2016 will be great!

This year has been really great for our family. Of course we are only 3 weeks in but so far it's been great! Matthew is now the Facilities Manager at Music Royale. Every time he goes there (for Jenna's lessons) he points out all the broken lights. They got new light bulbs for him to change and made business cards with his name on it. WOW! They really went above and beyond. I love Music Royale. Jenna can take saxophone lessons there forever.

Matthew now works at Music Royale

 We have had a little bit of controversy in my area recently. Twinkles is an outside cat (this is not a terribly unusual thing). Anyway, several people in my neighborhood have posted pictures of her - LOST CAT! etc. One person posted that she was going to box her up and take her to a cat shelter. YIKES! I posted on my local site that she is an outside cat and just let her out - she'll come home. Well then people started posting about coyotes, etc. Really? She is a tough cookie. She brings us mice all the time  - some of those mice are pretty big too. Why don't you put a collar on her? She won't wear one! We've tried! Anyway, she loves Erik so I had to take this picture of her resting on Erik. Outside cats have rights too!

Erik and Twinkles

 On Monday Jenna and Sarah had a combined birthday party with 56 kids! Wow! I invited friends, and both girl scout troops with siblings invited also. It was held at the church, and we hired a magician: Magic Nate who was really good. I loved his show! He was so classy. He didn't talk but rather played music while he did his tricks.  The kids really enjoyed it too. I was so engrossed that I forgot to take a lot of pictures so I only have two.

We ordered 13 pizzas (had 2 left over) and I made 78 cupcakes (we had 4 left over). It was a great party and the kids really had fun. Now to write thank you notes....

Magic Nate

Magic Nate dazzling

Happy Birthday Sarah and Jenna

Lots of kids at the party!

This is what I call killing two birds with one stone: Sarah reading to Matthew

 Jenna and Grandpa had a family birthday party. Jenna requested raspberry cake with lemon frosting. It was delicious. She loves berry and lemon so it was perfect for her!  We also had a "make your own pizza" bar.

Happy Birthday Jenna and Grandpa

 For motivation for me to lose these excess pounds I gained, I want to buy this dress. Erik's favorite color is green and I thought this would be my reward when I lose the weight. I have no idea where I will wear it (maybe around the house) but I love it!

this. 

Sarah and Matthew are no longer doing gymnastics. Actually we are doing family tae kwon do! Sarah and Matthew are taking the younger kids class and Erik, Jenna, and I are in the adult class. The teacher said Jenna could be with us. It's fun to do as a family and fun we can earn belts together. Of course Sarah is already an orange belt. We have to catch up to her. On Saturdays the Y has family yoga. We have been doing that together as well. These body awareness type exercises are good for Matthew. Hopefully it will help him read and write! So that's why I said it has been good for our family. We are doing yoga and tae kwon do together!

Erik and I may make an offer on a house soon. We found one we really like. It needs work - but Erik is so handy and we want another rental. We will see. The market is pretty empty right now.

So now I'm saving the best for last. I got Matthew's test scores from his teacher. He doesn't qualify for speech or OT. WHAT? He will most likely be in regular kindergarten. The only IEP he needs is monitoring his progress. He has come so far and is doing so well. I could not have asked for a better outcome. Praise God Hallelujah! 

Resolutions

Selfie on our "date" day

On New Years Eve we went to the Masts house and celebrated with the Masts and Mabrys. We have done this several years and I love spending New Years with friends! My parents had the kids New years Eve until lunchtime on Jan. 2. So we had all day on Friday to ourselves. It was difficult to decide what to do. Go to a movie? Out to dinner? Hang out at Starbucks? Too cold to go walking. So we did......nothing! In fact, we wore pajamas all day! We sat by the fire, ate leftovers, played Lords of Waterdeep, Heroes of Might and Magic, watched football, and read our books. It was a glorious day! Who knew doing nothing would be so awesome!

Magna-tiles

For Christmas, Matthew received Magna-tiles. It is the only thing he asked for. He LOVES them! He plays with them all the time with Sarah and even Jenna plays with them. It's a really great toy for him since he is a builder. He wants to be a "fixer" when he grows up. He'll also be a great "builder".

Jenna playing with magna-tiles

 Every night at dinner we read a question from a question bowl for our family to discuss. A few nights ago our question was, if you could eat dinner with three people alive or dead, who would it be. I though the answers were pretty hilarious:
Erik: Jesus, Tom Petty, and Gina
Gina: Jesus, Corrie Ten Boom, and Vin (from Mistborn)
Jenna: Jesus, Harry Potter, and Luke Skywalker
Sarah: Jesus, Jenna, and Peter
Matthew: Joel, Megan, and Darth Vader
we are all praying for Matthew....

Commissioned

 We were part of a kickstarter campaign for a cooperative Bible-based strategy game called Commissioned. We played it as a family even though it listed the ages as 14+.Well - Sarah had a hard time with it and Matthew didn't really play. I guess sometimes 14+ really does mean 14+. Jenna did fine. We ended up losing but still had fun.

One rings

I make bread every week - maybe 2-4 loaves. So I take of my wedding ring since there are several nooks and crannies (the technical term) that bread dough can get stuck in. Often I'm not wearing a ring for a week or so at a time because I forget to put it back on. So Erik and I decided to buy new wedding rings without nooks and crannies. And (obviously) we opted for the one ring. Now we have matching One Rings and I can make bread while still being married!

My new years goals/resolutions are:

1. No library fines. This will be the most difficult of all my goals. In fact, Erik laughed when I suggested this one.
2. Memorize a verse a week. We have post-it notes on our refrigerator with Bible verses and the girls are really good at memorizing! 
3. Lose the few pounds I gained over the holidays and maintain my weight under 123. 
4. Buy another rental house. We are looking for a new house but will most likely have to take out a mortgage. We want to leave the home equity line in case we want to buy land (which apparently  you can not take out a mortgage for!)
5. Enjoy every minute of my life! I'm not getting any younger.
6. Go on a weekend trip with Erik.
7. Sell more at a craft show.
8. Be early taking the kids to school.
9. Figure out how to grow zucchini without the squash beetle killing all of it.
10. Get more sleep