Wasn't It Just Christmas?

Like I said, this is a BORING blog.  It's February.  Did anyone else notice that?  Because I didn't really blog a thing in January.  Not that January wasn't interesting.  Okay, fine, I lied in my last post.  I said January had been excellent.  Now that January is over, I can't remember what was so excellent about it.  What I do know is that it was the most stress-filled month we've had in a long time.  Not only did we reach the bottom of our barrel and live off our food storage for a month, but Braden also took the GMAT and wasn't exactly thrilled with his score.  Now with the waiting game, the stress is taking its toll and the girls are feeling it.  So they've been acting up a lot.  Bedtime became a nightmare.  I had to remind myself of the scripture "Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning" because I didn't know how I'd make it thru another day.  But, make it we did and now it is February.  To be honest, the bad month spilled over into February and it wasn't until Thursday that things started getting better.  I'm feeling less like I'm drowning and more like we're starting to sail again. 

Now that that's out in the open, it doesn't mean that January was all bad, so here are the good parts of January in picture:

That silly Monchichi doll from Christmas became a quick favorite for Avery

Avery spent a lot of her time reading

While Taryn and Keara found ample entertainment jumping on my bed.  I really liked these two pics.

I love action shots. 

Keara offered to put lotion on a dry spot on Avery.  Who knew the dry spot was her ENTIRE BODY!?

Avery looking like such a big girl

Grandma and Grandpa Moore came to visit.  The girls had a great time!

We went to the Science Museum which was SO fun!

Seriously, she is getting so grown up.  I can't believe she'll be 5 in just 7 weeks!

Climbing on the geometric playground

Peek A Boo!

Avery just chillaxing while the other girls played

A little out of order--Avery and Braden at the Children's Museum

More climbing

Avery and Grandma

Queen of the hill

Making crafts at the Children's Museum

Playing restaurant

Bubbles with Grandpa

Beautiful girl

Celebrating Braden's birthday!  No, he isn't this thrilled about an atlas, but I made him pose like he did for all his birthday pictures growing up. 

This was the third attempt at a good picture, which Braden decided would be our LAST attempt.

Happy Birthday!

Avery and Grandma

Celebrating Braden's birthday AGAIN with my brother's family

Keara's magna-doodle garden

Playing playdough

Playing with beads

All three girls happily entertained for an hour

Free day at Mall of America! 

Avery's first real carousel ride

Taryn loved every minute

Keara had been dying to come back to MOA for months.  This was a dream come true for her.

Avery wasn't too keen on standing in line

Their favorite ride: Swiper's Sweeper.  Talk about whiplash

Riding the swings.  Mommy's favorite!

I just have to say, this is an awesome picture...

"What ride do you want to go on now?"  Of course, Swiper's Sweeper again! 

Poor Susan got dragged onto this one.  Thanks Sus!

These pictures didn't upload the first time, so they're out of order.  And blogger isn't very user friendly when it comes to moving pictures around.  Sorry!

The girls having a ball in the laundry



We had to say goodbye to Avery's best friend...my dear, dear nephew Joseph.  Off to college already!?!



Taryn trying to give me a good smile on the train ride at MOA. 

Almost as much fun as the rides at MOA...the escalator.  The girls LOVE it.

Another staple in our house...melty (perler) beads. 



Avery LOVES the bunny Keara made for her for Christmas!  And I just love that smile.

 So there's January. 

Unplugged

Avery lost the battery of my cell phone a couple days after Christmas.  I guess she put it with all the missing other socks that the dryer hides.  Wherever it is, we don't can't find it.  At first I thought we'd eventually come across it.  But after cleaning the basement a dozen times and looking in and under the couches and beds, we still can't find it.  What that means is for the last 6 weeks, I've been without a cell phone.  Add to it that one home phone's battery is so bad that it either is dead or crackly 95% of the time and the other one is missing the "off" button (thank Avery for that too) and we're often unreachable by phone. 

And you know what?  I kind of like it.  Actually, I really like it.  I like not feeling the pull to call someone.  I like not having the phone ringing all of the time.  I even turned off my computer for almost an entire day and I loved that too. 

I bought a new cell phone today because it was really cheap.  But I haven't opened it because I haven't decided if I really want to get plugged in again. 

Broke and Happy

January has been an interesting month.  Besides the horrible start where we realized we literally were broke, it has been an excellent month.  At least in some ways.  Anyway, I'm rambling.  Because we needed to preserve every penny that we had, we decided to not go grocery shopping if possible and use as much of our storage as possible. 

The only glitch was that our storage mainly consists of rice, beans, oats, flour, sugar, spices, oil, pasta, tomato sauce, canned vegetables, and baking supplies.  Thankfully, we also had a freezer with various meats, breads, tortillas, fruits, and a couple freezer meals. 

It has been a really good experience for us as we've found (besides milk and produce) we have been able to eat really well for 3 weeks without grocery shopping.  It's taken a lot of creativity and patience, but I'm really glad that we did this.  And I'm really grateful that we've been able to build up a tiny supply over the last year to be able to do this. 

Try it.  Go grocery shopping and get your regular supply.  Then, on the day you would usually go again...don't.  And don't go for a week.  If you make it that long, go buy milk and some produce and nothing else.  And try it for another week.  Do it as long as you can.  Not only will you learn how to use your storage (as well as what you truly use and what you don't), you will also save a bunch of grocery money that month.

Granted, you'll probably spend it all in the next month since you won't have any stored meats and such...but let's not talk about that part.

Happy Birthday Kerri!!

Today is my sister's birthday and I wanted to wish her the happiest day!  She is my very best friend in the whole world.  I adore her and rely on her, even though we live in two different states.  Our children are the same age, so we have TONS to talk about.  Even if they weren't, we'd probably still have tons to talk about.  She is beautiful, kind, giving, creative, adventurous, inspiring, loving, and totally supportative.  She is the best listener I have ever met, gets excited with me whenever I need a rah-rah party, and cries with me whenever I need a pity party.  I wish we lived next door to each other.  I'm so grateful my daughters have sisters so they can hopefully grow up and be best friends with their sisters too. 

I love you Kerri!

Happy birthday!!

(go to her blog at http://www.steveandkerri.blogspot.com/ and give her a birthday shout out!)

Is it Really January Already?

Wow. I'm behind. We'll here's my post from two weeks ago...

 

Christmas Eve was beautiful.  We got to share it with my sister's family at their home.  That, alone, was awesome!  The meal was incredible and very traditional: ham, twice baked potatoes, orange rolls, pecan yams, and a pineapple glaze for the ham, plus an awesome fruit salad with incredible pineapple dip.  My pies also turned out amazing--frozen peppermint cheesecake and decadent peanut butter fudge pie.  Yum!


 Their neighbor dropped off this gift to them.  It is gelatin and then he squeezes in frosting to create the flower.  The only catch is that he can't see what he is doing because it is upside down in a bowl (that is not clear) while he does it.  It's amazing!  Not really for eating, though...

Christmas day was SO fun!  As I've mentioned before, Kerri's kids are all the exact same ages as my girls.  So the babies are 5 days apart, the 3 year olds are 5 weeks apart, and the 4 year olds are 4 weeks apart. 



Waiting to go downstairs, youngest to oldest

The girls were very excited and we had a great time giving our gifts to each other. Since money isn't our friend this year, we had a great time putting together a Christmas that consisted mainly of yard sale items, homemade gifts, and free things we were given. The end result was so great!



Avery opening her stocking



Taryn and Avery under the tree



Keara made her sisters these adorable stuffed animals.  I especially love the teddy bear.  She was SO excited to give them! 

Avery opening her bunny.  Don't you love that look on Keara's face?



Taryn opening her bear.



Big hugs.  These are the moments that make time stand still.



I also had to laugh when I realized that most of the gifts we were given from others, as well as some from each other, were blasts from the past.

Tinker Toys

Light Brite

For whatever reason, my picture of the bristle blocks won't work.  But we also had those.

Monchichi doll

 

Lollipops

Who doesn't love the empty boxes after all the presents have been opened?

We came home on the 26th, which was a bit of a bummer.  But the girls sure loved returning to their toys.