I LOVE the spring. I just love feeling like I can get out of my house and breathe some clean fresh air again. And luckily I feel like spring comes pretty early here. These are just pictures of us getting out and enjoying the non-blizzard weather last spring.
Check out the clip-on shades. Oh yeah, it's what's happenin'.
Before the Kelly's took off, they wanted photos in front of the Philly skyline, which I think it so cool looking. So we decided to run our families out there for a quick photo shoot. It was fun and turned out great!
Hellllllooooo (hello, hello, hello)! Is anyone still there, I realize it's been about fdjfx months since last updating. I would say we haven't been up to much, but that's not necessarily true. I've probably had the busiest years yet, I just don't know how much of it is really blog worthy. However, there are still plenty of moments over the last few months that I would like to remember. So here are the random snippets of our winter and spring.
January through March have never been particular favorites of mine. The ending of the holiday season combined with the bleakness of weather and reduced sunlight just isn't the best combination. However, we do our best. We read, put puzzles together, play games, and make people out of clothes I have neglected to put away.
Our winter wasn't quite as snowy as it was last year, but we definitely got our fair share of snowstorms and snow days. We didn't get out in it much, but had a blast the few times we did.
For Christmas, I told Glenn the only thing I wanted was to see Les Mis. I grew up OBSESSED with Les Mis (seriously. obsessed. ask my mom). I have owned the 10th year anniversary tape since I was fifteen and have probably watched it over 100 times. Anyway, Banna and I got to see the 25th anniversary back in November and it was SO good except for the fact that NICK JONAS played Marius. It was a travesty, don't even get me started. So, seeking redemption, we saw it when it was touring through Philly in January and it was absolutely fabulous. I could spend an entire week just watching shows if only I had the dough.
We've also gone to Burger King about 3,474 times. We have such a great BK up the road with a playplace that Skyler rarely gets tired of. There is always usually a good group of moms with their kids there as well. I don't ever get sick of hanging out, chatting and drinking my diet coke. I do get sick of burgers though and have had to pack lunches lately to avoid burnout.
This year has also been much more unique because collectively Glenn has been away from us for over two months. Two weeks in Texas for an externship, one week in Haiti on a humanitarian trip,one week in Oklahoma City for another externship, three weeks when I was away in Idaho, and one week in Loma Linda for an externship. All of these experiences have been incredible for him, especially Haiti, which I will hopefully post about later on. It didn't come without a bit of struggle for us, but it has been good for me to learn how to get by without him. If anything it helped me rediscover how much I love him and never want to live without him!
To help my kids understand how long he would be gone, each trip we made a paper chain (excellent idea Amber!). It made it fun to see exactly how much longer until he came back.
Every once and a while I'm able to get some sponge rollers in Jayda's hair. How cute does she look? Like a modern day Shirley Temple if you ask me :)
Jayda also got to give gymnastics a try, which she really loved. It was all very basic, but definitely gave her a chance to learn cartwheels and somersaults. It was also a very nice way to break up the long winter days.
Alright, I think that's it for now, I'll have to start digging through my pictures to get more caught up!
Thirty Years OLD! When did this happen?
Despite how weird it feels to turn thirty, I'm feeling pretty okay about it. It feels like an exciting new chapter that I'm ready to own and embrace, bring on the thirties!
Glenn was gone during my birthday, which was a bummer, but fortunately I have freaking amazing friends that made my birthday awesome. Lizzette had Banna and I over for a delicious dinner of lasagna and cake for dessert. Afterward Eddie volunteered to watch the kids and we were all able to go out that evening, which was so fun. I just love these girls. The next day my cousin Tiff had me over for an amazing dinner. Even being husbandless, I felt very loved and it was a wonderful birthday.
Yesterday Skyler was talking to his Grandma Johnson and telling her all about his puzzles, what else? So while telling her about them, he finally said, "c'mon grandma, come with me and I'll show you." So he walks over to his puzzles, holds the phone over the pieces and then asks "do you love my puzzle pieces?"
It pretty much made this mom melt into a puddle on the floor because it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen in my life. It's those kind of moments that I really want to remember.
Look closely...yep, you're looking at four floor sized puzzles assembled on top of each other. During the cold months of winter, we're grateful for bright colorful puzzles to keep us entertained, even if it means spending an hour putting them back.
The puzzle master himself!
If you were to ask me what my favorite day of the year is, it wouldn't take me two seconds to tell you that it's Christmas Eve. As fun as it is to open presents on Christmas day, I still love Christmas Eve more.
Back when I was a kid, my mom tells me that one Christmas Eve me and my siblings were bouncing off the wall. So they took us out for the day. We went bowling, went out for lunch, and saw a movie. We then went home, stuffed ourselves silly with appetizers and watched Christmas movies. It totally stuck and it's how we've spent our Christmas Eves ever since. Every year one of us siblings would get a chance to "plan" how our Christmas Eve was going to go. It was pretty much the same thing every year, we just got to pick where we went out to eat, which ranged from delis, to Chinese buffets, to steak houses.
Glenn and I really wanted to carry on this same tradition with our family, and staying home in Philly made it easy. We started our day out with bowling, the Bostons joined us. This was probably the funnest time I've had bowling with my family because the kids are big enough to bowl on their own (for the most part). Jayda especially did great. And bowling alleys are so cool, their bumpers go up and down depending on who's bowling. Not that it mattered, I'm pretty sure Sky smoked us all!
Afterward we had lunch at Chili's...
And saw Tangled at the theatre. I'm pretty sure it was the cutest movie I've ever seen.
After that we went home and with the help of the Matson family, feasted on all sorts of appetizers while watching Christmas movies. The kids got their yearly Christmas Eve gift of pajamas. They also put out cookies for Santa, chocolate chip, because those are Santa's favorite ;)
We laid out our stockings...
And went to bed. Santa laid out the gifts, and then hung up newspaper between the hallway and the living room so that no one peek without mom and dad there (another tradition we grew up with).
The kids were a bit underwhelmed with the newspaper, in all honesty I think when they woke up they forgot that it was Christmas. Skyler came in and asked for cereal, and Jayda asked to use our bathroom "cuz there's stuff there." After a bit of explaining they got it, and Glenn and I got up so they could break through the paper.
After that the present opening ensued. We started with stockings and moved to the big stuff. Everyone had a really nice Christmas and it was so dang fun to have kids old enough to really understand what was going on. I just love Christmas so much, I'm already excited for next year!
