Yes January!

Welcome to the new year! I love New Year's Day, and it brings so many fun traditions at our house. We usually make the Southern New Year's meal: ham, cornbread, black eyed peas, and collard greens. I love this meal more every year. I don't even make a dessert because to be honest after the Christmas holidays, we don't need one. ha! We also measure all the boys' height on the door frame of our kitchen. I really enjoy this because it amazes me to see how much they all have grown! The change over time is humbling and awe inspiring. 

This year New Year's Day brought this gorgeous amaryllis bloom, some creek fishing for David and Matt, and a polar plunge in our pool! I don't think Hayden participated, but these guys were really cold when they got out. 

Also, I decided to have a re-do on my Amish dinner rolls from Christmas. Michelle got on a facetime call with me and took me step by step through the directions to make them, but I ended up getting the final step wrong! Sadly, I put them in my proofing drawer (so fancy) but I had it set to low instead of 'proof'. So my rolls kind of rose and kind of cooked into little blocks. It was so sad! This time they weren't as beautiful as hers, but they were at least cooked in the oven and round! It is fun to learn to do new things like bake bread.

We decided to ride our bikes up to the Panera for lunch one day over break. It was about a 3-4 mile trip there, and was a bit more challenging than we thought it would be. But we persevered and learned a bit about safety and had a great time.

My Young Life girls and I went to an escape room over break and it was a lot of fun! They even had a 'video game' room, so from this day forward Calvin was really interested in coming to do that room.

Of course there isn't getting around the fact that mom wants to go shark tooth hunting on the beach over break, so the boys were good sports and took me. We found a turtle walking down to the water, and decided he must have fleas or something that he wanted the salt water to wash off. People kept trying to take him back up to the sand, but he always turned around to go to the water. Crazy guy!

James' 12th birthday gifts from Grammy and Papa were set out with care to help the anticipation grow!

If you have to go to school on your birthday, you might as well get all A honor roll and a special award. I am so proud of how James has grown in his school work. He is so smart and has kept getting better and better at mastering his work with excellence. Way to go James!!

Yes!! Finally it is time to open presents!! The best part of any birthday! I told James that I'd like a repeat of some of these awesome 'happy, surprised, overjoyed' faces for his birthday this year. These are classic.

The gift that keeps on giving: Legos!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, kind, fantastic son. You are the best gift to the rest of us! You Dad and I are so proud of you, and we love you so much it hurts. Wishing you a full lifetime of happy birthdays! 

For the boys' day off from school, we decided to go down to Kennedy Space Center. We had never been, so we decided to buy a year pass and get to experience what it had to offer. They really do have some awesome exhibits, and the boys enjoyed themselves.

I was sure this was a replica, but no! It is actually the real thing.

Calvin decided he should make ornaments with me! This is his Chewie, complete with his initials on the back! He did a great job.

This is James' DARE graduation ceremony for his 6th grade class.

It's birthday party time! James asked for a paintball birthday party, so that is what he got. It was a really cold day, but the boys had an absolute blast. Grandpa and I were cold, but we did our best. Mimi made an amazing cake with the cutest decorations! I loved the gumball 'paintballs' with the target. So much fun! We were really glad to have so many friends come celebrate with us.

We stuck with the idea of individually wrapped desserts so it would be easy to pass out and no one had a piece of cake but James since he blew out the candles. We are very considerate about our spit these days!

My big birthday boy!

Thank you Mimi and Grandpa for coming and helping to make his birthday so special! We love you both so much.

Lord, Thank you for all these days. The days filled with awards and presents and joy, but also the days filled with worry and frustration and anxiety. We know you meet us in the dark days, you give us light, and you make the joyful days so much more full. Thank you for my heart bursting as it trys to hold all the good things that are passing so quickly. May these memories continue to be a blessing to my family as they are to me. Amen!