While usually a slow month for us, January still held some great memories.
Elisabeth's basketball season began in full swing in January. She really enjoys being on the court, and has improved a lot so far this season.
Even though Christmas was over, we continued puzzling and completed our first Magic Puzzle. So fun!
Elisabeth redeemed her shopping day coupon with me on a Sunday after church. We spent a great afternoon together. Elisabeth found some cute clothes too!
Of course we had to get a treat at our favorite coffee shop.
Elisabeth also decided for a big hair change and asked the hairdresser to give her bangs. I think they look so cute on her.
We received the most beautiful snow in January. We got more than six inches the most we'd received in any of the kids' lifetimes. It was just the perfect snow. The kids spent ALL DAY playing in it.
Neighborhood friends are perfect for snow days. We had so much fun playing with our friends on Friday afternoon.
And they even tried to start a fire!
Look at the huge snowman they built. We made such sweet memories with these friends on a snowy day.
The kids were back outside playing the next morning. They crammed in as much snow time as they could before it melted.
The managed to build a snow fort.
And Samuel built an extra snowman.
Samuel received some great awards at his Trail Life awards ceremony at the beginning of the year. He has enjoyed moving up in rank and getting to have more opportunities to learn and experience things this year as a Navigator.
Some of our sweet friends performed in Willy Wonka Jr., so of course we had to attend. So many other sweet friends attended too. What a fun night!
Katherine adores Hannah.
All our friends showed up to cheer on Hannah and Anderson.
At the end of January, I hosted a Mario Kart tournament for the Middle School boys in our homeschool group. The boys all brought a box of cereal to snack on for the evening, but I couldn't resist planning some themed snacks too.
These boys are such a great group of kids. They cheered each other on, displayed good sportsmanship and were very loud, ha!
Bella was the star of the night.
Such a fun night! So thankful for these friendships for my boys!
Some of Nathan's friends started a flag football team, and I couldn't imagine not letting him play with them as much as he loves flag football. It made our Saturdays CRAZY with sports, but it was worth it to see his excitement each week.
Around Christmas time, after watching Samuel swoon over any dog he met, I began thinking that maybe it was time to get a puppy. I braved the subject with Matt, ironically in the same conversation about replacing our carpet ;). I explained how the kids were much older and able to care for a dog, how we're home most of the day since we homeschool, and emphasized how much I wanted the kids (especially Samuel) to experience having a dog in their childhood. I was shocked when Matt agreed and gave me the go ahead to look for a puppy. He specified that it had to be a Westie. I immediately started searching before he could change his mind and quickly found a sweet breeder with puppies available.
We were all so excited! The kids and I spent a morning shopping for all the puppy essentials.
A couple of days later, we got to meet our sweet Bella. Katherine came up with her name, and everyone agreed. It fits her perfectly.
We brought her home, and all the neighbors flooded over to meet her.
Such a tiny little baby!
She slept so well the first night at home.
One of the stipulations of getting Bella was that we needed to rehome Honey. We were able to give her to a friend, and she's living her best life at their house. Samuel and Katherine were a little sad, but a cute puppy cheered them up quickly. I don't miss the smelly cage in our office either.
Bella has been the perfect addition to our family. We're all smitten with her. I'll like her even more once she's house trained.
Our Christmas celebrations continued after Christmas. The kids and I made a quick trip to Weatherford the day after Christmas to visit Granny and Grandaddy and Momoo.
They had even more presents to open from Momoo.
We visited, ate pizza and chocolate cake of course.
We also spent some quality time with Granny and Grandaddy, including several games of Fast Track.
Then we drove over to Edmond to celebrate a late Christmas with Matt's family.
The boys were so surprised to get a 3D printer.
They received some fun board games too. We can never have too many of those!
Elisabeth was surprised with a new guitar.
After church on Sunday, we took the kids to the OKC Science Museum since we had a free membership. We spent several hours playing and exploring.
You can always find Samuel building at any children's museum.
We can't wait to visit again! The kids had an awesome afternoon.
We drove back home on Monday to get ready for our NYE celebration with the Shondelmyers. They came over for Mexican food, games, and the New Year's Eve countdown.
We've been celebrating with these sweet friends for years, and we look forward to it every year.
We split up kids for sleepovers and gave them plenty of playtime the next day.
