January

Our wonderful neighbors are exactly who we prayed for.  We are so fortunate!  They had a New Year's Eve party and were so sweet to invite us.  The first part was very kid-friendly.  We enjoyed a delicious Italian meal, let the kids eat treats, and I ran next door to bathe Carter and put him to bed.  We love that our monitors will work well enough to put the kids down in their own beds!  Ricky had gotten some family friendly fireworks and Reid was totally enthralled with his first ever, super long sparkler. 

After the kids were properly sugared up, played out, and super tired, some families left, older kids played in the media room, and we put our own kiddos down.  The adult part of the evening was a fun wine-tasting event, kind of a blind taste test with the bottles covered and all.  Everyone got along well and we had fun conversation.  Ricky's grandmother took quite a liking to Jason and it became the joke of the evening, keeping all of us hooting in laughter at their banter.

I found this shirt the next week, which would have been perfect!

Reid had such a good time that he even wrote about it at school that week!  If you can't decipher the kindergarten writing, it says, "We like to go to my neighbor's house."  Reid loves their 2 1/2 year old, Lane, just like a brother.  And Erica is amazing--I feel like I've known her for years, even though we've only technically known each other for about one year now.  I'm so thankful the Lord put us next door to another great Christian family and we look forward to many more fun times together.

On a cold January day before school started back, I got talked into a Chick-fil-A trip.  The boys were really good and patient, so I was all for Reid trading in his book for an ice cream cone.  Carter was actually pretty interested in it, and Reid sweetly shared. 

These two crazies have been enjoying showers with Daddy lately.  Jason will take them both in there sometimes while I pack lunches or cook dinner (which is virtually impossible with a two year old Carter hanging on my leg by the hot stove).  It's pretty entertaining to watch... Carter dances all around the water, but won't get in.  He loves to fill up a big cup and dump it "over" his head (he always misses).  Reid likes to sing, "Ca-ca-CARTER, ca-ca-CARTer, CARTY!" and draw pictures on the shower door. 

They will actually play a few other things together, too.  We got a huge bag of Legos from a coworker of mine, Sandra.  She has no idea how happy that bag of random parts has made Reid.  I'm pretty impressed with his creations he's made.  They end up having to go upstairs into Reid's room so Carter won't destroy them.  Reid gets quite hot-tempered ;)

I didn't realize how long my hair had gotten.  I never, ever have solo time since the boys are always with me, but one day Holli took Reid with her when she was there to pick up a girl in my class.  Perfect (and only!) chance to sneak out for a haircut.  The lighting was weird, so I look a lot healthier in the second picture.  Before:

After:

We had a trip to Cancun coming up soon, so I didn't want my hair everywhere.  It ended up being a bit shorter than I'd wanted, but it worked.  I won't make it back for another haircut for quite awhile, so it's probably better that way anyway.