Just January

I thought "Just January" was fitting. It's just January. A slow-paced, catch up, somewhat uneventful month. However, I'll also be playing Christmas catch-up. Here are pictures I either forgot to include in our last post or I got them from other people afterward.

Trying to get Jayda to stick out her tongue. And yes, I have since trimmed her mullet.

You can never have too many necklaces.

Ellie and Jayda are one month apart in age. Can you tell they're cousins?

Ellie

Jayda

Jayda needs to know what Uncle Kyle is looking at....NOW.

We're always catching her with stolen food.

Grandpa & Grandma's "Putting on the Whole Armor of God" FHE lesson

I think this is the only picture I have of Grandpa & Grandma from this trip

Me and my bestie Noelle! Love that our kids are the same ages. Yet we live very far away.

Kallie and Milo

Jayda obviously looks hammered but how adorable is Ari? Can you believe those eyes?

At Christmas the family had a talent show contest. Everyone was supposed to participate, including parents and fulfill requirements like, make a commercial, perform a family dance and any other talents the kids wanted to perform. Well, we were the only ones that prepared the "whole family" stuff and here was our commercial:

The first great thing we did this year was: bought a new car! Our '04 Chevy Malibu stopped starting for Brad shortly before our Christmas vacation so we thought it was a good time to upgrade. Brad bought that car four years before we met. The new addition to our family is a '12 Toyota Corolla. Honestly, any car newer than the Malibu feels SO much better to me. Every time I drove that car it felt like it could die any minute.

Kallie "opened" her new balance bike and LOVES it:

My brother Joel and his family just moved into a new apartment. I'm so excited for them because it's bigger, nicer, and best of all it's right by us! Literally 4 minutes away. They actually moved there expecting to be in our ward but turned out to be about thirty feet outside our ward boundaries.


Kallie's first day of primary!
(I can't believe it!)

Kallie and Sam looking like Primary veterans. This was literally the one moment they were actually sitting in their chairs instead of running around like little energizer bunny chatter boxes.

Kallie, Sam, Lilly, Blessing

After using a cheap, ugly diaper bag from Walmart (that fell apart) and then a cute purse I got for $1 at a garage sale (that also fell apart), I finally bought a good quality diaper bag and I love it:

A bunch of us took our kids to the zoo and while we were there we celebrated my niece Emma's third birthday. Her mom, Jen even whipped out a Costco sheet cake for the event. Somehow she was able to pack it underneath her stroller and protect it from getting smashed as we walked through the zoo with a herd of kids.

So, I got a bad haircut. I didn't say much while sitting in the salon chair because I wondered if it would look different when I got home and styled it myself. But I did go home and realized how much I hated it and cried. Brad's accustomed to seeing me cry upon returning home with a new do. I immediately posted on Facebook my bad experience and said my hair was butchered. I later realized I may have overreacted. It's not horrible; just not what I wanted. On a higher note, here's Kallie with french braided hair for the first time:

My friend Cynthia just moved so a farewell party was thrown for her family and it turned out to be a Planes, Trains and Automobiles kind of morning trying to get there. I didn't have any vehicles break down but it took a long time. Brad was camping with the scouts so it was just me and the kids. I was supposed to bring a dessert and planned to make it the night before but the kids got to bed late, then for the next two hours Kallie came out of her room every ten minutes with a new excuse to stay up, Jayda was busting out all FOUR of her fang teeth and her gums were not liking it, and I did not make dessert. The next morning Kallie threw a tantrum just as we walked out the door. She screamed as if she were possessed by the devil, all the way to the grocery store (which, thankfully is very close to our house). Seriously, she looked like she was in the middle of an exorcism. As soon as I got her out of the car she collapsed on the ground and refused to move. I carried her (with Jayda in my other arm) kicking and screaming to the front of the store, wrestled her into a shopping cart, buckled her in and we stayed outside in the cold until she calmed down. After we did our calming exercises and talked it out, we were finally able to go inside to buy ONE stinking package of cookies.

Trying to hustle the girls to the car for church

My trusty black heels that went with everything, that I've worn for like eight years, finally broke down. I happily started a quest to replace them with newer, better shoes. I made the mistake of trying to shop online because I didn't feel like driving from store to store to store to store to store. Big mistake. I have really wide hobbit feet so it's a huge waste of time (and money if I'm not careful to check return shipping costs) to order shoes online because I need to try them on first. No matter what. Lesson learned.





We worked out a system for stake conference this month. Brad went to the Saturday afternoon leadership meeting, I went to the Saturday evening adult session and we both went on Sunday with the kids. I didn't hear much of anything while the kids were with us.

Mom, I think Kallie may love butter even more than you.

Kallie's friend Donny had a birthday party this month. It was at a park/playground area. The kids were dressed in pants and long sleeve shirts. It was a little chilly when we walked to the car but I figured it would warm up as the day wore on and they'd be running around and getting sweaty. Turns out this was the one day in the history of Florida that got colder toward the middle of the day. I felt so bad for my kids. We were all freezing. We left the second the presents were opened because I could feel Jayda tensing up every few minutes in my arms when she shivered.

First time any child of mine has fallen asleep in the high chair (or before finishing their food). 

Went in a hurricane simulating machine at the Museum of Science & History

Kallie of course got scared first and left

Then it got even more intense

and more intense...

and turned Jayda into this!

Jayda fell down and cut her lip

So she sported a bandage mustache

Camera? What? Who has time for a camera when there's frozen yogurt?

My friend Robin's phone. Her husband asked if she wanted to upgrade and she was like, "No, this works just fine."

I vacuumed a cockroach from the top of our fridge.

Having a deep conversation in the wagon.

Kallie likes playing with the magnets on the fridge. They look like push pins. She takes two with opposite charges, sticks them together and calls them her "bike". I never understood why until she did this:

She holds the magnets like they're handlebars.

Kallie Quotes

Prince Daddy is at work.

I will perteck you fwom the lion cause he's gonna eat us for snacks!

After hearing Daddy fart:
K: An elephant toot! Did you hear that?!

K: Daddy your beard's gone!
D: Where'd it go?
K: It's on your head!

While watching water boil: The bubbles is dancing!

After I took her temperature: It's not a mom-meter. It's a Kallie-mom-meter!

Birdies fly in the sky. Like airplanes. Like Dumbo!

I sorry. It was an askint.

Don't kiss me! The lion's gonna eat the kiss!

Mommy, throw away Jayda's diaper before I cry.