January 2016

2016 is here - Happy New Year!  After the Christmas break from our normal schedules, January is sometimes a rude awakening with all activities resuming.  This year was not much different, plus had the addition of starting to transition my job role and closing on our next house to renovate.  We celebrated birthdays with Pennells and had lunch with Jeff's parents, then it was officially the end of the holidays and the beginning of eating better - going well so far!  The house we purchased is in Memphis, NE and Jeff started demo towards the end of the month.  It's fun to start again, thinking of the best ways to make the most of this house that has been vacant for 5 years.  Jeff is planning for a 6-8 month time frame to finish this home, putting it back on the market in the early fall.  

We found a great candidate to take over my role for NARI, she accepted their employment offer and started training on the 20th!  I will transition out of the role so that she doesn't feel abandoned, trained a lot this month, then meeting once a week for a bit to go over any questions that come up and assisting with some upcoming events.  This training required having help to watch the kids each day for a week and a half - thanks to my parents, Jeff's Mom and Jeff for taking on extra days to make that happen!  So, the light is at the end of the tunnel and I am looking forward to finding things to fill my freer schedule, but it's going to be a month before I have everything handed off completely.

Samara was back to dance class and school - at first she seemed annoyed to have less "stay at home" days, but once there she seemed glad to be back with her school friends and activities.  She got to have a fun school week with pajama day, character day and "fan day" where she dressed as a Star Wars fan with hair like the character Rey from the new movie.  Kalum had to adjust to Samara being gone 2.5 days per week again, kind of like at the beginning of the school year.  He typically found some toys to play with and sometimes would ask me to play as well.  Since he is all about Star Wars right now, it often was making at-at walkers out of legos.  Wesson just keeps being this amazingly content baby who sleeps all night and is more fun to watch each day.

Samara's Moments for the Month:

• Loves her new LeapPad (kind of like an ipad for kids) that she got for Christmas!  I had to set the parent control to limit how long she can be using it and how long of a break she must take between sessions.  She started crying the first time it told her to come back later!
• She starts basically every sentence with "Guess what?"
• She asked me if when I "sell my NARI job, will I have to give my computer?" Haha - I guess to her my job is like a house that Daddy works on and sells.  :)  Yes, the laptop will go away with all the job responsibilities.
• I explained that the entertainment center is really heavy so Daddy wants to move it out of the living room on a day he has more guys to help.  She suggested we wait to move it out until Wesson is old enough to help!
• By the end of the month, she got used the timing out function on the LeapPad.  One day it was about to shut off (starts a warning beep countdown) and she hurries to shut it off before it could turn off on her.  Control freak?  Reminds me of a recent commercial that I related to myself - "Some people say I'm a control freak.  I like to call myself a control enthusiast."  I might have passed on that gene to our eldest child...

Kalum's Moments for the Month:

•  He may already have some of Daddy's creativity, sense of humor and way with words.  He got a duck shower toy for Christmas and all on his own named it "Fartles" then said, "He's so rude!"
• We finally struck a compromise on his insistence on wearing shorts everyday.  He can wear shorts when we are at home, but when we have to leave the house during the winter, he needs to change into pants.
• Finally the last Sunday of the month, he went into Sunday school class without throwing a fit - hoping this is the new trend.  We do not know why he was getting so mad about going to class and we had tried all things - positive and negative motivation.  He seemed proud of himself after this week, maybe it will stick.

Wesson's Milestones for the Month:

•  Beginning of the month he turned 3 months and he started to giggle!  Samara was the only one who could really get him going at first.  Mommy could get an occasional chuckle.  Finally by later in the month, Mommy and Daddy could keep the laughter going as well! SO cute!
•  Jan 8th -laying on back can roll to either side.  Even goes one side all the way to the other in one move sometimes.  Can't roll to his tummy yet, but may not be too long!
• End of month had a couple days where he was kind of cranky and wanted more bottles and milk than usual.  Had to go to 7 oz. bottles to make him happy and sometimes had to nurse then feed him a 3 oz. bottle too.  Must be a growth spurt - sheesh - stop growing up so fast baby.
• By the end of the month if a bottle or toy is in front of him, he really grabs it with both hands.