End of January

The end of January the grind of the new year was officially beginning. Caroline was finishing off her physical therapy for her elbow and George was cruising through swimming lessons. Caroline's play rehearsal were ramping up and finishing up Girl Scout cookie sales.

 We attempted to go for a walk at KCT, but the kids started whinning

about 5 minutes after this picture : )

 So, we went home and the kids made snowmen in the

backyard instead!

George stayed out longer than Caroline.

She came in and the three of us played Monopoly Jr.

and when we looked out the window

George was rolling the biggest snowball ever!

He was a little tired :)

 Caroline's orange cast drawing at her surgeons

We thought this would be the last appointment, but he 

wants to see her one last time in two months 

to make sure she has full range of motion.

 A little pre-PT Friday morning treat

 She reads everywhere! This was waiting for PT to start. 

This was Harry Potter book 1 but now she is on to book 2

 The kids and Alan went to Target to use some Christmas 

gift card money and bought Nerf guns :P

Another Snow Day!

The Wednesday following MLK Jr. day we got another snow storm and another 6 inches. Can't complain too much about the accumulation since we lost a lot of it over the past weekend. BUT, it meant a snow day for the kids, after just having Monday off, and other snow days, and early release Wednesday and Xmas break. Yup, another day off ha!

Caroline's poodle skirt for her school's

Sock Hop arrived

Making Slime!

Jan ~ The First Half

First half of January was pretty good. We didn't have a whole lot planned and we kept it that way! Between holidays, snow days, and half days though it's been difficult to get into the swing of things again.

 New Year and these kids are gonna do a lot

more in the kitchen by themselves :)

Up first, banana bread with mom only helping

with the oven.

 George "helping" Daddy

 Why not start the year off with a blizzard?

 George did not like the blizzard food choice of chilli

but he was bribed with some brownies, he ate his and Caroline gobbled

hers once brownies were on the table :)

 George's fork tine puffer fish, the best in the class, 

no really :)

 Jenga time!

We've had either this disgusting nonsense or snow so far

Cookie time!

 Caroline was at Brownie's so George

had to help make meatloaf

(which turns out is his new favorite meal!?!)

Ya know, enjoying the paper and a bagel before

we start our Saturday 

 Pool time!

 Then off to the library to see Caroline's class

book that was featured :)

We have a beautiful gallery by Miss Caroline that was featured 

over the MLK Jr. holiday

 

Foster Pups!

We decided to get more involved this year. We do a bit of volunteering already, but we wanted to do something we could all do as a family. We've also questioned adding a new dog to our family and this was an easy way to tell if we were ready for a puppy. Hint, we're not :)

Enter Molly. She celebrated New Years eve with us. She came the night before and won everyone's hearts. Well, she melted George's heart but he was a bit timid but by the next day he was good. Lucy had a blast that first night, but I think she exhausted herself running around so it took a few days to truly warm up to Molly. Molly persevered though and won :) Molly was probably one of the calmest, fun pups we've had and honestly if she didn't have a family already waiting for her, it could have been difficult letting her go!

 Going to school was hard when a cute puppy was 

asleep on her lap!

 Saying,"Good bye" to Molly before school. 

Literally, an hour before she was picked up

I found them like this!

 

Then came Bentley, who was found with Molly and a possible liter mate. He was a sweet boy, much bigger than Molly. But, he just couldn't use his sniffer and had such trouble going outside, he got better thankfully. Lucy never took to him, I think she was puppy -ed out at that point. He went to a great family as well,  his new owner is a 12 year old boy who will run and play and give him all the snuggles he needs! He was a very playful guy who grew so much the week we had him!

 "Go away little boy..."

Only a few days difference and he grew!

 TGIF!

Saying, "Good bye" Bentley was a little easier since

he was a bit more difficult and a little wild for the kids

 

George Takes Swimming Lessons!

It's time for George to start having some fun of his own that doesn't involve school or physical therapy. Enter, swimming lessons! Since we have a pool and he's always done so well, we skipped the parent/child lessons and he went right into the lessons for kids by themselves. This was his first lesson and he did amazing. He went right in, paid attention to the instructors the whole time, and had a ball!

Happy New Year!

We are more than ready to say goodbye to 2017. It was a rough year in so many ways. Before we could though, we said hello to this sweet little puppy named Molly. She is a foster pup and she already has a home lined up and will leave us either Thursday or Friday. We've decided to start fostering a bit again. Saying yes to the things that bring us all some joy and no to the things that don't but we feel we ought to. 2018 wont involve big changes, but small ones that will hopefully yield some significant positive results. We enjoyed some yummy appetizers for dinner, watching the new Lego Ninjago movie and then quickly brought out our New Years stuff (oops) and counted down to the early Netflix version. Caroline can tell time though and she was slightly disappointed, yet had no trouble falling quickly to sleep. Then Alan and I called it a night shortly after that. Happy New Year!