January Ho Hum

My apologies for the lack of excitement this January. We have had sort of a "ho hum" month, still keeping plenty busy with school and extracurriculars, but doesn't seem like much to warrant its own post! So here is just a mix of the pictures from the rest of the month!

Lots of Lego Time and Coloring Time (The kids are talking me into way more pajama days lately! Something about being snug and cozy and not going out I think...)

Winter = Lots of Games!

Block Creations

1st Grade Class After School Hot Chocolate Social

Makin and I are helping make copies at school Tuesday mornings between drop off and soccer. He is going to be a pro at the copier at age 5. :)

We finally got a Frisco Library card and are now reading "The Long Winter" which makes me cold just reading it and so thankful for my heater, among many things! I love having Lorelei so excited to hear what happens next.

Visitors

Jerry and Joyce enjoyed some games after supper, including Jenga.

We enjoyed catching up with a friend we hadn't seen in 11+ years, Mitch and his family.

Warm Up

We were thrilled to get the trampoline up on the last day of January. The kids enjoyed an ice cream treat and jumping in the sunshine. They love playing catch from the trampoline too. (Can barely see the ball in the pic with Brad.)

Personal Time
An unexpected January surprise for me has been more personal time than I have had since college! I have been able to have girls nights/coffee/lunch dates and even took a photography class one Sunday. It is taking some getting used to but I'm loving it!



I have been enjoying our rhythm this month as I attempt to get a better life balance. I guess that is a good way to sum up my fresh goals with the new year. The homeschool/mom routine is going more smoothly and I feel like we are all liking the tweaked schedule. :)

Gymnastics and Soccer

It seems the activities season is upon us! (Yes...In January?!) As a friend put it, "It's Texas, any sport, all year round." We let the kids choose what activity they wanted to try next and so far their choices seem to be a good fit for each!

Lorelei started gymnastics and is loving it. After the first class she was busy practicing her cartwheels all week and I can't wait to see her continue to improve. She is more excited about this than any other sport she has tried, which is really fun to see. I also love that it pushes her a bit (she is not naturally a person who wants to push herself) and she sees that she can achieve goals even with things that scare her, like heights with the balance beam.

We decided to go with a home school group class, so she goes early Friday afternoons. This means Mom and Makin have to kill time during her class. Thankfully the library is close-by! I'm grateful for the one-on-one time with him, because our T/Th morning routine doesn't leave much of that right now.


Makin chose soccer to try out next. I was thrilled that there is a local Soccer Shots program to get him started. I opted for a morning class this time around, keeping our evenings and weekends free for family time. His reaction to the first class? "Loved it." I'm thrilled with the coach and so thankful for this program, which focuses on teaching them a new skill for the first part of class, and then has a small scrimmage at the end of class. It's exactly the type of program I feel is appropriate for this age!

It is so fun for me to watch him when it comes to sports. I'm amazed when I see his natural abilities because I know nothing about this! Coming from this non-athletic, non-competitive mom, this is definitely new territory. I'm so thankful that he athletic and I cannot wait to see where it takes him!

Kicking Off Winter and January Dates

Winter Party

We had a fun time celebrating the season of winter with the Hughes family.

Marshmallow snowmen creations made for a sweet treat.

Mary made the cups extra fancy with their "winter punch" (blue Gatorade) and even gave me a chance to try the recipe for bulletproof coffee I had been wanting to test out.

They made beautiful winter artwork.

After some playtime we finished up with a game of Jack Frost Not Lost, which was as big a hit with the Hughes as it is my kiddos!

Here's to a mild winter that will soon melt into spring! ;)

January Dates

Father/Daughter to the donut shop and Lowes - she loves her dad all to herself!!! :) This time she put a lot of extra effort into dressing up to go out, which was so sweet to see.

Father/Son date to the donut shop and Home Depot! (yes we are attempting a project...long story)

It seemed like the donut shop was the go-to date of choice for the kiddos this month...going to enjoy the short, inexpensive time while we can because I'm sure when it warms up there will be more golf involved. ;)

Lost Tooth

Makin had his big moment of loosing his first tooth! (Again, I'm not going to count surgery removal as his first...just not as exciting. ;) ) And yes, my kids loose their teeth early at age 5!!! :)

It was wiggly for weeks and Brad even tried pulling it out one night to no avail. As we were waiting for Lorelei's gymnastics trial class to start, Makin started to eat a banana when sure enough, he handed the banana back to me and pointed to his mouth mumbling without opening it! Thankfully the ladies there were quick to get me an envelope and he kept a kleenex his mouth for quite a while. (Despite all his medical history, he does NOT handle the sight of blood well!)

(We had a picture of him holding the apple with mouths open when L lost her first tooth, so had to have a similar picture for his. :) )

He was so excited for his tooth fairy visit. And he looks WAY too old with a hole in his mouth.

Break From School

I always love having time off of school. It seems like it shouldn't be much different from every week, since we home school part time, but not having to do lessons those days makes a huge difference in our schedule! We had no plans for our week after we returned from our trip. Most of these activities were decided on the day we went, something I'm definitely not used to!


We enjoyed some park time.

The Hughes kids joined us this trip. They spent most of the time in the sand.
(This was pre-Christmas, the weather was amazingly warm!)

We met Lydia (classmate) and John David one day and
 the four spent most of the time exploring around the pond.

We met Peyton (classmate of L) and Grayson at Urban Air and the kids had fun jumping. Makin's favorite was the dodge ball games and he loved that he was really good at it. Lorelei loved jumping into the foam blocks. Part of our deal/coupon was a dip n dots treat after they were done.

One fun activity was at Kroger. After some grocery shopping, we had to go ask what they were setting up out front and then came back at 11 to participate. They had a bunch of games for the kids to play and then they got a goodie bag for participating. We were the first ones and only ones there for about 20 minutes so she let the kids go again and again. I was very surprised that Lorelei kept up with her brother with tackling!

We enjoyed an evening at the Armstrong's house and played some games.

We loved having more time for chalk and kinetic sand.

Makin's drawing is a race track with cars for everyone.
He has been a bit more interested in drawing and coloring lately which is fun to see.

We are loving our mild winter weather. One day we enjoyed some outdoor games. We are getting a bit creative for the backyard these days. The trampoline hasn't made it up, and the kids are missing their sandbox!

Miss Lorelei has been waiting o-so-patiently for her Warm Fuzzy Jar reward. She filled it up...about 6 months ago, which landed too close to moving to make it doable right away, and then we have just had one thing after another going on since then! Ever since we looked at the school calendar in August we knew we would get a girl's afternoon in January because Makin started school a day before Lorelei. This was the perfect chance to get her chosen reward - a pedicure! (No this was not her original thought months ago or I think we could have made it happen sooner!) Ever since she got one last February she has wanted to have another so it seemed like the perfect reward. This girl loves her a pedicure!

New Cozy Jammie Cuddles. 

Love those laid-back nights between Christmas and New Years!

Goodbye To 2015

We kept up with our Memory Jar tradition again this year, which I'm so thankful for. I was a little unsure how it would go reading the memories this year with so many being Nebraska memories. It was still very nice to reflect on all the fun we had, although it definitely reminded us of what we miss! I also looked back at last year's video and it was so hard to compare years. What a difference one year makes. It has been a year of big changes and travel around here!





Well, we put a video for this year together and I wasn't joking about always using the same song! :) Not sure when I'll make time to find another one, so I'm telling myself its okay to repeat. :) Enjoy!



Looking forward to lots of new amazing memories in 2016!