just there to get a duplicate membership card because I "lose" "things") but the kids had to run through and try a bunch of their old favorite exhibits and some of the new 'Mythbusters' ones:

Clyde has a bit of practicing to do before he attempts the tablecloth/dishes move with anything breakable ;).

Jack wasn't with us the first time, so we obv had to return with all four wee ones another day:

Carma LOVED the running/walking through rain exhibit. Super cute.

We really love the Discovery Center and are so grateful to my dad for having a grandparent membership that allows these kiddos to go so often! 

Picture spot #1 didn't work out so well - Will was staring right into the sun. 

We opted for this spot instead. My children are marginally more cooperative for pictures when they have to climb for the pose:

These four can argue and whine and tattle on each other like nobody's business, but they are also really really good buddies and I love it. It takes a miraculous turn of events for all four of them to get along... usually a batch of new PokeMan cards.... but I love it when it happens.

Chuck and Will stopped by the library one afternoon and happened upon this excitement. Will is our least violent child but LOVED being part of the combat:

Park Ridge hosted a super cute math night that we were able to sneak over to for a few minutes before running off to scouts. Jack took his nachos VERY seriously.

Aaaaand for the record, every outing with Carma Junie is an adventure. It's at the point where I just have to say "Let's go run errands!" and she excitedly rattles off our list of destinations: Target, Costco, Savers, 'D.Y.' hahahaha. Such an enabling little shopping buddy!