January 2018

The kids have never been good sleepers.

But they usually at least

sleep in their beds and fall asleep by like 9:30.

Not since we moved into our house.

Kale is petrified.

He thinks that since he is upstairs 

and we are downstairs that we can't

hear anything and that something 

terrible is going to happen and we 

will have no idea.

So he's constantly getting

up out of bed instead of 

going to sleep.

Which keeps Ellory awake.

So now it's 10:45 and I am fed up

and have sent Kale to sleep on our bedroom floor

and I am sitting on the couch upstairs

until Ellory falls asleep.

Whatever.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

Back to January of this year...

It was Tyler's 31st birthday!

I'm horrible and I don't even 

remember what we got him...

but we love him very much

and can't imagine our lives without him.

Ellory giving a puppet show at the library:

It's always great when Tyler reads to the kids:

Cuddles and movies:

This passed winter was FRIGID.

So when it got up into the 

UPPER 30'S,

it really did feel like a heat wave.

During the "heat wave" we enjoyed

as much time out in the snow

as we could.

Ellory and I even went to the car wash:

I cut my finger on a can lid.

Again.

But I didn't need stitches this time!

I taught Ellory to play Trouble,

but she had to be comfy

while she played:

"Mom, let's do a smiley face"

And one day we got the Dominoes

down and Ellory had fun

doing some matching and counting:

When it got cold,

I started giving our neighbors rides to

and from school.

One day, their mom came to the 

door with a bowl of African cookies she had made for me:

They were good!

Very light and fluffy, 

like wafers.

Kale's school had a Read-A-Thon,

and Ellory and I went to help

count up kids' logged minutes

and hand out prizes.

Kale got to have a friend over

to play video games:

It drove me INSANE.

They just yelled and argued

with each other the entire time.

My friend Cherish Kasner

invited the kids and I to come

to her son's birthday party

at a place here called Perfect Games.

It has bowling and arcade games and laser tag.

Pretty cool place.

We had lots of fun!

The kids earned a few tickets,

so they got to "buy" some prizes:

During the school year,

Kale was allowed to check out one library

book every week.

One day he brought home this book:

He brought it home for me.

He said he saw that it was about time travel

and he thought that I would really like that,

so he grabbed it for me.

So sweet!

One day Ellory looked like a hot mess

at the grocery store,

and she owned it:

Kale's school had an assembly for the

end of the Read-A-Thon,

and we went to cheer him on.

But Kale wanted his sister

to sit with him,

not on the sidelines!

We went back to his classroom 

afterwards to hang out until school was done:

Tyler must have been travelling,

so away we went for a weekend at Nana and Pop-Pop's!

Pop-Pop took us on and "adventure"

in the woods:

I remember playing in this 

"tree fort":

I love cuddling with this girl:

And that was our January.