January in review

Well, I know this is pretty lame, but I am so behind that I am just going to post for the whole month of January.  It will be kind of another post in pictures except that we really didn't take that many pictures in January, haha.  I had David take a picture of our January calendar on the fridge so in case I decided to go through day by day I would have a review.  After I looked at it I decided it was a little daunting, plus we didn't do a whole lot!  I know we cleaned and put the Christmas tree away the first night we were home to get ready for men's prayer that night (it's on the sixth of January if you look at the calendar).  David also took the van to get the window fixed that day.  Another big event in January was Amanda Caldwell's shower on the eleventh.  It went well and she seemed pretty happy with it so that was a relief.  Shout out to Carly for making the invitations for that!  Other than that it was pretty ho-hum.  I had a doctor's appointment on the 21st during which I had my gestational diabetes check and I didn't have that so that was good.  

Mimi got Haley and Emy these matching outfits for Christmas, Haley likes to pick her nose while she matches with Emy.

There we go, much better.

On one night we went to Target to check out their after Christmas toy sales.  We got a couple things that were super on sale just to have for future Birthday parties and we also let Emy and Haley pick out a little something to open on Valentine's Day.  Emily wanted this little four wheeler but we told her it wasn't gonna happen.

There were a couple nicer days where we played outside but for the most part, January was pretty cold.  Haley had an obsession with braids for most of the month of January as evidenced in this picture.  Fortunately her hair is super thin and kind of on the greasy side so it is easy to braid.

Daddy set this up obviously.

Haley received this princess dress from the Caldwells girls for Christmas.  When she opened it she gasped and said, "this is the best dress forever!"  I'm pretty sure she meant to say 'ever.'  Apparently it is the best dress ever because suddenly all the dress-ups I got her for Christmas have been passed on to Emily and she wears this dress all the time: naps, bedtime, and even to the grocery store.

I bought a toddler bed for Emily off of the Longview online garage sale facebook site.  We had an oak colored one that I was going to paint or stain but then I decided to just buy one that I liked and sell the oak one.  It worked out because I sold the oak one for five dollars more than what I bought this one for.  We put it in the closet and are hoping to move Emily to the bed in March.  Emily seemed to want to sleep in it right away.

She can't wait to sleep in it.

David got goggles for Christmas and Emily enjoys wearing them.

 One of our favorite things lately has been to take wagon rides around the neighborhood before or after dinner.  The girls love their wagon and Haley often requests that we go now.  We went a couple times in January when it was warm.

Of course, Haley wore her princess dress

Emily loves to cuddle on wagon rides

This one's blurry but you get the idea.

Haleyism:

Haley's latest favorite phrase has been "I can't believe it" (usually said about things that are completely believable).  She also likes to randomly end sentences with the word 'so.'  For example, "I just woke up from my nap, so..."  

Emilyism:

Emily's newest words have been:  boo boo (sounds more like doo doo, I just figured out that she was saying this, haha), shoe, and juice.  Also, the little girls at church taught her to say 'sticker.'  Kind of random I thought...

Final segment: Our visit to PA and our trip home

So tonight I'm going to finally finish up blogging about our visit to PA, it's about time I guess!

THURSDAY January 2nd I was woken up by Carly because we needed to leave in about fifteen minutes to go to Linda Smith's house for our annual Christmas brunch.  I left David and the girls sleeping in bed and quickly put some clothes on and drove with Carly to her house.  Linda made a delicious brunch of quiche, blueberry french toast, and different sides.

All of us at brunch, minus Mimi

Now everyone with Mimi, minus Carly

After brunch we went to Grandma's where Grandma and Grandpa had been watching the Brusts and Clark and David had gone for lunch with Haley and Emy.  They were downstairs in the basement watching a movie together.  We stayed and hung out for a while and then headed home for naps.  While the girls napped, David and I ran out to the outlets to do some tax free shopping.  We finished and drove home just as the snow started to fall.  It continued to fall through the evening as we hung out and played games and there was quite a bit of snow when we woke up on Friday morning.

On Friday David decided to shadow Pops to see what a normal 8 - 5 job looked like.  Well, he soon learned that Pop's works starts well before eight.  I think Dave was up at 6 to shovel snow with Caleb around town.  After shoveling for several hours, they came back for breakfast and then headed out to finish shoveling.  When they were finished David came home and changed his clothes and then finished his shadowing at the office.  I spent the day with the girls at home.  They played with their cousins and took good naps.  I was going to bundle them up and send them outside but I decided to wait and let them go on Saturday because the temperatures were going to be much warmer.  Grandma and Grandpa came by in the afternoon and visited for a bit and in the evening we played games until late.  Aunt Rin and Uncle Daniel even stayed the night because it was so cold and the roads were still pretty bad!

Pops reading books to the grandkids

It looks like they want to read another one

We took a photo of all the cousins

From top to bottom and left to right: Kelsey, Haley, Calla. Second row is Clark and Jay and third row is Maya, Ellie, and a grouchy Emy

Emy never did shape up

David gave some horsey rides

Jay, Haley, Kelsey, and Calla

SATURDAY we were planning on heading out after lunch so we spent the morning playing in the snow.  The Brusts actually headed out mid morning so we said our goodbyes and then bundled up and headed outside.  David had brought snow stuff along so he was all prepared and Aunt Kimi brought a bunch of Ellie's snow stuff over to Mimi's house so the girls were nice and warm.  Mimi and Pop's back yard has a slight slope so David got out the sled and they went down a bunch of times, the girls loved it.    

Getting ready to go down

First just Daddy and Haley went down, you can see Emily in the background struggling to walk over

Ready to go down the hill

Walking back up

David sent the girls down by themselves a couples times

David ordered some pizza from Giovanni's for our lunch before we headed out.  We invited everyone who could come to eat with us.  Grandma and Grandpa came and Aunt Rin and Uncle Daniel stuck around a little longer to share it with us.  After lunch we packed up the van, said our sad goodbyes (especially to Aunt Rin and Uncle Daniel) and then headed out.

Uncle Daniel and Aunt Rin with the girls

Grandma and Emily

 

Ellie and Emy getting in some last minute playtime

This big stroller box was a hit

The girls fell asleep in the van while we were still on the PA turnpike so that was awesome.  I don't remember how long they slept but it was a pretty uneventful trip.  We stayed the night in Chattanooga Tennessee, we got there at maybe ten thirty.  On Sunday morning we slept in and then had breakfast at the hotel and then headed out for the rest of our trip.  From what I remember, the girls did pretty well on the ride home.  We ate at a KFC for lunch (first time we've done that I think) and they both took good naps.  The only incident was while we were driving through Monroe, Louisiana.  It is the hometown of the Duck Dynasty show.  Anyways, as we were driving, something hit Emily's side door mirror and the whole thing cracked into a million pieces.  The window stayed intact, it was just all cracked everywhere.  Emily didn't seem to notice anything even though it made a pretty loud sound.  Monroe is only about two and a half hours out so we decided to just keep driving and hope for the best.  That ended up working out because the window stayed up and it wasn't a problem.  We arrived in Longview at about 6:30 and decided to go to Jalapeno Tree for dinner because we didn't really have anything to eat at the house.  Also, the girls were really filthy and I just wanted to put them in the bathtub.  So we ate at Jalapeno Tree and then went home and put the girls in the bathtub and then put them right to bed.  It worked out because then we ate our Jalapeno Tree leftovers for lunch the next day.  I am going to try and do a month in review hopefully tomorrow so we can be all caught up!