playing games can cure any bad day

Winter time is the time for our family to stay home and play games. Usually I'm cleaning up or making dinner and Justin, being the fun dad that he is, sits down with the kids to play a game or two. Their number one favorite is memory match. (we have approximately 1.2 million versions of this game) And every time they sit down to play I can't help but take pictures. It's my favorite thing to watch! 

Justin is quite aware of when our kids are in need of attention. The other day, one of our boys was having one of those really rough days and by the evening time he was just done. Justin gathered all the boys around and they played several rounds of hide n go seek followed by lots of murder in the dark. Those kids thought it was the best evening ever and all those worries just dissolved away. Playing games as a family has a way of doing that for us. 

 :: I just really like this picture of Corbin playing with Adeline ::

I'm not sure why, but we rarely play at the table. :)

chocolate day

A couple of weeks ago we had our chocolate milk + chocolate cake day that comes around once a year. It sure gives us something to look forward to in the long month of January.

And I'm pretty sure miss Adeline loved her first taste of chocolate day!

the last two weeks

The last two weeks can probably be summed up by sickness, puzzles, extremely limited motivation, tons of snow which means lots of time laying around inside watching Netflix, and some smiles scattered throughout those days.

:: she found a clementine and used her teeth to tear away the peel :: 

 :: whenever any of the boys are sad, Adeline walks over and lays right next to them, it's has been the most comforting thing for those brothers...cutest thing ever! ::

 :: We turned on the news to see a press conference going on. I asked Rudger if he knew who that man was. He said Donald Trump. I asked how he knew that. His response, "Because he has that hair"  I died laughing.

 :: During those rough days, one evening the sun came out right before it set, and it just made my week! ::

:: 'not feeling well' naps ::

 :: just trying to get socks on ::

 :: her bottle time right next to the spot on the couch where she colored all over with my lip liner. I'm exhausted. ::

:: morning cuddles and an awesome kid who takes over dinner responsibilities ::

 :: we finally made it out of the house and even better made it to one of our favorite donut shops in the big city ::

 Although I am happy those last two weeks are behind us, the very best thing that happened during that time...my sister moved to town and lives 3 minutes away!! This is just the best ever! Our kids go to the same school and get to eat lunch together and play at recess and all of this just makes me so so happy!

And now it's a new week, and I think I've got the motivation coming back so it's time to tackle some things. Like laundry, house cleaning, and projects that have been pushed aside...like all the Christmas decorations that are still in the storage room not put away properly. :)

first official january weekend

The first weekend after our long winter break couldn't get here fast enough.

The kids had a blast on Friday friend day. It made me happy to see Levi and a couple of his friends playing board games and dragon games all afternoon. Also, we finally watched Finding Dory and it was so adorable! After the movie ended I stayed up researching ways to improve my photography. I found an awesome website that has given me some great tips. Excited to renew my love of taking pictures!

Saturday we went to our sweetest little neighbors baptism where Adeline and I accidentally matched :) I spent hours running errands while Justin took care of things at home with the kids ♥♥ and even let friends come and play all afternoon (pretty rare on a Saturday) But boy was it good to be together Saturday evening! We even took the four wheeler around the neighborhood and went sledding.

Almost every second Sunday for the past two years we have been doing a treat night with two of our family friends. It's become one of our favorite traditions! This time we had Mandi and Jon join us which we loved so much!! We had to have a party to welcome them to our town!! Can't tell you how excited we are about that!!!! (I'll let the explanation marks do the talking)

:: this kid would hardly touch his dinner, but the treats, no problem ::

Now it's back to reality, again. I feel like this is the first official week of the year and so all those new year's resolutions can begin.....now :) I have a good feeling about this year, but probably because I chose one thing to focus on. And hopefully what I chose will spill into every aspect of my life. So here's to 2017!