January

I'm way late in doing this so January feels like a long, long time ago...I'll do my best to remember the highlights. 

Chet (Finally) got to play basketball. And it was everything he dreamed of and more. I was a little afraid that his confidence might be crushed when faced with reality, but he ended the season proud of himself and excited for next year. A testament to good coaches! He played with a great group of boys and they learned a lot and had a lot of fun. 

And we learned that Vivienne and Eliza are not the best basketball fans. Vivi tried her hardest to run out on the court and Eliza never stopped talking...so I decided to stay home with them for the last game.  

The kids were excited to sit with Tessa during one of the games. Tommy was on Chet's team. 

We hit a milestone...Mariah and Chet did a science experiment all on their own. I just looked up the directions for them and gave them a few pointers. It was glorious. And everyone was really excited for the eruption. 

A few months back Mariah and Chet got recorders. So Austin was thrilled when he was able to get one at the last homeschool activity. You can see how thrilled I was with it...

We finally got some snow and the kids took full advantage of it. There was lots of sledding. Vivi really wanted to keep up with the big kids but did not want to wear her mittens. And then she fell in the snow multiple times and decided it wasn't so fun after all. Her poor little hands were frozen and she cried until they finally warmed up. And the next time she went outside she again pulled her mittens off. Can't win with that one. 

There were some disagreements as to how the snowmen and snowdogs should be built, so we had multiple snow sculptures. 

We had the opportunity to go to our first Kemem. In the Marshall Islands, the first birthday is a really big deal and families throw big celebrations for their one year olds. It was really fun to learn so much more about their wonderful culture. 

The amount of food everyone got was so amazing! I was helping serve up and it blew my mind how big the plates of food were for the kids. I was proud of them for trying new foods. 

Adults were served first and children were expected to wait. Vivi was clinging to my legs and getting fussy While I was serving, so I told her to go over and eat some of Dad's food. Eliza quickly joined her and Tanner shrugged his shoulders, looked at some of our Marshallese friends and said, "sorry". They laughed and didn't seem to be too offended...I hope. 

There was fun dancing, prizes thrown out to the guests and just great happy company. We loved it so much and can't wait for the next one! 

Most of our January was spent doing the normal day to day things, but we're grateful for the fun mixed in.