As a family we were invited to a new years party at a friends house. The kids thought they were hot stuff since it started at 8 (bedtime). They ended up being the only kids there, but had a blast! Might have had something to do with the chocolate fountain, and plethora of food that they were free to eat as much as they wanted to. They played games, visited with the adults and enjoyed themselves. Dave and I had fun too but were happy to get them in bed when we left at 10:30. We ended the night watching a movie until midnight.
January has been the start of a great new year for us! I tried to keep it simple and set only 5 goals this year. One of those goals didn't even last a full day. A few of them have stuck well. Like drinking 60 oz of water daily. I don't always do it, but I constantly try. Also I've been waking up early and reading my scriptures daily as well as committed to get to the temple once a month (even if Dave and I have to go separate). I haven't missed a day of scripture study yet and I can tell a difference in my attitude when I read. It's something I hope to keep up all year.
Finding a sitter for the temple has been challenging lately, so to facilitate the temple goal I woke up at 5:40 the first Saturday of the month and squeezed in a session by myself. It was a great experience and I plan to get up early on a Saturday more often. Dave and I also got to go together as a date night on the 18th followed by dinner and it was wonderful to go with him as well. Two temple trips in two weeks has to be a record for me for the past few years!
In the two temple trips I felt the spirit strongly each time. Not answering a specific prayer but just confirming that I'm where I need to be and what I'm doing (attending) is right. With the chaos of kids and the turmoil of the end of last year it seems like having strong spiritual experiences like this have been few and far between.
We re-comitted to reading the scriptures as a family as well. Yesterday we got the kids to bed really late and I was just going to say prayers and skip scripture study. I told everyone it was prayer time and Brooklyn ran over, grabbed a Book of Mormon and brought it to me. So we read a few verses before calling it a night.
Our neighbors the Vites shared their Kings Day celebration with us! It's a celebration of the day the Wisemen visited Jesus. They came by with a Rosca De Reyes (Cake of the Kings). Inside if are little plastic baby Jesuses. In the Mexican culture you don't want to get the babies, if you do you have to buy everyone tamales on February 8th. But we weren't upset (like you are supposed to be. We were pretty excited to find babies in our cakes!
Dustin found TWO babies so he has to buy double the tamales.
Brooklyn was devastated her cake didn't have any babies in it! So the boys shared their babies with her. It was a fun tradition and we look forward to providing something for our neighbors in February (although it probably won't be tamales... maybe a dessert).
The boys begged me to make their bears some clothes so I made them shirts and pants. Logan wanted a red shirt and jeans but Dustin wanted these fancy duds. Reminds me of the 90s or something. The shorts especially kill me with brightness, but he loves them.
I've been busy for about 2 weeks organizing and purging the stuff in the house we don't actually need. I've been slowly going through the house for months but this month has been times 100. Dave got a free bookshelf and dresser for the boys room so I HAD to go though their closet, books and toys before putting everything in its new home. I also have gone though all my sewing and crafting supplies. I'm glad those are done too. It's easier to create if my stuff is organized.
