Another month to put into the books. I am slowly catching up to equilibrium in the blog. I feel like it will happen this year. (A girl can dream, can't she?) My goal is to get there by summer time. I am in a much better position than last year, so why not? Maybe even earlier...
But today, let's look back at January, which to be fair, was not the best month for us with back issues and kidney stones. But as you will see, we still manage to have fun and enjoy the small moments.
The hardest part is that now I have four people taking pictures around here. That is a blessing, but also a curse because I have to look through four sets of pictures to chose what will go on the blog. But I always find some treasure on June, Robyn, and Dad's phones. I will try to compile them the best I can. Here goes:
Let's start with Pip shall we. Our time with Pip is growing short. Granny V should be back in April sometime. Some days this makes me sad and other days I'm very excited. (Like the day I sat in a pee spot and had to change my dress for church. Less happy with Pip that day.) Here is Pip sleeping on Dad, sleeping on Mom. I think we are all pretty happy doing our thing in this picture.
Pip finds the weirdest spots to sleep. On the armrest, next to someone's bum (Robyn's) or in her own princess corner.
Robyn is constantly in art mode whether she means to be or not. I'm so happy to capture her doodles and bigger pieces to put on here. Check out some of her latest creations. We have been watching the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, so naturally you need a picture of Fili and Kili.
This one was a drawing of a friend, named Cherry.
And Robyn's favorite place to doodle is the copy room. She likes to draw on the paper rolls, stinker. Here is a little guy running across and falling onto the lower roll. Funny.
In Robyn's English class, they did a contest to see which design would win the cover of the "This I Believe" books. (Last year, June's class chose the lamest design. I hope Robyn's class will do better.) Robyn's design was so clever. She used little people. I would never have thought of this.
Early in the month, I was asked to take pictures at a funeral. My back was out at the time and I was super worried about doing a good job. I took Robyn along and we had two cameras going and it seemed to work out okay. Robyn actually got some amazing shots. And then we celebrated and took ourselves out to lunch. It was a very long morning, probably longer for the family members, but I'm glad we could help in a small way.
We filled up the bird feeder and the greedy birds picked it clean in two days. Guess food is a little more scarce in the winter.
The kids broke a bed (an old one) and while Tyler was taking it apart he found that many years ago, Daisy had written her name on one of the slats. So cute.
Pearl did A.L.L. testing this month. She is a smart kid, but I don't know how well she tests so I really have no idea how she will do. But it can't hurt to test her.
This month brought J.R. to come live with us. He currently is employed in Utah and traveling back on the weekends to see his family. Giving him a place to stay is the least we can do. He is super helpful and I love having him around. The kids painted the window in welcome and then Robyn started to clean it off before she remembered to take a picture, so it just says, "lcome, R."
The night that we did Zumba, the girls both happened to wear their girls' camp shirts and then Eva did too. Guess they make good work out shirts.
Check out this awesome sunset. Even winter can be beautiful.
Our resident Vodoo doll is looking really good for the holiday of love. She makes a great bride. I really adore the tissue veil Robyn gave her.
For some reason, June has had a picture of Princess Di as her avatar on my phone forever. We're not even sure why it is there. So one day, Robyn decided to fix it. She took a picture of June and replaced it and now this is what I see. I love it. (Not that I didn't like Princess Di, she just wasn't my Junica.)
Daisy is getting pretty good at piano. Apparently, she can play without even looking.
Here are some touching photos. I was helping Dad up the stairs after his procedure and Robyn took a picture of her sad parents. It is true, we have been a little feeble this month.
And look how sweet Robyn is watching and taking care of Tyler. She was unfortunate enough to witness some of his serious pain and she was honest to goodness concerned he would die. Out of all the kids, she checked in on him the most.
Daisy requested Jello worms for FHE treat one day. I didn't have time to put them together and I actually wasn't sure how I was going to do it anyway. I gave the assignment to June and I'm pretty sure I would never have come up with this.
They weren't too bad. They didn't come out and look like worms, but you could slurp out the jello and that was fun.
Ah, did you see the lunar eclipse? If not, check out this tiny moon with a shadow across it. Almost like the real thing...
We rearranged some stuff in Midguard. Robyn caught us moving the bookcase. We sure have a lot of books. Many of them are blog books. Can you believe I have 24??
When Tyler and I left the hospital after Kidney pulverization, he was super hungry. (He hadn't really eaten all day.) So we went over to Cubby's for some chow. Guess who we saw there? I really wanted to take a picture, but I didn't want to disturb her, so I took a sneaky selfie. See if you can recognize her?*
Ivory and I did a Valentine craft at church. I think they turned out really cute. We both gave ours away to friends.
June, Hannah, and Christina worked on a Science Fair project for months. They grew plants with different chemicals in the soil to see which would still grow. I actually did not follow everything they studied, but they did a good job and got an honorable mention.
Tyler was in an accident. Luckily, it was low collision. A dump truck ran him over while he was in the turn lane. The car didn't fare so well. June is bummed because her truck became Dad's vehicle, and we are bummed because the dump truck's insurance can't be bothered to pay anything because they don't claim liability even though the other drive was sited and given a ticket. What the?? So frustrating.
This picture makes me laugh. Two gals on laptops.
Finally, we did an upgrade to Ironman. When I drove out early one morning to save Tyler in kidney distress, I took the truck and it was so hard to turn the lights on. There is no knob and my sad little nails could hardly turn it.
But Tyler finally found the right part and now the lights are a snap. I told June something was different and it took her a while to figure it out. But she was so excited. I bet her fingers didn't like turning on the light either.
Did you make it through. So many little things happening in a month. Maybe we'll have less in February. After all, it is a shorter month...
*Did you recognize Mallory from Studio C? I love her.
