2018--Our Most Blessed Year!

 We welcomed 2018 with a trip to Loveland Aquarium on New Year's Day.

 Bunny love!

We found a home for Katie's 100+ stuffed animals; now we can see her bedroom floor again.

Last night was a beautiful snowstorm after a long string of warm sunny days that have felt like spring. It has been the best January I can remember--usually a cold, bleak month that gets me feeling down. I have been soaking it in! 

Last night, Ian had a houseful of friends over, Sophie had a friend over, and Katie and Isaac had a cousin over. I wandered through my full house and basked in the happy vibes. It was a wonderful feeling to see all of my kids enjoying themselves. It was nice to have them all at home, know where they were, who they were with and what they were doing. They are growing up! In the next twelve months, I will no doubt have two with driver's licenses and then they will be excited to go out and have fun with their friends at places other than home. In many ways, I wish I could freeze time right now. Which is funny, because right now is also such a struggle in many ways. The oppositional nature of life!

I mostly wanted to write down my feelings about last night, but I guess I'll re-cap the past month as well. 

What a lovely December we had with Katie so excited to find her pal the Elf of the Shelf every day. It was the perfect holiday season with just the right amount of busy, but not too much. Right after Christmas wrapped up, we did get a little crazy by scheduling a family photo shoot and getting Sophie and Ian's wisdom teeth out. 

The photo shoot was way more stressful leading up to it than the actual shoot. Our family photo shoots are traditionally sooooo stressful that someone always cries (sometimes me--which is not great for my smile or my make-up) right in the middle. Even though I wanted a photo where my 8-year-old is older than one-year-old to hang on the wall, I was dreading the actual shoot. Then, Brian, smartly asked a co-worker who is a photographer to take our family photo. It was magic! Instead of Brian trying to TAKE the photo and BE IN the photo simultaneously and being frustrated, we could all be in the photo and smile at the camera and it was super helpful too that she could see us and say, "put your chin up" or "tilt your head that way" or whatever other instructions we needed (rather than shooting a bunch of photos, then looking at the shots to see what we are all doing wrong and trying to adjust and shooting a bunch more photos ...) Total game changer!

The day after family photos, Sophie and Ian got their wisdom teeth out. They were so cute cuddled up on the sectional with their chipmunk cheeks and ice-packs and they recovered really well. Much easier than getting tonsils and adenoids out (the surgeries they had earlier in 2017). 

We had a really nice holiday season and a fun Christmas Day followed by the most mild January weather in recent history. Some gift highlights were a full-length mirror for me (now I am dreaming about how to remodel the entry way so we can hang it); a marathon medal lamp for Brian; light up Heelys for Sophie; weights, soccer pants and soccer ball for Ian; a pogo stick for Isaac (he has bounced on it SO much; I mean like a possible record breaking number of bounces; and, so much that he actually broke it after 3-weeks; I'm pretty sure he wore it out; Amazon is shipping us a new one); Katie got a stuffed owl and a nutcracker from Santa as well as an ipod. This goes against our normal rule of being at least 11 before you get your own electronic. But, it's been a rough year for her being the only one in the house without a device (and rough on me since she always wants to use my phone-haha!). Plus, we had an extra iPod after we bought Ian his first phone a few months ago. So, I guess it's one of the perks of being the youngest. She will no doubt get her first phone before she is 15 for the same reason!

In other news, Brian's Real Estate venture is really taking off. So grateful for that. And, I am staying busy with my two freelance jobs. It has been a real gift to have the past three months off from travel. My next trip is the end of this month (to St. Louis). I have another to Peoria, IL in April, and another to San Diego in May. And, I haven't even gotten my travel schedule for my PEGUS job yet. So, it's going to be another busy year of travel I'm sure. In some ways, it is hard, but in other ways it is great. That whole opposition in all things again--haha.